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> Magic aside, ribbons of concrete *really* don't like frequent
> freezing cooling cycles.
That's right. That would really take some heavy duty magic.
> That sort of road is possible, but personally I favor the bing blocks
> of stone theory. The Sartarites don't seem to be all that big on
> wagons. Notice that the merchants all get mules rather than carts?
> And the land is rough enough that, off the main roads, even carts
> would have limited practicality. I just don't see them having wagons
> with the large teams of horses needed to achieve much speed. In
> general, I just don't see most Sartarites spending much time in
> wheeled conveyances. Sure they have carts, but why do all the men
> have the running skill if they don't mostly travel on foot?
I think that's right.
My girlfriend also told me that the ponies hooves hold up much better than those of large horses, and ponies quite often go unshod.
Since the horse of the Heorlings is small and tough (and fuzzy?, propably like the icelandic pony.) it may manage the paved roads pretty well, at least if they are nice and smooth.
And I bet that messager horses (who really have to _run_ olong the roads) are shod in bronze.
> All of which is to say that if you had stone blocks and they heaved
> somewhat, it may not be a big deal. When walking you can deal with a
> certain amount of uneveness, and if you are driving a slow cart with
> very solid wheels it probably isn't all that big a deal either. On
> the other hand, having a nice firm road not ankle deep in mud, that
> is valuable!
Yup.
> Probably part of the magic would be to re-settle the blocks
> annually. They will tend to settle down in the Summer anyways to a
> large degree of course, but the magic keeps long term shifts from
> happening.
That's sort of what I was thinking. Parhaps the stones are nice cubes, about a foot across. Parhaps bigger... Propably with some relevant magic runes engraved on the undersurface. Propably like the roads of Old Pavis, the are gently sloped away from the center too, so rainwater drains away.
> Of course, Lunar nobles in their high riding carriages might not
> think so highly of these roads as the Sartarites do.....
I think they do. Afterall they do take steps trying to upkeep them. I think the lunars can appreciate good roads. It's just that the roads are dependent of the banned rituals of the House of Sartar.
> Also, the roads would be somewhat elevated above the general ground
> level, to help snow blow off. Maybe the wind daimones are even
> cajoled into blowing across the roads especially hard....this won't
> keep them snow free, but in more open areas where keep the snow cover
> down.
Nice ideas there.
> The more recent roads would of course be modelled on the original
> magic roads. The blocks of stone would be much smaller, and not fit
> together half so tightly, and the road bed would probably not be as
> good either. So you'd see a lot more heaving and pot-holing there.
> They might even be bad enough that you'd see parrelel cart tracks,
> used when things weren't too muddy.
I think the real roads of Sartar are those built as grand projects by Sartar and the later princes. They had the magic, so I suppose the latter roads are good and magical too.
The rest of the roads on the map are just dirtroads, in varying conditions.
> All just my 2 cents worth. I think for the most part this can safely
> be a YGMV type topic!
Thank you. That was really helpful. A dialogue is much more effiscient, than just mulling it over in ones own head. At least for me.
-Adept
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