As a long-term East citizen and ever aspiring researcher I've tried to understand the relation between the Traveler, the East and the rest of the realm for a long time now. These unanswered questions make me come back to the realm year after year
I've had some of these ideas written down for a while, but they always felt incomplete. This topic is an attempt to organize some of my thoughts/research™ on these subjects and share them with the world. I don't quite know where to put it. Feel free to move it elsewhere if needed.
The gate to the East is located at the chasm that connects two opposites of a 2-fold balance: Necrovion and Marind Bell, which points to the special relationship of the East with these two core lands in particular (one might even think it's not a coincidence that we currently have lashtal and Chewett, two strong references of these lands, as East citizens 😬).
We also see other hints of this relationship in the AL, with both the Traveler (who came from the East even before it was open) and the Shade Sentinel playing an essential role in the Angiens development and in the events that led to the Seeds of the East. Their collision had a lasting impact on the Angiens. Additionally, we can see hints of a connection between Angiens and Shades earlier in the AL.
In the AL we see the Traveler split into two shapes in two occasions. This hints to duality (a feature associated with Angiens) within the Traveler as well. We also know it has no face, no name, and some can't even understand its shape, and that it "entered" the MD realm (apparently from outside). This reminds me of Mur's show of force :
I wonder if the Traveler is the (Tainted?) Angien that opened the box. The announcement I linked above tells us "The one tile unspoken of untill now is the clearly visible one at the East, the one most close to the Angien in the picture.". Maybe close can be interpreted both physically in space but also in terms of affection. That would make sense seeing that the Traveler came from the East. It's also interesting that we can see the dark face of the Angien that opened the box, which is also mentioned in Mur's post. Another hint that points to this is that the Sentinel cannot see the Traveler and says it has no time, which indicates the Traveler exists outside of (MD's) time. Finally, when they clash, the Sentinel says they cannot remember, which I think shows that the Sentinel got "cut off" from being observer of time (recall that they remember "throughout" time ).
These two beings already carry a lot of symbolic power by themselves, but when they collide we get the orb that is "all the cubes at the same time", a mirror of every possibility. Another important point is that apparently only half of the Traveler entered Necrovion, while the other half walked the land (maybe this other half is related to what happened with the Angiens in MB?).
Still, one question in particular eludes me: if the Traveler is apparently so related to Angiens, why are Angiens mainly associated with MB? It may be the case that the Traveler/East "is" Angiens + Shades, the "bigger picture", which might indicate why the collision between Traveler and Sentinel needed to happen before the East opening.
Finally, this has been said about the Tainted variant of the Angiens:
With this piece of information, together with the other clues, it makes me think that the Tainted Angien could be a creature associated with the Lands of the East, between Necrovion and Marind Bell. Sort of as the missing piece of a puzzle.
Thank you for reading this. It's really hard to connect all the dots and fill in the gaps, all while choosing the right words. I tried my best here, yet I'm sure a lot is missing (unfortunately I wasn't around when this stuff happened).
I'd love to hear your opinions. Please help me strengthen or dismiss these claims