Festivals

Four festivals a year, and every one of them scores play that was already happening.

THE FOUR. The GREENING in Spring (planting, thaw, the rivers up), the HIGH SUN in Summer (arms, endurance, the long light), the REAPING in Harvest (the table, the still, the workshop) and the LONG DARK in Winter (lore, the forge, the hearth). Each takes the 21st of its month for seven days. Winter is the north's festival at Highreach, Summer the harbour kingdom's fair at Sunhaven, Harvest belongs to the mills at Westmarch, and Spring ROVES six coasts and kingdoms one a year (Karan Wharf, Aldenmoor, Sereth Landing, Caer Vaneth, Eastwatch Quay, Greyhythe), so it is worth travelling for the other five. festival tells you what is running and where.

THE CONTESTS count a week of living in the world and tell you how you did against everyone else. Spring: the Great Hunt, the Forager's Race, the Angler's Cup, the Seedbearer, the Long Ramble. Summer: the Melee, the Great Hunt, the Spire Sprint, the Test of Arms. Harvest: the Cook-Off, the Brewer's Table, the Craft Exhibition, the Produce Show, the Crumbling Span. Winter: the Bestiary Reckoning, the Forge Trial, the Riddle Gate, the Hearth Tales, the Tempering. Every festival holds the Card Meet.

THE RITE AND THE TABLE. Each solstice belongs to gods whose domain it is; rite at the festival takes a blessing for the week, and your own god's rite is worth more than a stranger's. The TABLE is a communal board players cook for: every dish laid on it (table) counts toward a threshold, and when it is full the whole realm eats. It is the one part of a festival that is cooperative rather than competitive, and it cannot be filled alone.

THE STALLS at the edge of the ground are ten-minute games: chests (fifteen chests, one prize), the raffle (drawn at the close, a pack of what a low-level character actually needs), the scavenger hunt at three difficulties, the writ that buys a REALM-WIDE bonus with your favour so the festival reaches those who could not come, spar in Summer (box a festival shade of yourself), dash in Harvest (run the crumbling span). And two larger games: the RIDDLE GATE, an endless labyrinth beneath the ground where three gates a depth show you one true way and the rule never changes, and the WAYFARER'S RUN, a regatta across the world map by charts with no coordinates, six legs in an hour.

FAVOUR IS NEVER LOST. Contests and stalls pay festival favour, and favour does not decay, does not drop on death and does not reset: it carries year to year. It buys SUPPLIES for beginners, REAGENTS for the strong enchants, SCHEMATICS for housing, clan hall and ship designs sold nowhere else, and the ARTIFACTS that unlock the deepest recipes; favour shows what you hold and the catalogue.

See also: help calendar, help cards, help tournaments.

Syntax

festival
favour
stalls
rite
table
labyrinth
regatta

Examples

festival
favour
stalls