Celebrated in Heron, the two week-long Festival of Spirits is considered by many to be one of the most important regional holidays, despite its relatively non-religious nature. Non-religious, and certainly non-Chaotic, the festival is a time of merriment and debauchery, featuring endless festivities, rich sweets and beverages, and many activities that would be considered highly improper at any other time of the year.
Even the most devout of Chaotics see the value in the Festival of Spirits. Superstitious types claim that its purpose is to both scare evil spirits away from Heronite settlements and purge them from within the peoples' own hearts, ensuring the community's safety as the nights grow longer and darker. Some take a more pragmatic view, however, seeing the holiday as a way for people to indulge themselves and warm their souls before the desolation of the cold Heronite winter.
Whatever the origin of the festival or its intended purpose, revelers see the festival as an excuse to indulge in fantasies that would be highly unacceptable in Heronite society during the rest of the year. However, while the spirit of the holiday holds that things that people do during the festival should be completely forgotten once the festival ends, this obviously doesn't always apply in practice. It is common for revelers to wear masks to hide their identities, especially when engaging in behavior that might cause their communities to cast judgement on them. Guards are forbidden from arresting people during the festival for behaviors that might be considered obscene or blasphemous if they do not directly cause harm to another person, so the function of the mask is largely a way to avoid any social fallout of one's actions.
There are many stories about the Festival of Spirits, but one recent example of someone embodying the true spirit of the festival was a brothel in Eydisthorpe who suspended business as usual and opened their doors, for free, to people who wished to spend the festival with lovers who they would not normally be seen with in public, single folks who wished to engage in liasons with people of the same gender, and those who sought to present and dress in ways that contradicted Heron's strict norms surrounding sex and gender. Knowledge of the private party was spread by word of mouth, and the brothel was guarded by a pair of Salican clerics whose sole charge was to keep out those who came with ill intentions towards the revelers. This practice has become a yearly tradition, and one that causes little fuss due to the hosts' care in protecting the identities of the party's attendees.
Even the most devout of Chaotics see the value in the Festival of Spirits. Superstitious types claim that its purpose is to both scare evil spirits away from Heronite settlements and purge them from within the peoples' own hearts, ensuring the community's safety as the nights grow longer and darker. Some take a more pragmatic view, however, seeing the holiday as a way for people to indulge themselves and warm their souls before the desolation of the cold Heronite winter.
Whatever the origin of the festival or its intended purpose, revelers see the festival as an excuse to indulge in fantasies that would be highly unacceptable in Heronite society during the rest of the year. However, while the spirit of the holiday holds that things that people do during the festival should be completely forgotten once the festival ends, this obviously doesn't always apply in practice. It is common for revelers to wear masks to hide their identities, especially when engaging in behavior that might cause their communities to cast judgement on them. Guards are forbidden from arresting people during the festival for behaviors that might be considered obscene or blasphemous if they do not directly cause harm to another person, so the function of the mask is largely a way to avoid any social fallout of one's actions.
There are many stories about the Festival of Spirits, but one recent example of someone embodying the true spirit of the festival was a brothel in Eydisthorpe who suspended business as usual and opened their doors, for free, to people who wished to spend the festival with lovers who they would not normally be seen with in public, single folks who wished to engage in liasons with people of the same gender, and those who sought to present and dress in ways that contradicted Heron's strict norms surrounding sex and gender. Knowledge of the private party was spread by word of mouth, and the brothel was guarded by a pair of Salican clerics whose sole charge was to keep out those who came with ill intentions towards the revelers. This practice has become a yearly tradition, and one that causes little fuss due to the hosts' care in protecting the identities of the party's attendees.
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