Wellcalling

Whenever I hear strangers to these lands discuss Jadira, I am struck with the impression that you do not truly comprehend how vast the desert is. You seem to think, that the next oasis, that can keep you from death, is just a short march away. Have you ever truly felt thirst? Until you have been truly out there, you have not. Maybe it will keep you from such foolish errands, boy.

— A Jadiran guide politely explaining that sending a message to another city may be an inadvisable course of action

Jadiran lords realised early on that sharing information across the dune sea is a task not easily or reliably accomplished. In the early days of the dynasty, they avoided complications by carefully planning ahead, and installing loyal and competent local rulers who could enforce the law without outside directions. However, they would soon gain another path that would alleviate the issue.

Wellcalling

To wellcall is a very literal process, though the mechanism by which it functions is less obvious. When digging a deep well reservoir inside the palace grounds, Alrazim, wise man of Lord Elezzar III, discovered that the sounds of the workers digging could be heard twice. First when they travelled up the shaft straight away and then again hours later as if a faint echo had captured the sound and then reflected it.
Using a series of tests, Alrazim deduced that they had discovered a deep running series of caves, which were hidden in the rock floor beneath the sands. Spurred by this discovery, the other great oases also began excavations and the first set of Deepwells, were created. Over the years more wells joined the network until there were a myriad of smaller and larger deepwells.
Soon the sages of Jadira learned to use these echoes to their full potential. At first, loud blasting horns were used to send simple messages encoded by different lengths and pitches to the horn blasts, but it quickly became apparent that this method had flaws. Those were primarily, that the horn blasts became more and more distorted with distance, making messages prone to errors and with distance the volume also decreased drastically. However, over time, more sophisticated methods were developed.

Today, wellcalling is a thoroughly studied science. A trained wellcaller is also a mage of the winds, who can whisper a message into the well and have it carry to the farthest reaches of the realm, wherever the caves stretch and there is a dug deepwell. Despite all the advantages that come with posession of a deepwell, several downsides still need to be contended with:

• The messages can be heard by all connected wells. As a result the messages can travel far, but need to either be obfuscated or contain no information you do not mind sending to all the important people in the realm at once.
• There can always only be one message transmitted at a time. As a result only the most important messages are sent via the deepwells.
• The network requires full cooperation by all wellowners. A single malicious actor can disrupt the entire network, simply by filling the caves with noise that overshadows the messages sent through them.

Wish to learn more about the Deepwells? You can read about them in more detail in this article: