![[d43089fe8a4dcf41f4e4c83d8179764b 1 1.jpg]] **On Korrinthia:** Trade on the preserve-world of Korrinthia can be quite a challenge, without the aid of advanced transportation systems most cargo must be delivered across long, winding and rough-hewn paths by means of beast-drawn wagon caravans, or across the seas and up and down rivers by means of wind and oar powered boat. --- **Terrestrial SpacePorts-** The majority of all trade goods either produced or consumed by the traditional clans will pass through these keystone locations at some point, but it is getting to and from them which presents the real challenge. Spaceports are disruptive to any local ecosystem to which they are adjacent, they are loud, dangerous, and extremely busy places heavily populated by automatons and spacecraft; and unlike the rest of Korrinthia, there is very little in regard to greenery, almost everything is made of concrete and plasteel. Therefore, these unnatural eyesores are religated to areas where they will be least disruptive to the goings on of the planet's otherwise pristine natural ambiance. **By way of sand-** ![[0f9dfb4c87b4287f3a608cb464857f1b.jpg]] Spaceports found on the land can be most often accessed through the desert regions, often built in the hottest and driest locales in the very center of the planet's largest arid landscapes, where very few, if any creatures would dare to make their homes. These locations typically ship their cargo and passengers to and from the nearest cities in all directions by way of underground monorail, as well as utilizing these vital arteries for piping in water and exporting excess energy from the massive nuclear power generators and solar farms which not only keep said stations functional, but expand upon their utility. And though the underground monorail systems are primarily utilized by the spaceport itself, they are also quite frequently taken advantage of by locals as a means of travel between distant desert cities in order to avoid what would otherwise be days of travel under the baking sun. **By way of mountain-** ![[bf7dc18260f90b4d34ef2d273f242b3e.jpg]] A fair bit smaller and less frequented than the desert trade hubs, every so often a mountain can be found which is tall and remote enough that virtually nothing lives near the summit, making a nice in-between port for some of the less bulky exchanges. These locations most commonly see travelers either making landfall to visit family in nearby villages, officials delivering important documents or confidential parcels by hand, or emergency deliveries of medicine or time sensitive parcels. These locations are also typically where some of the more remote regions on Korrinthia will recieve their data connection to the rest of the empire, and typically double in function as a large communications hub. Large arrays of satellite dishes and infrared laser transmitters take advantage of the mountain's height and expansive sight-lines to beam information back and fourth between the surrounding villages and the orbital stations, satellites, and passing ships. Transit to and from these otherwise isolated peaks is typically done via cable-car or funicular railways, and will usually have to be divided into multiple junctions in order to efficiently ferry their cargo and passengers all the way to and from the bottoms of the surrounding mountain range. **By way of sea-** ![[00b67576519f52fcb7682c256df6b852.jpg]] By far the largest of the spaceports can be found off coast, either by occupying an otherwise "desert island" or by building what amounts to a floating city, the latter of which tends to be more common as the ability to relocate and reduce distances between ports comes in very handy. These locations, like the others, double in function, not only serving as a major hub for trade and transit on and off world, but as a vital utility which can exist next to nowhere else on the planet. Yet, unlike the others, these ports are not simply used for supplemental power or communication posts, rather, they are used most effectively to bolster local revenue by means of tourism, as most of these port-islands also serve as stunning resort-vistas for alien visitors; a safe and sequestered locale where thousands will flock year-round to get a taste of Korrinthian culture, often playing host to hordes of smaller boats whom will offer day trips to nearby coastal villages, or facilitate scientists and documentarians a means of access to the wondrous and often dangerous world of the Krii. --- **Shipping-** Once the cargo and or passengers leave the systems provided by the spaceports to get them to the nearest cities or docks, the convenience of automation quickly disappears; now solely in the hands of the locals, everything must be handed off to the couriers in order to complete the journey. Couriers come in numerous forms on Korrinthia, there are relay riders astride Vashi mounts for smaller packages, while larger shipments and passengers must travel by way of caravan, balloon, or river boat for the next leg of their journey. **Relay Riders-** Astride their vashi mounts, these professional riders will travel day and night, rain or shine to make sure that their saddlebags full of mail make it to their target destinations on time. Each rider is responsible for covering a certain distance at a certain speed, a route which is predetermined to be well within range of their mounts available stamina. Waystations dot the path every so often where each courier will stop for food and water while they hand the bags off to the next rider who will already be prepped and ready to depart immediately so the package itself never stops moving for more than a brief moment. Relay riders often carry little more than small personal defense weapons when traveling, most commonly a pistol, shotgun, or a rifle to ward off bandits, and some flash-bombs for scaring away predators, mostly relying upon the speed of their Vashi to evade, and general anonymity to stay safe in their travels. **Wagon Caravans-** ![[89147d89481c707b0ff99898d3a43278.jpg]] For moderate and larger shipments, as well as passengers of all kinds, heavy