I need to refind the source, but [I believe] the Traveler comes from the "world within a bottle" that is described in Ghost Fragment: Ghost. Alpha Lupi is the closest association we have to the Traveler- some think it is the Traveler, while others say its the location. Alpha Lupi is a star in the Lupu grouping, able to be seen with the naked eye. Its several lightyears away. The Traveler as we know it (the big orb) is mostly made out of neutronium, a theoretical material made out of nothing except neutrons. The actual Traveler's form is currently unknown. The Traveler tried to run, but Rasputin shot it down. The reasoning is highly disputed, but we do know that a Warmind Failsafe was put into place that stated that if the Traveler, who the Warminds saw as essential for humanity's survival, tried to run, then they would need to "coerce it" into staying. They shot "full caedometric and noetic" resources to keep the psuedoaltruistic Traveler grounded. The Dreams of Alpha Lupi describe these resources as Knives. The Traveler rest now because it is weak, it know ponders on its uselessness and hopes it does not appear so meek around it.

Whether or not the traveler wanted to run is debatable. I'm not the origin of this idea, but I believe that The Traveler - 2 shows that it was going to stay. Which means that Rasputin made an assumption that was wrong (but reasonable).

Rasputin 5 suggest the Traveler was only shot down because it tried to flee, then the Warmind convinced the Traveler into defence. I would venture to say Traveler 2 was written post-"Rasputin coersion" [quote]If available ISR and WARWATCH indicates imminent [O] departure >then [O] departure compromises human/neohuman survival and epoch strategy Stand by for ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE: Activate LOKI CROWN Perform deniable authorization: full caedometric and noetic release Prevent [O] departure by any means available Stand by for effect assessment criteria: Coerce pseudoaltruistic [O] defensive action. Defer civilization kill.[/quote]

But that's also from Rasputin's point of view. Which means that all it would take for him to say something as fact is for him to believe it is (I.e. assumption). The card I cited could be narrating things based on how the events turned out as opposed to original intentions. I believe my theory has more credence to it, but we have to have something more concrete before we can say we know the truth about this bit.

The Warmind failsafe was an If > Then code. That means it could only happen if events took place that would spell demise. The Alpha Lupi dreams are more or less just describing the Traveler's terraforming, when it first saw the unblinking Nine, and the insignificant half-smarts that refuse to accept the unavoidable. The Warmind Failsafe describes the final step being to get the Traveler to stay, which would mean it probably was not going to.

The "then" statement would only activate if the traveler was to be presumed, by his guidelines, to be leaving, but that doesn't really change my thing about him assuming. To know for sure, we'd have to know specifics about "ISR" and "WARWATCH".

Yea, its all really vague. Someone needs to go through and find all mentions of these key words like VOLUSPA and CARRHAE White/Black.

Another fun loose end for the ones among us that like to go the extra mile, like Tree or Anon. But I've read what must nearly be everything at least once, and to my (not the best) memory, there aren't a lot of those words floating around. This might be one for the future, unfortunately.