20 in 20 #9

[Kailani of Admin]

Valornian Tradition

Explain one of the common traditions in Valorn that is practiced by the common folk or adventurers (or both).

This can be an existing one, or one of your imagining.

Prizes will be based on creativity and related to the tradition.

This contest will run for 30 days from now.

K.

[Turcko]

Guardian Scaring
The elusive Crystal Guardians are sought by enchanters and clerics alike. Hunting them for the Golden Age knowledge they can bestow is part of the path of the power using professions.
It is however known that the Guardians are attracted to warriors above all others! Why? Only they know, but this is a well known fact in Valorn.
Thus: Guardian Scaring was born!
An enchanter or cleric announces their intention to hunt a particular type of Guardian. A warrior, (ideally one that has advanced in training past being able to hunt the guardians in that area) takes a stroll there and behold! Several Crystal Guardians will come out of hiding, ready for fighting. Guardian Scaring is a common courtesy that warriors grant their friends in need all over Valorn.
It is believed to have been started, if I'm not mistaken, by Azure Greenhills the Fable-Teller.

[Turcko]

Inspired by the recent meeting around surnames.

Naming of the Bastards
All children of Trinald that are born and left at the temple doors, or unrecognized by their parents as legitimate bearers of the family name, are given generic names, depending on where they are.
Dundee - Ratter. This comes from the ancient rat problem that plagues the area.
Milltown - Miller. This comes from the main industry of Milltown.
Caernivale - Bridger. This comes from the connected platforms that make the town.
Branishor - Mirander. This attempts to bestow the orphaned children with the protection of Miranda.
Fartown/Hollows - Grasshopper. This comes from the abundant tall grass of the area.
Killican - Smith. This comes from the pirates will for a generic, common and non-descript name.
Ethucan - Muriellis. This honors the imperial family of Ethucan.

[Brisingr Blaze]

Tooth 'Spirits'

Growing up on Kilican tooth loss was a common occurrence so much so that even the older of the population would leave their teeth under a pillow at night as 'Rifter set. No one really knows when this tradition began, but you'd be hard pressed to find a young one that doesn't believe in the tooth spirits. They would wake up to find a silver coin under the pillow. Some kids (and adults) have tried faking being asleep to try and catch the spirits.. but all they would see were glimmers of different colored flecks of light then suddenly sleep would overwhelm them. Or at least that is how the stories go. Some even claim to have overheard intoxicated adults in the local tavern grumbling about being short silver because their kid had way to many teeth.

I'll leave that up to you if this is true or not... but maybe try putting a tooth under your pillow and see...

[Lavender]

Pilfering Pumpkins!

During the Fall of the season during what adventurers commonly call Fall Festival, and even for weeks afterwards. The towns people all over the lands have adopted a holiday for themselves where they Pilfer for Pumpkin seeds to sell to the cooks of the lands for the next seasons treats! When adventurers are running around looking for banditos or squishing pumpkins, they tend to leave quite the mess. So the kids started their own traditions of seeing who can gather the most seeds in a season then they sell them to the cooks. And in reward the cooks actually give them a nice bit of coin for each pound of seeds they find and usually some left over treats from the season that didn't sell. It started out being called Pilfering Pumpkins Seeds Season... but in the end they just called it Pilfering Pumpkins or Seeds Season depending on what is easier for the individual town's person.

Lavender

[Ary]

Remembrance Day

Every Year, all the citizens and adventurers set aside one day and one night to remember those from times long past. It can be anyone who may have fallen in battle protecting Valorn from any of the numerous threats over the years or those who have left the lands of their own volition and have yet to return and we yearn for their company.

During the day, the time is spent sitting around enjoying good drinks and food, reminiscing about all of them, and friends gather to celebrate all of them. It is a day for tears, both joyful and sad, but a day to give voice to those special ones that we miss. Small trinkets are sold that may remind everyone of some of the more adventurers but one thing that everyone makes sure to buy or have on them is a bell.

