Festivals

There are many varieties of festival about the land of Avalon - significant dates in a city or guild's calendar, or remembering a great event in the land's history - but the most important festivals, in an ongoing sense, are those relating to the Gods; festivals of consecration, of holy significance, whose enactment provide the most significant contribution of the priesthood (see HELP PRIESTHOOD) to their patron's ongoing Avalon agenda. Festivals are the source of icons and statues honouring a deity. They are the precursor of the ongoing holy rituals; little sequences of actions perpetuating the effect of a festival and often bestowing benefits on the mortal carrying it out. Festivals serve to consecrate holy ground, and to render holy statues and icons - to spread the divine word - to be a constant presence about the land.

Finally, festivals and their creations are the target of the iconoclasts: those bent on the destruction of icons, statues and the defilement of holy ground.

Syntax: PARTICIPATE
If you wish to participate in a festival, and providing you are in the presence of the member of the priesthood presiding over its rituals, you may type PARTICIPATE to declare your involvement active. You may cancel participation by simply moving to
another location - and if you do so you will automatically leave the congregation. To rejoin you will need to declare participation again. If you successfully see through a festival as a member of the congregation you will invariably receive a significant
boost in experience; unless the festival requires experience to be sacrificed for its completion.

Syntax: CONGREGATION
When you are a participant in a festival (providing you have a patron), or if you are presiding over it, you may use this command to list out all members of the congregation, the festival being run, together with the deity it is honouring and the
individual member of the priesthood presiding.

There are seven major festivals, in addition to those personally significant to a specific deity or realm. The first four relate to the glorification of individual deities, the next three are concerned with priesthood interplay with the Song of
Creation. Here they are:

ONE: THE ERECTION OF THE DIVINE STATUES

The Festival of Statue Creation - this series of five rituals is used to create a statue, as a permanent fixture in the location of the festival, in honour of the deity to whom the festival is dedicated. The statue becomes a permanent holy artifact
overseeing the location. Offerings required from each congregation member: single batch of ten of any metal; dead body/named CCC or 100 fine fabrics (silk, wool, quality cotton); invoking of all spirits or blackroot from non-spiritual types; sketching of
five core ritual shapes or offering of runes/diamond equivalent shape.

TWO: THE MAKING OF THE HOLY ICONS

The Festival of Icon Blessing - this is the most simplistic of the festivals and requires a congregation of three, plus the presiding priest. It creates an icon, dedicated to a specific deity; a holy relic that can be moved around and will imbue the
wielder with certain protections - but, more importantly, is a continuous glorification of the chosen divinity. Offerings required from each congregation member: two hundred gold coins; twenty piece of wood or dyes commodity; invoking of full spiritual
entourage or offering of blackroot for non-spiritual types; offering of ten leather or ten marble slabs (as a single batch).

THREE: CONSECRATING A LOCATION TO BECOME PART OF DEITY'S HOLY GROUND

The Festival of Holy Ground - the most significant of peaceful festivals, this requires a congregation of ten plus presiding priest. It is used to lay the basis for a location being given a holy mark by the patron deity. The successful festival allows the deity
to preside over an obeisance and thereby apply his or her divine mark to permanently render the locationas holy ground. Offerings required: twenty essences, dead body or smashed icon/statue, or a hundred fine fabrics (silk or wool); one tenth of
congregation member's experience surrendered; one thousand gold coins offered up; icons of patron deity.

FOUR: ENHANCING HOLY GROUND VIA CONSECRATION FESTIVAL

The Festival of Consecration - the fourth festival has six ritual stages and is used to heighten the holiness of a location once it has been marked by the patron deity. Consecration allows it to be further marked, to make it more holy, to eventually allow
it to be claimed as a location of 'temple' significance. Offerings required from congregation members: twenty essences per marking level (so between twenty and eighty required); dead body of named CCC, or a hundred fine fabrics, or a dead human body;
between ten and forty percent of congregation's experience surrendered; icon of patron deity or smashed statue of non-patron deities; sacrifice of some of congregation's Farming and Labours skill.

FIVE: ADDING NOTES OF FAER TO THE SONG OF CREATION

The Symphony Festival: this is the fifth festival and the first of a triumvirate twining the priesthood with the Song of Creation. It requires a congregation of ten individuals. This festival is not currently open to mortalkind.

SIX: AUGMENTING DIVINE ATTACKS AGAINST THE REALM-SONG FAER OF A LOCATION

The Festival of Conflict is the sixth festival and the touchstone of priesthood aggression, directing the will of mortal congregation against the very Song of Creation. It requires a congregation of six or more. First the congregation must hurl
down a weapon, to signify their intent - to bolster the violent faer conflict of the locale; then all must offer a circular artifact of the land to bind the congregation in knowledge. Then two personal submissions: the fighters must sacrifice the benefit of
their recent slaughters (and must have shed sufficient blood to satisfy) while the pacifists must give up the benefit of their recent altruism in the face of death (and must have rescued souls a-plenty); and secondly a sacrifice of personal well-being, the
heavy price of establishing this connection with the battleground of the Gods.

Next, as the Festival of Conflict continues, a holy icon must be lain aground by the presiding priest. If this is an icon of the festival patron then all must TOUCH it, to symbolise their committed sympathies; but if an icon broken of a defending deity or
realm representative, it must be SMITTEN in a smashed form to demonstrate the power of mortal resolve in the face of divine conflict. Penultimate stage: the pacifist of highest experience or the fighter of highest combat ratio or attack rating in the
congregation must step into the fray. If the former then he or she must voluntarily take his/her own life and see out the festival as a ghost - a link imperative with the realm-song beyond; if the latter the congregation en masse must slay this combatante
paradigm and such a worthy ghost will likewise engender the realm-song connection.

Finally - denouement - all the congregation must gesture full trust in the presiding priest and, if a fighter, said priest must be cut down; slain to conflagrate the festival's conclusion. If a pacifist, said priest must splinter his/her soul into the
iridescent fractals - equivalent brilliance - and thus will the Song of Creation feel the effects of mere mortal endeavour.

SEVEN: SANCTIFYING A FAER DEFENCE BY BOLSTERING THE SONG OF CREATION

The Festival of Sanctification is the seventh festival and the last of the priesthood trinity of rituals affecting the Song of Creation, marshalling mortal willpower to affect the conflict of the Gods. It requires a congregation of at least six
individuals. There are seven ritual stages: firstly laying armour at the feet of the presiding priest, then offering up a circular artifact of the land; then three personal sacrifices - ten encounters with the ship of the dead, a portion of one's bodily
well-being and then the undertaking to fixate on the faer conflict, to retain it in mind 'til the defence is complete. Then comes the laying down of ten batches of each of the armour-making commodities and finally the linking together in a circle of the
entire congregation. This completes the festival and engenders the complete restoration of the cohesion or shielding of defending faer's realm-song.