What Relays Are

Relays are transmission towers that carry communication signals and distribute power across Geba. They are the foundation of civilization. Where relays reach, the empire reaches. Where they do not, black zones persist.

The very first relays were built on the Geban continent during the Era of Early Dominion as simple structures with very limited range. The relays that would shape history—the towers of power and scale that defined what the network could become—were built and tested in Ngorrhal by Architect Varenth Solarn. He pushed the technology beyond what anyone had attempted, constructing experimental ultra-high-altitude systems in the mountain passes. During the first trials, one such system was driven at unprecedented power and triggered an artificial geomagnetic storm. No evacuation was possible at that altitude. Varenth Solarn died in the disaster he created.

His family continued the work. Today, Solarn Legacy Engineering maintains the public relay network that spans the inhabited world, and nearly every aspect of society on Geba runs on the foundation Varenth Solarn built.

What Runs on Relays

Relays carry everything. Power flows through them to homes, businesses, factories, and vehicles. Communication signals travel through them: voice, text, visual data, emergency alerts. In many regions, relays are the fastest and only way to call for help. Entertainment broadcasts reach billions through relay frequencies: Solwave concerts with synchronized pyrotechnics visible across continents, Conwave performances blasting from every hub, the Yuvaar Hunting Games drawing global audiences to watch teams pursue beasts across coastal plains and forests, the Bonding Games streaming from Manalheim Minor, Thazvaari Ascension matches broadcast live from towers inside population centers. Contract boards update in real time. Racing circuits stream from Veykar arenas. News, educational content, scientific research, cultural programming, and information on nearly any topic imaginable move through the network because the network is how anything moves at all.

Commerce depends on relay connectivity. A corridor opens into contested ground, a relay goes up, and if it holds long enough to anchor, that relay becomes a hub. A hub draws trade. Trade draws civilians seeking work and opportunity. Clearings form around the infrastructure. What begins as a tower becomes an economic anchor for generations.

When a relay falls, everything connected to it goes dark. Power cuts to every building, vehicle, and tool that depended on that tower's distribution. A settlement without relay coverage loses lights, heat regulation, refrigeration, broadcast access, and the ability to call for help. The equipment still exists. It simply has nothing to run on.

Relay Classification

Public (Solarn) Relay Designation

Public relays operate under Solarn Legacy Engineering oversight and follow standardized naming conventions. The designation format indicates classification at a glance.

Private Relay Designation

Private relays operate outside the Solarn network. Manufactories, syndicates, wealthy civilians, and independent groups build their own infrastructure in regions where public coverage is absent or unreliable. Naming conventions vary by owner, but a common format has emerged for practical coordination.

Why Ancient Relays Cannot Be Replicated

The mega-spines of the Era of Absolute Expansion were built under conditions that no longer exist. Modern engineering is technically more advanced in many respects, but the specific methodology for constructing those ancient structures died with the practitioners. The chemistry is understood. The exact process, the tricks, the sequencing, the on-site adaptations, did not survive.

Even if construction could be replicated, modern Geba cannot protect a build site long enough to finish. The Era of Absolute Expansion accepted catastrophic losses. Entire fleets of infrastructure haulers vanished into Inland Thazvaar and the empire simply sent more. Modern contractors cannot sustain those casualties. Building an ancient-style mega-spine today would require full military occupation rather than rotating crews to maintain long-term security for such a massive project.

The logistics are equally prohibitive. Sustained supply lines, labor coordination, energy output over years of continuous work. The modern economy runs on corridors and temporary footholds, structures that can be defended and abandoned as conditions shift. Mega-spine construction demands entrenched, indefinite presence.

What makes the ancient spines irreplaceable is also what makes them so valuable. They resist the environment. Anchored deep enough to withstand any geological shift, they have endured for millennia while entire ecosystems of flora and fauna grew around them. Through high altitude ice storms along the Ngorrhal-Ukhaalstaag border, through dry lightning and sandstorms in deep Inland Thazvaar, they continue to run with very little maintenance unless forced down. Even when one goes cold, to destroy it outright is a monumental task.

Ancient spines are irreplaceable because the empire that created them no longer exists.

Relay Function

Power Distribution

Relays broadcast energy to settlements within their coverage zone. Stationary infrastructure anchored to a relay draws power from its signal: buildings, factories, climate systems, lighting grids, medical facilities, and other fixed installations. When the relay falls, everything anchored to it loses that feed. Settlements with independent power generation continue to function, but most civilian infrastructure lacks backup systems. Vehicles, airships, and portable equipment carry their own power sources and remain operational regardless of relay status.

Once a relay anchors in a region that was previously a black zone, it becomes significantly easier to find and utilize local energy resources. Extraction operations, refinement facilities, and research installations all depend on relay coverage to function at scale. Private civilian clearings use anchored relays to access the power they need simply to survive.

Communication

Relays transmit voice, text, and visual data across their coverage area. A citizen within range can access public broadcasts, send messages, and receive emergency alerts. Relay-to-relay handoff allows communication across continental distances, though signal quality degrades with each hop. Direct line-of-sight between major relays provides the clearest transmission. Routing through small relays or outposts introduces delay and noise.

Navigation

Relay signals provide positioning data for airships, ground vehicles, and personnel. Within coverage, crews know where they are relative to the network. Outside coverage, in black zones, navigation relies on older methods: tracking the Child stars, memorized routes, physical landmarks. The transition from relay coverage to black zone is among the most dangerous moments in corridor work. For contractors with full crews and heavy equipment, it is already lethal. For civilian settlers attempting frontier relocation, it is worse. Only the regions of Geba that refuse human presence entirely, places like Saethera where expeditions vanish and patrols fail, carry higher mortality.

Coverage and Black Zones

Relay coverage is not uniform. Signal strength depends on relay power, terrain, atmospheric conditions, and interference from competing transmissions. A mega-spine might provide strong coverage across thousands of kilometers while a small relay might struggle to reach fifty kilometers in mountainous terrain.

Black zones are regions with no relay coverage. Power distribution stops, communication fails, and navigation tools become useless. These zones persist in Inland Thazvaar, remote Saethera, the polar reaches of Kela, Ukhaalstaag, and scattered pockets across every continent where relays have been destroyed, never built, or cannot be maintained.

The Energy Wars are fought to control, extend, or deny relay coverage. Every tower erected in a black zone pushes civilization forward. Every tower destroyed pushes it back.