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Ways to Get Around the Oligarchies

There are a few ways to travel over long distances in the Oligarchies. Many of these methods are also available outside the Oligarchies, but we don't care about that right now.

Common

On Foot
I mean, obviously.

By Beetle
Alice Jaunet
The most common way to get around - the humble larger-than-life bug or beetle. The average trundling Joe Schmo prefers the sturdy heft of the Elephant Beetle whilst the marauding mountain manrustlers of the Moughli hill-tribes prefer a springier Flea. Bigger bugs don't do so well with steep inclines or the cold, so sticking to the valleys is a safe bet.

By Palanquin
Louis Sabattier

Only the cruelest and most arbitrary of masters would have their servants carry them cross-country. Which is precisely why this is the most common mode of transport for Ogre Magi, who only seem to be truly comfortable when there is a bare minimum of human suffering occurring around them. 

Uncommon

By Ophilione 
(I did this one)
What could be more breathtaking (and hair-raising) than sitting astride a Mini Cooper-sized Daddy Long Legs whilst its hundred-meter-tall Daddy's Long Legs gently pick among the crags and brooks of the mountain landscape below? The Ophilione gondoliers' trade is enigmatic and their mastery over their spindly titans is a closely-guarded secret. They make the run between the cities every couple of weeks and tickets for one of the dozen-or-so spots on the carriage are a currency unto themselves.

By another sort of Palanquin
Steven Universe, apparently?
Golem Palanquins, otherwise known as Clockwork Chariots or Vahanapedes, admittedly take some of the smug satisfaction of owning people out of assisted travel and replaces it with a nervous awareness of one's infancy and helplessness before the erratic alter of Science!!! However for just a few coal-boxes a day and the ability to tolerate the ceaseless clanking and put-put-putting, you can be carried around on a luxurious clockwork dais until it probably breaks down.

By Boat
Harry Clarke
It's not as plain sailing as down the God River or out in the Thousand Thousand Isles, so get used to a lot of portaging over rapids and rocky snarls in the river's throes. Naturally this works best going downriver. Larger craft often end up getting carried by beetle all the way up to the start again, as it's easier than trying to coax the damn things upstream.

Downright Rare & Strange

By Ceramic Camel
Tang Dynasty, British Museum
These 15' tall porcelain ungulates are the prized possessions of the asbestos-cloaked nomads of the Ultraviolet Grasslands beyond the Mountains of the Moon, where few organic creatures are much use against the sun's harsh rays. Unyielding, untiring, and uncomfortable without suitable padding, the more treacherous routes along the river valleys are hazardous for these ten-tonne beasties, and crossing a bridge is out of the question. But occasionally you find one in the company of those mysterious nomads, and by gods they're a sight.

By Steppe Megawolf
Sami Rytkönen
Fat chance you'll ever get to ride one of these. The bond between a Khanic nomad and their wolf is sacred. Those who have tried to pet a megawolf have had their hands swiftly sliced off by the rider - not out of cruelty but out of mercy, for it's easier to walk away with five fingers less than it is for everyone else to collect up the scraps of you that would remain if the wolf had reacted first. Some say the riders and wolves are perhaps overfamiliar with one another, if you catch my drift. Others say they can speak to one another and hear each other's thoughts. The truth is far more bizarre.

By Roc
Charles Maurice Detmold
Perhaps the very greatest display of affluence - a hand-reared baby roc can be, under the supervision of master roc-whisperers, trained to carry a gilded cage the size of a stagecoach. The ownership of such a creature is exceedingly rare, as are the creatures themselves. Perhaps the largest concentration in all the Oligarchies is the vast vaulted aviaries of Shailungeshwar which wealthy patrons and members of the faculties of the Twelve-and-One Schools of Thought use to taxi between the lofty pinnacles of the city and the glacial valley floor beneath.

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