The Juggernaught Caravan

Overview

The Juggernaught Caravan is a magical train-like vehicle that runs from the port city of Di Nabata to the capital city of Kitinike in the kingdom ofDjakoro on the continent of Thrabad.

Creation

Adanna Thandeka is the inventor of the the Juggernaught Caravan. As a young girl, she travelled on The Cloudrunner and came home to Kitinike filled with awe and wonder. This sparked her interest in invention, particularly magically augmented technology. Due to the antagonist nature of Djakoro's neighbours to the north and south (though, Mazvinga is embroiled in a civil war, still very little trade comes out of there), the majority of trade for Kitinike passes through the port of Di Nabata on Djakoro's west coast. The journey from Di Nabata to Kitinike is a long and arduous one, crossing through difficult mountainous terrain and vast untamed plains. So, Adanna wondered if she could somehow replicate the Cloudrunner technology to make that journey easier for traders. As the Cloudrunner schematics are guarded secret of Billowblock Inventions, Adanna had no access to them, so she started from scratch, using observations alone. Also, for Adanna, the regions proneness to sudden and violent thunderstorms presented a challenge for any aerial transport concepts. Eventually piece by piece, working with Kitinike's magical elite, she created her land-based prototype in 142PC, at the age of 40. It took another 16 years to see that prototype realised. First was the bureaucratic delays of persuading the nation's ruling class to build such a massive project took several years and then the construction took another decade.

Impact

Naturally, the Juggernaught Caravan provided a massive boon to economy of Djakoro as a whole. Ensuring a much safer way of transporting goods from Di Nabata to Kitinike meant that traders were far less fearful of sending their wares there. The journey was now also roughly six times faster than traditional horse and cart. However, the Caravan's construction didn't come without pushback. Citizens of the smaller towns and villages along the 'old' trade route saw their towns effectively bypassed by the new technology. Unfortunately, as a nation, the benefits outweighed those negatives, and a slow but sure migration from the small towns to Di Nabata and Kitinike started to occur. That is, until the Caravan's route was altered to include some of the large en-route settlements and was no longer a direct path between the two cities. This too, had negative connotations for some of the more rural settlements as traditionalists viewed the influence of 'outside' cultures abhorrent and factions split off.

Current State

Passing places were built shortly after the more inclusive route was installed. This allowed a second Caravan to be built, so that the route had a vehicle travelling in each direction at any given time. Ironically, just as the Cloudrunner's schematics are guarded secret at Billowblock Inventions, the Juggernaught Caravan's are now too, by the Djakoran's rulers, which means the world hasn't seen the technology replicated anywhere else. At least, directly. Whilst Adanna was inspired by the Cloudrunner, so was a Hantau native to build Anzhoun's Canopy Rail two centuries later. To outside observers, the two inventors may have landed on convergent ideas.

Creation Date

158PC

Current location

Djakoro

Rarity

One

Width

18ft

Length

1260ft

Height

18ft

Weight

~ 700 tonnes.

Speed

12mph