Travellers

## About Travellers

Travellers are lions without a pride or territory. They typically travel alone or in groups, living a nomadic existence and never settling in a territory for more than a few months at a time, unless seeking out a mate from the local pride.

While Travellers may travel in groups consisting of family and/or friends, they all view themselves as one big group and look out for each other, assisting their fellow lion if they are lost or in trouble. They are often critical of pride culture and believe no lion should have power over another or own a territory and its resources. According to The Tale of Graceful Wind, this belief also expands to other animals, such as hyenas. Travellers believe that all creatures who live beneath the Traveller are equal and are worthy of respect.

In terms of structure, Travellers have no Kings or Queens. While some lions in bands may take seniority due to age or experience, they are never viewed as true leaders and will always allow other lions to take charge or make a decision based on their own judgement.

Due to their conflicting beliefs with prides, Travellers are often looked down upon by some Kings and Queens. Watchful - the former Queen of the Golden Grove - actively dissuaded her daughters from becoming Travellers and remaining in the Grove by telling disturbing rumours about their lifestyle, such as them eating their own cubs to ward off starvation or wandering aimlessly without purpose. They also risk serious injury or death by remaining in a pride's territory. For example: Vicious, the youngest daughter of Watchful, reacted aggressively to Storm upon finding her on her land and in the company of her daughter, Hopeful, and clawed Tempest's face when she raced in to defend her cub. Remembering the tales told by her mother, Vicious threatened the pair and insulted Storm by addressing her as Tempest's "reserves".

This kind of reaction is entirely dependent on the King and Queen in question, however. Merry, for example, was permitted to approach and join the Golden Grove pride by Watchful's successor, Clever, becoming its new King. He retained a lot of his Traveller beliefs, going as far as to tolerate the local hyena clan and allowing them to remain on his land. The Thundering Mountains pride is openly friendly to Travellers, allowing them to stay and leave as they please. Generally, however, most Travellers are distrustful of most prides and vice versa.

It can be argued, however, that Travellers are an essential component of pride life. If a pride is too small, it often falls down to Travellers to join them and help continue their legacy. Many pride lions also opt to become Travellers if they no longer wish to stay in their natal pride, such as the cubs that Careful had with Merry and Clever's unnamed brother.

While the majority of Travellers abide by the Laws of the Traveller and appear to prefer their lifestyle to pride life, there are some outliers: both Jasper and Alight refused to adopt Traveller names during their tenure as Travellers, despising the lifestyle and very quickly falling in with Edge and his tyranny as a result. To a lesser extent, Wild is noted to not have enjoyed life as a Traveller either, going as far as to not offer much protest when his mate set out to discourage her daughters from following in his footsteps.

## Naming Customs

Travellers are traditionally named after natural phenomenon, such as meteorological events and natural disasters. While most Travellers do adopt a Traveller name upon becoming one, it is not mandatory. Both Hopeful and Adamant retained their names, although the former used the opportunity to change her name from the Golden Grove one of Hopeless. Most Travellers abandon their Traveller name upon joining a pride.

**Table of Travellers and Their Pride Names**
 **Lahar** | Neem (Red Stone)

## Law and Order

The Travellers all follow the Law of the Traveller. These laws outline the culture and lifestyle of the Traveller and how they should honour their lunar folklore heroine and themselves.

In contrast to the Laws of the Great King, the Laws of the Traveller states that all territory and its resources should not be owned by a singular lion and no lion should hold power over another. The Laws also dictate that kindness and compassion must take priority over anger and vengeance, highlighting how Travellers are generally peaceful.

## Trivia

* A lot of the Traveller beliefs and lifestyle are inspired by Snufkin from the *Moomin* series of books. He is described as *"preferring freely-growing foliage to fenced-in lawns. He keeps as few worldly possessions as possible, seeing them as a burden, and being happier keeping the memory of a thing than the thing itself."*

* The Traveller herself is also partly inspired by El-ahrairah, the Prince of Rabbits from *Watership Down.* Like the Traveller herself, he serves as a role model and inspiration as to how rabbits should behave, implementing tricks and so on.