Refugee Symbols

The Refugee Symbols were originally created during the Elemental Wars. They were a way for people fleeing from war to find safe houses that would shelter them and protect them. It was difficult to learn what the symbols actually meant, as people were extremely hesitant to admit they knew how to read them, let alone teach someone. To know what the symbols meant immediately marked you as someone against the wars, and therefore an enemy.
There were very few ever made. They were designed to look inconspicuous and be hidden. The symbols were inscribed along the bottoms of door frames, in the eaves of a roof, on the underside of a top rail on a fence. They were extraordinarily difficult to spot and thus many passed by safe houses not knowing they could have stopped. Most of the symbols indicated the distance to a safe house- a league, a kilometre, a street over. Rarely was direction included; that was deemed too dangerous, for the most part.
Many passing between safe houses were given instruction on where to find the next house and the symbols leading there. This protected the symbols from anyone outside of the refugees and their helpers.
Over time, more and more and more directing symbols were used- they led to the northeastern peninsula and what later came to be known as the Refugee Tree. The symbols helped refugees find safe passage around battlegrounds, military encampments, and dangerous landscapes.
The eastern archipelago adopted some of the symbols, standardised their usage and writing, and brought them into their culture as a kind of shorthand for directions. Many can find signposts in the archipelago giving directions using the refugee symbols- though somewhat evolved from their original shapes.

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Once the Wars ended, the symbols fell mostly out of use. Without war to flee, there were no (or far fewer) refugees. Most remaining refugees were able to simply wander and find people willing to take them in for the night. But with the emergence of the Bright Kingdom, a new wave of refugees was created. The symbols moved from the north to the south and began popping up all over to lead people away from fighting and areas controlled by the Bright Kingdom.