Jump to content

Oh! Those holidays!


Asperion

Recommended Posts

Humanity being the wonderful creature we are love any reason that we can obtain to celebrate.  Among the greatest of these reasons is holidays.  There are many reasons for such days,  ranging from simple people decided to mark this day special for some lost reason (traditional excuses) to more complex examples involving a conglomeration of different groups that are intermingled together.  This could include the extended continuation of some one-time event.  While most of the time fantasy campaigns will essentially use RL holidays and reskin them in some form,  this doesn't need to be the case.  I would like to hear about some of the celebrations/holidays that have been created for your world.  Are they regional, worldwide,  religious,  secular,  something else? Anything else that you would like to mention about them would be greatly appreciated. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The city of Thalassene is in the Plenary Empire, so the chief secular/political holiday is the anniversary of the reigning Autocrat's ascension to the throne. The biggest to-do in the city is the parade and street fair in Mactown, the district settled by refugees from the Macrine region. So many Macriners arrived at once that Mactown seems more like a transplanted bit of "the old country" than like part of the Plenary Empire, and other Thalasseners sometimes grumble that the Mactowners should decide what country they're in. But the Mactown Ascension Day Parade is the biggest in the city. I'll decide what actually happens as part of the parade when I can arrange to make it part of an adventure.

 

Most of the festivals in Thalassene are religious -- and since the Plenary Empire absorbed many different cultures, each with their own gods, there's usually at least a minor festival going on somewhere. In Vicus Drohasus, another ethnic district. the largest public festival is dedicated to the Ennead, the nine chief gods of Drohashi religion. The idols of the gods are paraded through the streets while people sing the old hymns and play the old music of sistrum, flute and tabor, while waving banners of the Golden Lotus that was the symbol of Drohashi sacred kingship.

 

Every year, the Viltish ambassador Hegetsa -- representative of the theocratic empire that conquered Drohash -- secretly watches the parade and seethes with rage. The sun god Sorath is honored, but to no greater degree than the rest of the Ennead, and not by the rites ordained by the prophet Orvikka. The Drohashi of Thalassene are worse than infidel: They are heretics! Soon, Hegetsa promises herself, they, their city, and their false idols will burn.

 

Dean Shomshak

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have not done a lot with this, mostly because the PCs are rarely in town in my games, but also because its larger scale than I usually design details.  I like doing a local area a lot rather than a lot about a huge area.  But its a very good idea, and its part of something maybe I'll get to in Gazeteers about different nations.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oh, and of course Thalassene has festivals timed with the solstices and quinoxes, because those are natural times to celebrate something-or-other. The Furanian immigrant community celebrates all four, since their religion is sun-centered. There are many Furanians in the neighborhood of Oddmonger, so the Furanian Sun Cake -- glazed golden with saffron and honey -- is a familiar treat for those four days, and popular with non-Furanians as well.

 

The Plenary Empire began among the Yidmiri people, so that pantheon of gods remains popular. The festival day of the Yidmiri war god Sar sees a variety of martial contests. One of the PCs won a local archery contest held as part of the festival.

 

The biggest religious festival of Thalassene's year, though, is the annual Marriage to the Sea in which gthe city renews its covenant with the sea-god Manakel and the local merfolk. Ten young men and ten young women dive into the sea from the Pera Sacra, or Sacred Pier, the holiest shrine to Manakel, and swims a seven-mile race to Treaty Reef. There, the male and female winners make love in the surf with merfolk who won their own contest. Mer and landwalker priests bless the unions; and offspring are born with the magical power to exchange feet and fins, becoming merfolk or landwalker humans as needed. The gift is sometimes inherited, but remains miraculous: "Children of Land and Sea" are unique to Thalassene and the local merfolk tribes.

 

Dean Shomshak

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Gotta level with you:

 

I make them up on the fly when I feel they can add something to the plot.

 

Forty-and-a-bit years as GM, I can say with one-hubdred-percent certainty that the Players have yet to notice, or even reference a prior a holiday.

 

Now in Champions, Seven Day is a recurring holiday, but since we have never really tracked the passage of individual days that closely, again, if it adds something to the story then how about that!  It's almost Seven Day. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Summerlords Day is said to have come about when the annual appearance of the steppe raiders was met by an enterprising (and brave) clan chief who convinced the raiders to give up the annual pillage in favor of a party and peaceful trade.  Centuries later it persists as a beginning-of-summer festival featuring cessations of hostilities, drinking, music, horse racing, trade and haggling, drinking, dancing, contests of archery and wrestling, and also drinking.

 

Loosely based on the Metallica song.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Unfortunately, your content contains terms that we do not allow. Please edit your content to remove the highlighted words below.
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...