[EVENT] Festival of the Phoenix (21-6-2023)

The Festival of the Phoenix is the yearly celebration of Xeion's period of reign, and starts on the morning of the 21st day of The Mead Moon. The Festival of the Phoenix is a festival dedicated to their patron deity, but also a time for the people of Xaila to connect with one another. Officially the festival lasts for three days, but all of Sunpeak is considered a period worthy of celebration to the people of Xaila.

FIRST DAY - XEION'S AWAKENING

Preparations for the day include decorating the city, preparing lots of food, cleaning yourself thoroughly, dressing within your finest clothing and gathering you and your family's supplies for the making of their wreaths at the celebration. On the first day of Sunpeak the citizens of Xaila get up before sunrise, gathering at Xeion's main temple within Al-Qahil. It is tradition for the tribes to travel towards the capital for this day as well, and they are welcomed open heartedly, no matter the relation between the royal family of Al-Qahil and the Chieftains at that particular moment. The crowd gathers around the temple, all bringing colourful tapestries with them to lay down on the ground and take place upon. On these tapestries they pray in silence, faced towards the temple and the ever burning flame. Their prayer is led by the High Priest. They pray until dawn breaks through the night sky and the constellations make place for Xaila's powerful deity. The High Priest ends their prayer when the sun is fully visible, and announces the start of the celebration. The people of Xaila will then take a moment to greet one another and wish each other a blessed Sunpeak season.

The celebration starts an hour before dawn after the prayer. Around that time, the city transforms into a paradise containing many colourful food stands, circles of people sharing stories, and most importantly, those of the family who have been chosen to create this years' wreath. Each year, one specific person from a family is chosen to create its wreath. These chosen family members gather in front of the main temple to sit down and craft their wreath's together. Wreaths are special decorations to be hung on one's front door, showing their respect to their patron and thanking them each day of his ruling period. Crafting your family's wreath is a great honour, and must be performed with utter care. Wreaths are often created using twigs and several types of desert wildflowers like desert marigold, dried golden sun cups and the apache plume. As the finishing touch, something of pure gold must be added. Whether it's a pendant, necklace or some other decoration. After the wreath's have been finished, the family members are allowed to join in on the dancing, drinking and eating that will last until dusk.

SECOND DAY - THE DAY OF RESTING

Like the name suggests, the second day is a resting day. Everyone, except for those with crucial jobs like the Crimson Dawn for example, gets a resting day off from their daily duties. Markets are closed and shopkeepers sleep off their hangovers from the night before. Those who need the resting day the most, are those participating in the final day's ritual within the Sun Ring. They will need their strength most of all.

THIRD DAY - A WARRIOR'S HONOUR

The third day plays an important part within the festival. Strong warriors or soldiers from several families are invited to participate within a special performance. The performance takes place within the Sun Ring, where the chosen warriors will mount mighty horses for a showcasing of their skills. In total there are three groups who will be performing. Those who are trained within the arts of the spear, those who have been taught the way of the bow, and those who have dedicated themselves to the throwing of battle axes. They perform their skills on several targets wooden within the arena. After the three performances, the Queen grants one warrior of each expertise the honour of showing their skills on real targets. The three chosen warriors will then take on three traitors from the Xailan dungeon underneath the castle. Losing to these traitors is one of the biggest dishonours, comparable to losing within your proving. After having executed the traitors, the three warriors are honoured and offered three special cloaks. These cloaks are woven within the Xailan colours and decorated with small pieces of gold. They are allowed to wear the cloaks for the rest of the day during another celebration similar to the first night, until the sun goes down again.

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The IC Festival of the Phoenix will last until the end of OOC July. Which means, Festival of the Phoenix related threads are allowed to be created from today on until the 31st of July! Enough time to celebrate each day with your characters. When creating threads celebrating each individual day, be mindful of the timeline of your threads! (For example, events happening on the first day will always happen before the celebration on the third day.)

Please tag all of your festival threads by adding [FOP] to your thread titles!

Have fun, and happy celebration of Sunpeak!

Love, the staff <3