Cart

"Before the wheel and horse, we were hermits. Now, we are a brotherhood spanning a continent."
-a natural philosopher discussing the ways the simple cart changed the world

Carts were the first rudimentary wheeled vehicles to rise to prominence in the Calinan Sea region and to this day remain the vital backbone of empires, city-states and villages across the face of Annyrion.
The classic cart is a simple wooden container with a wheel attached, but has become so much more- large mule-drawn supply carts, horse-drawn trade and transport wagons, and even armoured and fast war chariots.

History

Carts appear to have been a development of the period between the late Neolithic and the first uses of copper tools; usually shortly after the development of the wheel. These appear to have been developed independently in three particular locations in the Calinan Sea region; the first towns and settlements in southern Arikanda developed them around 4000 DoM, while records from the Kalriv peoples of the central Sapphire Coast mention them around 3500 DoM. The Avadians of the Beyan Archipelago were using them from around 2300 DoM as they expanded across the various islands of the Archipelago and moved further inland.
Prior to the invention of the cart, traders were limited to whatever goods they could physically carry with them; greatly limiting their range and ability to restock. Similar problems plagued builders, the earliest farmers, and gatherers. Some developments such as packs for animals were made, but ultimately the scale of what a person could build, transport and trade was severely limited.

"Tin from The Heartlands, rum from Denato, lentils from the Empire, sharbat from Kas. I can get all of that brought straight here - and then some."
-an overland trader in the settlement of Freemarket in the northern Avadian Colonies

Once the first carts were built - usually simple wooden carts either pulled by hand or by a draft animal - the scope of what could be carried out by civilisations greatly expanded outwards, with building materials, foodstuffs and other resources now easily portable in larger numbers. As these carts became larger and sturdier, and began to utilise the horse, even greater numbers of these things could be moved over even further distances.
This allowed for three major cultural shifts; firstly, the ability of traders to move carts - and then wagons - full of produce over long distances, while also able to keep full stocks of provisions and space for purchasing additional goods even if unable to sell their existing stock. This led to an explosion of trade throughout the entire continent, with goods now far easier to source from multiple markets than ever before. It also allowed for the spread of new ideas and technologies across these routes, often between completely different civilisations.
Secondly, peoples could now easily start entirely new settlements with existing materials they already owned, making the creation of new villages, towns and even cities. Thirdly, by increasing the efficiency of transporting building materials around cities and towns, the act of expanding existing cities, and living relatively close to them while not within them, also became much easier. This became self-sustaining with the development of the first wagon trails, which streamlined trade between settlements, and roads in settlements, which facilitated easier ways to move carts throughout towns.
After this, carts developed further over the ensuing centuries, with the use of wagons designed specifically to transport larger numbers of people and even for people to reside in while on the road, making long-distance transport much more viable and encouraging further spread of civlisations across the landscape.

"One person on the reins, one person with a long spear, one person with a bow. Or two with spears. Or two with bows. Unmatched adaptaiblity, unmatched battle capability. This is Helikan combat supremacy."
-a military strategist introducing the Helikan three-man chariot

Finally, the development of carts exploded into the military sphere, with the Kalriv tribes developing the first troop transport wagons and military baggage trains for their legions, and with Sapphran city-states developing the first war chariots. Respectively, these developments completely changed warfare, allowing for armies to cross great distances with relative ease, support themselves over long distances, and in the case of chariots, completely add a new theatre of warfare to be contended with.

Present-day carts

"I'll take my chariot, get onto the Relay highway and be in Karrana by week's end. Try not to take too long."
-Tribune Antorius Veluinnis, departing the city-state of Mayoka for the Helikan League's conferenence in Karrana, 469 TE

Today, 4500 years after they first appeared, carts and their various wheeled offshoots are ubiquitous across Arikanda, western Sembar and northern Calina. Even the smallest farming settlement makes use of at least one, and most of southern and eastern Arikanda is practically cris-crossed with wagon trails. Large cities such as Helik, Port Avadia and Kas see them constantly flow through day and night, and chariot warfare has gone from a strange and rare sight to a regular element of most military forces in the world, with specialised tactics, strategies, weapons and new models developed regularly to keep an edge in mobile warfare.
Even what were once simple wagon trails are beginning to be superceded with the first highway systems, forming to facilitate even faster and easier travel between all city-states of the Helikan League in southern Arikanda. These are in turn used by the Helikan Relay system, and intersect with both sea ports and overland wagon roads and trade routes. Thanks to wagons and the developments sprouting from them, it is now possible for a scholar at the Academy of Arikanda to acquire artefacts from the island of Tenun - a journey of over three thousand kilometres.
Effectively, the simple cart has kicked off a chain of events and developments, societal and technological, that transformed an isolated, simple world of villages and towns into a highly complex and interconnected web of societies, with free flow of ideas, technologies and resources. The Calinan Sea as it is today owes its existence to the cart.