The Day of Blood

The Desmian New Year festival, marked by crop devastation and hauntings. Celebrated differently by Orthodox , Ishkibite, Feywild, and Alkara/Mathari Dryad traditions.
Once a year, every summer, the continent of Desmia is struck by a curse: blood rains from the sky, and the crops it falls upon wither and die. Mists bearing the howling of the dead envelope the land, shaming the people for their ancient crimes. Halcyon sent this down as divine punishment for Desmian humans pursuing their Dryad neighbors North. The humans did not listen to the God's warnings and now the land is marked.
The people of Desmia have responded by joining together in a grand harvest festival that day- crops are planted so they can be harvested the week before, and will be planted again the week after. But while travel is dangerous and farmwork is impossible, the peoples of the Land of Blood gather to celebrate in a day of continent-wide peace. The week of the festival sees the end of even the fiercest of wars as respective sides gather themselves for festivities. The informal truces tied to this day are as old as the endless wars that wound the land.

The Orthodox Desmian Festival

Orthodox Day of Blood celebrations are quite the party. Punctuating the week leading up to the revelry are moments of communal togetherness: the children perform plays re-enacting religious scenes, communities gather to tell local legends, and art (poems, songs, sculpture) in remembrance to those lost by the community is given public audience. Towns, villages, and cities pool their food together and cook their best dishes for the community. Once the festival begins, everything is shared. Even outsiders rarely need to purchase food or beverages as long as they join in the festivities. Large festival grounds are placed in central locations and massive tents are put up to keep out the blood rain. Feasting, dancing, singing, all are encouraged. While the day is a sacred day of remembrance, it is also a day of forgetting- party games, romances, and raucous dancing are all expected. Once the blood rain ends, the people gather for one final mark of remembrance- they parade down to the nearest river, pond, lake, or pool to give offerings to the fallen. Lanterns are lit for those who have died that year, and are sent floating on the blood-red water for the ghosts of the dead to find their way home.
"The Day of Blood is a day of catharsis and mourning for a traumatized society. It is when the people of Desmia join together in public acts of ritual memory and ritual forgetting. It reinforces the need for war while providing a space of emotional release from that war. The festival is both a repudiation of the endless terror of the Orthodox worldview and a ritual reaffirmation of it. It is a statement of cultural victory- 'this year, I survived!'" - Emesh God of Knowledge

The Ishkibite Festival

The Ishkibite festival is a more solemn adaptation of the Orthodox one. The first half of the festival is one of prayer and song, with a communal retelling of the Redemption of Halcyon. Food is eaten, rites are observed, and songs are sung- it is a joyous event even if it isn't as wild as the Orthodox festival. Halfway through, this religious observation climaxes in the Walking of the Mists- where the able-bodied members of the Congregation walk together into the blood rain, often chanting hymns. Exposing themselves to the mists and rain, they chant to redeem themselves, the land, and the rain itself before finally returning back. There, they douse themselves in water and wash the blood from them. Some communities also have a ritual announcing of things that wish to be forgiven, with the community forgiving those who have transgressed. After that, large fires are lit, and the party starts in earnest- drinking, dancing, song, games.
"Go and walk into the dread storm. Look upon the wounded, bleeding heavens. This is what the war has made and what the endless struggle is. Return, and wash yourself. Your spirit will be made pure and your failures will be forgiven." - Ishkibal, in verse 100 of The Words Ascendant

The Alkaran Festival

The Alkaran festival is far more ritualized and has a second purpose- to summon the Gods to return the word to a living paradise. It is also, separately, a wild party. Trees are designated as representative of the Gods and decorated in the week before; tents with bonfires are prepared along with a great feast. The great call to the heavens occurs when the rains begin, followed by a cheer as the rain falls. Feasting occurs, and the festival breaks into phases- dancing and revelry interrupted by intermittent ceremony and toasting. Young adults go out for circle dances around the God Trees before running back to the fires for warmth and drinks. Barrels and buckets collect the rain as the highest status young adults are doused in blood before the crowd as the others joke about them and applaud them. Warriors play keep-away with each other with stuffed snake effigies while their communities watch and cheer.

The Feywild Festival

Feywild celebrations of the Day of Blood are all extremely varied, often combining parts of Alkaran, Ishkibite, and Orthodox festivals with their own new year traditions.

Primary Related Location

Desmia