messenger (n.)

• ancestor
• announcer
• antecedent
• avant-garde
• bellwether
• buccinator
• bushwhacker
• commissar
• commissary
• commissionaire
• commissioner
• courier
• delegate
• emissary
• envoy
• explorer
• forebear
• forerunner
• frontiersman
• fugleman
• go-between
• gofer
• groundbreaker
• guide
• harbinger
• herald
• innovator
• intermediary
• leader
• legate
• minister
• nuncio
• page
• pathfinder
• pioneer
• point
• precedent
• precursor
• predecessor
• runner
• scout
• secretary
• trailblazer
• vanguard