Monkey Carriage

The larger branches of the great trees that cover the world of Jhembaz are more than broad enough to accompany all kinds of traffic, from pedestrians to large wheeled carts. However, the unusual arboreal "geography" of the world also accommodates other ways to travel, and allows for different kinds of conveyance. One kind of transport common on Jhembaz is the monkey carriage, an enclosed vehicle that rather than rolling on wheels on the tops of the trees' branches, has arms that it uses to swing from branch to branch. Monkey carriages have the advantage that the undersides of the branches of Jhembaz are not generally built upon and have little other traffic, so they have the space to themselves and can move relatively unimpeded; they also have good control and can make sharp turns easily. Their main disadvantage is the matter of their motion; a monkey carriage gives an extremely bumpy ride. They are also useless in areas where there are no branches or similar overhead grips to swing from—but in Jhembaz this is almost never the case. It is, of course, the travel by brachiation that gives the monkey carriage its name—it is not so called because it is made of monkeys or driven by monkeys, but because it swings from branch to branch like a monkey (although in reality of course most monkey species don't get around like this).

The original monkey carriages had a main structure very similar in shape and composition to wheeled coaches, with the replacement of wheels by arms the only significant difference. Over time, however, many other varieties have developed, from open-roofed carriages with latticed sides to round carriages overgrown with fur or foliage. As for the arms, they may be purely mechanical jointed wooden structures, but more often they are made of supple vines and lianas attached to the sides of the car. Some unusual monkey carriages have arms resembling the limbs of animals—including, perhaps in a nod to the name, monkeys. In any case, the carriage is designed such that the main body of the carriage, where the passengers sit, remains always in more or less the same orientation, even if it is jostled a bit as the carriage swings. Some up-and-down and side-to-side motion is unavoidable, but clearly few would want to ride in a carriage that had a habit of tilting wildly or turning upside-down.

While wheels can roll ahead without constant guidance, monkey carriages require a bit more precision. The arms, after all, have to grasp branches to swing from, and those branches are not evenly spaced, so the motion of the carriage arms cannot be purely automatic and regular. There are two main kinds of monkey carriage, classified by how the arms are controlled. Some monkey carriages have a driver who interfaces with the carriage and controls the arms themself. In the more primitive and cheaper monkey carriages, the driver has to wear a helmet attached to the carriage, and most move his own arms and legs to act out what he wants the carriage's arms to do. More sophisticated monkey carriages allow the driver to interface with the carriage without physical contact, and to control it with their thoughts without having to move their own limbs to match. Other carriages, rather than requiring direct control by a driver, are given just enough life and intelligence to allow them to navigate the branches themselves. The intelligence of these living carriages is very seldom near that of a human, but at least generally matches that of a cat or similar mammal.

A few business concerns on Jhembaz specialize in creating monkey carriages that they then sell to customers; different enterprises have their own styles and designs of carriages, and it's usually obvious which created a given carriage. However, the truly wealthy like to order custom-made carriages with their own unique touches, either placing bespoke orders with the companies that manufacture monkey carriages, or hiring other wizards who do not normally make monkey carriages but are willing to do so for the right price.