Every culture employs messengers to bear news, orders, and mail across country. Depending on the culture, messengers might travel day and night (using the sun and the stars to navigate), or they might stick to day travel (covering roughly 35 miles per day if on horseback). The messages they carry vary from simple news carried from town to town to personal letters or official decrees. Even when carrying messages between enemies, messengers are specially protected from attack by law. Nevertheless, their job can be hazardous, and they are usually armed – some even possess powers of arrest.