Long-Distance Communication

[ewancummins]

In Hazlan and Nova Vaasa, the Church of the Lawgiver may well view printing as something best kept under tight controls. A free press could get to be dangerous to the social order, after all. In both domains the church may be actively working with the secular rulers to stamp on unsanctioned printshops.

[impworks]

Its unlikely that the Church of the Lawgiver would have much to worry about.

Even with the introduction of movable type becoming a printer wasn't a cheap thing to do - paper and presses were expensive. Mass cheap printing really took off with steam presses and pulp paper. If Nova Vaasa is using woodblock which was more expensive the odds are that any presses and the artisans who operate them work for someone who has wealth and power and wouldn't be likely to print material designed to overthrow the social order they are part of.

On the other hand there is likely to be a big growth in the printing of religious texts, commentaries and pamphlets which had until then been very time consuming to produce.

[High Priest Mikhal]

Careful. Easy access to books tend to lead to literacy. Literacy can lead to folks becoming educated. Education can lead to things like independent and willful thoughts. Those can lead to social unrest and that's something the Lawgiver certainly wouldn't want. But then it can just as easily be used to reinforce existing power if you control what is and isn't allowed to be read.

[impworks]

Mass cheap printing needs something like the steam press (19th Century) - woodblock is just not suitable for that kind of work. So the Lawgiver's have little to fear from it. Even the introduction of movable type only made printing affordable not cheap.

[DeepShadow of FoS]

The Vistani are not reliable couriers unless very well paid, and sometimes not even then.

Not necessarily true.
What they are is good at getting where they need to, when they need to.
What they are not is errand boys or messengers.[/i]

Actually, I think the biggest problem with using the Vistani is that--according to VRGttV--they all maintain cyclical routes. Thus, you could only use them as messengers if the destination is wherever they are heading next. They can't decide to leave that route, no matter what you pay them.

Of course, if those conditions ARE met, I don't see why it can't be a matter of simple economics--they charge what the market can bear. This is one area where Vistani cannot be haughty/prideful AND shrewd hagglers; if they insist on outrageous fees for any service, they just won't get hired!

[ewancummins]

Its unlikely that the Church of the Lawgiver would have much to worry about.

Even with the introduction of movable type becoming a printer wasn't a cheap thing to do - paper and presses were expensive. Mass cheap printing really took off with steam presses and pulp paper. If Nova Vaasa is using woodblock which was more expensive the odds are that any presses and the artisans who operate them work for someone who has wealth and power and wouldn't be likely to print material designed to overthrow the social order they are part of.

On the other hand there is likely to be a big growth in the printing of religious texts, commentaries and pamphlets which had until then been very time consuming to produce.

I'm assuming that Gutenburg style presses will spread rapidly and moveable metallic type while displace older printing technology. Why would Nova Vaasans stick to woodblock only when type becomes available?


Moreover, I had a specific historic example in mind. Think of Martin Luther and his print war with the Pope. Print, even without the steam press or very high rates of literacy, can have a big impact on religious and political developments. It allows for ideas to be reproduced and disseminated with greater rapidity and reach than hand copying everything.

[nothri]

Careful. Easy access to books tend to lead to literacy. Literacy can lead to folks becoming educated. Education can lead to things like independent and willful thoughts. Those can lead to social unrest and that's something the Lawgiver certainly wouldn't want.

Not to mention that fear leads to anger, which lead to hate, which leads to suffering.....and three really disappointing prequels.

More seriously, I'd suggest a more localizing effect. In 'civilized' domains, there probably is a postal service of some sort- especially between the 'four pillars' of the western core. Other places might have something like a guild, where mail is delivered by courier and volunteers take the job as it comes- 15 gold to deliver to martira bay....100 gold to deliver to the hermit on Mt baratok. Couriers probably are highly skilled semi adventurers in their own right. Otherwise I can't see them making it in this terrible world....

[cure]

OK, 40 hours Paris to Brussels is 4 miles an hour over 162 miles, as the crow flies. The land is essentially flat, but route would not in fact be straight. So something a bit better than 4 miles an hours was actually being done. This was also over territory that was not monster-infested and that probably was pretty well policed, at least as such things go at the time.

Equally, 5 days (120 hours) from Brussels to Innsbruck is 4.5 miles per hour over 542 miles, as measured along roads existing today. Again, the route would not in fact be so direct. So 4.5 miles an hour understand the reality of the matter some what. And one can imagine that the territory was less well policed than that between Paris and Brussels.

Is, however, a courir service that consists of a horse relay viable where a lone man on a horse looks like dinner and is a constant target for robbery and murder?

It would work in Dementlieu. It would probably work on most, but not all, of the main road in Falkovnia, so long as Vlad wanted it to work. It might work in Lamordia. It might work in the most civilized and densely populated parts of Borca, Nova Vaasa and Hazlan. And it might even work in the cilvized parts of Richemulot and Darkon during the day. But beyond these places? Perhaps Strahd, Jacqueline, and Harkon could call off their beasts and reduce the risk to that of robbery and murder in their lands. Still, that risk would be considerable. Ultimately, it strike me as near suicide being out alone on horse at night in many of these lands. Although that might be a good thing give the small size of the canon core.

So travelling by day and switching horses and men as necessary, how long does it take for mail to get from Port-a-Lucine to Levkerst, which seems like an imaginable route?