Vehicles and Mounts

While we're talking about weapons, magic, armour and items, I begin to think about how folk get around the jungle.

In many stories people seem to just hike it. Motor vehicles are near forbidden and anyone using one seems to be a clueless outside who gets eaten. This seems to be because motor vehicles are noisy and smelly and attract attention.

Mounts are rarely seen - the Korazon seems to be the prime Felaryan mount but not many seem to appear. Horses are another available mount, but are once again not too common - plus, in Felarya, its likely a horse would spook near instantaneously. Though there are assumably more bad-ass Felaryan horses. What other beasts could be used?

Anyways - back to vehicles - if the Vishmitals are so advanced and the Psi'ols so... magical, wouldn't they have developed vehicles that are at least decent in the Felaryan wilderness? Maybe using magic as a quieter, renewable fuel source? Ima come back later with some ideas but I'd like to open this up to any transportation ideas you might have.

It's funny that you should mention vehicles. I'm writing a story featuring such right now.

Yours,

euanthe,

There are a lot of vehicles in use, but I wouldn't say they show up often in the quickie stories. And even when they do, they tend to get slagged or otherwise inverted. For example, Marlissa's hovercraft in Synapsis' story.


As I recall, your character gets around in a sphere. I remember reading a story with a centaur that hunts down three humans riding horses. Timing2 had some vehicles mentioned in one of his stories with Marsha. Vehicles are mentioned in the Felaryan Park colabs, but technically they're not in Felarya... There are also stories involving hovercraft, tanks, armoured mechs, and LAVs. Yet, as you say, most of those vehicles prove to be inferior to Felarya's environmental stressors. The few exceptions I can think of off the top of my head is the 'Predator' airship thing in Asuroth's stories, the Felaryan Express (cough fastfood cough), and some of the seafaring vessels and airships described in Nege's story (though in the latter example we don't have any data regarding them fighting preds, just that humans are impressed/afraid of them).


Vehicles and mounts have their advantages and disadvantages. Presenting a small profile is always a good thing in Felarya - unseen is generally the safest standard.





Then again, if you wanted to get technical, you could call the preds that have human/neko/etc friends 'mounts' of a sort, since they often provide transportation for their friends.

aethernavale wrote:

There are a lot of vehicles in use, but I wouldn't say they show up often in the quickie stories. And even when they do, they tend to get slagged or otherwise inverted. For example, Marlissa's hovercraft in Synapsis' story.


As I recall, your character gets around in a sphere. I remember reading a story with a centaur that hunts down three humans riding horses. Timing2 had some vehicles mentioned in one of his stories with Marsha. Vehicles are mentioned in the Felaryan Park colabs, but technically they're not in Felarya... There are also stories involving hovercraft, tanks, armoured mechs, and LAVs. Yet, as you say, most of those vehicles prove to be inferior to Felarya's environmental stressors. The few exceptions I can think of off the top of my head is the 'Predator' airship thing in Asuroth's stories, the Felaryan Express (cough fastfood cough), and some of the seafaring vessels and airships described in Nege's story (though in the latter example we don't have any data regarding them fighting preds, just that humans are impressed/afraid of them).


Vehicles and mounts have their advantages and disadvantages. Presenting a small profile is always a good thing in Felarya - unseen is generally the safest standard.

Then again, if you wanted to get technical, you could call the preds that have human/neko/etc friends 'mounts' of a sort, since they often provide transportation for their friends.

Very true. Marlissa's Hovercraft was something I was thinking about - though it got smashed it seemed to be able to keep pace easily with a fairy. That is also the sort of vehicle I think would be best in Felarya - not big and shooty, but fast and stealthy.

