Civilized Highway Society
| Civilized Highway Society|-style="background-color: #ffffff; text-align: center;" | File:CHSflag.png | ||
| Leadership: | Alexander Black of Durham | ||
| Members: | unknown | ||
| Goals: | Build and maintain high-quality highways linking important Shartak sites | ||
| Recruitment policy: | Agree to our principles, start building highways in line with the standards here, and you're a member! | ||
| Contact: | My talk page | ||
Contents
The Need for Good Roads
Too many poor souls enter this realm completely lost and bewildered. Whether they are newly-arrived Outsiders or youngling Natives, their common problem is an inability to get where they want to go. A few enterprising people have seen fit to begin constructing roads between major villages; often these are used as routes to direct others to sites of pillage and death.
If the isle of Shartak is ever to see the dawn of civilization, we must build and maintain high-quality roads linking all the major cultural and scenic sites. These roads must conform to a well-publicized standard so that new arrivals can easily use them. Missionaries, native shamans, hunters, explorers, and many others will benefit from clearly-demarcated paths through the wild.
Our Mission
This will be an arduous task. In the CHS's observations, one individual can clear a maximum of 3 squares per day while still killing animals to advance (while of course those who either don't desire material reward or have already maxed out their skills can devote all of a day's labor to clearing roads, averaging something more like 7-8 squares per day). Our mission, then, is three-fold:
- identify sites in need of quality transportation
- build, maintain, and if possible patrol roads linking the identified sites
- recruit new members to our cause
The above list should serve as a prioritized list of activities; it does no good to build roads willy-nilly if no one will use them, and if we are not building roads, what use are new recruits?
We must strive to maintain the highest quality of building standards; please see the section below marked Road Standards for the current regulations.
Note well: we are committed to equal-opportunity access to both highway construction and use. Natives, Outsiders, and pirates are all equally welcome to join the clan, build roads, and travel freely (without threat of harm). In times of warfare, CHS members are encouraged not to take sides and to punish any acts of violence perpetrated along CHS-affiliated highways.
Highway Network
Highways Already Under Construction
The following highways are currently under construction, although not necessarily by CHS affiliates. Therefore, our standards on neutrality may not apply.
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Proposed Primary Routes
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Proposed Secondary Routes
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Road Standards
Road Section
A CHS highway is made up of individual road sections. A road section is an area of jungle cut back to the bare topsoil and connected to other road sections.
Directness of Highways
A CHS highway should consist of a direct route between two points of interest, subject to variances where it would save a great deal of building and maintenance labor. Although mathematics tells us that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, it is unfeasible to expect to build straight-line roads around the landform features of the island and with such primitive equipment.
Therefore, roads should consist largely of north-south, east-west, and diagonal sections. Frequent turns or spurs should be avoided.
Signage
It is often useful for travellers to have some sense of the distance to the next point of interest. The most reliable way to sign a road is to scratch in nearby trees. Since we cannot write directly on road segments, the CHS proposes the following standard locations for signage:
- Where ever possible, signs should appear to the north of the highway. Obviously, this standard will not work for north-south sections; their signage should appear to the west.
- Signage should be on a square directly connected to the road; travellers should not have to wander aimlessly in the jungle searching for signage.
- Signs should be placed in the following locations:
- At village boundaries, giving the distance to the closest 1-3 landmarks
- At forks or spurs in the road, indicating the direction and distance to the single closest landmark
- Every 50 paces at places where the last two digits of the GPS coordinate in the direction of travel is divisible by 50 (-70.200, -70.250, -70.300, etc.)
Signs should specify distances in units of paces; these can be measured as a change in the thousands digit of the GPS coordinate. Alternately, someone can simply travel the road, counting paces. These do not have to be exact; it can be difficult to determine where a particular feature or place begins.
Example Signage
Carved on a nearby tree is CHS; Fakevillage 200E; Fakesettlement 360SW
The CHS indicates that this is a CHS highway and subject to CHS neutrality standards. The sign also indicates that Fakevillage lies 200 paces east and Fakesettlement lies 360 paces southwest. The direction should always indicate where to go from here; it may be the case that the road changes direction one or more times before reaching the endpoint.
