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Message: <blockquote data-quote="AdmundfortGeographer" data-source="post: 1653833" data-attributes="member: 4682">There is a whole lot worth considering in a simple statement of "the prices are appropriate for the economy."  And you simply dismissed out of hand without comment. Should I take it that you didn't even think about it like you are accusing me?For part of your thesis that civilization of Eberron will fly apart at the seems, you claimed that people are too far spread apart and that as social beings humans must communicate with the fellows or else the connections that hold society together melt away and civilzation as it is known in Khorvaire ends. Especially since whispering wind the cheapest arcane communication method costs 60gp (it is really 50 gp... As I said, this difference doesn't make a difference to the problem you are critical of, but it is the correct price nonetheless.). You said that the average peasant coun't afford such prices.I mentioned that it is probably the right price for Khorvaire's economy. It is a feudal-like society which has a whole lot of implicit concepts for how such an economy must work... But Khorvaire isn't a pure feudal society and this cannot be ignored, the individual difference between Khorvaire's version and the real world model are many and compensating for the differences can only be guessed at by even the most competant economists. But the Eberron book pretty much lays out the peasant life as one might imagine... they aren't dying to plop hard earned coins for an arcane internet. So when I said "the prices are appropriate for the Khorvaire economy", I am saying the prices are probably set for those customers who have urgent need talk send a message pronto where time is of the essence... i.e. manor lords and nobility. Just because peasant can't afford it doesn't mean that there aren't ANY customers.In the post of mine you quote from I extensively remark about the other methods of communication the Eberron Campaign Setting Book talks about.  The prices of these other methods are relevant to the pricing of whispering wind, and the continuum of prices for communication are all a part pf the whole of the "communication industry" in Khorvaire's economy.  In the post of mine I explicitly stated that House Sivis has a message relay service that transmits a full written page for 5gp per page.  While there is not much details on how the pages are moved from customer to customer, upon first reading it sounded like the Pony Express. Still not peasant-priced, but it is worth keeping this in mind with the context of how the Pony Express worked and who it serviced and its impact on society in the American West... and the settlement patterns across Khorvaire that seem to be spread apart as far as those in the American West.I also mentioned that House Orien has post service that is priced at 1 cp per mile. So the peasant can send a message to the next village 60 miles away for 60cp... that "magic" number you pin-pointed as being the price that could end feudalism in Khorvaire.So we have different price schemes for the different feudal classes. The upper classes can get near-instantaneous brief messages sent, but at a premium only they can afford. And the peasants have a slower postal delivery system available.But the great body of this post is just repeating what I already posted.  The point being that there is a robust communication industry, differing long-ranged services affordable at varying levels.In other words, ... "prices appropriate for Khorvaire's economy." I didn't dismiss out of hand, as the rest of the post (which I nearly entirely repeated here) dealt with your thesis.  That there are higher priced spells that deliver faster or longer range services, it matters little considering there are reasonably priced services, that have an historical analogue of working in a Khorvaire-like dispersal of population, to meet the "peasant market's" demand.</blockquote>

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