The entry into the frigate class of vessel for both the Holy Lykan Republic and the Liberigi Mandate compared to the other nations after the Yintaka Conflict has been marred by a lot of skepticism due to the overall size and strength of the vessel. Rather than make the vessel fast like the NIR and State vessels or compensate for sticking to the same design aesthetic as the Empire, both Lykan and Mandate engineers considered how to design a craft that can use projectile weaponry for the former and laser weaponry for the latter without a great deal of modifications while making the frigate small and nimble. The engineers ran into a series of problems that had to be addressed. It took a long while for the engineers to address the overall issues with the design until they managed to come up with a vessel. However, they ended up with the largest frigate compared to the nations because of all the issues they tried to remedy.

The first of those issues involved the ammo supply for the Lykan version of the ship as a smaller vessel meant there would be less ammo, an issue not present on the Mandate version. Projectile ammo, unlike hybrid charges, is larger and requires more room to store. However, if the frigates were the same size as the other nations, it would have the smallest amount of ammo among all of them because of the size of the ammo. After a lot of discussion, it was decided to increase the size of the vessel’s midsection where the ammo would be stored. However, this left that section more exposed to incoming fire as the rest of the ship could not effectively protect it. Therefore, the side sections were also increased to help prevent attack from most angles. However, this effectively increased the overall size of the ship and already made it larger than most frigates found of the same class. This also had the effect that with increased size meant increased number of guns mounted on the hull. Both the Lykans and the Mandate agreed to the idea of increasing the firepower of the frigate would make it effective against larger targets and cover more arcs of fire. This weaponry on the Lykan version included 8 dual artillery cannons and 14 dual autocannons.

Another issue that had to be addressed was having reliable defenses for the craft. This was in response to how the State’s Harpy-Class Frigate had weak shields because of its size. The Empire’s Keres-Class Frigate’s reduction in armor was also of some concern to the Lykans and the Mandate about their own armor defense systems. After realizing that they were already increasing the size of their own frigate vessel to accommodate the ammo, they decided to retain nearly the same thickness of the armor as their destroyers, although it needed less panels because of the reduced size. This makes the frigate a much tougher vessel to destroy compared to other nations. However, the increased mass also makes the vessel slower.

That increased mass, which was the third issue they faced, forced the developers to utilize three engines for the vessel to give it enough propulsion to offset the increase. While it helped the overall velocity of the vessel at sublight speed, the maneuverability was still an issue. Additional thrusters were added but this also meant that it needed more power for those as well. There was also the issue that this left very little room for even the communications and sensor systems internally. The engineers went back to see what needed to be done to house the additional power supply needed for the frigate.

It took a long time before there was an effective balance between all the ship’s systems before the frigate’s design could be finalized. Despite the increased size, the accommodations for the crew were still better than spartan compared to other ships but only marginally. The communications and sensors were mounted externally in spires like the NIR’s Sentinel-Class Frigate. The overall vessel was a bulky, heavily armed, and thick armored monstrosity of a frigate. However, the Lykan government and the Mandate Consulate saw potential in the vessel in that it was more distinguished and fit better in their philosophy of combat rather than mimic the vessels found in the NIR, the State, and the Empire. The vessel did not need to be the fastest but rather something that had a lot of staying power on the battlefield while being a dangerous adversary.

After testing of the vessel was complete, the Lykans christened the vessel the Magnate-Class Frigate and was put immediately into production. It has been debated whether the vessel should be considered a heavy frigate, an assault frigate, or a light destroyer because of the mass and the number of guns, but for now the HLR are refraining from calling it something else other than their vision of a frigate.