Xanthippe the Traveler

Little is known about the early years of the explorer and cultural archivist who would later come to be known as Xanthippe the Traveler. It is speculated, from her surviving journals, that she was born sometime in 711 EX in large human settlement along the western coast of Xalendria. Her family may have been merchants, though this is unconfirmed. What is known is she left home against the wishes of her parents at around sixteen years of age, and spent over two decades traveling the continent and living amidst every group of people who would have her.   It is unclear from her writing just how she managed to convince even the notoriously hostile Bennu to accept her into their society, but it is speculated that Xanthippe may have possessed some magical talent which aided her in the learning of languages and the understanding of cultural mores. This theory is supported by Bennuan, Gorgorian, and Minoan records of her visits.   Xanthippe spent an average of five years with each people, documenting everything she saw and experienced. From commentary on food and drink choices to detailed accounts of funerary rites, she left nothing out from her journals. The accounts are deeply personal, colored by her own perceptions of the peoples she encountered along her journey.   In 749 EX, Xanthippe's accounts of her travels come to end. Her final entries reveal she chose to settle in the Minoan city of Zominthos, an important center of both trade and travel for the Minos people during this age. These entries also display a cynical outlook on the nature of humans in general, and a belief that should her journals be sent back to her people as it seemed she originally intended, the knowledge they contained would be destroyed rather than heeded. Instead, she sent the journals to the High Priestess of Seshet in Kydyras to be studied and translated.

The records of Xanthippe after her travels are sparse and sometimes contradictory, but it is generally agreed upon that she died sometime around 767 EX, perhaps during a time of plague. Though Gorgorian records indicate Xanthippe lived out her days, childless and unmarried, in Zominthos's Tower of Tomes, Minoan accounts tell a different story. A recording made by the city's Labyrinth Keeper in 750 EX documents the marriage of a scholar named Xanthippe to a jeweler, Apisaon. The same Labyrinth Keeper recorded the same couple as producing at least three children between 751 and 758. A number of the descendants of Xanthippe and Aspisaon are recorded as being scholars of languages, the most well-known of which being the celebrated Minoan alchemist Anthousa, creator of the Tincture of Tongues. If these accounts are true, it is possible that Xanthippe's children were the first known offspring born with both human and Minos parents.

Today, Xanthippe is remembered as the foremost scholar of culture of her time. Her journals, though now incomplete, provide scholars with invaluable insight as to what life was like in Xalendria during the Edification Age. She also provides one of the only accurate written accounts of Crocotta culture before their prolonged contact with the Gorgorons.

The location of her tomb is unknown at this time.