Ever since the Traveler gave Savathun the Light in [i]The Witch Queen[/i], there has been much speculation about the motives of the Traveler and its interests. For instance, the races it chooses to uplift. What we know of the Krill is that Fundament was rather inhospitable to them, they lived only ten years upon its surface, and their original homeworld crash-landed upon Fundament at some point. We also learned that the Traveler had intended to "claim" the Krill, but the Witness used the Worm Gods to turn them into servants of the Darkness instead. We know Humankind and the Eliksni were uplifted and the benefits it provided them, but there are at least two other races we know the Traveler has uplifted in the past: Lubrae and the Harmony. Before the Traveler arrived, Lubrae was too inhospitable for Rhulk's nomadic people to establish their city on their own. It is very likely they would have eventually died out due to how hostile the flora, fauna, and environment of their homeworld were. But the Traveler uplifted them, helped them create a city to shelter them from their hostile world, and gave them the technology to harness power from the blue sun of their system. The Harmony was a civilization whose homeworld orbited a black hole. All we know about how that came about is that the Traveler altered the orbits of their worlds to orbit the black hole, altered the accretion disc to be life-giving, and created the Gift Mast around the black hole. We don't know what their system was like beforehand, but the presence of the black hole doesn't imply a situation a race would normally survive. Meanwhile, the Eliksni and Humanity can be described as "younger civilizations", particularly compared to the likes of the Cabal. Developed, but not to the point of interstellar travel. After the Traveler arrived, it began terraforming worlds and moons in our Solar System, making uninhabitable worlds and moons habitable for Human colonization and settlement. It likely did the same for the Eliksni, and undoubtedly did so for the Harmony. Now look at what the [url=https://www.ishtar-collective.net/cards/viii-leviathan]Leviathan says in conversation with Aurash and her sisters[/url]: [i]—Sky builds gentle places, safe for life++ ++Beloved Fundament, refuge of trillions— —The Sky treasures this rich place++[/i] .... [i]—Quick-breeding krill people, I tell you++ ++For eons I have watched your struggle— —Clinging to the sharp edge of survival++ ++Balanced between the Deep and the Sky.— ++You were my treasure— —My proof against despair++ —FOR THIS IS THE DEEP CLAIM— ++Existence is the struggle to exist— —When the struggle seems lost++ ++when the safe place crumbles— —everything turns to the Deep to survive++ ++I REJECT THE DEEP CLAIM++ —You will turn back, sweet krill of hope.±± ++You will choose the Sky instead.—[/i] "Sky builds gentle places, safe for life". The Traveler doesn't choose those civilizations it uplifts because there is something "special" about them. To quote the Gardener in [url=https://www.ishtar-collective.net/entries/the-first-knife#book-unveiling]The First Knife[/url]: "I am the growth and preservation of complexity. I will make myself into a law in the game." It specifically uplifts young civilizations or civilizations in danger of dying out. A civilization already thriving, having become a space-faring civilization on its own, would never be given the Traveler's blessing. It does this for the sake of ensuring as many "patterns" - as many civilizations - thrive as possible. Even if, as seen with Lubrae, it doesn't always turn out for the best.