Ancestor

Not to be confused with the Mysterious Creature from the Ancestors trophy.

Ancestors are tall figures in white robes that appear in visions between levels.

Players use a variety of different names to describe them:
 * Advisor
 * Ancient
 * Elder
 * Guardian
 * Sage
 * Spirit
 * White One

Occurrence, appearance, behavior
This article is about the White Ones that you see in the visions (History Lessons). Whether they are the same figure in each vision is not clear; it could be that you see different Ancestors each time (all of them assembling together in the final vision), or that one Ancestor guides you through the journey until the end when you meet all of them.

Ancestors express different behaviors in every vision.

Some people also call the creature in the Tower the Ancestor, based on the Ancestors Trophy you get when you discover that creature for the first time. This is a rather clever, multi-layered reference to both the history of the developer (ThatGameCompany), and the history of the Rythulian civilization in Journey as discussed further in the Trophy article.

Interaction
Ancestors appear only in cut scenes and whilst they do interact with the Wayfarer in those, the player has no control. In that sense, Ancestors are non-interactive characters.

Quotes
"Fan-Names for the Ancestors: 1. Lux 2. Āstigian 3. θάρσος (Thársos) 4. Mémoire 5. 合わせている (Awaseteiru - "Awase" for short) 6. Bob"

- by Cyanis