Those That May Vanish

They Will Not Be Missed

Those That May Vanish, also called Vanishers, are the message carriers in Mammen society, the most efficient postal service in Totania.

The Disappearing Mailmen

Those That May Vanish bring mail to and from the capital city of the Mammen, Ruzrugh. It is a port city that is at the center of most sea trade in the world due to its strategic location, which also means that most global mail passes through Ruzrugh.
Those That May Vanish, then, deliver more mail than any other postal service in the world, traveling all around the world from their headquarters in Ruzrugh.

Copper Crystals

Copper Crystals are a strange naturally occuring mineral that is found in its greatest abundance in mines northwest of Ruzrugh.
Many say that Copper Crystals are not even, truly, crystals. Instead, they are just copper that channel microwaves at a different frequency, making them nearly invisible and crystal-like. They can be best found by looking for a shadow, as they cast one even when invisible.
When magic is channeled through the crystals, they begin to show more of their magical properties. The person holding them begins appearing and disappearing. Beyond that, they move at incredible speeds, faster than anyone has been known to travel naturally. It is said they can travel across the continent of Udai in two days.
The invisibility of the crystal and user, then, is not truly invisibility. They are moving so fast, even when in place, that they are blinking in and out of existence.
This is where the danger in the crystals comes from, as they may move fast enough or overload the crystal enough that it may simply erase them from existence, being unable to be tied down to reality because of the crystal's properties.

Those That Become Vanishers

It is not a glamorous job, nor is it one that is taken up by individuals who seek any prominence, locally or globally.
Vanishers are, for all intents and purposes, faceless. After all, they may disappear from existence. Therefore, there is a strict rule for who may become a Vanisher.

Someone that will not be missed.

Only those who believe they have no one left, no one to care for them if they disappear, no one to look for them, are allowed to take up the position.
Often this has resulted in people searching for those that go missing, as there is no quantifiable way to measure if someone will not be missed.
Many people, at different points in their life, feel the same way; That their life is unimportant.
But every life has meaning to someone.

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Duties

Vanishers have a high rate of death, or rather disappearance rate. No one is certain if they die or not, as they simply cease to exist. Whether that means they have traveled somewhere beyond mortal comprehension or simply were destroyed is unknown.
What this means is that they may not always fulfill their duties, but as long as they are alive they are sworn to do everything they can to complete their deliveries and follow their duties.
These duties are as follows, as outlined in their instruction manuals:

• Those That May Vanish are to deliver mail in a timely manner to all whose correspondences pass through our service.


• Those That May Vanish are to keep the Copper Crystals safe from damage, theft, and loss. If a Vanisher loses a Copper Crystal, they are not to receive a second one unless under special consideration.


• Those That May Vanish must not allow the private information of the recipients or senders of mail to be discovered by anyone other than the sender and recipient.

To many, they are just glorified mailmen, and that is generally the point. They are not honored for what they do, the vanishing makes it so the opposite is closer to the truth. The least honorable people around are Those That May Vanish, and so they are not trusted with much other than delivering mail.

Corporate Liberation

For a time, they were entirely subservient to the Culhwch Corporation. Culhwch Corp had a monopoly on the crystals and were the only mail service in Ruzrugh. However, when the CEO of Culhwch Corp vanished and the mines were seized, other companies got a share of the resources.
Now, there are plenty of different companies that emply Those That May Vanish, with no monopoly on the market, along with an elevated risk due to the increasing use of the crystals.

Banning of the Vanishers

Some places, hoping to stop the horrors these Vanishers are forced into, have placed bans on the profession. Particularly, the Korvians and Halflings have tried to stop the use of Vanishers.
The Korvians did so in hopes that they could take control of the mail market themselves, gaining access to information, but it has not worked out well for them. All it did, instead, was make sending and receiving information in the Korvian City much more difficult.
The Halflings, on the other hamd, think that the process of using the Copper Crystals, while incredible in terms of progress, is too far.
As one Halfling politician once said:

"The Mammen have progressed beyond care with these crystals. Those That May Vanish are just people they want to get rid of, so they toss a bit of crystal and a bit of mail to 'em waiting for the day they disappear.
We want to bring back some level of humane treatment, and if that means we don't get our mail as fast, so be it."

The trouble with enforcing this ban is that Vanishers move too quickly for most people to catch, and thus evade the law easily, breaking through blockades and circumventing bans. Korvians, to stop them, do everything they can to kill Those That May Vanish, which largely defeats the purpose. Halflings, on the other hand, detain anyone that receives mail from them, attempting to deincentivize interacting with Those That May vanish.