Skee Roamers

Scattered throughout Kelunbar forest lie various skee villages and the largest settlement, Tokensaturn City. Skee have found that living in large groups offers protection from the hazards of predators and innovative solutions to every day living.
Some skee, however, have opted out of this arrangement, instead preferring to live on their own or in small bands, roaming the forest. Because they are not bound to a settlement, they are not bound to their laws.

Relations and Power

Some settlements hate these Roamers, and refuse to entertain any trading or offer them a place to stay on their travels. Other villages have deals with roamers, who protect the village from large predators or rival villages. These services come at a price, usually access to resources of some kind. If a village fails to uphold their end of the bargain, the roamer(s) merely leaves. He or she has has no worries about whether or not they can survive on their own. It is well known that when a Roamer is involved, it is the Roamer that has the power.

Dangers

Living without a settlement is a dangerous life. Villages often have more access to traps, weapons, and boundaries that cause predators to avoid skee and search for easier targets. Village skee also have access to agriculture, trade deals with other villages, and the ability to share skillsets.
A roamer must be able to fend for herself, know the best places to find food, and seek out safe places to rest. Small bands means a larger set of skillsets, but also leaves room for more conflict and makes it easier for them to be tracked. An injured roamer may not have quick access to medicine, and no one knows if they go missing.

Lawlessness

Roamers have their own personal etiquettes with each other, but the supposed "civilized" skees often don't see this, instead critiquing how "out of control" these bands of solitary skee are. Many skee don't feel safe in the present of a Roamer, since there's nothing to protect a village skee except the roamer's own moral code. In reality, most Roamers are unlikely to bother village skee, content to make their own way in the world. The cases of Roamer crime against village skees are staggeringly low, so much so that when it does happen word travels fast, and paints the Roamers as a whole as dangerous vagabonds.

Rootstock and Sticks

Roamers have been arrested by skee law enforcement on occasion, but this is risky, because if the skee is part of a band the village can surely expect revenge. In one such situation, a Roamer was captured by the no longer existent village of Rootstock. When the village refused to return this Roamer to their band, the band performed a heist to free their member, then set fire to the settlement in the middle of the night. Most of the skees of Roostock died, and the rest sought shelter in a nearby village, called Sticks. Upon hearing that these skee had sought refuge there, the Roamer band set fire to Sticks as well. The skee of Sticks regrouped, but left the last few surviving Rootstock skee to the mercy of these Roamers.

Tokensaturn Precedent

In the light of Rootstock, there was a Tokensaturn case where a judge ruled that she could not press charges to a Roamer that had stollen berries from a Tokensaturn mulberry farmer. The judge stated that the Roamer was out of their jurisdiction and set the Roamer free. This set a precedent for future cases.

There's nothing like the freedom of being a roamer. It's not too hard to take care of yourself once you get the hang of it, and there are plenty of people out there that respect you for it too. The day that my mother told me that I was supposed to become a tree sweeper a roamer band came to town to trade for a bunch of rare herbs they'd found. I didn't want to be a tree sweeper, and told her as much, but she wouldn't hear it. I saw my chance with those roamers and I took it. Sure, I never got my third name and this life sure isn't for everyone, but choosing to make my own life was the best path for me.

-Fev Tuyo, Skee Roamer

Type

Social, Group

Alternative Names

The Vagabonds

Lots of roamers I've talked to since my brother left talk about "freedom" and how great it is to be "free," but all I can ever think about is what poppycock that is. If it's freedom to risk my life every day just to survive, I sure don't want any of that.

-Fev Thissel Fetherntod, Fev Tuyo's brother