Simon

Simon, son of Kalman a Traveler and current founder of the Valinhall Territory, is the main POV character of the Travelers Gate trilogy. The trilogy chronicles the events Simons life from that of a son of a merchant family form the outskirts of the Damascan Empire and his first encounter with the magical Travelers to that of a Traveler and current Founder of the Valinhall Territory.

Early life
Simon was most likely born in the 342nd Year of the Damscan Calendar Vlll Year in the Reign of King Zakareth and raised by his parents Kalam and Edina, in the outskirt Damascan village Myria. Simon spent his early childhood peacefully and happily with his parents, but when Simon was eight this would change. Simon and his parents were on the way back to Myria from a neighboring village when they encountered two travelers on the road. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting family, the duo were in fact Enosh Travelers on a secret recon mission who felt that the family were witnesses and potential loose ends. So in order to maintain the secrecy of their mission, they chose to kill Simon and his parents and attacked with their Traveler powers. First the Narakan Traveler attacked Simon and his mother with her power, causing Kalam to leap in front of his family in an attempt to save them and consequently being burnt to death by the Narakan Traveler. Next, the Asphodel Traveler incapacitated Simon's mother, Edina with his Territories psychic powers by breaking her mind, then they turned their attention towards Simon, however before they could attack him, Simon was saved by what he thought at the time to be the Latari Forest Demon, (based of local ghost stories of the forest told to Simon by his mother) the demon proceed to easily slay the Enosh Travelers. The demon was sympathetic towards Simon and his now insane mother, and escorted them back to the village of Myria.

Destruction of Myra
Simon, whose childhood was prematurely ended that night, would spend the next eight years living in Myria, taking care of his insane and drunken mother by managing to survive by doing odd jobs around the village and relying on the charity of his neighbors. However, his life would once again be upset when a detachment of Damascan soldiers led by the Endross Traveler Cormac came to Myria. Myria being an outskirt village of the Kingdom, they lived their life free of any contact with any form of Damscan oversight, so the report of the Damascan soldiers coming toward them was an uncommon sight, and in response the village council gathered to meet them, where they were told that Myria had been chosen to provide the nine sacrifices for this years ritual. The ritual and yearly sacrifice being a complete mystery to any of the villagers. The villagers were shaken by the demand and refused while asking for clarification on why they would even be asked such a thing, however the Traveler Cormac, who like many Endross Travelers was prone to violence and cruelty, felt disrespected that he even had to come on a mission he felt beneath him and was further enraged by the questions and refusal of the council which he took as a personal insult, treason, and blasphemy that led the soldiers in an attack on the unsuspecting villagers of Myra. Most of them had no knowledge of the soldiers or the demand. During the ensuing chaos of the attack, Simon immediately started back to his home in an attempt to retrieve his mother and flee to safety, while on his way he was forced to hide from the soldiers. When a couple of soldiers were about to discover him a childhood friend and fellow villager, Leah, exposed herself to the soldiers, allowing Simon to go unnoticed. Due to Leah's sacrifice, Simon was able to escape with his mother and a group of fellow villagers to a nearby cave. However, they were soon discovered by Cormac and the soldiers, and Cormac who revealed himself as a Traveler and inform the ignorant villagers for the reason behind the attack the sacrifice, and supposed blasphemy of the villagers and claimed that the villagers were under arrest and were to be taken to Overlord Machlai for judgement. Cormac would then brutally execute a villager he had captured as sacrifice for trying to attack the soldiers. When Cormac orders for the villagers to follow him, he ignored, not due to defiance but because of fear and shock over the death painful death of the hostage mere seconds before. Cormac makes to once again attack the villagers, leading Simon to make his move and attack Cormac with his beaten down sword he retrieved from his home along with his mother, however his attack would be ineffective against Cormac who stopped Simon without even turning to look. Once Simon was incapacitated, Cormac stood over him to gloat and finish him off, but before he was able to, another villager, a teenage boy Alin, would awaken his previously unknown Traveler powers and blast Cormac away, seemingly killing him. While everyone including Alin were shaken and confused by what happened, Cormac, who survived the blast retaliated by unleashing a powerful beast from his territory to kill Alin. However, due to Cormac's rage and injuries, he was unable to properly direct the beast, who would instead attack and kill Simons unconscious mother, the death of persuadedEdina was enough to fuel Alin, who had been unsuccessfully trying to summon his new found power, to summon enough power to kill the beast, he then proceeded to fight off Cormac and the soldiers, however he was overmatched by the numbers of the enemy and was slowly inching towards defeat when two Travelers intervened and attacked Cormac with the advantage now against Cormac he did not last long before his defeat and death. Once the dust had settled Simon was the first to notice that Leah and the other hostages were gone, the Travelers who had saved the villagers revealed themselves as Miram and Giliad Enosh Travelers, concluded that they had been brought to Overlord Malachi through the use of a Territory. The Enosh Travelers then reveal that Alin is not only a Traveler first Traveler of the most powerful Territory to appear in centuries he is ants the prophesied hero who is destined to lead Enosh forces in the overthrow of the Damscan King. The Travelers persuaded Alin to come with them back to Enosh by promising training of his new power and support in the rescue of the nine hostages. Simon who feels indebted to Leah and wanting revenge for his mother asks to come with but he is pushed aside by not only Alin and the Travelers but also the other villagers who believe they should just leave it all in the hands of Alin the Traveler as he is the only one who can face the Damscan Travelers. Simon who with the death of his mother has no strong attachment towards the village and motivated by his desire save the hostages Leah in particular due to her sacrifice allowing him to escape, but also his despair over the fact that he once again was unable to stand up to a Traveler and lost his mother as a result led Simon seek out the one person he knew who could defeat Travelers the Demon of the Forest.

