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Saturday, 27 July 2024

Setting: The Paw Post

 “Through the ever-night and burning skies, over sea both shining and shadow, even under rock and mountain, nothing shall stay the sojourn of the Paw Post Courier.”

So goes the motto of one of Outer Worlds most beloved institutions, the Paw Post. While the finer details of the organization itself are a mystery to many, the broad strokes are well known: pay a fee at any Paw Post station and some strange animal or eccentric individual will deliver whatever you handed over to its intended recipient. It is dependable and routine enough that many folk take it for granted. While it's a shame the particulars of the operation aren’t as widely appreciated as one might hope, many working at the Post feel this is exactly as it should be.

The driving force behind the creation of this venerable service came from the Ohku, a people created by the Unshaped in the time they held sway over reality. The Ohku were gifted with the ability to shift between various forms resembling both beast and folk, a talent they retain to this day. Being a largely peaceful sort, they felt little need to retaliate when their cruel progenitors were brought into reality, instead deciding to live in this new, permanent world and help protect it.

The Paw Post was born from the Ohku’s belief in cultivating the “Prosperity of Life”. Many among them felt that facilitating communication between the folk was a worthy part of this endeavor and took to delivering messages between settlements. Their ability to transform and find their way through even unfamiliar terrain made them natural couriers. Soon, other ohku joined them to help make journeys safer and less arduous by passing missives between multiple messengers.


These efforts grew more complex over time, eventually going from a handful of Ohku delivering spoken messages across settlements to the formation of the Paw Post folk would recognize today. Ohku remain core members of the organization, but they also employ numerous folk as clerks, administrators, and local couriers. They even began to deliver parcels as their scope and pool of resources expanded.


The Paw Post now has stations all over Outer World. The collaborative nature of the post in its current incarnation would no doubt please its founders, as would its status as a pillar of certainty in the rather fractured 4th Aeon. No matter what history brings, the inhabitants of Outer World can depend on one thing:


At least the mail will arrive on time.

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