Here’s another travel observation. It is about 700 km from Raibanth up the Oslir River to Furthest. It takes about 35 to 40 days to take a boat upriver. Or you can take a caravan there in about 27-28 days. So it is at least a week faster going by caravan, but much cheaper carrying cargo by boat.
Downriver is much faster by boat – maybe 15 days. A caravan still takes about 27-28 days.
Now this gives a little idea how long it takes for routine information to flow back and forth between Glamour and Furthest. It takes the Spoken Word three days to send important information between Glamour and Furthest. That is used only for communicating with the Red Emperor and likely sends a handful to a few dozen messages a day.
There are also Moon Boats, but they are even rarer in use.
And this is why Mirin’s Cross is the Provincial Capital. It is only 8 days by caravan between Mirin’s Cross and Furthest. A boat takes 8-10 days upriver, but only 3-4 days downriver.
What about wyvern riders? There are still wyvern riders but they are not used for simple communication! There’s a relay of couriers from Furthest to Glamour, from Palbar to Glamour, and so on. The Spoken Word maintain the network.