Finding the Demon
Simon entered the Latari Forest for the first time in eight years in search of the Demon in hopes of learning his secrets to save the hostages. After wondering the Forrest for two days Simon finally encounters the Demon of the Forest when the demon saves Simon from two bandits, upon meeting the Demon Simon realizes that the Demon is in fact a man and not the same one who saved him eight years previous. After initially being rebuffed by the man Simons resolve and mission to save his fellow villagers persuade the man to train Simon. Upon agreeing to train Simon the man introduces himself as Kai and reveals that contrary to Simons belief he is in fact a Traveler and it is possible for Simon to become one too. He then introduces Simon to his Territory Valinhal for the first time. After a Simon has explored the begging of the Territory Kai proceeds to explain to Simon what the training will encompass as well as the time required to gain the power necessary to save his fellow villagers. Simon is at first despondent at the fact he has nowhere near the time he needs to acquire power in time to stop the sacrifice is amazed once Kai reveals that time in Valinhall relative to the Unnamed World is two to one ratio giving Simon enough time to familiarize enough with Valinhal to at least have a chance to make a difference.

Training and Meeting the Eldest
Simon would spend the next month training in the basics of swordplay with Kai as well as challenging the Territory in pursuit of gaining the powers of a Traveler, however after a month of training, which resulted with Simon becoming stronger, faster, tougher, but not resulting in any Traveler powers would frustrate Simon. Simon would proceed to confront Kai with his complaints and ask for more hands and advanced training, however Kai who was of the belief that the reason for Simons lack of progress seemed from Simons reliance on him as a safety net so he decided that he would move through the house at a pace he felt that Simon should be able to match and gave him a title limit of two weeks to catch up to him, if Simon survived the two weeks alone but failed to catch up to him he would deem Simon a coward and remove him from Valinhall. Kai's decision was based on his personal internalization of the ruling theme of Valinhall which is : what you want you must earn, Kai's interpretation of this creed as it relates to his teaching of Simon seemed to be that nothing he could teach Simon would change the end result as Simons would ultimately face his battles alone and If he didn't have the skill, ability, and resolve to take the life threatening risks to obtain power or if he died in the attempt it only meant that Simon was never capable to achieving those goals in the first place, and nothing Kai did would change that.

Upon realizing that Kai had indeed left him to fend for himself Simon retreats to Kai's bedroom, the only (relatively) safe space in the Territory, his emotions mainly his anger explode in a brief episode in which he tries to destroy the furniture when he is attacked by one of the Nye. The Nye are the most visible and evidently numerous natural denizens of Valinhall who fulfill all housekeeping duties required as well as ambushing and trying to strangle all Travelers and would be Travelers, although the ambushes are really just meant to teach the Travelers a constant sense of awareness of the surroundings and are not sincere attempts to kill. While Simon had been tested by the Nye numerous times before his current anger drives ignore his better sense and blindly follow the defeated Nye back to the entrance of what seems to be the lair of the Nye. Simons anger is soon dispersed after he attacks the Nye gaurding the entrance and he realizes that they he is vastly outmatched and in a prevoulsty unknown room, after Simons anger fled and he switched from attacking to defending the fight is interrupted by another Nye. This Nye would reveal his disappointment in Simon giving up the fight so quickly and upon Simon asking would introduced himself as the Eldest.

