Within the heart of Fallen Asha is a single ancient track, exactly 400 miles in diameter and perfectly circular, deviating not for mountain, canyon, nor inland sea. Atop this track sits the Grand Messenger, a large metallic vehicle that orbits the track at incredible, though unpredictable speeds.
Origins, Construction and Operation
The Grand Messenger is a relic of a bygone age of techno-arcana. It has been in constant operation for over 2,000 years, with it's construction date lost in the calamitous events of
The Purge. It is constructed primarily of an unknown metal which displays certain organic qualities, such as the ability to self-repair damage in a similar manner to skin growing to repair a wound. The Grand Messenger is a single flexible cylinder, exactly 125 yards long, that hovers precisely 18 inches above the rail, though no magic can be detected to enable this. Painted along each side are several short passages in an unknown language, and the mystery around the attempts to decipher these words gave the machine its name. The Grand Messenger circumnavigates the rail approximately every 4 hours, stopping at irregular and unpredictable intervals as it does so. On each circumnavigation it makes 10 such stops, at a different place each time. Each side of the cylinder has 4 doors, each 10 feet wide, that slide open when the Grand Messenger stops.
Contemporary Use
The Grand Messenger was used as a means of mass transportation by the peoples of Asha. Despite the unreliable nature of the stopping locations, the speed of the machine drastically reduced travel time around the country.
At least twice since
The Purge, wars have been fought over access to the Grand Messenger, first by opposed trade factions within Asha, and second when the Empress of Ula invaded Asha, nominally to loosen Asha's grip on pre-Purge techno-arcana. In this second war the Grand Messenger was obliterated by a cabal of Warlocks as Ula retreated to prevent the armies of Asha from pursuing. Fortunately the machine's self-repair abilities are nothing short of miraculous, and after 3 years of dormancy and regrowth, the Grand Messenger resumed its endless journey.
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