Envelopes

Imagine this: you are a ruler, and you would like to discuss an alliance with a neighboring kingdom.
To start the discussions, you will have to contact the king. For this, you have 4 options:
1) Visit the kingdom and discuss it in person. This takes time and is risky.
2) Invite the king over. This also takes time and planning, but probably is less risky.
3) Send a messenger with a verbal message to the king. Safe and fast, but requires you to have a trustworthy messenger.
4) Send a letter to the king. Safe and fast, but requires you to have a trustworthy courier.

You decide to take out your ink and quill, and draft a letter:

> Dear King, I would like to form an alliance between us. Hope to hear back from you soon.

You sign the letter and find a trusted courier. The courier takes the letter to the king. Later that week, you receive a reply and you successfully manage to establish the alliance.

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In Vintage Story, there is currently no way to hide the contents of such a letter. The courier could actually have been working with some interested 3rd parties, and now your confidential information is out there.

This problem could be alleviated by putting your letter inside an envelope and sealing it with a wax stamp. The courier might still break the seal and read its contents, but at least the receiving end would know that the envelope had been tampered with. This gives you a chance to go after such a courier.

Guide

 

Envelopes

1. Make an empty envelope by combining resin and paper in the crafting grid to fold the envelope and glue it together.

2. Write something on a piece of parchment. Optionally sign it.

3. Combine the parchment and the empty envelope in a crafting grid.

4. Hold an ink and quill in your offhand and Shift + Right Click (might be different depending on your keymap) to write the From/To information on the envelope. (You write it on the full stack of envelopes in your hand, so be careful

5. Now you can right-click to open the envelope again and take the parchment out

6. Make a wax seal stamp and right-click while holding it and looking at air. This opens the stamp editor. Carve something out and select a name for the stamp. Hit the create button to save your work and lock the design in

7. Make yourself a stick of wax by combining a bowl with some paint (every vanilla dye color is supported) with a piece of beeswax

8. To imprint the stamp on the envelope, combine a closed envelope with a stick of wax and the seal stamp in the crafting grid. This will produce a wax-sealed envelope with the emblem imprinted in the wax

9. Right-click while holding the wax-sealed envelope to open it. A confirmation will pop up to ask if you are sure. You will then receive the opened envelope and the parchment inside

10. You may put the parchment back into the seal-broken, opened envelope (by combining them again in the crafting grid). You can not reseal the envelope, however. You can put any parchment back in

11. Your wax seal stamp has a durability. Once it's running out, you have to make a copy by combining the stamp with an empty wax seal stamp. This will consume both parts, making it effectively possible to have only 1 copy of every stamp

12. You can use a knife on an opened envelope that had a wax seal on it to remove the wax, making the envelope reusable.

 

Parcels

1. Make an empty parcel by combining a piece of hide, 3 flax fibers, and 2 pieces of parchment in the crafting grid.
2. Place the empty parcel on the ground, then Sneak + Right Click while holding the item you want to send. The parcel will show what it contains in its name.
3. Sneak + Sprint + Right Click the parcel on the ground while holding a piece of parchment to wrap it. This consumes the parchment and prepares the parcel for addressing and sealing. 
4. Hold an ink and quill in your offhand and Sprint+ Right Click (might be different depending on your keymap) to write the From/To information on the parcel.
5. Make a wax seal stamp and Right Click while holding it. This opens the stamp editor. Carve something out and select a name for the stamp. Hit the create button to save your work and lock the design in.
6. Make yourself a stick of wax by combining a bowl with some paint (every vanilla dye color is supported) with a piece of beeswax.
7. To seal the parcel, combine the wrapped parcel with a stick of wax and the seal stamp in the crafting grid.
8. Right-click while holding the sealed parcel to open it. A confirmation will pop up to ask if you are sure. You will receive the opened parcel and the item inside.
9. You may repack an opened parcel using the same method as above, and reseal it with a new stamp and wax.
   
   

 

Note for server owners

The envelope contents and the stamps are stored in the ModData folder, inside the saveidentifier folder(something like c0e26e5e-b974-4d15-a920-5abc8f068a67), in SQLITE database files named stamps.db and envelopes.db

 

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Future plans:
in-world crafting of envelopes
Possibly by having to melt the wax beforehand
* Stamping parchments

 

Thanks to Purplep_ for the envelope models!