This monument was constructed to thank the thunderbirds for rescuing the Jogah. They brought the Jogah to the land of thunder where they built a village and are now thriving away from their enemies. The monument has a granite foundation while the bird is made from scrap metal and shed thunderbird feathers. Because it is made of metal and there are a lot of thunderstorms the status is always damaged from the regular lightning strikes.
Appearance
The statue is a large thunderbird with majestic wings an standing on its massive talons. The statue has a wingspan of five meters and height of three meters. The foundation is around three meters tall. Its surfaces are untreated except for the top where the jogah split away a parts of the granite rock in order to create a flat surface for the bird to stand on.
The body of the statue is a combination of charred, rusted and damaged scrap metal pieces that are haphazardly welded together. The wings of the bird are decorated with more than a hundred blue feathers that were shed by thunderbirds. Making the statue pretty colourful in a dystopian kind of way!
Construction
The construction on the monument began and ended after the fifth
harvest since the village was founded. According to the records the builders needed about fifty
cycles to finish the project. The biggest amount of time was putting the granite foundation in place and then scavenging enough scrap metal and thunderbird feathers.
The First Reveal
After construction finished the builders called together the entire village to reveal the wonderful statue. The villagers prepared for a big festival with the statue covered by a large fabric. When it came to the reveal everyone was sitting and standing around the statue. After a short speech from the mayor at the time the fabric was pulled of. The Jogah were about to rejoice when a very powerful lightning bolt struck the statue. The strike did not fully destroy the statue since the builders had considered for this to happen. They did not plan on it happing the day the statue was revealed though.
In shock everyone just looked at the charred and smoldering statue. After a few seconds the mayor finally recovered and started clapping. Slowly the entire village started joining in. To this day some believe that it was all planned. Later on the mayor said that it was a sign of the thunder god that he approved of his new statue. As he is the god of thunder he considers a lightning strike to be his blessing! To this day whenever lightning strikes the statue the villagers know that it will be a good day.
Thunderbird Festival
Every year the villagers gather for the Thunderbird Festival. It takes place over an entire week and has three highlights and a competition to prepare for it. It is by far the biggest event in the village and nobody would ever dare to miss it.
Competition
Fifteen
cycles before the festival the
teenage Jogah gather together to compete in the scavenger hunt to repair the statue from all the damage it sustained. For the hunt the oldest go by themselves while the younger contestants find themselves in groups of three to five members. The goal is to find as many thunderbird feathers and retrieve as much scrap metal as possible in five cycles. The contestants collect the scrap metal in a pile and the feathers are collected by the repair crew. Only the most beautiful feathers are accepted. Those that are damaged or have lost their colour are not counted but collected separately.
After the competition ends each group and solo participant get points for their piles and collected feathers. The group with the most points gets to help with adding their feathers to the statue at the end of the repair works. Much more important is however the winner of the solo participants. The winner is granted the first dance for the opening of the festival. They can choose a partner to do the dance with. Chances are high that these two will end up as mates since winning the competition is considered good fortune!
Repair & Preparation
After the competition with all the new materials ready the repair crew will cover up the statue and make the repairs necessary to make the statue look nice and shiny again. The rest of the village makes the preparation necessary for the festival. They clean, cook, roll tobacco construct temporary tents and tables for ten
cycles until everything is ready.
The Great Reveal
The festival is opened with the great reveal. All villagers gather around the monument and await the reveal of the statue. Important villagers hold some speeches while everyone makes bets on how long it will take for the first lightning bolt to strike the statue this time around.
The moment it happens the villagers rejoice and dance as the thunderbird mountains has blessed their village once more. After many moments the villagers will move on to the next big event of the festival.
The First Dance
It is the event of the harvest where those that come of age can invite their future mate to a dance. Usually it is already predetermined who dances with whom to avoid drama, but there have definitely been some left disappointed when they did not end up with whom they wanted to dance or if they ended up somebody's second choice. The winner of the competition gets to choose and then begin the dance first. The rest then goes by order in which they were ranked unless they were already chosen for a dance.
The Feast
After the dance ends the festival properly starts. The Jogah make music, debate, eat, sleep, mate and do whatever they want for the next six
cycles. When the feast ends the festival ends and everyone takes two
cycles of rest. The Jogah spend this time with their families or by themselves to recover from the festivities and contemplate about the last harvest and make plans for the new harvest. After the time of rest ends everyone goes back to their usual routines.
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