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Chapter 5: TRAVERSING THE WASTELANDS
The Caravan Masters
Rather than wonder who owns a caravan, consider the
necessary tasks to keep one in motion. Beasts must be secured and yoked, wagons built and repaired, guards hired
and positioned, and scouts deployed and their information gleaned. To outsiders, a caravan’s owner or merchant
prince appears to be an entourage’s ultimate master, carried on palanquins aboard a lushly-appointed, palatial
wagon. In fact, that figure might only own the primary
cargoes and hold the trade relationships that make this
particular caravan route most profitable.
Each caravan component has its own leadership and
ownership that usually contract independently, pledging
directly to the caravan or a particular journey. This system
fosters many frictions and jealousies among the traveling
city’s various commanders, but is also helps spread the
risk so no one party becomes completely ruined should
the caravan collectively fall to the wild savagery of Khitus.
Caravan Personnel
The largest caravans grant livelihood to hundreds of
souls, each with a particular task in its operation; there
are no loafers on the wild roads. Those who cannot contribute are left behind: the code of the rolling cities.
In the broadest terms, a caravan’s personnel divide into
merchants, guards, teamsters, followers, and cargo.
• Merchants include traders, brokers, financiers, and
interested agents.
• Guards are thakal- or swafa-mounted outriders,
wagon riders, and scouts. Boneshards are sometimes known to pass themselves anonymously as
caravan guards.
• Teamsters include wagon masters, beast masters,
drivers, artisans, and all manner of animal caretakers.
• Followers include cooks and personal servants,
camp girls, dancers and entertainers, unemployed
family members, and refugees of all stripes.
• Cargo personnel are slaves, plain and simple; while
any number of caravan services may be filled by slave
labor, those are primarily given to trusted free men.
Among the caravans, none get by without carrying their
own weight. Slaves must carry heavy packs, baskets, or
loads across their shoulders as they plod along in chains,
spurred to greater effort by whips beneath the hot sun.
There are times when the caravan itself is not a workplace or home but a destination. When stopped, caravans
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