Thinking Medieval: Itineraries are usually used to navigate instead of maps
This is part of my "Thinking Medieval" series
Brief overview of the history of cartography on Earth
Before GPS became widely available, in the proverbial Dark Ages known as "the 20th century", we had pretty accurate and detailed road maps in our cars' glove compartments.
The science of cartography advanced pretty far and fast in the Age of Exploration between the 16th and 19th century aiding in the transition of horse power to steam power to automobiles.
Utility
Itineraries are pretty simple in design and implementation. An itinerary is basically a list of safe stops a day's journey away.
Whether you are a messenger, an army on the march, a traveling merchant or a pious pilgrim, travel itineraries are basically the same, assuming at least one person in a traveling party is partially literate. If no one is literate, someone has to memorize the itinerary.
A land journey is going to be on foot or on horseback (or with a horse cart).
If you are in Medieval Europe and want to travel from Paris to Madrid, you don't ask for directions to Madrid. No one could tell you this. You go to a village a day's journey from Paris, and rest at an inn or tavern. Then go to another village a day's journey away and then rest at an inn. Then another. And another. Going from point A to point B over and over again.
The same principle applies for any two locations in Scarterra that are connected by land.
For horseback messengers, some well-organized nations will set up itineraries will that mark which locations they should swap their tired horses for fresh horses.
Usually 10 to 15 miles a day foot or 20 to 30 miles on horseback is the norm for what is considered a reasonable "day's journey" though of course the roughness of the terrain and the quality of the roads has a major impact on travel time.
Most Scarterran peasants are not particularly well traveled, but most of them know all the terrain within a 20 mile radius of their homes. Thus, it is usually a simple manner to ask a local which road to take to which inn. Major roads had road signs and markers, often labeled with travel distances.
by me with Midjourney
by me with Midjourney
Scarterra is more wild and untamed than Medieval Earth was, so sometimes, certain legs of a journey don't have inns at convenient intervals. This requires travelers to barter to stay at an ordinary person's house or camp by the side of the road. These legs of the journey are marked on itineraries as well.
Some travelers refuse to use itineraries with gaps like this. Often, adventurers are hired to join groups on these types of journeys. Some adventurers find this type of work relaxing and other find it tedious.
Social Impact
Merchants and soldiers travel long distances fairly routinely. Landed nobles and their retainers often need to travel frequently for the day-to-day running of their fiefdoms or to make diplomatic excursions to other realms.
Even ordinary peasant farmers will make long journeys from time to time. Often traveling to Market Fairs once a year or every other year. Many make it a point to go on at least one religious pilgrimage at some point in their lives.
Because itineraries tend to hop from inn to inn, this makes larger hubs into major social hubs of news and social networking.
On long journeys, it is normal to travel in groups. Normally, travelers leave inns right after breakfast and often band together with whoever else slept at the inn and is traveling the same direction. New travelers join or leave the group as some people reach their destinations.
On journeys, ad hoc groups can get to know each other quite well. That is the basis of The Canterbury Tales, a motley group of various people getting to know each other on the road to Canterbury.
I really enjoyed this article. How did itineraries apply to ship travel compared to overland? Did they follow the same patterns of repeated short trips?
Thanks, I have not researched that much yet, so I'm not sure how ancient and medieval sailors navigated. They didn't need to stop their ships every day, but I do know that they stuck close to the coast until the Age of Exploration. Scarterra has the additional complication to sea travel of the realm of Scaraqua, a realm with both civilized sea people and terrifying sea monsters. I'm not sure how that applies to Scarterran sailors yet. But sticking close to the coast would not only help sailors avoid getting lost, but it would greatly reduce the chances of monsters emerging from the deeps. Admittedly my main RPG campaigns and my main fiction writing is centered around a landlocked section of Scarterra, so I haven't made a deep dive into sea stuff yet, I just dip my toe in the water sometimes (like Summer Camp).