Update/Sneak Peak
March 14, 2019Meet Felicia
June 11, 2019
The Alar are a vibrant people, intent on celebrating every moment of their life. Even life itself has a dedicated week on the Alaran calendar. It is six days of concerts, games, plays, community meals and spiritual devotionals.
The idea or belief behind the Alaran festival culture is this: if one doesn’t celebrate life, then one will lose sight of what is and isn’t important. Some Alar follow festivals so closely that they have become professional festival hierophants. These are sometimes referred to sarcastically as Festival Critics. These hierophants will select certain festivals throughout the year to attend and bring their followers.
Many celebrations focus on one specific ideal or characteristic. The three days dedicated to strength are called The Crimson Three, a time when those who devote themselves to vitality stage mock fights that only migrate around the stage area in the cardinal directions.
As much of the Alaran celebrations and rituals rely on the cardinal directions, the presence of the new port city and Tetra Sovereign presents a new issue. The directions have changed with the joining of the two continents and the changing of the land’s magnetic field. This has caused a divisive rift in many Alaran communities. Traditionalists want the original directions observed, while Cardinal Revisionists believe the new directions should be observed as a result. Festivals observing the cardinal directions have begun splitting their venues to accommodate both sides as a result.
Many celebrations focus on one specific ideal or characteristic. The three days dedicated to strength are called The Crimson Three, a time when those who devote themselves to vitality stage mock fights that only migrate around the stage area in the cardinal directions.
As much of the Alaran celebrations and rituals rely on the cardinal directions, the presence of the new port city and Tetra Sovereign presents a new issue. The directions have changed with the joining of the two continents and the changing of the land’s magnetic field. This has caused a divisive rift in many Alaran communities. Traditionalists want the original directions observed, while Cardinal Revisionists believe the new directions should be observed as a result. Festivals observing the cardinal directions have begun splitting their venues to accommodate both sides as a result.
Most Alar celebrations are grounded in the physical, but some are dedicated to the immaterial. These events have names like The Carnival of Uncertainty, Festival of the Unsaid, or The Unknown Jamboree. These are the observance or honouring of those things that will never be known, said or found.
One of the most controversial of celebrations is the Festival of the Concealed, where everything is secret – including where the festival is held. People who wish to attend must divine the location in some way, whether through spells or clues. Upon entering the venue attendees must not speak for the entirety of the festival, a whole two days.
Other Sharyshans see the Alar as a somewhat breezy culture, where people focus less on the physical and more on philosophy and entertainment. The Alar see themselves as putting life over work, preferring to have a full experience that they believe is worth living.
One of the most controversial of celebrations is the Festival of the Concealed, where everything is secret – including where the festival is held. People who wish to attend must divine the location in some way, whether through spells or clues. Upon entering the venue attendees must not speak for the entirety of the festival, a whole two days.
Other Sharyshans see the Alar as a somewhat breezy culture, where people focus less on the physical and more on philosophy and entertainment. The Alar see themselves as putting life over work, preferring to have a full experience that they believe is worth living.
