Crevasse Crawlers

Haha! Such ingenuity! In contrast to steam-powered machines on mainland Namda, the Frozen Isles rely heavily on clockwork machines, and this vehicle is most definitely the pinnacle of recent clockwork inventions.

— Ordall Marvo Nisent, realm guide

Crevasse crawlers are vehicles specifically designed to cross glacial crevasses. Their invention greatly improved the speed and safety of travel across glacial tundra terrain such as the Pallar Icy Fields in the northernmost island of the Frozen Isles.

Invention

Since the discovery and invention of steam-powered machines, that technology quickly spread across the continent. However, steam-power relies on a heat engine, and heat can be dangerous in the icy fields. Crevasse Crawlers are instead clockwork machines. They rely on man power, weights, counter weights and clockwork.
Clockwork machinery has been around longer than steam-powered machinery. Yet, clockwork machines were always of a smaller scale and the bigger ones were stationary. The invention of steam-power caused a surge in the invention of large machinery and as a reaction pushed the technology of clockwork machinery forward as well.
Only two years after the invention of the first steam-powered train, crevasse crawlers were invented in the Frozen Isles. Renowned technical horologist Gwent Pew designed the vehicle specifically for the Melda Postal Corporation, a transport company that travels across the Ohno Glacier in the Pallar Icy Fields, and crosses the dangerous Melda Crevasse.

Structure and design

Crevasse crawlers are vehicles unlike any other. They do not have wheels like carriages and trains, nor sails like ships and sand skiffs. Instead, they have six long metal legs. With an additional two antenna-like structures in front, it roughly resembles a beetle in shape. Its body is situated above and between its legs, maximising weight distribution, and can fit two drivers, and cargo or an additional six people.
The purpose of two antenna-like structures is feeling ahead, looking for unstable snow bridges covering glaciers. Its legs are sturdy and pointed, and because of it, crevasse crawlers do as its name suggests: they can crawl down and up crevasses to get to the other side.