The Messengers

When the Severing destroyed the magical infrastructure that the people of Aotra depended on for all sorts of necessities, conveniences, and luxuries, some voids were more difficult to fill than others. The lack of the ability to disseminate information on a grand scale, which was once the domain of arcane sending and similar forms of magical messaging, required a quick solution. In many different places, the same solution arose independently: human messengers.
Though using the fastest and sharpest of people to relay messages across cities—and even from city to city—reached prominence as a solution to the issue of national communication in multiple nations, it is Oristhane that ended up with the best-organized and most effective messenger system.
Instituted by High Priestess Marini of Khara in the Shadowless City only hours after the Severing, Oristhane's messenger system grew rapidly, with messengers recruited early on travelling further and further out in order to spread the word about the new messaging system and to share their city's news. Within a month after the Severing, a network of messengers connected each of Oristhane's free cities. Within the bounds of a city, hundreds of messengers serve as a living post bringing information from client to client. By now, Oristhanian messengers are so fundamental to the experience of living in an Oristhanian free city that they fade into the background, as used to seeing white-cloaked messengers darting through the streets as most Oristhanians are. Though most remember a time before the human postal system served as a primary method of communication across town, most Oristhanians are by now thoroughly accustomed to the present system; it carries no more of the sense of novelty it once had.
The Oristhanian government sponsors each city's messengers. As a result, messengers receive base pay from a local office for each working day, as well as earning smaller payments from message-sending clients for each delivered message. The pay is fair but not exorbitant; a full-time messenger can live a modest but comfortable life off their earnings.

Type

Public Services

Used By

• Oristhane

Pay Rate
1 gp per day as a base rate from local government. 1 sp per intra-city message delivered, higher rates for inter-city messages.