Seeker's Pack

A Seeker's pack - also known as a Courtier's pack - is a special piece of luggage carried by some who want to become Seekers of Misfortune or Courtiers of Ironies.

Mechanics & Inner Workings

To facilitate the gathering of keepsakes, curios, photographs, and other evidence of one's journeys throughout the Manifold Sky, A Seeker's pack is designed with a number of useful features. The pack is generally waterproof up to 50,' durable, opaque and neutral in color (often khaki), and subdivided into numerous internal pouches and pockets. Some are designed to be unrolled like a tool kit, with an outer slip cover for additional protection, but others are simply luggage bags with extra-secure closures. No matter the style, few Seeker's packs have a maximum volume of greater than a gallon or so.
The pack is secured to the body with a multiply-redundant web of straps and locking buckles to dissuade theives and prevent loss in the course of strenuous activities. It is typically worn across the chest, rather than the back, so that the wearer can use a backpack and keep an eye on the pack at all times. This can complicate the process of changing clothing, and, indeed, some packs are designed so that they can remain attached to the waist and legs or torso and arms interchangeably so that apparel underneath can be changed piecemeal. Still other designs are made flat to be worn under clothing; Cynaro the Rake is famous for wearing his at all times - even when in 'intimate company.'

Significance

Because claims to either the titles of Seeker of Misfortune or Courtier of Ironies can be difficult to verify for individual travellers (i.e. those without witnesses through the course of the whole journey), a Seeker's pack can be used to gather evidence of a journey to multiple cube layers. Such evidence might include:

• Photographs: Many places in the Manifold can be identified by their characteristic landmarks, such as the Charnel Styli of Walvary Peak. Image editing technology in the Manifold is not yet so advanced that perfect forgeries are possible, so photographs are generally accepted as evidence of travel to a place.
• Water or soil samples: Some regions of the Manifold have distinctive geological features that make them identifiable through chemical analysis of soil and water samples. For example, the silt of the Red Velvet Desert has a unique hue, texture, and composition, while certain isotopes are more common in samples from the mildly radioactive Northern and Southern. Tesseracts. Similarly, the presence of certain unusual plankton or spores can be indicative of Distal locations.
• Small cultural objects: The many unique cultures under the Manifold Sky produce an equally diverse set of cultural artifacts, some of which are wholly limited in their distribution to their places of origin and, thus, are somewhat reliable indicators of a visit. For example, a small token made of sigil-inscribed sacred Eudoxium would be extremely uncommon beyond the Rostran Archipelago Confederacy in Rostral D, while certain League Electrum commemorative coins are sold only in Triple Mesa in Medial C.

As a physical record of one's experiences abroad, Seeker's packs tend to develop an enormous - approaching spiritual - sentimental value for their owners. Indeed, for those attempting the Dimension Dance, these unusual pieces of luggage are as much votive items as they are practical travel tools. When a Seeker's pack is 'fulfilled' - that is, it is packed with all the samples required to attain the title of Seeker of Misfortune or Courtier of Ironies - it and its contents are often enshrined in its owner's home as a memento and conversation piece for years to come. Depending on the owner's funerary customs, a Seeker's pack may be passed on to one's descendants or placed with the owner as a burial good. It is widely considered bad form to use someone else's Seeker's pack except as a sign that one is finishing what the original owner started and could not complete in life.

Item type

Storage

Rarity

Seeker's packs are common among the demographics that either exult in travel for personal reasons or travel frequently as a matter professional activities. Members of the Burning Hearts Social Club, Sorority of Solace, and Navigator's Guild are most likely to carry Seeker's packs, as these groups are constantly visiting new places for organizational reasons. New Voxelians from Voxelia are the most likely to use the alternative name 'Courtier's pack'; these use 'courtier' as a gender-inclusive term, since the term 'courtesan' can carry untoward connotations in some languages (notably Valespeak).

Dimensions

~1 to 1.5 gallon capacity