Traveling and Navigating Veltrona

Summary

Where one wishes to go, they will invariably face all sorts of challenges. Veltrona's wild weather and dangerous fauna alone pose formidable challenges. The problems of people, be it bandits or otherwise, add yet even more. Even more imposing is the immense distances involved, exacerbating every other problem. Despite all this, traveling remains an important aspect of many livelihoods and civilizations. The methodology involved can be broken down into several broad categories, roughly defining what an actual trip may involve.
In the last few centuries, traveling has dramatically improved across Veltrona. Distances once either too dangerous or too far have become safer, or faster to reach. Well-known routes are stabilized and so new technologies to exploit them have arisen, such as railways. Entire new frontiers, even, have opened up with the likes of airships. As the powers that be invest into them, the great wide world has come just that much closer together. Although the actual physical distances remain quite great, more and more are meeting each other on the regular.

Wayfaring

Almost any journey by foot or into wild lands is by far the slowest and most dangerous. Being limited in the time and effort this entails, most civilizations relying on this are built in close proximity. Typically anywhere from a day to a week's travel, one either intends to forage on their way or stop at inns and other resting locations. This is the most common manner of travel in deep jungles and mountainous terrains, as few other options exist. More remote territories may require even longer to travel between, which is quite hazardous in deserts or inhospitable plains like Sa-kemet or Immensio.
A step up from walking but short of a proper road would be animal mounts. While this often takes the form of a trock, all manner of options exist for the capable rider. The chief issue tends to be actually learning the proper handling for such animals, followed by their capabilities. Those that can fly, for example, cannot carry a lot of weight and a person is already pushing their limits. Those that can swim may be liable to go underwater, and so forth. Armed with a proper mount, however, and one can go quite far and sometimes represents the fastest option in rugged terrain.

Roadways

Built along known-good routes that are chiefly stable, roads act as arteries between towns, villages, and cities. Most are usually low-maintenance, long-lasting forms of stone or gravel. The most critical may be reinforced with veltron magic to better endure the weather. While this makes wayfaring far more tolerable, the real advantage is in easier to use carts and animal-drawn carriages.
Immense caravans will typically form, gradually building to launch toward another far-flung location. Safety in numbers being what it is, these caravans form the bulk of trade, tourism, and any business involving people going from point A to point B. Depending on where one is, they may even utilize caravans with more carriages powered with magi-tech. These faster and higher-load bearing operations are found doing business to and from capitals usually.

Waterways

An unusual luxury to have, but waterways often represent some of the safest transportation around. Lacking the dangers of open oceans and seas, one can obtain safe passage to wherever the waterway will take them. Stormy weather can make them dangerous with overflooding or capsizing, but it is an easier risk to mitigate than some others. Most waterways support a number of villages which act as trade hubs for the most part. This is most notable in Aerthen, Temu, Akpahm, and Nerzin, where plentiful rivers has made it one of the chief ways of moving around.

Oceans and Seas

Open water, ship-based traveling can be some of the fastest and most dangerous options available. Weather is the greatest danger to face, as it may force one to seek safety or risk being capsized. Depending on which body of water, however, entirely different dangerous await. Dangerous animals lurk in Vastia and Olaniad, while the Long Sleep Sea, Tyrant's Sea, and Chompy Waters have dangerous weather and geological fixtures that can devour ships. To survive as a business at all is a serious endeavor, and one often needs water and wind capable mages to support their navy. The help of shermadi scouts/explorers is invaluable in and of itself, guiding ships through dangers otherwise unseen.
Thus, traveling by ship varies wildly, but it is hard to beat the huge amount of cargo that can be moved. The development of sturdier, metal-clad ships powered by immense magic-fueled engines has revolutionized the sea in its entirety. Although far too expensive to deploy in great numbers, these so-called 'super ships' have strengthened vital supply lines. Private companies looking to expand have that much further reach, and strangers from faraway lands arrive on all kinds of shores these days.

