The Old Roads

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The Old Roads are an ancient transportation system built before the Blackout. The wide, tall tiles that make up The Old Roads are impregnable to the quicksands that surround Torch City. Noone remembers who or when built The Old Roads, but they have been the only safe way of traversing the treacherous terrain outside human cities for millenia. At the time of Amber's coming of age, most Old Roads were either crumbling or already crumbled.

Function
The Old Roads serve as the only remaining network of viable transportation routes outside of Torch City. Due to the high toxicity and instability of  quicksands outside the city, only the steadfast tiles of The Old Roads can guarantee a reasonable degree of safety to the wandering traveler.

Origin
There are no official records regarding the actual building of The Old Roads. Old tomes found in the Library occasionally mention maintenance work done to refurbish the transportation network, but even those tomes talk about The Old Roads with reverence, as an ancient work of art.

Technology
The tiles themselves are identical. 200m deep, 2x2 meters in size, made out of a strange stonelike alloy that seems to be impervious to pretty much anything but the passing of time. Quicksands can't even nudge tiles, neither can earthquakes or pickaxes. The Technomages of Torch City have long tried to unravel the mistery of The Old Roads, but none managed to lay a scratch one one of the stones, nevermind find out what they're made of.

Reach
Noone knows how widespread The Old Roads are. Legend has it that they run around the world in a maze of intricate roadwork, connecting ancient cities and kingdoms, landmarks and natural resources. The roads are rumored to go underground, spinning the infinite web towards the center of the world in a labyrinth of caves and caverns.