As far as the Pilgrims of the Endless Road are concerned, the journey of self-improvement is the most important journey that a person can take. Changing politics, changing the world, none of these things matter if you do not first master yourself, because the weak can only create further weakness, and the world is full of weak people. As far as the Pilgrims are concerned, very few people have the raw strength of will to understand the need for constant growth, to never become complacent or content with what you have made of yourself. For those few, however, the Pilgrims wait with open arms.
The Pilgrims hold to a philosophy of self-control and striving, a nearly-religious devotion to their ideals that admits no weakness. No one should stop trying to improve themselves until they are perfect, and since perfection is unattainable, the process of self-improvement is an endless road. To walk the Road, as they put it, is to train the body and mind, to study the mysteries of magic to fine-tune them, to dedicate yourself to your own achievement.
Mien
The physical sign of the Pilgrims is perfection; in a way, that is often subtly off-putting. A proper Pilgrim has no hairs out of place, no stubble unevenly directed across the skin. Their hands don’t develop calluses and their legs are never too hairy — everything is symmetrical, just developed enough without being ostentatious. Buttons never hang loosely on their shirts and loose threads never dangle from their sweaters. This perfection doesn’t make them look more attractive, however — with most people, in fact, it is faintly disturbing, as though they are just a little too perfect to be real.
Pilgrims have no particular preference when it comes to clothing, aside from a tendency towards the functional — tight collars or long dresses are much less common than comfortable and effective clothing for whatever purposes the Pilgrims want. They often prefer simpler clothes, but this is far from a uniform choice on the order’s part.
The Perfected Body (Privilege)
Upon becoming a Pilgrim, a member of the Endless Road must choose a second kith blessing, which may not be from the same seeming of which the character is a member. As a rule, pilgrims always develop new kiths that balance out their former flaws, especially those that they had to face as part of their final ordeal. For example, a Pilgrim who has focused on physical perfection and who had to train herself to memorize lengthy passages to enter the order may find that her mind sharpens, granting her the Antiquarian or Oracle blessing, while a Pilgrim who has focused on her social capabilities and had to endure punishing pain to enter the order will develop the power of a Broadback or the resilience of a Stonebones.
A character’s second kith will affect her mien, but never to the same degree as her primary kith. If the Storyteller is using any of the optional rules for blended kiths from Winter Masques or Rites of Spring, the kith granted by the Perfected Body does not count towards any maximums imposed by these rules.
Joining
The first stage in proving yourself to a Pilgrim is to demonstrate that you are not a slave to your weaknesses. Anyone who displays physical addictions, mental obsessions, or similar failings must overcome and abandon them to even be considered for membership. Pilgrims will carefully study their prospective members, and any lies about one’s weaknesses are considered to be a serious failing in and of themselves.
If someone is considered worthy of testing, the Pilgrims advance to the second stage, in which they put their prospective newcomer through an astonishing array of tests, challenges, and hardships to determine their strengths and weaknesses. They stay on hand to make sure their attempted recruit is never seriously hurt, and passing every test is by no means required – everyone has weaknesses, after all, and these tests serve as much to find areas where the new recruit will have to train as to find their strengths.
Once the tests are complete, the final trial is put into place. As a rule, this involves forcing the new recruit to train and focus on one area of their talents where they are seriously lacking. At the end of that time, a challenge based around their former weakness is put before them, and they must pass it to advance. Those who fail the test are sent away.
Those who are accepted are sworn in during a simple ceremony, by the Pilgrims who trained and tested them originally. New members of the order swear never to let their dedication lapse, and take on the features and traits of the Pilgrims as they symbolically cast off their old weaknesses.
