Sointrare "The Moon Dance"
Sointrare, or the Moon Dance, as it is refered to in the common tounge, is an Ancient Valnorian custom. Its practice dates back long before the dark days of the Sundering and the upheaval of the Cadence. Back in more innocent times, when Folurne was still whole and the twins goddesses were mere children, frolicking playfully with one another through dusk and dawn in the heavens above. Sointrare occurs in the height of midsummer, when the moons are at their closest to the world, bathing it in silver light. It was once celebrated in open groves beneath the moons light. Now millennia past, the Valnorians descendance, the Dral'azie must take to specific caverns in the underworld where they have made a number of small shafts exposed to the light of the world above that they open on this day. The largest of these is in Draal'Ithilien, the temple of the moon, dedicated to the Goddess herself. Thus they hold the festival here, dancing in the silver beams of their goddesses former throne as their forbearers had once done eons past. This is the most peaceful and benign and traditional of all the Dral'azie customs, one that remains mostly unchanged.
Previously it had been a celebration dedicated to Aulreth and her majesty, but as Aulreths nature shifted, it instead became a festival dedicated to her daughter, Myria'cresne, the Goddess of Moonlight, and of the innocence and fragility of life and rebirth that she represents. Even though the world and very nature of the Goddess has changed. The festival and its deep rooted meaning within Drow culture still remains the same. That of the Fertility the moonlight bestows, and the reminder of the precious gift that is the fragility of life.
During Sointrare, Myria'cresne herself is said to appear at the grand of Draal'Ithilen near Rie'shae, and bathe in the moonlight of her shrine amongst her unknowing followers, appearing merely as a common Dral'azie.
Primary Related Location
Comments