armored caravans drawn by beasts of burden are the way to go if there are no rivers or lakes which can be taken advantage of. Much slower than the relay riders, caravans can stay on the road for days or even weeks at a time, stopping only to make camp or resupply every so often when the terrain or a local village provides shelter or when nightfall offers some concealment. Caravans travel via heavy wagon sporting thick armor and spiked roofs to stave off attacks from bandits and predators alike, but the aggressive construction of their wagons are not the only defense which is mustered for these endeavors; armed guards will usually accompany the caravans on their journeys between villages as well, most often hired directly from the village's host of trained warriors as a way of ensuring their credentials. Traveling via the most direct routes between neighboring villages and usually no more than a couple days ride for each leg, caravans will typically stop at each village they pass in order to resupply and feed their beasts, as well as to hire new protection while dismissing and paying their previous entourage so that they may return home before they get too far away. **River Boats-** ![[1b485c79c67e80aebd662a381da639bf.jpg]] Most cargo will be carried by river if one is available, steam powered paddleboat if the river is large enough, and by raft pulled upstream via shore-ropes if it is smaller as this method can generally make lighter work of heavy pulling. Rivers with rapids or which are known to play host to aggressive aquatic beasts are typically avoided, and scouts are usually commissioned to travel upstream ahead of the shipments to survey conditions before a trek is committed in this manner. Larger boats, such as the aforementioned steam-driven paddleboats are usually armed with fixed ballista and bunker-like hard points as a means of defense, and most vessels usually come equipped with their own compliment of armed guards. Smaller craft, such as rafts or flat-bottom rowboats are less armed, usually only defended by whatever personal arms the couriers themselves may carry. **Canopy Balloons-** ![[d867f191a8ae45b19acd516d73397fb6.jpg]] When neither safe travel via ground, nor the convenience of a river can be found, such as within the dense biome of Korrinthian jungles and swamps, most transport is handled via baloons which have been weight balanced into neutral buoyancy as to drift silently between the gaps in the lower canopy; tugged along by climbers who swing from tree to tree or travel via zip-line between positions, using rope and pulley to carefully guide the balloons along precut pathways through the trees until they inevitably reach their recipients. Due to the nearly silent movement of the balloons, as well as the dense concealment of the canopy, balloon shipments are rarely interfered with by predators or bandits. These pathways are also typically well looked after by the denizens of the jungles and swamps, guard stations are positioned every so often, and public thoroughfares often cross-sect the shipping paths at multiple points, so there are rarely less than a few dozen sets of eyes on a shipment at any given time, making this particular method fairly slow, but generally quite safe. --- **Throughout the Ethereum:** Though not without its own unique set of dangers and challenges, the universal access to advanced technology, as well as the extreme utility of the "magitech gate relay" graciously provided by the Vrinn Guild State, shipping and trade within the wider Ethereum tends to be a bit more straightforward than moving parcels across the surface of Korrinthia. --- Trade Stations- ![[cb34e9c88c20403b8aff8b417c4971f6.jpg]] Most often fixed in high orbit around populated worlds, but sometimes also existing as a stand alone destination in an otherwise unsettled system, trade stations come in a plethora of forms. Those crafted within systems with a wealth of rocky worlds that ate rich in iron and silicates are typically made of plasteel, and can sometimes even support full orbital rings positioned in high orbit around inhabited planets. ![[RDT_20260528_0819364830426688926113525 1.jpg]] (The complete orbital ring of the shared mining world of Delgahn 3.) Meanwhile some more rugged frontier systems may utilize a large captured asteroid, hollowing out the interior with mining equipment and installing the vast stone shell with various parts from large decommissioned vessels to serve as a makeshift port for trade ships and travelers alike. ![[0337079ba3226008c392a62fff1467f1.jpg]] Regardless of what form a trade station may come in, they are most always abuzz with activity, a natural melting pot of numerous galactic cultures, where an endless cacophony of multitudinous languages merge as venders, merchants, and transport crews of all shapes and sizes clamor and bid on profitable contracts or haggle over material prices; the typical sounds of buisness accented by the all too familiar ambience of vendors, buskers, and hucksters loudly belting out their street cries to draw in the crowds of would-be customers. All blurring into the rythmic metallic whirring and clanging of heavy machinery trapped in ceaseless operation, only occasionally interrupted by the random odd shriek or rattling chitter of alien vocalizations which seem to be the only thing which can occasionally pierce the inexorable drone like a coxswain call as they reverberate through vast chambers and long metallic corridors. Customs- ![[6fad606201966f98b56ca9342e56a1ff.jpg]] Before any goods may cross between ships or be delivered to the surface of a world, it must be cleared by the customs agents employed by each and every station, as different alien empires harbor widely varrying laws and regulations regarding what can and cannot be permitted to safely pass through their borders. For instance, strawberries: this seemingly innocuous agricultural product cannot be exchanged wholesale with the Korrinthian empire without exorbitantly strict licensing, as it's classification as an addictive psychedelic to the Krii marks its value as a pseudo-currency within the black-market as a