If you watched the first few episodes of The Mighty Nein, you probably saw the tiefling cleric, Jester Lavorre (voiced by Laura Bailey), chatting with what appears to be thin air. Like most viewers, you probably paused and went, “Hang on, is she okay?” Is the Traveler a real god, or is he just a figment of her imagination? Let’s just get it out of the way, shall we? Yes, the Traveler is 100% real. But the fun part isn’t if he’s real, it’s about what he actually is, and why his whole deal with Jester is so messy and personal.
The Mighty Nein plays the truth about The Traveler’s existence like a mystery. One minute, Jester is having a full-blown chat with her invisible bestie. And the next, she’s pulling out wild divine magic that shouldn’t work unless something, well… divine, is actually backing her up. The show’s quite careful never to frame her private chats as jokes. They’re filmed like she’s really talking to someone, and the subsequent magic works because their connection is real. So, if he’s real, what is he? Well, buckle up because this ties all the way back to The Legend of Vox Machina.
Who Is The Traveler, and Why Does He Keep Showing Up Around Jester?
If you’re a Critical Role fan, you’ve actually met The Traveler before. He is a rather tricky Archfey from the Feywild named Artagan. However, when he was introduced in The Legend of Vox Machina TV show, he was posing as a Satyr named Garmelie in the second season. In Critical Role’s Campaign one, Vox Machina would eventually cross paths with Artagan once again and he would reveal himself as Artagan. True to his nature, he would later make a bargain with the gang, convincing them to build him a permanent doorway to the Material Plane — Exandria, the world where The Legend of Vox Machina and The Mighty Nein takes place.
Fast forward a bit, now having access to Exandria, Artagan would come across Jester, who at the time, was just a little blue tiefling girl trapped in her mother’s chateau with no friends. He appeared as a friendly voice, and she, with her child-like innocence, believed he was a god. Artagan essentially just played along for kicks, but here’s the twist: Jester’s belief in him as a god was so unconditional, she essentially turned him into one. Her belief, and that of the others she inspired, granted him real divine power. That sets the foundation of their bond. To him, she’s not just a follower; she’s his first and favorite disciple, the one who started it all. Their bond is genuine: he cares for her, guides her, and even protects her, like he did in The Mighty Nein Season 1 Episode 8 when he saved her from falling. It’s a bond built on a beautiful, chaotic accident; he didn’t plan to start a cult or become a deity, he just wanted a friend he could cause chaos with.
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How Jester and The Traveler’s Bond Sets Up His Biggest Plot Twist
The bond between Jester and The Traveler is intriguing. She doesn’t bow and scrape like other people in Exandria when they worship their gods. Jester treats him more like her partner-in-crime, shares jokes, asks for dating advice from him, and assumes he’s always got her back (FYI, he does). in The Mighty Nein campaign, this personal touch is why her “preaching” is so effective. She doesn’t lecture, she just tells people about her best friend in a fun way, doodles his symbols everywhere, and basically becomes his hype-woman.
And it worked! Her unwavering faith and devotion basically inspired Artagan, a.k.a The Traveler, to seek out other lonely souls to help. And just like that, he had a multiple disciples praying to him, asking for favors, and expecting a real god to grant their requests. The problem, though, is that he was essentially a new god and no idea how to manage his growing religion. In short, he was in way over his head, and the weight of being a “god” exhausted him.
The brilliant twist is that Jester changed him. This ancient, careless Fey momentarily embraced the responsibilities of a deity because of a person he genuinely didn’t want to let down. And just as she believes in him, he trusts her to help him fix the mess they made together. Overall, it turns a simple “is he real?” question into a much more interesting story about friendship, belief, and the unexpected consequences of both.
To see how this friendship plays out, The Mighty Nein is currently streaming on Prime Video.
