Lore: The Wandering
In another age, after the nature of Trinity and the Forces that underlie its existence were understood, some claimed that there were not nine, but - in fact - ten Forces. This tenth Force was even more mysterious and misunderstood than the others, transcending their limitations and wielding power greater than that of any mere mortal. Even powers beyond the traditional scales of power are said to pale in comparison to those wielded by members of this supposed power.
In the modern day, however, knowledge of the existence of the Wandering is notably more commonplace. After the Omega Event, the so-called Dark Wanderer, Lilith, has remained trapped in the worlds of Trinity, and the nature of the Omega, Tetra, and Thron Chanadar have spread in the stories of the averted end of the world.
Contents
The Wandering Force
Wandering
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While it is commonly called the tenth Force, the Wandering does not behave in the same manner as the other nine Forces. Wanderers - those who wield the power of this Force - are able to resist not just the powers of one Trinity, but all of them. Likewise, the powers wielded by a Wanderer take on the affect of the Wandering, losing their inherent Force attributes: Thron's powers as a mage and priest of Tethys lost their inherent Magic and Divine natures, respectively, and instead became expressions of the Wandering.
In addition to their unusual wielding of Force-aligned powers, all Wanderers carry a symbol, an item through which they channel their unfathomable powers. The symbol is both conduit and source: it is only while wielding their symbol that a Wanderer can engage in the wandering, the only means to traverse the multiverse. For perhaps the greatest secret that knowledge of the Wandering unlocks is this: there are other worlds than these.
Some theorize that while the beams of the Forces serve to support and build reality, the Wandering is instead more like a tether, a bridge between worlds. While powerful sparks can wield powers that allow them to traverse the planes and visit the loci of the conjoining of the beams and the realm of Trinity, only a Wanderer can walk the beams and find themselves in an entirely new realm of existence. The precise means by which this travel is enacted is unknown, even among Wanderers - whether they walk the beams or travel via some other ephemeral, tenuous connection between different existences is, for the time being, unknowable.
What is known is that, akin to the more "traditional" Forces, the Wandering does spark, albeit in poorly-understood circumstances. The coloration of the sparks of the Wandering are described as "unnameable" or "indescribable," but are identifiable as a color of some kind.
Becoming a Wanderer
With the exception of Lexicon Maltheridas, every Wanderer that has come to their own in Trinity has done so by studying the symbol of a previous Wanderer: specifically, X came into his status as a Wanderer by passing the so-called Trial of the Sword, a series of demiplanes of challenges to would-be Wanderers embedded into the sword left behind by Tarian in one of the Omega's towers; while Thron Chanadar acquired his Wanderer status by completing a set of challenges and temples of each Force built by Lexicon, imbuing the gems attained from each temple into a ring seemingly built for that purpose.
The precise mechanism by which Lexicon attained his Wandering status has been lost to time and memory, and it is believed that it can no longer be replicated: some theorize that each world may only give rise to a single Wanderer, with those who follow after being taught by the first or otherwise attaining the status by Wanderers from other worlds. Still fewer believe that Lexicon sabotaged the process in some fashion, subtly altering Trinity in some way as to prevent other Wanderers from rising up to challenge him.
In the Time of Echoes, it is believed that it is impossible to attain the Wanderer status: the Wandering, it seems, is intrinsically tied to the Forces in some fashion, and with the Forces - and their accompanying beams - dwindling in power, there may be insufficient connection to other worlds for a Wanderer to arise. Even more damning is the seeming entrapment of Lilith, who has claimed that she is unable to leave the worlds of Trinity, and the fact that Thron and his companions vanished from Trinity after their confrontation with the Omega.
Wanderer Qualities
Wanderers are a seemingly diverse lot, but have some features in common.
Wanderers are able to interact with the nine Forces on a base, intuitive level: they can detect the presence of the Forces and sparks and elementals; they gain inherent resistance to all Force abilities, which - unlike resistances gained from the nine Forces - they can drop or raise at will; and they can reduce a spark's resistances to other Forces. Wanderers are inherently immortal, and unless slain by a weapon aligned with the Wandering, rise up from any apparent death shortly after succumbing to their wounds; they no longer need sustenance of any sort, nor air to breathe; are no longer truly humanoid, but are instead effectively elementals; and can "walk the beams," allowing them to traverse the multiverse in ways that no other denizen of Trinity can. Perhaps most terrifying, however: a Wanderer can render himself - and sometimes, a small area around his symbol - temporarily impervious to the Forces, in a means that not even abilities beyond the traditional scales of power can affect him.
Wandering symbols grant their wielders incredible powers, and are often effectively artifacts in their own right. It is commonly believed that these are the only items in Trinity that can be aligned to the Wandering.
In addition, because of their inherent resistance to the Blue, knowledge of Wanderers and information regarding them is significantly more difficult to retrieve from the world memory, if not outright impossible. The only reason knowledge of the Wandering has proliferated in the Time of Echoes is because of the preponderance of first-hand information recently and readily available: the Omega Event was the confluence of several individuals all who were either Wanderers or wielded powers able to oppose them.
Wandering Contention
While no mortal spark can resist the powers of a Wanderer, one individual in the worlds of Trinity has: Tetra. After his transformation into the Omega Dragon, it is known that Thron's attempts to wield Wandering powers against the lumbering beast resulted in sparks of unnameable hues - an indication, at least in normal circumstances, that Force interactions were at play. Some believe that it was due to his altered state and interaction with the Omega that gave Tetra some impossible resistance to the Wandering, but others are of the opinion that this indicates that the Wandering does not stand alone at the center of the Trinity of Trinities, but is itself part of another Trinity - though what these other two Forces could possibly be, none can say.
