The Great Hunt
The Great Hunt is a yearly tradition of The Battanian Confederacy, during which there is the competing activities of parties and revelry in the towns and cities, as well as the greatest of fights in the forests. During the Great Hunt, the bravest and strongest of Battanian society seek to test themselves against the greatest of the beasts and challenges of nature in The Wyldwood, to prove that they deserve to be looked upon with respect by their gods.
The tradition holds high significance for the people as it represents how, despite their construction of cities and modernization, they hold true to their roots as people of the wilds, as hunters, and as followers of "the old gods". Only a few outsiders have ever taken part in this tradition, and none of returned alive.
Execution
The Great Hunt truly begins like many other great celebrations, with feasting and gatherings in the major towns and cities, as the hunters arrive to declare their quarries. A hunter must receive a blessing from a priestess of the Fey Court before they are allowed to participate. Once they gain a blessing, they can declare a quarry, a specific goal or creature they are setting out to slay. Once they do, it is a pact between them and the Fey gods that they will do this act or die in the attempt. Hunters are permitted to form groups of up to 6, however the difficulty of their hunt must increase exponentially for each extra member. As such, there is significant strategizing by hunters over whether to hunt alone or in a "pack". Most successful hunters complete their hunts alone. However, it is said that a pack who completes a great hunt together will be forever bound by powerful Fey magics, increasing the strength of their rewards far beyond that of a lone hunter.
The towns and cities will hold huge feasts to feed the hunters well before they set off, and will do their best as a community to arm them for success (of course the wealthier of the society will likely receive some of the best gear though). The people of the nation then spend two weeks preparing the feasts and parties to end all feasts and parties, ale and wine is imported, food is prepared, and the greatest halls are decorated. When the hunters return with their prizes, the prizes are hung in honor in every great hall, and priestesses often bless them to be made into powerful items blessed by the Fey gods. Following the return of the hunters is many days of celebration, often fully stopping any productivity in a city as the fervour of the celebrations spread.
Each year only a dozen or so hunters will set out from each city, and usually only a handful will return with their prizes, but those who do are branded by the priestesses with arcane runes marking them as "hunters" for the rest of their lives, a mark of the highest honor within Battanian society.
Observance
The Great Hunt is held every year, with hunters departing on the 1st of Redfall and returning on the 16th, with celebrations usually wrapping up by the end of the 20th of Redfall.
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