Wanderers' Runes

Found throughout Middle America and the regions of Old Canada, the wanderers' runes are a pictographic script which is often used by vagabonds and other impoverished travelers as a source of information for their journeys.

Overview

There is no formal dictionary for this script (though some have attempted to compile one) and no recognized organization which regulates it. Instead, it is largely an emergent process of markings left by travelers from all sorts of places, the meanings of which gradually proliferate as different people come into contact. In this regard it is a remarkable display of emergent order.

Usually hidden in places where they must be deliberately looked for, wanderers' runes are used to mark such things as warnings for dangers like bandits, poor-quality roads, or unfriendly local governments along various routes, and safe places to rest or acquire supplies, such as the houses of farmers willing to give food to needy passersby. The meanings of some runes are easy for an unfamiliar person to figure out, e.g. a pictogram of a house to denote a shelter, while others require extensive familiarity. The runes themselves are usually inscribed with a knife or other sharp instrument on trees or other wooden objects, often in spots where one will have to walk off a road or peer underneath something in order to find them. This helps keep them, and any locations they indicate, safe from the unwanted attention of people like robbers and police.

History

Various forms of pictographic script used by poverty-stricken vagabonds have emerged in North America since at least the time of the Great Depression (an economic crisis which, unlike some later ones in the twenty-first century, was not driven by resource depletion and/or global heating). Modern wanderers' runes are the latest incarnation of this, and are often used by migrants fleeing war or famine.

Attempts by scholars to study these runes are difficult since such a task requires a great deal of familiarity with vagabond culture, and the differences in script between various regions limit the wider applicability of any knowledge so acquired. This is not an easy task for scholars who grew up in privilege, and it is often dangerous as well.