Realm Communications

There exist a variety of methods for communicating across the Blessed Isle, each with its own risks and benefits.

Relay Runners

The most basic method of communication, a sealed missive carried by one or more runners. While some Dynasts maintain a pool of trusted retainers to carry messages personally, most prefectures contain ‘courier federations’, networks of runners who relay message-bags along to their final destinations. These runners are easily found, needing no skills aside from strong legs, and so this is the cheapest medium for communication. It also allows the carrying of parcels and personally-written letters. However, the messages are only as reliable as the messengers: while most federations maintain their reputations through tracking down runners who steal their missives, there will always exist the risk that a runner will meet accident or ambush, or be bribed so that his cargo can be read or replaced by others. Runners are also limited in range, as few federations extend further than a single prefecture and multi-federation deliveries are fraught with risks for all parties.

The most reliable runners purchase licenses from the Imperial Post, earning them the right to wear the saffron tabard. The Post is brutal in punishing any missteps on the part of runners it certifies.

Sorcerers

The spell ‘Infallible Messenger’, known to almost all Dragonblooded sorcerers, allows near-instantaneous conveyance of a verbal message. This is the fastest medium available for communication: the leadership of the Great Houses either learn it or at least keep a trusted sorcerer nearby to help them administer family affairs, while a few enterprising sorcerers make a tidy profit in jade and favours by sending messages for less prominent members of the Dynasty. These messages arrive immediately and are guaranteed to reach their intended recipient without being intercepted, but they require the message to be conveyed verbally to the sorcerer who casts the spell, and can cost the message sender a substantial sum. There are other communication methods available to sorcerers, such as demon-runners, though these are usually selected to make a point rather than for being most effective.

In the Imperial City, the sorcerer Mnemon Obris is well known as a commercial caster of the Messenger spell.

The Imperial Post (see below) maintains contact with a number of sorcerers who had agreed to assist with communications in the event of an emergency… with the Empress gone, the Post can no longer be sure that aid would come when it was called for.

Imperial Post

The Infallible Conveyors of Official Messengers and Heartfelt Expressions. The portion of the Thousand Scales devoted to communications across the Realm, the Imperial Post maintains three separate networks for delivery of communications.

--Postal Relay:

The first, and cheapest, is a network of relay riders who travel between Postal stations across the Blessed Isle on steeds bred for speed.

--Postal Catamarans:

A number of swift vessels are maintained by the Post to carry cargoes of correspondence to the ports of the Threshold and around the coast of the Blessed Isle.

--Heliographs:

Most Dynasts will be vaguely familiar with the ‘heliograph’, a piece of technology which usually sits atop a tower, and focuses a light source (usually the sun) to communicate information to other heliograph towers. A series of heliograph towers stretch across the Blessed Isle, allowing information to travel in mere days from the Imperial City to distant cities such as Eagle’s Launch (a journey of months for a mounted rider). The heliographs are meant to be used primarily for vital news and government or military communications, but in the present climate it has become common for Conveyors to use the network for political interests or when plied with sufficient bribes.

At present, the Post is doing better than many other Scales departments… the need for stable communication across the Realm has kept its funding from being slashed. But, the Deliberative has in recent debates considered cutting funding to several key bureaus involved with maintenance of the road networks and heliographs used by the Post, while corruption throughout the Thousand Scales has caused message delays and security problems across all three networks.

Friends and Caravans

Sometimes, messages are conveyed via acquaintances who will be travelling near the home of the intended recipient. Most trade caravans or ships will be glad to deliver mail for a few coins if they will be stopping at its destination. This method is, of course, as reliable as the individual bearer.

Wind-Carried-Words

While the Dragonblooded are limited in many ways, their martial essence is well-suited to certain types of communications. For a handful of motes, a Terrestrial Exalt can send a message from one end of Creation to the other. This is of course limited: she must know roughly who the recipient is and where they are; she has no way of knowing if it has been received; it is carried on winds interceptable by other Terrestrial charms, and it is limited to only 25 words. The charm is used heavily by the Legions and Thousand Scales bureaucracy, and many Dragonblooded learn it for the convenience it offers for casual messages