Walkabout: A New Prologue

In the days before the darkness, it is said that the people in their cities were fed their entertainment by vast communication networks of metal wires, glass fibres and broadcasts of radio waves. They would sit in their houses passively watching screens displaying the mundane lives of people who were famous simply for being famous, they would be pacified by humorous half-hour programs, they would believe the news feeds distributed to them as they ate their meals in front of their view screens at night. Some engaged in more active entertainments, using controllers to move the images on their screens, or even interacting directly through the movements of their eyes or the fluctuating energy patterns echoing through their minds. These were times of great scientific advances, yet they were also times of great ignorance.

In these times we do not have the luxuries of that golden age before the dark days.  

The networks of wires and glass fibres have been torn up or have long ago rusted into obsolescence, and the radio broadcasts are dangerously risky, sometimes echoing voices that should never be heard, sometimes whispering lies and blasphemies, or even drawing dangers from the realms of dreaming and nightmares.

Yet for all the horrors of this age, these times are not as dangerous as the dark days or the years that came afterward. No longer is there a need for eternal vigilance against the monsters of the unknown. Strongholds of civilisation have built themselves up at bastions of hope for the future.

Once again, the survivors of the world are able to spend some of their lives indulging in light entertainment. Some listen to the words of raconteurs, others watch the performances of travelling actors and musicians, and some engage in a form of interactive storytelling. In homage to the great heroes who saved our world, these circles of survivors weave together tales of the great heroes from the last generation, the wayfarers who re-opened the trade routes and who explored a new world transformed by the rebirth of the spirits.

None can ever know the exact tasks undertaken by these heroes, or the true motivations informing them. Every circle who share the telling of the heroic Wayfarer stories will weave their tales differently. In one set of tales the heroes might be selfless warriors, in another they might be mercenaries charged with duties beyond their control. It is the act of remembering these heroes that is important. These pages will help a group to honour their memories and relate their hidden tales.

The Wayfarers are Dead, Long Live the Wayfarers.