[NOBLES] Erasing the Line - Geography

A translated account of world geography by the renegade Columbus, written upon the return from his initial journey to the “Old World”.

With the advent of Lightning Rails, travel has become the concern of all. Where once only the bravest such as myself would venture on ships of the air and sea whilst trade was limited to vulnerable caravans, now even the most cowardly cur can traverse the great lands of civilisation in luxury, should their income be fit for the task. 

I tell you now however, that the world remains barbarous beyond the protection of the meritocrats and a trans-continental jaunt does not prepare one for the ravages of real travel!

I myself have ventured the Russian wilds, home to behemoths the size of airships and beyond! Pretenders may claim in their plush carriages and foppish hats that such creatures are the fancies of the fatigued roamer but let me tell you, t’was not a fancy that took my very eye! They roam the landscape culling entire camps as you would pluck a weed. True there are false claims of cities still thriving within its depths but I tell you now, no adventurer who has seen those monsters roaming the tundra would make such a claim!

Indeed, it is such damned fools that have followed in my footsteps to settle the Eastern Coast of what is now called the Americas. T’was I that first dared to venture the Pacific to rediscover the Old World and so I speak with authority when I say that those so-called “pioneers” and their “independent” colony are damned fools! Those lands are stuffed with such an array of carnivorous beasts that even the hardiest hunter would balk at the task of clearing them. Not that they would get a chance. The territories of the Elves stretch far and they are quick to defend their native borders. Even my own noble countrymen are struggling to open trade in the South and if they cannot manage with Meritocratic support, what hope have those independents.

Of course travel hardens a person and it is all too easy to grow bold with the knowledge of what you can achieve with the strength of your arm and your wits. There is of course a simple remedy for such hubris. I would challenge those fools to dare to sail the tainted Mediterranean as I have and witness for themselves the blasted remnants of Italy and Greece. I can tell you, the phantasms that stalk their broken streets would have felled a lesser man and none of that lot would be so keen to break off from civilisation if they saw where that path led.