Wander Legacy

The Wander Legacy is the guild for anyone who has a profession that travels or aids those who travel, especially on horseback. It is one of the three major guilds of House Jackie.

## Guild Hubs

Technically, the Wander Legacy’s main guild hub is located in the Professional District of Mulladún, House Jackie. However, the Wander Legacy conducts most of its operations from a large stable complex just outside the city.

The guild also has small hubs in every major city of Duilintinn, from which the “kingdom-wide news” is distributed throughout the region to message boards of local towns.

Finally, like all of Duilintinn’s officially recognized guilds, the Wander Legacy has a hub representing itself on Guild Row in Cordoire’s Administrator’s District. Here, the guild can advocate for its members in the political sphere of Duilintinn’s national capital.

## Name Origin

The Wander Legacy is named after the legend of Wander and Agro: the same legend for which the Agrona River was named.

Obviously, a guild full of riders and people who run errands for other people is very worthy of carrying the name of this tale’s gullible protagonist. More importantly, the legacy aspect of carrying on the ancient memory of this misled but good-hearted figure gives the members of this guild a greater purpose than simply being the “errand runners” of Duilintinn.

## Apprenticeships

Unlike most other guilds in Duilintinn, the Wander Legacy does not have a system through which to provide students with an opportunity for higher education. There is little an apprentice can do to aid a messenger; if anything, they’d slow their mentor down during deliveries. As long as you can ride a horse, read a map, and demonstrate your understanding of the culture and expectations of messengers within the guild, you’re good. There’s not a lot of training required.

## Culture

Duilintinn places significant cultural value upon the role of messengers in Duil society, similar to the way other cultures place significance on offering up one’s home to those in need of shelter. Instead of offering a place to stay, Duil culture is adamant about ensuring that everyone can keep in communication with the people who are important to them. As a result, happily delivering the messages of others is a cultural aspect of hospitality you’ll find across the kingdom, and the Wander Legacy is perhaps the greatest example of this cultural priority.

### News Delivery

The Wander Legacy has the government-mandated duty to collect, organize, and deliver regular “kingdom-wide news” reports to every major city at the same time each day. Members of the guild in these cities will then deliver these reports to the message boards of local towns. Depending on how far away from western House Jackie a city/town would receive their news at different times of the day from ones that are closer to Mulladún and Runner’s Haven.

### Career Runners

Members of the guild who aren’t hired by the government to deliver news are often employed as “Career Runners.” While finding a traveler to deliver messages is convenient and simple, it’s not the most reliable system. For packages or urgent messages, you probably want to find someone who delivers stuff throughout the kingdom for their job. They are more expensive, but also more reliable. Common practice is to place the payment inside of the package or message, sealed by a unique wax seal. All of this is done in front of the runner and another witness. The recipient will open the seal upon delivery and give the payment to the runner. If they find the seal broken, it’s considered theft. If the runner can give suitable evidence that the seal was broken by accident on the way, they won’t be convicted of a crime, but their reputation as a career runner will still be damaged.

The tradition of career running has existed for centuries prior to Duilintinn’s founding, but it didn’t always have such a good reputation. In the past, some considered the job of a career runner to be lazy and “lesser,” fit only for those with no other skills. Thankfully, most people today respect career runners as an important part of Duilintinn’s economy and culture, to the point where large population centers will often contract career runners to deliver large batches of letters and parcels. Unfortunately (or maybe not?), the stereotypes of the past still hang over those who deliver messages for a living. As a result, career runners are very concerned with their reputation to deliver things quickly and safely to this day.

There are many reasons why one would decide to become a career runner; unlike most occupations, they don’t tend to cluster in any one specific house. Many are people with a sense of adventure or desire to travel who don’t want to join the Guard Coalition or Mercenary Syndicate. Others are people who appreciate the value of creativity, and take part in that cultural scene by spreading the creative works of others across the kingdom, rather than creating things themselves. Many nowadays are simply inspired by the romantic ideal of keeping people connected that is a major part of Duilintinn’s culture.

### Horse and Raven Care

Additionally, the use of horses and ravens as steeds and efficient message deliverers (respectively) is vital to the work of the Wander Legacy. Thus, the guild highly prioritizes the study and care of these animals, offering membership to those with careers in these fields as well. Many of its members run stables or ranches to raise and care for horses, while others manage rookeries with the help of a mage capable of animal communication in order to train and care for ravens that wish to be messengers.

## Inter-Guild Dynamics

### Relationship with Lifeworker Institute

The Wander Legacy is very invested in understanding how to care for their steeds on a practical level. As a result, they often cooperate with the Lifeworker Institute to share what they have learned and ensure they are able to care for their horses to the best of their ability.

### Relationship with The Watch

The Wander Legacy’s kingdom-wide news delivery system would be heavily expanded for The Watch’s network of messengers. Actively encouraged by the Wander Legacy and developed with their help during the period from 1599 to 1602, the resulting network of messengers, outposts, and community engagement from within The Watch would eventually evolve into something akin to a postal system. Unlike the Guard Coalition, which resents The Watch for encroaching upon their jurisdiction as the kingdom’s protectors, the Wander Legacy celebrates and continues to support The Watch’s role in the kingdom’s communication network, with many guild members also working as messengers for The Watch part or full-time.

## Trivia

* The story of Wander and Agro is inspired heavily by the narrative of the video game Shadow of the Colossus, which released in 2005 for the PS2 and is one of the all-time favorite games played by the AU’s inspiration and source material, Sean McLoughlin.