When Sun Rifter goes below the horizon and the moon is high and bright in the sky, everyone stops what they are doing and rings their bells together, so that they echo across the lands as one, sending a message to those we have been thinking about all day and letting them know they are never forgotten. Bonfires can be found in every town, tended through out the night, for people to drop bits of parchment into with messages they wish to throw into the fire and as they burn up, they carry our individual messages of thought, love and remembrance to them as well, and so in that way, those lost or away, still remain with us and their stories are told to the next generation of adventurers.

[Pallas]

Gift-tide

The nights between Fall Festival and Winter’s Warming are long, cold and dark. Around the time of the longest night a figure might be seen roaming the lands, visiting homes where there are children, leaving gifts to mark the turn. The traveller carries a sack across one shoulder, and frequently consults names listed on two sheets of parchment. One is headed ‘Nice’, the other ‘Naughty’.
Sometimes jolly, dressed in bright clothing and accompanied by the sound of bells tinkling, other times more sombre, moving in silence with a scowl of disapproval on the face, the wandering gift-giver somehow manages to visit every home in the lands during the course of a single night.
For the children whose names appear on the ‘Nice’ parchment will be left welcome gifts – toys, dainties, sweets and so on. Those listed on the other parchment will be left something less welcome such as a broken branch, a wilted flower or an ill-flavoured sweet.

That is the legend of Gift-tide. Many suspect the figure who walks the lands leaving gifts may be no more than that, and those presents are from parents or relatives. But who could be so churlish as to spoil the dreams of the children?

[Telmacha]

Court of Honour

An Ethucan custom, fairly widely adopted in Valorn:

When two gentlefolk have a dispute or a question of honor, and the laws do not cover it, or seem inappropriate, it is customary to set a Court of Honour to settle the dispute. In my village, which has no prince or mayor, it is routinely used.

In my native village, which has a small population, about half claiming to be of Ethucan descent, each side picks a someone they trust as a judge, and then the two judges pick a third. The three judges decide who is more right, and what compensation is due from the less right, ideally by consensus, but if not by majority vote. (Each side can set limits before picking a judge, so that a few feet of boundary dispute do not become a duel unexpectedly. On the other hand, this can also be used to arrange duels, if that's what both sides want.)

It is conventional for the parties not to speak to each other, or the opposing judge, once the choices have been made - except for cases of necessity, The two judges speak to each other, hopefully with more calm.

[Kailani of Admin]

This contest ends at midnight Pacific time tonight.

Thank you for all that have entered!


K.

[Alfred Elpin]

The Festival of Awakening

This annual festival, celebrated by the commoners of Valorn, takes place on the first day of Spring's Planting to celebrate the renewal of life and the awakening of nature after Wind's Change slumber.

The Festival Rituals:

The Empty Table Sacrifice
Before dawn on the festival day, every household would clear their dining table completely, leaving it bare. These empty tables represent the barren state of the earth before spring's rebirth. The cleared tables are then carried in a solemn procession to the village center and stacked into a large pyre.

At sunrise, the pyre of empty tables is set ablaze, symbolizing the sacrifice of winter's dormancy. As the flames consume the emptiness, they give way to the abundance spring will bring.

The Awakening Call
After the pyre burns down, the village children would gather and venture into the nearby forests and fields. There, they use drums, whistles, and their voices to sound the "Awakening Call" - a joyful, rambunctious noise meant to rouse the slumbering animals from hibernation.

Legends say the louder the Call, the more plentiful the awakened spring creatures will be. The children compete to see whose calls can summon the first bird songs, the first scurrying rabbits, and the first butterfly sightings of the season.

The festival involves no feasting, as the renewal of spring itself is considered nourishment enough after winter's famine. When the first spring blooms appear, they are gathered and woven into crowns that the villagers wear for the remainder of the day's celebrations of music, dancing, and revelry over winter's end.

[Loki Jester]

The welcoming of SummerFair

Everyone from all over Trinald comes to gather in one, and that's; The South Plains-Grassy Hills.

Drinks will be brought, conversations will be had, in this exact area is where Summerfair begins.

Some would tell stories while they wait for the moment the sun rises, and when it does a rainbow follows, a glorious sweet scent is in the air and happiness follows. "Happy SummerFair!" Would be shouted by plenty of individuals, a moment so big it feels like everything within nature was celebrating too, and then fun festivities begin moments later, and carry on throughout the entire week.