FrivYeti/SaGComm
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Communications Technology
In the Third Age, people no longer rely entirely on Exalts and spirits to communicate across distances. The proliferation of Essence-powered devices has enabled some people to have easy access to long-distance technology, and this has, in many ways, made the world a smaller place (figuratively, of course). There are a wide variety of these devices...
Telephones
Resources 00; Resources 0 per month to stay connected, Resources 00 per month for long-distance.
Instant communications are relatively easy in the Third Age. Telephones connect to Essence-lines, carrying words over almost any distance. These technomagical devices can only carry words to the magical signature of another telephone, which must be inputted. If the second 'phone is within a few kilometres of the first, the signal will be powerful enough to establish a connection and carry on a conversation. Telephones remain fairly large, about the size of a large box, and must be plugged into an Essence outlet and a connection port to function. Cellular phones do not currently exist outside of artifacts. Most people can't afford their own telephone, but apartment buildings can share them, and the middle classes always have their own.
To make a 'long-distance' call, a telephone must be connected into a relay set which allows multiple telephone networks to connect to each other. This is much more expensive, and generally not available to the poor or lower middle classes.
Radios
Resources 00
Broadcasting into homes can now be done as well. A radio is a single-direction telephone, designed to pick up wide-ranged broadcasts. Radio broadcasts are, in most nations, only done by perhaps a dozen stations, but allow recorded music and news (as well as live events) to be easily broadcast to large numbers of people. While radios are a bit expensive, most families can scrape together enough money for at least a beat-up and partially functional one, and listening to the radio is a common pastime among the poor in large cities.
Television
Resources 000 (or Artifact 0)
The favoured pastime of the rich, television is, and has been for almost forty years, the exclusive pastime of the rich. A much fancier form of radio, it allows the receiving of three-dimension objects in addition to sound. A television is generally a flat, square platform with the machinery in a box attached underneath it. When activated, holographic images are played. Televisions can only be controlled by buttons on the box; a few newer ones have remote controls (this is a seperate Resources 00 purchase.) Most major cities have only one channel of their own, and minor cities have none, but rich patrons can arrange to get channels from across the nation, or even the world, getting as many as twenty or thirty channels in all (This generally costs Resources 00 per month for a national package, and 000 per month for a worldwide package).
Resouces x
Books are more common in the Third Age than ever before; although most nations censor literature, and watch it for dangerous ideas, literacy is up around 80% in most major nations, and reading novels as a pastime came into vogue among the rich and middle classes some time ago. Movable type is common and relatively affordable, meaning that cheap books can be easily published.
Books with serious information are more likely to be restricted, especially those with thaumaturgical or sorcerous information in them. Constant rumours that the Broken-Wing Crane has been published get circulated from time to time, and are always investigated, but have so far proven unfounded.
