The Six Unions of Gadalland and Aspern
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A study of the use of carrier birds as a means of communication in modern Sertia
from 'The World's Oddities Registry' by Deras Marlynn, 1958
The Kingdom of Sertia is not known well for the modernisation of its government infrastructure, which until quite recently has not seen extensive renovation since the early 1930s. The rather shameful neglect of its once brilliantly coloured ancient monuments, which to this day stand headstrong in the centres of its lively towns and cities, has experienced a steady volte-face in the direction of progress. This alternation is consistent with its changes in leadership, which are notoriously slow due to the government's reliance on the whims of its various guilds (known as Braetha, pl.).However, a more modern visitor to the Kingdom of Sertia will notice this change of sentiment within the Braetha, especially when visiting the vast, sprawling metropolis of its capital in Hemberdale. What once was a centre for low-spirited, serious office workers and aristocrats has expanded to incorporate Hemberdale's historic and cultural significance as one of the major trade centres, alongside Osperfey, in the eastern part of the nation.
Were you to visit Hemberdale as a tourist anytime up until 1930, you would notice a spectacular sensory overload, owing to the contradicting blend of wondrous architecture and colour, combined with the unsavoury smells and characters about the streets. Should you have acquainted yourself with a resident of Hemberdale, you would notice no shortage of, first of all his family and personal business, and including this a curiously high number of birds flying in and out of his office window. The latter statement is the subject of this section, a vitality of Sertian identity, one of the only connections between modern, cosmopolitan Sertia and its curmudgeonly yet inspiring past.
Carrier birds are, in their most simple essence, birds trained extensively in the art of navigation. You may first think of pigeons before anything. Yet in Sertia, pigeons are hardly commonplace, which has forced the Internal Communications Order (ICO) to resort to the use of predatory birds. The decision to train these large flying animals was taken on the basis of their superior eyesight and intelligence, and their ability to, in their time off, keep away common disease-spreading pests. The ICO has recorded that carrier birds have been used since at least the founding of Gadalland and Aspern some 750 years ago, and ironically were responsible for multiple epidemics. Now, the ICO regulates the health and safety of these birds, and has increased focus on their individual well-being. Thus, one bid will not complete an entire cross-country journey to deliver post to a very rural area. Instead, the bird will deliver to an ICO outpost, where the post will be assigned to another bird who is based within that outpost. There, they are cleaned and fed, put up and treated for disease.
A recent vote by the Customary Logistics Council [now the Braetha] almost saw the birds out of fashion in Sertia, namely by the Councillor for Defence, who argued that this would increase the chance of internal failure during a time of war. However, he was ultimately defeated because of the sentimental nature of seeing these birds everyday. A local Sertian will be able to tell you the name of their carrier birds over the ages, the various affections they held for them, and will usually keep a record of the bird's visit. Nowadays, and undoubtedly in future this will contribute no less than seminally to the knowledge of Sertia's past.
I mentioned that the tradition of carrier birds is one of the sole connections to Sertia's past. This means that when you go to Sertia, look up and look out for the occasional swooping fowl, which croons and caws as it flies through the narrow mazes of temples, drying clothing, and into the sunset, as the chimes of Hemberdale's many bells signal the end of an idyllic Sertian day.
