Setting archetypes are a tool that allow us to parse how places in stories relate to their greater meaning, both symbolically and as a practical matter within the plot itself.

The first setting archetype I examined was the Garden. Although these are not like narrative archetypes in the sense that they do not necessarily have a particular place in a story–they can be used at various points in ways that fit the needs of the plot–there is a sort of order that follows naturally both in stories that follow the Hero's Journey and in the sort of open-ended storytelling involved in roleplaying.

What is the Untraveled Path?

The Untraveled Path is a place that is foreign to the main characters of a story. It is actually the first place that they tend to travel to once they leave the comfort of their ordinary world behind. It is possible, of course, to buck this trend, but doing so leads to some narrative oddities.

When characters enter the Untraveled Path, the things they know drop away. In Don Quixote's first sally forth into the world as a (wannabe) knight errant, he finds things that he has no context of experience for. The result changes him; when he first sets out the optimism that he feels is relatively uncontested, and though he expects to face challenges he has not yet actually faced any. Very quickly he realizes, even in his delusions, that simply aspiring does not make him a hero; he reassesses his position and looks for help elsewhere.

If even the delusional Don Quixote does not realize that he needs help, it should come as no surprise that more rational characters band together in this form as well. In the Hero's Journey, the Helpers and Allies stage often comes while the protagonist is on the Untraveled Path. In The Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam not only begin to develop their friendship that will serve them the rest of the journey, but also join the other hobbits that will make up the Fellowship and Strider–whose true identity they are not yet aware of–at this step.

However, this banding together is not really as important as the freedom from the ordinary world and the need to adjust to the new constraints of the supernatural world.

In the biblical story of leaving the Garden of Eden, it is Cain and Abel who most readily reflect this early step of the process, the first humans to not have been in the presence of God. Abel stays true to the virtues of his parents, earning the favor of God with his sacrifices and devotion, but Cain is more focused on worldly things, and, upon being snubbed by God, murders his brother to ascend to a favored role.

A depiction Cain killing Abel created by Paul Gustave Doré

While Cain's actions are anathema, they serve to illustrate humanity's nature in the supernatural (fallen) world outside their previous ordinary world of Eden, and the restrictions it had. It also shows how Cain reacts to the challenges of the supernatural world–no longer in community with God, his acts are, in a perverse fashion, directed toward that very thing. No longer touched by innocence, the knowledge of good and evil meets in a confluence of moral agency for humanity, and telling a tragic story of succumbing to evil is an easy way to establish the theme of human depravity.

How characters react to this freedom and responsibility reveals a lot about them. Being placed into an unfamiliar situation is a great test of resilience and adaptability, but it also serves as a way for us to judge characters and figure out what roles they will likely play.

The Untraveled Path is important to any character because it serves not only as a trial by fire but a crucible that brings multiple elements together and refines them. It is not possible for a character to walk the Untraveled Path alone and avoid getting lost; they must find a guide, as it is beyond their limits of experience. The Untraveled Path, however, is still within the characters' comfort zone to the extent that it is not entirely wild and untamed; vestiges of the ordinary world remain.

How to Craft the Untraveled Path

As a storyteller, one of the most important things to remember about the untraveled path is its novelty. It is not necessarily inconceivable to the characters of the story; Frodo and Sam know all the stories about what lies outside the Shire, but it is something that is alien all the same.

Giving a place that has been entirely unexplored allows the characters to develop by showing how their assumptions and thoughts can be wrong.

It is important to note that as with most setting archetypes, what makes an Untraveled Path can be fairly broad.

Obviously there are times when the Untraveled Path is highly literal. However, the Untraveled Path can also be entirely metaphorical. In Fight Club, the narrator winds up following Tyler Durden after losing his apartment and all the things in it.

This is not to say that the narrator necessarily goes anywhere that is hugely outside the context of his experiences–his first encounters with Tyler take place in semi-familiar contexts–but he does wind up leaving behind his ordinary world.

The Untraveled Path is an intermediary; outside the gates of Eden, but still close enough that the comforts of the ordinary world are visible and retained in memory.

In addition to existing in an interstitial role, the Untraveled Path has a few key traits:

• It is too late to return to the Garden and undo the events that have been set in motion (at least, not without fixing a problem in the supernatural world).

This point is particularly important because the Untraveled Path is a loss of innocence; this happens in the Garden, but is cemented outside it. In the Garden, with the Fall from Eden, innocence may be removed. On the Untraveled Path, innocence is lost by merit of what has to be done to proceed.

This isn't necessarily a consequence of immorality, because...

• Things that went unexamined in the Garden must be examined; the Shadow is revealed.

The Untraveled Path is an awakening of consciousness as much as it is a change in scenery. Comfortable, familiar environments do not tend to produce the sort of moral awareness that comes as a consequence of change and uncertainty. This results in a confrontation with the Shadow, the hidden parts of the psyche. Although this doesn't necessarily have to be a result of a moral failing, it does mean that some flaw in the hero comes to light.

• The allies and tools needed to survive the supernatural world appear.

When leaving the Garden, people find themselves in a state of vulnerability. Exile, voluntary or otherwise, from the ordinary world means that the protagonists need to adapt. A good example of this comes in Pixar's Toy Story, where the addition of a new toy results in Woody going from being the favorite toy to playing second fiddle. At the same time, the solution to his problem–overcoming the hubris in his Shadow and accepting the comfort of those around him–is at hand.

Applications in Gaming

The use of the Untraveled Path in a game is a great way to present players with an opportunity to experience both a thematic foundation for their ongoing experience with your story and a way to examine what they expect of their characters.

Take, for instance, a complex moral choice: sparing or killing an enemy who has demonstrated a tremendous capacity for evil and disregard for others' lives.

On one hand, it may be both just and prudent to prevent further harm by destroying someone who is guilty of heinous crimes and has demonstrated intent to continue doing so. Even if the villain would reform, they may still owe a debt to their victims and to the law.

On the other hand, the capacity for mercy is an important virtue, and destruction is both irreversible and a potential loss. There is also a question of whether or not a person should make the decisions of God in taking a life.

This is a great thematic element for the Untraveled Path, because it explores the Shadow of any character who is caught in this situation. The values they espouse may come into conflict with an action that they are forced to take only because of the flaws in the world around them.

This is part of the loss of innocence that comes with an exodus from the Garden; while the Garden was a place of plenty and peace, the world at large is not, and having decisions that force a moral judgment, even if players opt for the most moral path in lieu of any pragmatic objections, also force a loss of innocence, a contemplation of the Shadow and a reckoning of the spirit.

Merely thinking about a choice requires the consideration of an alternative to the answer that will be chosen; otherwise the choice wouldn't be a choice. This is both important from a design perspective (forcing your players to make a certain decision will lead to loss of value), but also from a narrative perspective, as the moral choices that crop up on the Untraveled Path set the stage for later, more complex decision making and inform the players as to the theme of the game and the narrative experience they should be expecting.

Wrapping Up

If the Garden is a place where characters can grow, the Untraveled Path is a place where characters can prove themselves and discover their limitations.

In a story, the characters develop their skills and their persona to deal with what must be dealt with across the whole story, but the Untraveled Path marks the first steps in that journey, and sets the tone for their future development.