Wain

"The country of Palispar is teeming with wains. Big ones, short ones, ones with broken wheels, broken axles, fettered to horses, untethered, upside down ones, right-side-up-round-ones, it is a country seemingly covered in cute, little, wooden wagons. And, I want to see them all!"
Selanna, Princess of Veneta

The best wains are the ones found in your heart. They bring out a joy in the driver. They perhaps have a crushed velvet seat cushion or a hand brake with an ivory brass nob (once a bed post perhaps?). A team of horses might pull it while its full of hay, or maybe the wain transports one's noisy children to their uncle's home in the mountains for a stay over, you know, for the winter... Wains are at their best infinitely complex and ruggedly simple. A personal affair. Cobbled together from stolen goods. Built by hand out of the freshest pine; sure to bend, pop, and crack with age. Pulled by one chestnut horse, its name forgotten. Hobbling along the roadside with a snapped felly rim.
The wain is ubiquitous in the kingdom. The worst can be found in Palispar. They are built by the boat builders in Palispar every winter when the currents make sailing too dangerous for even the bravest of pirates. The stolen trade goods come into Palispar and what isn't culled, pocketed, or tucked away gets tossed onto an open wain for a travelling merchant to deal with later. And the wain, well it plays a crucial role in all of this.
See, a mirror framed in gold and gems bound for the Duke of Witsrun cannot ride on just any hay wain. The wagon has to be outfitted with a hidden compartment that can secure the mirror and make for easy and safe transport. Three hogsheads of tobacco? That can't go on a hay wain either. Those barrels roll on the mountain slopes of the Runner's Way. They might just tumble out and into some yokel's home. Then they'd have a nasty habit and a new door.
A wain is a personal choice too. Not any wagon ride will suit a prince for example. As a means of transport, wains need special benches built to suit the passengers during bumpy rides. Of course, if someone isn't too picky they could always sneak onto one and cover themselves up in an oil cloth, but to each their own.
The Longlives in Illgotten produce the best wains, vehicles that can be disguised on the roadway by shifting a loose board here or unshanking a spoke. The construction of a wain begins by understanding its purpose. Is it transporting contraband? Then it must be outfitted with hidden compartments, and not the ones that can be tapped open or knocked on to reveal the hollow space inside. They need true hidden compartments that feel like they're a part of the wain. The Longlives understand this and take great care in crafting their wagons making sure that they are built to fit the task at hand.
It begins with the wood. A pale oak is considered to generally be the best quality wood for anything that needs structural reinforcement. This means spokes are shaved from the best live oak that can be harvested during coppicing season. These are then turned out on a lathe and added to the pile for kiln drying. A strong spoke is the foundation of every felly. Next the rims are hammered out by the blacksmith. This process takes specialized knowledge too. Does the wain need to gently sway from side to side so that passengers can be fleeced of their goods when they fall asleep? Then the rim and the suspension, both made by the blacksmith, are the key.
Perhaps the driver wants a wain that squeaks when driving through town. Here the wheelwright has much to say on the manner. A false bearing, called a bearing burr can be inserted into the old bearing before entering the village. This will alert fences of the wain's arrival.
The wood of the wain's bed should in most cases be constructed of a cheaper material and, to get past the city guards in many towns, pine is the safest option to go with. However, the bottom of these beds can be constructed of stronger boards, like double banded algren. The Longlives have perfected this technique and make special compartments underneath the beds of their wains to hide weapons. These compartments are then hidden a second time by pine boards that have been mechanically coerced into position using steam. When hidden compartments simply will not do, a wain can be easily engineered to hide contraband in plain sight. Bedposts easily become handbrakes for example.
And what of the ability to transport goods throughout Canar? The mountains that prevent open trade between the city of Witsrun and the country of Palispar have been doing so for ages and the people of Illgotten have a solution. Longlives outfit their wains with large cast iron eyebolts. These eyebolts have a clasp that closes on one side that must be screwed into place. It's a very simple technology but it converts the wain into a transport that can sail through the mountain range while speeding down special cables suited for the task. These cables slope ever so slightly at the end of their run, so that the wain can easily come to a stop with the use of a brake.
Some wains produced by the Palispar, as hideous as they are in construction, are made in the same fashion as the ships that they build. These wains are heavy, normally double banded in construction, and even have a hollowed section built inside of the bed to allow the wagon to float down stream like a boat. A Palispar wain is half the size of a Longlives wain and usually three times as heavy, but the wood they use is naturally buoyant. Horses don't enjoy pulling Palispar wains either. Most will downright refuse unless they're of hardy enough stock for the task.
The construction of a wain takes quite a bit of money if purchasing one new in Illgotten and it comes by pretty cheap if purchasing in Palispar. The Illgotten wains come with lots of bells and whistles though and come with kits that can be tucked away to change the wain into a vardo, a carriage, or even a lowly dray. A most famous wain only had three wheels and was pulled by a small house cat. The owner of the wain used it to beg for money between Witsrun and Tambre. A play was written about her called, "House Cat Holly" and it's put on every winter in Witsrun, usually running the length of the season. The original wain and Holly and her cat were eventually moved to Witsrun and put up in the Duke's manor there. It wasn't long before she was gone again though, with the Duke's finer things wrapped up in her Illgotten carriage. She was the Duchess of Tambre in disguise is how the story goes, or some such, if those things can be believed. Have a wain, will travel, and all that.