While guiding Simon out of the Nye's home the Eldest would reveal an overview of the history of Valinhall in which he reveals that Valinhall, as all Territories once were, is a fragment of a desrtoyed world that has drifted through the "nothing between worlds" for a unknown amount of time and that while drifting the fragment was fading into nothing itself. The Eldest reveals that this seemingly inescapable entropy continued until a single human named Valin entered the fragments. With Valin's presence the Terrirory started to stabilize and during his stay in the Territory gained its name Valinhall, and when Valin brought twelve human children who he named the Dragon Army, Kai and the unknown man who saved Simon as a child were members, to live in Valinhall the Territory stabilized and started to stregthen in a way that no inhabitant of Valinhall could remember. The Eldest would go on to reveal that in present time only four members of the Dragon Army were alive and that the most of keys to Valinhall, the Dragon Fangs, were lost or locked away. Due to these events Valinhall will soon have no more humans or Travelers to anchor its existence to the Unnamed World, and thus begin to fade once more. The Eldest explained to Simon that he would not allow Valinhall to fade again and in service to that goal he would offer Simon the power and friendship of the Nye in exchange for Simons pledge to find the lost Fangs as well as new humans and Travelers to live in and anchor Valinhall. The Eldest freely admits that this would most likely be a lifelong and difficult quest and that the surviving members of the Dragon Army had all turned down this very same offer, however even while knowing this and knowing that there were probably hidden agendas not yet revealed Simon desperate for power accepts. The Eldest immeditlaty grants Simon the power of the Nye the Nye Essence. The Essence grants Simon the superhuman speed and grace of the Nye for a limited period. After gifting Simon the Essence he would go on to explain to Simon the difference between Valinhall and the other Territories which is that other Travelers gain the power toe call upon external forces from their Territories that supplement the Traveler, Valinhall grants it Travelers internal powers that augment the Traveler.

With this new power in tow Simon quickly conquers his second power by besting Benson and gaining the Steel power which grants Simon superhuman strength for a limited time. Bouyed by finally his success in finally aging his first Traveler abilities Simon begins to double down and focuses and catching Kai before the Time limit. On the day Simon clear the Fogre he meets another member of the Dragon Army a man named Denner and his advisor Hariman. After Simon recovers from the wound he got from the guardian of the Forge Denner ask reveals that Kai had asked him to inform Simon that the hostages would begin to be sacrificed in two weeks, this news greatly distress Simon as he doesn't believe he's ready yet however, he only briefly hesitates before he attempts to leave and embark on his rescue attempt. However, Denner points out that to leave Simon would need a Dragon Fang and explains to Simon that as none of the available Fangs had chosen him he couldn't leave, yet Denner lets it slip that there is another way to gain a Dragon Fang and that is by passing the graduation test, but Denner doesn't believe Simon is prepared to pass and tries to stop Simon by expelling he wouldn't survive, but Simon would not be deterred and demands to face the Test.

Powers
Powers shown by other Valinhall Travelers
 * 1) Third Eye - Sees life force
 * 2) Diamond - From beating winter room, focuses intent, ignores feelings. Indirial shows this when facing asphodel travelers.
 * 3) Smoke - Turns self to smoke and can move fast, like the Nye. Kai shows this power in book 3, stated by Valin to be inferior to Nye essence due to its stricter parameters. You have to choose where you want to go, and you disperse and move there in a straight line, once committed the user cannot change direction or cancel mid corse leaving them vulnerable to attack if an enemy is fast enough to intercept or able to predict the end point.
 * 4) Wind - Incases the users blade in wind drastically increasing the sharpness of the blade, shown by Kai in book three. Allowing him to cut though the Tartarus Steel body of the Tartarus incarnation, however due to the unique circumstances and limitations placed on the Incantation at the time we do not know if in regular circumstances Wind would be as effective.