Air travel

The most 'commonly' exotic form of getting around there is would be flying. Those with appropriate relations to wyverns or even harpies can be flown through the sky. While this is great for moving select people around, it is a difficult thing to come by even on the best days. Some, however, have capitalized on the idea of creating 'airships'.
Carried by immense balloons, these flying ships are powered by crysium, wind mages, and no small degree of insanity. While lacking the freight-bearing power of water-born ships, airships are able to move a good deal on their own right. Without fear of terrain or most fauna, they only need watch the skies for bad weather. Many civilizations are quite interested in developing this, as it represents a huge breakthrough in economical transit for people and goods.
Some have started developing balloonless ships, using an insane principle between aerodynamic wing design and wind magic propulsion. Given the ridiculous operating costs of these vehicles they have barely seen any wide development or employment yet. Their potential have caught eyes, however, and so more and more prototypes are appearing lately.
Those gifted with wind magic (or knowing wind mages) themselves have access to flying in a more direct manner. The cost for doing so is often quite strenuous, so it can often be seen (and only is found) as a status symbol and among those with the prestige to do so. It is more often for wind mages to overlook such a thing, given the difficulties involved, but it is not unheard of. In Nerzin, for example, there is a great superstition surrounding those who can fly. It is often believed to be an attribute of divinity or similar excellency, and thus commands respect. Even those who are not wind mages make an effort to study it at least once, leading to some bizarre forms of personal transportation.

Static Teleportation

More generally referred to as 'gateway magic', it is among the rarest ways of getting around on Veltrona. Popularized by the Imperium's notorious World Gate and how Imperious utilized it, gateways have been the stuff of dreams for centuries. Few, however, have come anywhere close to economical development of them. Often no one has any knowledge whatsoever to create or design the gateway. Those that did ran into problems fueling the ridiculous power costs to maintain and operate it. In the end, its far easier to talk about the innumerable failures than the actual successful examples.
Some functional gateways do exist, however. Whether they are ancient constructions or newly made, none of them sport the reach or influence of the World Gate. Nerzin notably possesses a few connecting every corner of it to the other. Khaaestra zahd Machkin is rumoured to have made one herself in her immense city fortress, and a pair of sibling gateways in Lophern and farther away in Nemma. Where such gateways exist and are used, however, they are reserved for the wealthy, powerful, or affluent. No one civilization has made an economical solution, though many are trying.

Underworld Traveling

One of the more bizarre forms of travel, and often not recommended. While one does not have to deal with weather almost at all or the typical fauna, they must contend with the underground civilizations and fauna. Such a bizarre and alien world is rife with so many dangers on its own that few can safely utilize it. Those who do make regular economic usage through it are often trading with these underground civilizations, rather than traveling through. However, a few well-known routes do exist in the likes of Aerthen, Dorvar, and Etzli Cuauhtla, giving unique opportunities there.

Railways

Among the newest innovations to hit economy-scale usage, they're on the cutting edge of technology. An upgrade on the concept of the roadway, railways have only scarcely made their way out into the wider world. There is an argument if Atenkhet developed them first or not, as they've employed a similar system for quarries and mass-movement of goods inside their city. Notably Khaaestra zahd Machkin pushed for their development, spurring on an engineering team that worked under her. Thus did similar systems of guided carts coalesce together.
Principally found along capital roadways and other seriously important routes, these railways operate immense lines of freight-carrying wagons. Typically an engine at the front pulls along the wagons, fueled by violatile crysium. Its unstable reaction fuels the mechanical apparatus to drive the engine, allowing the train to function. The increased speed and load bearing nature has shortened the distances in the major civilizations tremendously, spurring on economic growth rarely seen elsewhere. They're pushing to deploy more railways everywhere, but the investment to make them safe is tremendous.
A high speed derailment with a literal bomb for an engine is a recipe for disaster, after all. The trains own sensitivity to its rails is another matter. Weather being what it is, these vehicles garner the attention of the Relentless. Their suicidal attacks can not only destroy the train, but the infrastructure its built upon, ruining it for untold months. The cost to maintain and protect these trains, immense as it is, is overshadowed by the ridiculous wealth they generate.