F51 Mo-ped:

The F51 Mo-ped, or the "Feral" as the more younger citizens like to call them, is the answer to any postal officer's dilemma of escorting packages from Negav to nearby villages for a safe and quick delivery. The F51 has a small four-cylinder engine which creates speed as fast as a Razia... on the tarmac... in a straight line. Of course, the inventors realized this would not make it difficult for the rider to circumnavigate the foilage of the Felaryan forest, but it would also attract the attention of aggrevating predators, so they made it as quiet yet powerful enough to outrun most of the predators nearby. What makes it unique is that instead of the high powered spring shockers which can absorb the shock of a 50ft. fall, it is also equipped with powerful hydraulics that, when activated, can make the F51 "leap" far distances. Soon after the release of the F51 to the Negav Postal Service, the modified Feral began appearing at merchant corners around the market. The major flaw to it is that it burns the magical fuel faster than a chilotaur and a keg of Fey weed wine, so after each run the rider must pay a hefty sum to get it refuel at the nearby Psi'ol refuel station. But, there have been rumors that a mysterious group might make an upgrade to it...

Automequus:

The Automequus is a primitive automaton used for personal transport. Built in the form of a horse, it functions exactly like one and can often be mistaken for one at a distance, though a close up examination will quickly reveal its mechanical nature. Built as an "upgrade" in terms of traveling by horse, it improves on many of the advantages a horse provides while removing some of the disadvantages. For one, automequus do not require food or water, and instead run on magical energies, a major advantage over their biological counterparts as this is extremely abundant in Felarya. They also do not tire, are relatively faster, and do not startle. Some disadvantages, however, include their inability of using a horse's "natural senses" to avoid predators, their delicate internal machinery is easily damaged and requires constant upkeep, and finally they are relatively rare and expensive compared to biological horses.

The Vishmital Spectre

The Spectre is a design of hovercraft that was created specifically to deal with travel in Felarya. It resembles and is about the size of an average helicopter except instead of rotors it is powered by various anti-grav thrusts along its bottom. It has been designed to run as quietly and efficiently as possible - although the Vishmitals are not quick to admit it, they did need help from the Psi'ol magiocrats for this. It is designed to run at a medium altitude - above the forest floor and lower branches, but below or near the canopy to avoid harpy attacks. If used properly it is one of the best and fastest ways through the jungle - however, it requires a very skilled pilot to keep up with the quick turns required to navigate the jungle.

Alot of the characters in my stories just hike it on foot. But to be safe, they alwas travel with a larger being for protection. Be it a giant droid, a trusted predator who works with them, etc.

that's really an interesting thread ^_^
Many many things to do there, in different terrains and regions. Though properly navigating the jungle would be a true headache I think. I imagine the best bet would be individual fast and silent flying machine of sort.

Hey,

You'd be able to ride around pretty effectively on Predator or Mumansi trails, I would've thought. This could shorten your life-expectancy.

Yours,

Ambrose,

That's something I'll admit to have glossed over myself, although I have had the occasional vehicle showing up in stories.

When Satasha's neko tribe was rounded up, the slavers used a convoy of powerful vehicles. This was in an area of rocky grasslands with sparse sections of forest. The fact that the slavers used vehicles was only briefly mentioned, mainly because it wasn't the focus of the story.

They were mentioned again in Marsha's story, when the very tribe of nekos she was hoping to become queen of was targeted by slavers - and you guessed it, they used a convoy of vehicles. The main vehicle was armored, amphibious, and tracked. There were smaller support vehicles used as well.

For smaller groups and even solo adventurers, land-based vehicles might not be so popular. It'd be hard to traverse jungle or heavily wooded terrain. And that covers a lot of Felarya.

Flying vehicles would make more sense, as you could avoid most terrain problems by simply flying over them.

With offworlders coming into Felarya, one could encounter all manner of vehicles - but they'd likely be of very small quantity. Maintenance would always be an issue. Fuel would also be an issue - unless it was something plentiful such as water or sunlight.

I've always picture Felaryan natives using animals as mounts (and as defense as well). Mumansi come to mind immediately. Even kensha beasts could be used in this fashion, assuming they could be raised and trained from birth.