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Message: <blockquote data-quote="reason" data-source="post: 2108333" data-attributes="member: 6022">...Death incarnate in <a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/the_enclave/index.php" target="_blank">the Enclave setting</a> is a little more subtle; the Power known as the Traveler. The Traveler is a Datarii (~= elementals or dwarves, or something like that) Power connected with the physical journey from this world into the Farthest made by older Datarii. Datarii don't die, but this is close enough to death that the mortal Ammanders - who see roads as a metaphor for life - adopted the Power as their own. So the Power of Known Roads is also a Power of life and death. Like all Powers, he is supposed to be a being that could, perhaps, be met in the Farthest, metaphorically or otherwise.A little out of step, perhaps, but it makes more sense within the rest of the setting.------<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/2005/02/the_traveler_1.php" target="_blank">The Traveler</a>The stonefolk told stories of the Powers to the first Ammanders to arrive in the Enclave aboard Magi tradeships. Like the Beautiful Stranger, the Traveler is a Datarii Power, adopted by the Ammander folk as their own. The Datarii know the Traveler as the oldest of all stonefolk, one who walks each tunnel, each hall, each vault from deep to shallow. Every possible route beneath Great Home and into the Farthest has been walked by the Traveler and will one day be walked again. The Traveler helps to make the deepest and Farthest ways safe for those Lost Datarii who journey to meet the Crafter and their destiny at the center of all creation.The mortal folk of the Enclave have come to a different view of the Traveler; he is the guardian of the Known Roads, but more than that, a guardian over the end of Roads. Roads and journeys have always provided powerful metaphors for the passage of life amongst the Ammander people, and this has become even more the case in the Enclave. As a road ends, so too does life end - yet the Traveler still travels, as do the friends and companions of the passed. Mundane but important duties fall to those who continue the journey; burial; respect for the Road traveled; respect for those who kept company along the way.<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/2005/02/the_travelers_r.php" target="_blank">Travelers' Rest</a>Travelers' Rest lies on the outskirts of the low side of Port, a cluster of tombs, ossuaries, graves, wooden shelters, half-fallen halls and the ruins of a modest temple. The Rest is tended - after a fashion - by the Gray Folk; outcast poor, criminals, orphans and cripples unable to make a living in any other way. They dwell in the small buildings and ossuaries, always short of food and shelter; no-one in need is turned away, but all must share alike. Cityfolk give small gifts to the most able amongst the Gray Folk in exchange for gravedigging, burial of unclaimed bodies, remembrances and the upkeep of tombs or graves. Even when a noble is buried on her estate with great ceremony or Seafarers's Guildsmen are returned to the Unending Sea, it is still traditional and proper to gift the Gray Folk. It shows charity and a respect for all that the Traveler represents.The temple ruin at Travelers' Rest was once an impressive structure and the center of an order of priests; little of that remains save for a weathered, aged statue of the Traveler in the form of an earnest Datar. The desperately poor, ragged, hungry Gray Folk are neither acolytes nor priests, but they know old ways and ceremonies handed down over the generations - how to show respect for the passed and their journeys; ancient Ammander burial rites; where the old graveyards of Port lie; secrets glimpsed in the Farthest Tombs.<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com/archives/2005/02/route_markers.php" target="_blank">Route Markers</a>Stone route markers, some new, most worn and overgrown, can be found throughout the Enclave. Route markers define the Known Roads - without them, most travelers would stray into the Farthest Roads and become Lost. Far from the Enclave cities, the oldest route markers are boulders shifted to the roadside and bearing weathered carvings of the Traveler. The Power of the Known Roads is usually represented as a cheery Ammander whitebeard with staff and backpack - the Forest Road bears many an example of this sort. In a few of the most ancient route markers, half buried near the Stone Road and Coast Road outside Port, the Traveler is shown as a study Datar.Route markers set in recent generations are more ostentatious; most stand on the Stone Road linking the cities of Port and Three Stones, the New Road and Trade Road leading to Three Stones. Nobles, guilds and wealthy merchants of Port and Three Stones vie for prestige in many ways, including the self-serving placement of route markers. The old imagery of the Traveler has become increasingly stylized over time, reduced to representations of his staff and backpack and overshadowed by other carvings, texts and marks.--------Reason<a href="http://www.principiainfecta.com" target="_blank">Principia Infecta</a></blockquote>

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