Road Sign

Road Sign, sometimes known as Traveler Sign, is a system of communicating among travelers throughout the Kingdom of Althusar. Road Sign uses a truncated and simplified version of Althusar’s written language, and often incorporates pidgin, symbols, and occasionally coded words. These communications are found along most of the roads throughout Althusar, particularly at crossroads and near towns and villages. Road Sign is painted on stones or carved into wooden posts placed alongside the road by travelers for that purpose.

Road Sign existed in its earliest form as a simple communication and warning system among foreign merchants. This method of communication was then greatly developed at the beginning of the Bright Era when the Guardians rose to prominence in the kingdom and Road Sign become popular among young acolytes who traveled often for testing and training. During this period, the creation of the Crystal Well also led to a significant increase in travel as first the Guardians and then the general populace began to rely on its power in feä Awakening and training. This increase in travel encouraged a rise in the use of Road Sign among not only those who relied on the roads for their livelihood but among the common traveler as well. While Road Sign had once consisted of the languages of the merchants who created it, a more unified standard of symbols and simplified language began developing.
Road Sign exists to communicate safe and dangerous sections of road, warn of bandit and slaver activity, signify good inns or welcoming homes, safe places to camp, nearby water sources, and any other general information useful to travelers. In the current era of Althusar, Road Sign is used by merchants, Rovers, traveling students, messengers, and the servants of Lords and nobles. Different signage and variation on signs are sometimes used by groups of a more clandestine nature as well as in some specific provinces, particularly in the northwest and northeast, which areas are markedly distinct from the southern portion of the kingdom.