Being an artisan family, Ekay’s family differs from the typical agudner merchants such as Bakku’s family. An artisan’s profits do not come from a common trading business, but rather from gathering rare stones and other crafting materials to create accessories and other items such as seal stamps. These items are sold wherever the artisan visits, with easily impressed sergals often being their best customers.

Artisans may travel in a small family group, and typically not in larger groups to avoid competition. Some communities have learned to work with the traveling artisans to improve their local crafting methods and everyday technology. This spread of culture and knowledge makes traveling artisans a very important part of civilizational growth on Tal.

Ekay’s family travels to the villages in the Northeast area. This area is of particular interest, as most of these settlements are poor and have relatively primitive technology levels. Ekay’s father wishes to aid these villages to advance their skills and knowledge, and thus travels from village to village to help how he can while not staying in one location for too long. Ekay disagrees with this approach, feeling anxious about travel. He continuously voices his preference for establishing a permanent business front in a single location.