International Travel: The Archway Network and The Rift Walkers

Travel

Centuries of grueling war on multiple fronts spread across the world has caused countries to lose their global focus and begin concentrating on defending their own territories. This caused the beginning of the breakdown in global travel. The cataclysm of the Enlightenment was the decisive death blow. The devastation it caused forced Terra's inhabitants to think and act locally in order to rebuild cities and vital infrastructure systems. International travel and trade were considered superfluous, and even ten years after the war there is still no massive commercial industry that facilitates travel and trade between the continents and distant nations.


Locally, systems of mass transportation such as trains and buses, have been instituted in recent years. These train lines have limited reach. They only exist between the major metropolises of Librium, Bastion, and Elyria to provide safe transit across the Wastelands. Motor caravans provide a safe alternative to those travelers who wish to go to smaller cities that have been established throughout the continent. On other continents similar systems have been implemented by the ruling governments. Each land however, is different and solves their transportation problems in their own unique way. Further information is available in each areas description.


Global travel and trade do exist but they are similar to what existed in early history. Driven by the promise of wealth or fame, adventurous individuals have taken it upon themselves to brave the seas, skies, and the unknown dangers they hold. Trade ships carry goods from one distant port to another, trading for exotic goods that they sell for a sizable profit. These trade explorers have been known to book passage on their ships to individuals who seek fresh starts, or treasures waiting to be rediscovered. Governments do have the means to travel between the continents, but these resources are closely guarded and used only for official purposes.


There do exist other means is travel that allow individuals to traverse great distances in little or no time at all, but these means are rare or costly to the travelers. The fey races have begun to restore Archway Network, a wonder of Dwarven engineering and shamanic magic that allows travel through magma flows that spider web Terra's entire surface. These are accessible through specially designed gateways and lead to predesignated exit points. There also exists a secretive guild of mystics called the Rift Walkers. Its initiates have mastered the secrets of harnessing wild rift energies to travel from one place to another. The Rift Walkers provide their services indiscriminately to any who can pay the price they ask.