Kaia-Ahere, the Pathfinder

Remember the Way

Three hundred paces to the left, up the slope. Watch the ledge and go another fifty paces up. Exactly.

— Sha'n, Kaia-Ahere

Kaia-Ahere are Kaia tasked with both finding and marking the path that the Kaia take on their expeditions. Scholars as well as explorers, Kaia-Ahere make maps, remember paths and make sure the Kaia do not take a right when they should've taken a left.

Responsibilities

Cartographers, navigators and explorers, it is the Kaia-Ahere that record the steps taken by the Kaia and what they have seen. They need to be skilled enough artists to make accurate depictions of what they see as well as sound enough mathematicians to make correct guesses of distance, size and other factors. The best Kaia-Ahere can judge distance with astonishing accuracy, with or without tools. With the winding, vertical nature of the caverns they often traverse, the craft of a cartographer can demand some imaginative representation.
In most Kaia teams, it is the Kaia-Ahere who decide what path they should take and how they should take it. All the considerations of a Kaia team must be accounted for when the journey begins, from the amount of supplies to any condition or injuries accrued during the expedition. They also mark the path taken, usually by engraving the Kaia team's symbol or a crude representation of it into the stone. They include information such as what direction they came from, how many they were and other factors that might become necessary not only for them but any who come looking should they end up in trouble. Needless to say, defacing such symbols is not taken lightly.

If that really was a shortcut, we'd be taking it. Trust me.

— Sha'n, Kaia-Ahere

Explorers of the Deep
Kaia are explorers and adventurers, daring to go where others fear to tread. Even with all the time that humanity have spent in the caverns, most of Araea is still shrouded in mystery in darkness. The Kaia-Ahere fill the blanks where before someone had just scrawled 'here be dragons!'
Read more about the Kaia - The Explorers of the Deep

Example Kaia: Harahna

Harahna's journey from drunken vagabond to honorable Kaia have not been an easy one. She wears the marks still, from a crooked nose broken one too many times and a rough demeanor. She isn't a Kaia-Ahere, she is an example of what a Kaia is like in the world of Araea.
Read more about Haranha, the Kaia

Map-Making

Books and maps are made with either vellum or parchment, made from either the tanned hides of lizards or other domesticated beasts or from the hattick derived from Cave-Capped Hatter. Either material is pretty tough, which is helpful for the Kaia-Ahere on their long journeys.