The House of the Caral Long Sparrows
he Caral Long Sparrow's house is in The City of Caral and is the first of a series of houses found throughout the Realm.
The Caral long sparrow is a small bird that is trained to carry messages to different houses within the New Realm. This messaging system is still the primary form of communication between cities. This house is the main house where all the birds are born. The folk who work there also raise all the birds and train them to carry messages. This location is significant because it is the first house ever to have sparrows, and builders built all subsequent houses in the same manner.
Folk strategically built the house in the middle of the city. The term ‘house’ is misleading, as it is actually a tall tower with a house perched at the top. The house is the tallest building in the city and can is seen from far away. A ‘housekeeper’ is someone who maintains the bird house at the top. The tower has a set of stairs leading up to the main area where the housekeeper works. Sometimes houses can have more than one housekeeper. There is also a ‘towerkeeper’ who works at the bottom of the tower to receive messages. From there, there is a sophisticated system for managing the messages that come and go.
Folk write messages on small pieces of papyrus that are then rolled up. They then give the messages to the towerkeeper. There is a fee to send messages which covers the cost of the house and the workers inside. The towerkeeper sends the message up the tower through a series of pulleys to the housekeeper. The housekeeper attaches the papyrus to the leg of the bird and sends the bird away.
Like other houses in the Realm, the Caral bird house is the centre of drama. Messages come and go frequently and they often contain vital information. In the beginning, towerkeepers and housekeepers were often bribed for information. To address this issue, The Unified Religion took control of the bird houses throughout the Realm. This also gave them an advantage of the coming and going of information. However, some folk felt that this compromised secrecy. The elite trained sparrows to send their own messages and the tower is now used by the common folk.
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