D&D 5E How do societies communicate across distances in your world?

[NotAYakk]

Magic of 3rd level is rare and expensive. There are very few spellcasters that can cast 3rd level spells and ... just recover after a long rest, and do it again.

The art of making sending stones is long lost. A few have been found, but often unpaired or incomplete larger constellations. Users of the few known sending stones recieve strange whispers, and some have gone mad.

Even fewer spellcasters can do teleportation magic. Magic circles are known to be dangerous, and most ancient ones are intentionally broken or located in horribly destroyed ruins. A few intact circles are high secrets.

Wilderness (chaos) people's use animal messanger for long distance communication. But their societies tend not to involve much extremely long coordination, other than weather front reports and dire emergencies.

 

[DeviousQuail]

My current setting has a magical limit to all effects equal to spell level × 10 miles. This generally doesn't matter as most spells easily fall under that. Sending stones get some use among the particularly powerful or connected but a 30 mile communication once per day to only one other stone won't make a dent in the need for less magical forms of communication. Skywrite gets a little more use as long as you don't mind everyone else knowing what you're saying.

 

[Stormonu]

Depends on location in my homebrew. In the West, courier or owl/raven is common and in rare cases, court wizards or clerics may be called on to contact others within their own country (magically contacting a wizard in a foreign country can be considered treason without good reason). There is a Nyrr Ryann guild that deals exclusively with transmitting messages between countries as a "3rd party" endeavor, via caravan or expedited via courier or falcon. As one moves East, communication ranges are generally shorter and less likely to be magical in nature, and pigeons are the common bird messenger for those that need to be sent quickly. In the far East, mundane methods of courier and raven/firebird/pigeon are used, with some cases of genies or court wizards or clerics being used to convey long distance important messages.

Permanent teleportation circles are almost unknown - there are a few, unknown number scattered in the Evan Cordum (home of the elves), a ring of five in the Kingdom of Vall Vega (supposedly one for each compass point at the edge of the country, plus one in the capital), one known to be in the City of Sinka in the Silkna Kingdom and an unknown number in the Skienlands and Randu of the east - thought to number no more than three or so in each realm. There was one in Zarame Kull, the former capital of Randu, before it sank beneath the waves.

 

[EzekielRaiden]

In the Tarrakhuna, caravans regularly travel between the various city-states, and ships sail the Sapphire Sea to connect to its Ten Thousand Isles. If time is short, some Waziri mages make money selling their services as messengers or teleport taxis. The proper Waziri order also maintains teleportation circles in most areas of sufficient size (e.g. communities of at least 10,000 people), which pull double duty connecting the mortal city-states and providing a connection to Jinnistan. Al-Rakkah, by far the largest city of the region, has numerous such circles, while Kafer-Naum, the Temple-City and administrative center of the Safiqi priesthood, has relatively few despite its size.

 

[aco175]

I started watching the new season of The Last Kingdom on Netflix and there is some political spying going on where it appears that the speed of messages and such is overnight between Wessex and Mercia. I suspect the time is spread over several days, but the show is skipping to the good bits. Still, they have this one spy that keeps teleporting seemingly.

 

[Quickleaf]

Back in my homebrew (Witching Grounds), you never just bought a "riding horse" – horses were a big deal with a couple different fantasy breeds & unique features/personalities, and there was a more medieval take on the "Pony Express" in the kingdom we played in.

 

[cbwjm]

I started watching the new season of The Last Kingdom on Netflix and there is some political spying going on where it appears that the speed of messages and such is overnight between Wessex and Mercia. I suspect the time is spread over several days, but the show is skipping to the good bits. Still, they have this one spy that keeps teleporting seemingly.

Because your comment made me curious, I did a rough calculation using the distance between Winchester and Tamworth (about 133miles) which would allow a rider on a horse to take 3-5 days depending on the condition of the horse (25-35 miles at a steady pace, 50 miles a day for an average trail horse). Or in the case of the show, they travel at the speed of plot.

 

[Jackdaw McGraw]

In my version of Forgotten Realms, The Grand Temple of Waukeen is also the central bank of Amn. The Council of Five see the Temple as honorable, neutral arbiters in trade and necessary to Amn's trade dominance. The Temple has developed an infrastructure of clerics in major trade ports who can either cast sending and/or have access to sending stones (I imagine the Temple has at most 2 or 3 pairs).

Sending stones are extraordinarily difficult to create. The material component is two stones, mined from two different copper mines, on the same day, by twin brothers. It only works once. A new pair or twins and a new pair of mines are needed for each set of paired stones.

Also,

Cormyr has a "Purple Pigeon" messenger network. Started as joke but now there's a dedicated guild of pigeon trainers and riders (horse riders, not pigeon riders).

The Gryphon Calvary of Waterdeep is also used as a messenger service for outlying territories.

Teleportation circles exist in some major temples, palaces, guildhalls, etc., but their rune combinations are guarded secrets. The limitation of "on the same plane" isn't exactly true for some powerful beings who would love juicy gateways into the Prime Material.

Most messages are delivered via caravan service, delivered along regular trade lines with other goods.

 

[Yaarel]

To transmit messages, empires mainly use their militaries who are transporting supplies, albeit there are riders for urgent messages.

Merchants can deliver messages along their routes. But otherwise there is no institution for delivering messages.

Magic is possible, but is ad hoc and nonsystematic.

Prominent destinations (not always the same thing as large populations) link by a network of teleportation circles. They schedule which two destinations connect, and a major teleport hub with several circles can feel like an airport, with croud control, security, and hurry up and wait.

Telepaths can be useful.

 

[Older Beholder]

Flail Snail Mail.