Journey

A Journey (written with a capital J) is somewhat of a rite of passage for Eses in the Southern Steppe Fields.

Description
When a young Ese is about roughly 10-12 summers old, they will often go on a trip outside of their birth town to signify their coming of age and build character. A Journey is unique for each individual. Journeys are by no means mandatory for an Ese to do, but those who do go on one (and return successfully) are generally thought slightly higher of than those who choose not to. An Ese may only go on such a trip alone.

Official recognition
Though Eses all over the Southern Steppe Fields go on their Journey when they are of age, it is in no way officially endorsed by royalty, but they are recognized and when an Ese has successfully made it back from one, it is mentioned on their official papers.

Origin and history
Back when the kingdom was still called the Southern Kingdom, the baboon tribe that ruled the original land had it as a tradition that, once their young reached 10 years old, they would have their young Eses go on a quest to hunt a wild kentrosaurus and bring it down. If they succeeded, they would get a slightly higher rank in the tribe than if they did not.

As more and more different species started to live in the Southern Kingdom, the tradition was changed to merge with the customs of the other species, which would eventually result in the Journey as it is today.

Known Journeys

 * Ayvas: Climbing the Fjaro Hills (succeeded)
 * Farelo: Gathering darkberries (failed)
 * Foycen: Exploring and documenting dinosaur species outside of the fence surrounding Vurgen (succeeded)
 * Nighist: Unknown Journey (succeeded)
 * Simmi: Retrieving the stolen Great Book of Nearvey Temple (in process)