The Stranger

The Stranger

The more I think of it, the clearer it becomes. Every line of thought leads to the same conclusion. The one who understood was doomed to be ostracized. The one with the foresight was spurned. He understood and chose to sacrifice, so other may reap the benefits. Now I understand. Now I will bear his mantle. -- Gharib, the Stranger

The Stranger is Egypt's adversary, whose challenge for Egypt to master the Seven Disciplines forms the basis of the game. The forty-nine Tests are his handiwork (although eight of them are technically the design of our ancestors). The present Stranger, a man named Gharib, is the second such individual to fill the role. As revealed in a set of Tablets that were retrieved by archelogists near Schools of Leadership, Gharib has succeeded the original Stranger, who died a period of time after the previous telling.

You can find Gharib's welcoming speech Here.

Emmanuel

Recently (January 27th) a new adversary (or, perhaps, friend?) has revealed himself. After the appearance of the five Mysterious Altars, an anonymous commentary has been posted the wiki, signed by an unknown "E". "E" has later revealed himself to be Emmanuel, a yet unknown being who seems to encompass the knowledge of many generations (at least by his claims).

Just an odd idea... From Gharib's welcoming speech: You may know me as the Stranger, for while I never met the architect of our first success, I have come to see that we should never have called the struggle won.. However, from the ancient tablets event: The old man died today. [...] Now I understand. Now I will bear his mantle. (Sinai #2). I, and I think others, have assumed that Gharib has taken the mantle, however Gharib has never meet the original stranger. May we assume that Emmanuel is the "true" self-proclaimed successor of the Stranger? Or perhaps more sinister forces are at work? -- ShanVizen
Reading again the discussion with Emmanuel, he clearly stated that: I speak not of the demi-pharaohs. I speak of those who would ostracize one, simply because he does not follow the crowd in every way. It seems viable that Emmanuel lived during our grandparents' telling and meet the Stranger. --ShanVizen

The Stranger in Tale 1

"I am no coward. Nor am I a liar. But, I have lived with those around me, and know you to be a hypocrite. You are nothing but an oppressive dictator. You abandon your people at the mercy of these wild lands. You have built us schools and universities, yes. Yet you extort such vast donations and fees from us in the name of research and tuition. All this when you live your life in luxury with riches beyond what we dream of. And yet, you claim to be a friend. I could not but laugh at it. Stop oppressing us with your rule. Laissez faire!" -- The Stranger, to Pharaoh, Tale 1

Almost nothing is known about the original Stranger. For most of Tale 1, he remained aloof and rarely addressed Egypt directly (as opposed to the current Stranger, who announces each new test personally). In fact, a minority opinion held that there was no such person, that the Stranger was only a fiction created by Pharaoh as a tool to motivate his own people; the Tablet Event has shown that the Stranger did exist and that the people of Egypt has addressed him directly (and referred to him as "The Old Man").

Although the Stranger presented himself as our antagonist, and seemed to relish our failures, his ultimate motivations were unknown. Some believed he was an enemy of Egypt and Pharaoh, wishing our destruction. We now know, through the documentation found in the tablets, that his challanges, and his threat to the nile, were means to allow Egypt to evolve and progress.

Tale 1 Stranger has directly intervened a few times in Egypt's affairs:

• Through one of his agents, a citizen named Khepry, he triggered a controversy when he made publicly available a series of magnesium mines (a metal unknown in Egypt before then, and therefore extremely valuable). It was soon discovered that the mines progressively ruined the local environment as they were worked, killing grass and lowering land. Nevertheless, some magnesium-hungry citizens continued to operate the mines, even to the detriment of nearby camps. The Stranger later claimed to have orchestrated the incident to showcase the selfishness of Egypt's people.
• About halfway through Tale 1, the Stranger constructed a new type of University throughout Egypt. These http://wiki.atitd.net/tale1/University_Of_Progress offered several new technologies, most of which had useful applications with harmful side effects. One such new tech was Clearcutting, which allowed a vast amount of wood to be harvested from a tree at the cost of rendering the tree useless for a week. Speed of the Serpent enabled citizens to brew a potion that increased their waypoint time, but gave a risk of permanent character death; Brimstone
• As the end of Tale 1 neared, the Stranger addressed Egypt to issue a time limit to his challenge. At the time, the Nile was being slowly converted by an algae infestation into a river of poisonous sulfur. The Stranger announced that he knew of a cure to the algae plague, but would only share it if Egypt could complete all seven Monuments before the algae reached the Nile delta. When this was accomplished (with days to spare), the Stranger proved himself an honorable man, and cured the Nile just as he had promised.

After Egypt had beaten his challenge, the Stranger gave a final address to the land, congratulating its people and hinting that future generations would face challenges and Strangers of their own. He bade Egypt farewell with a reminder that "Society can only demonstrate true greatness in the face of great challenge." Unfortunately, his somewhat cruel methods had turned the people of Egypt against him, and he died miserable and alone, left rotting on the sand like a wild animal's caracass.