Optical Telegraphy

As you travel along the many criss-crossing dirt roads that pass through the vast and endless Matanza Desert, it is possible that you may come across a large stonework tower sitting atop a dune, rocky cliff, or in a mountain pass. These towers are unusual, as they appear as if they were built in the Old World, a rounded stone tower with a two windows at the highest floor. One facing one direct and one facing in another. Some of these towers can be as low as two stories to as high as four and can be as simple as a one room house or as complex as a small manor house with various people working together.These towers are known as Optical Telegraphs and are used to quickly deliver messages across the vast expanse of the desert. Quicker than using a mail carrier on horse or messenger bird, these Optical Telegraphs do not rely on cables and wires to deliver messages like in the Setican Empire, but rather use tremendous fan blades on their roof that are controlled by a complicated series of levers to adjust their height up and down. The two windows help finished this invisible messaging circuit by allowing the telegrapher to look out from the previous tower and ensure that the next tower has received the messages and has continued to pass down the line. While these optical telegraphs have the tremendous benefit of speed as well as accuracy, there is two tremendous downsides that make these telegraphs dangerous. The first being that often times, these telegraph towers are isolated, no relying on towns or villages and receiving food from passing merchants and paying out of their own paychecks. This isolation can make these towers dangerous as if the mechanics fail, or the telegrapher is killed, or the tower is under attack, there is very little that can be done and no real warning can be given. The other downside is visibility, as it is located in the desert, these towers rely on line of sight to ensure that the messages pass through. However, if arcanic superstorms occur, or sandstorms sweep across the desert, the line of sight can become unmanagable and messages can come to a dead halt on the line.Optical Telegraphs are not funded or operated by the local government, but rather are a line of communication established by and utilized by the Setican Armed Forces and Air Force to ensure their control over the otherwise lawless region.