The Ships of Chaos are the chaotic, evil ships of the Abyss, a fleet with no fixed number. Twelve of them sailed up the Thames in 1665 and founded Infernal London; three stand at the corners of the sacrificial tripod of Graz’zt’s last plan of 1901 A.D.A.
| Type | Artifact (fleet) |
| Paired piece | Castle of the Prism |
| Presumed master | Graz’zt |
| Houses of the Cycle | ☯ House of the Twin Cosmos · ☷ House of the Descent |
| Spanish entry | Las Naves del Caos |
Nature
Their paired piece is the Castle of the Prism: uniting the lawful piece with its chaotic twin was long noted as a source of dual power. The fleet counts twelve on the Thames and three on the tripod; its size seems to vary with each operation.
History
London, 1665
In the annus mirabilis, the plague year, when the Horsemen rode near London, twelve Ships of Chaos sailed up the Thames, allied with a secret weapon of Professor Espinoza, and won. From that victory rose Infernal London: old Albion of the white cliffs turned into a city-kingdom of devils, with the throne of Lucifer in its palace. In the battle of Medway that year the Artifact was stolen — and the Artifact only joins a world when it is stolen.
If the attack of 1665 was Graz’zt’s blow against Mechanus — an open question in the entry on the celestial portal — the fleet was his from the start.
The tripod of 1901
Graz’zt’s last plan, dated Black September (11 September 1901 A.D.A.), sets three ships at the corners of a sacrificial tripod, on which the Mahadi would smash the corrupt world as an offering. It was never carried out. The green-ink multiple apocalypse sees “a ship full of giants and monsters” set sail. The name Graz’zt took that same day carries the fleet’s singular — Nave, como la del caos (“Ship, like the one of chaos”), “with that one he could cross to the other side”: the Ship of Chaos of the baptism is one; the tripod’s are three.
Role
In the reconstructed treatise of the Game, the ships stand in the fourteenth position, the Exodus, among the vehicles of the end: when the Rapture agreed in Venice empties Antiterra, someone must make the last crossing. The fleet that founded infernal London waits at the dock of the end of the world — to evacuate it or, if the prophet’s crusade prevails, to put it on the altar.