The Modular

Modulars are motorized vehicles invented some three hundred years previous on the continent of Talis, and became the most common form of transportation some two hundred years previous. Their name derives from the modules that buyers use to customize each one, leading to unique modes of transportation.

Research:

The Modular

by our fleet hero,
Lorgan the Speedy

In this Research Document:

all images by Shade Melodique
unless otherwise stated

The Modular

Modulars are personal vehicles that contemporary beings on the world of Sensour use to ferry themselves around. The buyer chooses specific modules before the vehicle is built, then waits anywhere from a yilsemma to a semma to receive their purchase. The vehicles, due to their modular nature, are unique and reflect their owner's personality.

Some modules have wheels, some hover, some are sleek, some blocky, etc. The dryans and nymphs have several watercraft. I've been told (as an older ghost, I was alive far before modular transportation) that some vehicles used for recreation have three levels, and some are too wide to use typical roads. I don't understand the point, but the wealthy don't always choose the most prudent option when displaying the fruits of their inheritances.

Because so many see the modular as an extension of their being, once a faelareign passes on to the Evenacht, they want a similar form of transportation.

Ancient ghosts and umbrareign, preferring common, less noisy, older forms of transportation, dislike the new and strange and have set about banning them from proper communities and roadways.

It's not that the ancient ghosts and umbrareign dislike all transportation brought to the Evenacht by the deceased--they love travel wagons. I could not find a definitive date for their arrival, but elfines were the first to use these beast-drawn vehicles to travel across the Evenacht. They became a staple among pilgrims, traders, and other habitual travelers, whether ghost or living.

Original image by Ralf Kraft, Adobe Stock Images

The Problems

While faelareign want the Evenacht to reflect their living selves, modulars are not an easy purchase in the evening lands.

• the metals and materials used to create chassis, wheels, interiors and engines, don't necessarily exist in the Evenacht. Substitutions in equipment, resources, and designs must be made, and not all replacements work as well as the originals.
• Modulars on Talis run on batteries that allow for several full days' travel between recharges. The components for these batteries don't exist in the Evenacht. An industrious human by the name of Qualmen Hei invented a device that behaves in a similar manner to a modular battery, but its range is a full day, tops.
• The Evenacht has magic powering what electricity powered on Talis. While there are some waterwheels and windmills used to create electricity, the practice is not widespread and makes recharging batteries a difficult endeavor.
• Ancient ghosts and modern living umbrareign dislike modulars, some with a passion bordering on obsessive hate. Older communities with narrow roads ban modulars, and some regions have attempted to outlaw them altogether.
• The factories that build modulars cause pollution for what locals consider no benefit.
• While speedy, vehicles can overrun slower transportation, causing accidents and death. Impatient, petulant modular drivers are a stereotype.
• The only beings in the Evenacht who can afford them are the wealthy, even if those of lesser means owned one on Talis

Owners of modulars want the problems solved. They have the wealth to do so, but find that regions, districts, and communities prefer to outlaw their chosen mode of transportation rather than build new factories, roadways, and supply stops.

They have little support in their endeavors. Older family members side with the Evenacht native populations and prefer to use wagons, carriages, and their feet--and in the case of ghosts, magic ziptrails.

The industrious have hired scientists to research ryiam to power modulars, which is ubiquitous in the Evenacht and would not need a refinery or factory to turn into a useable product. Ryiam, however, has proved stubborn; modular explosions from ryiam batteries are as pretty as the sunsets on Talis.

The Bans

As one might expect, once the wealthy were told 'NO', they became stubborn. They would have their modulars, no matter what.

Maz Freqi, a nymph investor once considered the wealthiest man on Talis, refused to let his dream of driving his custom-built, eyesore of a vehicle across the Evenacht die. He purchased land in Mendercane and constructed a factory to build them despite local protest.

After ten years, numerous modulars, and millions of D coins later, some liquid used in the factory machines leaked into the local waterway (industrial in nature, but since Freqi covered up the disaster, we'll likely never know it's identity). The fish died, the town got sick, and the mendercane irrigated by the contaminated water fell to ruin. Their lives upended, the locals raided the factory and torched it.

Freqi, as a cowardly ghost, phased through the wall and got away. That's the only reason he still exists. He disappeared afterwards, though the regional Mendercane government still asks the Shades to check his extended family estate and apprehend him if he's there.

Other Evenacht governments learned from the disaster, and within a year, most had banned modular transportation within their regions. Unfortunately, the wealthy did not much care about the bans, and continued to drive their vehicles wherever they saw fit.

Modulars are seen as the epitome of modern ghostly arrogance. Everything was fine in the Evenacht (it wasn't), until the vehicles came along.

One hundred years previous, Death destroyed the invading Gabridarço fleet. The interstellar ghosts migrated to the Scorn, and, interested in returning to their home planet despite the difficulties, constructed factories and industrial complexes to research the problem of ghosts in space. Modular owners saw opportunity, and brokered deals to have Badeçasyon build their vehicles. The Gabridarço obliged.

So now beings associate modulars with the interstellar invaders, making them even more unwelcome in communities. The newly deceased have attempted to remedy this by building factories in the Sunderlands and researching Evenacht-centric designs and materials, but it's still an uphill-both-ways battle.