Travel and Pilgrimage
Travel is rare for Christians. Most people are born, live, and die within the confines of their home village. Many never even travel farther than nearby villages or the regional market town. The level of technology makes travel very slow, and the mores of society discourage movement of people. Unlike a typical D&D world, which would have a class of itinerant “adventurers,” the Europe of FW has laws against vagrancy.
Long range travel is even rarer. The age of exploration is far in the future. Marco Polo has not yet made his famous journey to China, and won’t for over 200 years.
The longest journey typically undertaken is a pilgrimage. Pilgrims are drawn from the free classes, and a pilgrim can travel hundreds of miles. There are many well-known pilgrimage sites throughout Europe, and a thriving industry has built up along pilgrimage routes, catering to the needs of pilgrims. Even as popular as pilgrimages are, however, most people never take one. They are so costly that they are a hardship except to the wealthiest of people; and most Christians are unfree, anyway.
The most popular sites for pilgrimage should be in the Holy Land, but that is far away, and in Moslem hands. Most pilgrimages travel overland, over well-traveled routes, to European sites associated with a saint. Only very rare, devout, and wealthy pilgrims ever trek to Jerusalem. Most pilgrims never leave their home country.
For pagans, travel is competely different. In viking lands, free men are expected to make travel — specifically, raiding and conquest — a lifestyle. They travel anywhere that can be reached by ship, and have gone from the Black Sea to Canada and everywhere in between. Free pagan men are generally away from home for three months out of the year. If the sail a particularly great distance, though, they can be gone a year or more at a time.