Celebration of Light

[kgauck]

Discussion thread for Celebration of Light (http://www.birthright.net/brwiki/index.php/Celebration of Light). If you would like to add a comment, click the Post Reply button.

[kgauck]

This festival seems very much like elves venerating Avani. It doesn't seem appropriate for elves to venerate such things as the moon, the sun, or things that seem entirely coextensive with a deity. The BoP says Avani shines down, Avani brings heat, not Avani manipulates a large ball of fire, or Avani rides a flaming chariot, or tosses a ball of fire about the world.

[AndrewTall]

Hmm, I think that may be been wiki'd from the old forum, the idea I think is more of a generic midsummer festival - not dedicated to Avani or Erik, just a solstice as an excuse for a party.

I figure the elves would celebrate the solstices and perhaps birthdays as the other 'normal' festival days - saints, great battles, etc don't really seem appropriate.

Maybe it should be tweaked to say midsummer festival, emphasize the celebration of art, music, etc.

[Sorontar]

How about:

"Held around the summer solstice, the Celebration of Light is a three day elven midsummer festival that celebrates growth of the mind, body and soul during the longest days of the year."

Or is that just repeating midsummer too many times? :^)

Sorontar

[kgauck]

What if it were tied to something more terrestrial, like the blossoming of a prized flower (Lilies?), the mating of the unicorns, or the festival is held at this time because a great elf of ancient lore first resented his works at this time?

[Sorontar]

first resented his works at this time?

Do you mean "presented"? Or are you suggestiong that Seakspiar, a very wise elf, denounced his own masterpieces as codswallop and tried to break from the normal elven society expectations of what is traditional verse and rhyme?

Sorontar

[kgauck]

I did mean presented.

[ryancaveney]

This festival seems very much like elves venerating Avani. It doesn't seem appropriate for elves to venerate such things as the moon, the sun, or things that seem entirely coextensive with a deity.

I actually don't mind it at all, even (in)famous as I am for honestly believing the Gheallie Sidhe are the true heroes of the campaign!

Honoring the sun is about as basic as honoring the dirt -- lacking either, there simply is no life at all. Of all the wrongheaded ideas the humans have about nature and society, gathering together to sing praises to the sun is by far the sanest of them. A festival that honored something central to the portfolios of newfangled bureaucratic gods like Sera and Eloele should rightly be shunned, but direct appreciation of elemental forces is appropriate. (After all, as I see it, any elf with a so-called "Basaia" bloodline is directly descended from fire elementals...) Of course, there's no worship or sacrifice or any such nonsense, like believing the sun can actually hear what you say about it, but writing poems about its beauty and lifegiving qualities and such is fine. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me at all to hear that watching such a festival is exactly what inspired the humans to start worshiping gods in the first place! Of course, they totally botched the implementation of the idea, but that's all we can expect from those foolish, greedy chipmunks anyway.

And I really like the Rjurik legend. I would not let anyone survive trying to reenact it in modern Lluabraight, but when Dhoesone was still Hjalsone I'm sure it happened in Tuarhievel a handful of times.

[ryancaveney]

Or are you suggestiong that Seakspiar, a very wise elf, denounced his own masterpieces as codswallop and tried to break from the normal elven society expectations of what is traditional verse and rhyme?

:) That's not a bad idea. Of course, after Ghwald Ghweedhmaine banished rhythm as well as rhyme from the stylistic forms of the last few centuries, it is now considered avant garde (and dare I say hip) for the most alternative poets to go back to villanelles and sestinas to show how unique they are. ;)

[AndrewTall]

Hmm, I don't know Ryan, I can just see a human found too close to the border being asked to prove that they aren't merely a clean goblin, see the player squirm as they have to come up with a sonnet...

Any bard who can impress the elves probably has some elf in their ancestry anyway, where else would the humans have learned music, dance, and grace from? ;-)

[ryancaveney]

Hmm, I don't know Ryan, I can just see a human found too close to the border being asked to prove that they aren't merely a clean goblin, see the player squirm as they have to come up with a sonnet...

I can see it in certain realms at certain times, but NOT modern Lluabraight (the only Sidhelien realm which borders a Rjurik realm). They just kill strangers immediately, whether human or goblin or other. As I've said before, I don't see how that silly book about the human raised in the Sielwode ever got past page one:

"Look! A bunch of goblins is attacking a bunch of humans!"

"Good. Wait for one side to win, then kill the survivors, whoever they are. We want everyone on both sides dead, and we'll use fewer arrows if we wait for some of them to kill each other."


Any bard who can impress the elves probably has some elf in their ancestry anyway, where else would the humans have learned music, dance, and grace from? ;-)

Of course they learned it from us! But we've learned, too -- now, the better class of elven host shoots all humans on sight, as a favor to his guests. The thrice-cursed humans are actually far more dangerous than goblins, because they're more numerous and better organized.

[AndrewTall]

Well, the master of the Aelvinnwode doesn't kill everyone on sight per his write up, and the Queen of the Sielwode takes human lovers from time to time per the Sielwode description.

Personally I see elves as very prone to whim - if it amuses them they will welcome a human, if not they won't - and the gods look out for someone who outstays their welcome.

I expect that goblins are simply seen as unredeemable savages, humans are either better (they can achieve near elven grace briefly) or worse (they could be better and generally aren't).

Since the elves co-existed with the empire then there must have been some diplomacy between them and humans at least in the past - oddly more so for the Sielwode than Tuarheviel despite the realm write ups given their locations and Anuirean preference for land travel.

Similarly I would expect there to have been some reapproachment after the battle of Mount Deismaar simply to cool things down - you don't go from all out war to uneasy peace/whatever without concerted effort from both sides.

It depends a lot on how you want the elves to interact. If you don't want them to interact then they are purely xenophobic, if you want them to interact then some of them must be approachable at least some of the time.