While Galeans also celebrate Salica during the winter season, paralleling the Festival of Winter in Resta and Midania, they have a unique set of traditions and folklore that differ greatly from the well-known Restan holiday.
As with the Restan Festival of Winter, Salica’s Festival in Galeon is a time of hot food and drink, festive decor, song, and general merriment. It is common to see colorfully costumed theatre productions occurring in town squares, or groups of revelers drinking and breaking into song. As Salica’s holiday it is, of course, a time to embrace one’s emotions and celebrate that which the goddess gave us. Most major cities in Galeon host large celebrations, but many trek to one particular place — Moon Lake in northern Galeon — which has the largest Salican population in the country. The main attraction of the Moon Lake festival is a spectacular play portraying the traditional folklore of the holiday, complete with beautiful displays of storm magic performed by the Salican clerics who live there.
The folklore behind the festival is of entirely Galean origin. Rather than remembering King Dolph, it celebrates one of the country’s most honored heroines. The story of Zan dates back centuries, and celebrations of her heroism and bravery can be traced back almost as far.
The tale starts in the fertile piece of land that lies in the center of where the Galean River (known by Restans as the Clearwater) diverges — a town now known as Zaniah. Most denizens of this town worked hard to cultivate their crops for themselves, and for the cities down the river. The people lived fulfilling, happy lives, and the land and rivers were kind to them. That is, until it suddenly dried up.
The people lamented for the crops that would inevitably die, and the people who would not have enough food to eat, and sent scouts out to try and discover the cause of the sudden drought. The scouts did not return, but the people had no time to mourn, as the sky suddenly grew dark with smoke and soot, lit only by small embers that rapidly grew in number. A large beast of flame suddenly emerged from the cloud, setting ablaze several homes on the edge of the town. The people would soon learn that the beast had been summoned at the behest of a power-hungry warlord from Resta, come to claim control of the river and its supply lines into the rest of Galeon.
Many tried to strike down the beast, and some even tried to sneak past in order to attack the man directly, but nobody was strong enough to defeat it. As the village continued to lose hope, a woman who had lost most of her family decided to try a different approach. Zan, a woman of the Salican faith who tended to an orchard of pomegranate trees, began approaching the camp. Tears streamed down her face, and the frail demeanor she moved with caused the beast to disregard her, as it did not see her as a threat. She reached the tent of the warlord, showing the guards the basket of pomegranates she carried, claiming they were a gift, and that she had come to personally inform the man that her town would be surrendering. The warlord found her pretty, and bid them to let her pass into his tent.
Zan smiled coyly at the wicked man, setting down her basket and taking his hand, causing him to feel an inexplicable rush of affection and trust towards her. She bade him to come back to the village with her so that the people could make their offerings to him and swear their fealty. He felt the urge to believe her, and so he went, leading her safely past his guards and the flame beast.
The people of the village finally looked upon the man who had taken their water and burned their homes, and this is when Zan let her true power be known. The storm mage harnessed the anger of her neighbors and struck the man with a powerful bolt of lightning, killing him instantly and sending his guards fleeing. The flame beast charged towards Zan and the villagers, but the woman then harnessed the sadness the people felt after losing their homes and people, causing a massive downpour that doused the beast and tore away the dam, restoring the river and saving the village.
Galeans glean many messages from the story of Zan, the main one being that emotions are healthy and productive, and that even painful feelings can drive people to positive action. In remembrance of Zan and her actions, pomegranates and pomegranate confections are commonly eaten during the Festival of Salica. One archaic tradition that has been largely abandoned by modern Galeans held that anonymously gifting someone a bushel of pomegranates during the time of the festival was considered a curse upon the recipient and a sign that someone wished one ill-will. Nowadays, people will occasionally do this, but only in jest.
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