potential hazard to their economy. For most bulk cargo, a customs check can usually be performed via simple MRI scan in passing, since all which usually needs to be checked for are deviations in material density; however, in the case of mixed or itemized cargo a more comprehensive check will need to be done. Chemical detection drones will usually be dispatched to "sniff" the cargo as they cruise about the ships storage bay, MRI & thermal imaging will be conducted to search for hidden lifeforms or materials not logged within the manifest, and the ship itself will typically have its overall mass checked and compared to its logged departure weight. (Due to the zero gravity environment of space, weight checking is usually done via the "engine burn" test; where a small standardized chemical rocket attached to the ships bow is ignited until the ship has been pushed backwards over a designated distance, using math to check the chemical fuel expenditure the customs agents can accurately determine the ships exact mass based upon how much energy was required to move the vessel across the threshold.) **The Gates-** ![[66db05d629002272c1d44d5bdbf4d7d7.jpg]] Built by the Vrinn Guild State, the proprietary magitech used to pinch spacetime between worlds is a bit of an enigma. Regardless of its mysterious nature, this grand network of rapid transit portals have been used for nearly two thousand years by the denizens of the Ethereum to ferry cargo and passengers between the stars, reducing what would have been decades of travel into mere hours or days. Gates do not simply stay open however, as they burn massive quantities elemite in order to function; therefore, gates are only opened upon a predesignated schedule and only stay open for a few hours at a time. The gate schedule can also fluctuate due to elemite shortages or shipping delays, and can be interrupted every so often by magical storms or routine maintenance. Keeping up to date on your system's gate schedule, as well as the schedules of the gates in each system you intend to travel through is key to arriving on-time in the Ethereum, and it is not unheard of for ships to sometimes get stranded in a desolate system for several days just because they missed their mark by a handful of minutes. As a result of this risk, the vast majority of travelers seeking to embark upon long treks across council space will often form large convoys (often called "trains") led by venerable, experienced merchant vessels in order to avoid miscalculation; linking their communications together and following precisely calculated maneuvers which are called out by their lead ship over an open network in order to remain within a singular, fast-moving column. **Ships-** ![[2b8b30c8c61ddfadbb0feb9d5e97b8a3 1.jpg]] Trade vessels for the Korrinthian empire tend to be operated by the merchant clans of the spacefaring portion of their society, these vessels are often little more than a powerful set of engines and a massive fuel reserve attached to a comparatively small cabin area, with the rest of the ship being large "boom-arms" studded with attachment points for cargo pods. Usually playing host to a single squad of around four to ten membets, these craft do not often contain any of the endemic flora which is often seen growing within other, larger Korrinthian vessels. Relying instead upon purely mechanical means of life support and needing to stop relitavely often for food, water, and oxygen. Trade ships follow very strict flight paths and schedules, rarely changing their routes unless having to avoid suspected pirate threats or natural phenomena. In fact, the monotony of the task makes it frequently suggested that drones take over the majority of deliveries. However, despite the proposed increase in efficiency, the merchant clans seem to fight this proposal at every turn, insisting that the loss of personal accountability by their couriers, as well as their constant radio chatter helping to guide other ships through the space lanes would represent more of a loss to spacefaring society than any supposed economic benefits could cover for. **Preservation of perishable goods:** With the strict regulations on the use of magic within the empire's borders, and it's complete prohibition upon the preserve-world of Korrinthia, the Krii have had to rely upon their technological mastery in the subject of cryogenic storage in order to transport the innumerous food items which cannot be cultivated directly onboard the Vivarium Ships. **Flash Freezing-** Utilizing photon saturation to instantly freeze objects to nearly -200°C by quantum locking their subatomic movement, fresh food can be preserved in such a way that does not facilitate damage to biological material's cellular structure through the expansion of ice crystals (no frostbite) as the rapid cooling prevents the formation of large ice crystals. **Transport-** Flash frozen goods are stored immersed within large liquid nitrogen hyper-freezers, which maintain a constant temperature of about -210°C and are retrieved from said hazardous conditions via mechanical servitors for packaging. Packaging comes in the form of portable miniaturized versions of the larger immersion freezers equipped with an exchangeable, pressurized liquid nitrogen canister for ease of transport. However, goods stored in this fashion are extremely delicate due to the nature of how they are frozen, and must be handled with extreme care since too much vibration or sudden jolts could reduce the preserved goods into an icy powder. **Revitalization-** Cryo-goods must be returned to ambient temperature carefully, with specialized pressure containers designed to leech thermal energy at controlled intervals until the preserved foodstuffs reconstitutes into an edible form, this usually takes a few hours at best. In all, this method of food preservation can make properly stored goods last for decades or even centuries as long as optimal conditions are met, allowing even the most perishable of Korrinthian foodstuffs to make it safely to the furthest reaches of council space and still taste and feel as fresh as the day they were frozen.