Legends of Belariath

The Quest of Festivals Common

Eucep - Festivals of the Followers of Shaera

*Deep away at the mountains north of the forest of Nanthalion the Chirot paladin has her hideaway, one she secured a time ago and has been preparing already for a time, having sanctified the ground for the building of a temple there when the Chirot has gotten enough money for it.*

*There in one of the caves she has been giving teachings to the newer and of lesser order Chirot that are new in the ranks of Shaera's devotee's. Here are some of the rituals and festivals that she teaches to those new Chirot. While Chirot are religious, they are under NO obligations to do them, but any self respecting Chirot does them, though most of the time in privacy.*

*Eucep's home is about 200 miles northwest of Nanthalion. Surrounding her home community are six more communities each about ten miles from the main one where Eucep originated. Each community holds about 100 to 200 Chirot. Due to Chirot being highly mobile there is little difference between the communities as it is.*

The Morning Prayer.

*The Chirot is to stand in the morning, when the sun greets to look at the sun, the golden energies so akin to the wings of Shaera that they are the praise of her beauty. As the Chirot sees the sun (s)he holds hands together and recites the morning prayer for the goddess of all Chirot.*

"Welcome mother of the celestial garden, make your wings once again light the world and drive away the darkness, let your golden orb be our guide during this new day. We shall look after you till you relinquish to the darkness of Kiroa to let him loose his rage during the night."

The evening prayer.

*When the sun goes down the Chirot looks with tears at the sun going down, leaving the world without any light safe that what is reflected via the suns counterpart the moon. Once again the prayer is raised, but it's more a curse to Kiroa, the god of evil of the Chirot.*

"Oh moon, the dark counter to the beautiful golden globe, harbinger of Kiroa's fury, one again grace us, but leave us soon so our vision may be enriched with Shaera's smile again."

Short prayer before long journey.

*When the Chirot knows that a long trip is ahead (s)he does the following short prayer when knowing there might be danger.*

"Shaera, look over your child with your loving smile and let this trip not end up in a trip to the garden unless it's this child's time to return."

Recital before grand battle.

*When a Chirot goes into a preknown large battle, preferably against Kiroans the Chirots in a group say out loud together the small chant to invoke the blessing of Shaera.*

"May the golden fury of fiery rain descend via our wake oh great mother of us, let us bring your anger on those who deem us weak and prey for the collars. Let us shed their blood and stain the earth which we will not walk afterwards. Our might be right as we will claim back our freedom."

Celebration of the twins. Noden go pipoy.

*Among Chirot it is rare that twins are born, far and far rarer than there are twins among humans (though it is more frequent than with elves). Such births are celebrated and the young Chirot have a bit of a special attention during their life when in their community. The celebration is held one week after the birth if it went all well, if it had complications it is postponed to one month after the birth. During this day most of the cave community gather in the communal hall and take to a seating around the central table. The table is normally spread out with simple foods but on one place, where the mother and the children are is plenty of food. They are the blessing of the community, so they get the best for once. The music is always good and of the more rapid ones, merry tunes to show the happiness of the entire community.*

When the first was there on Belariath. Agrutakia.

*Date: Each year about six weeks before Yule. This celebration goes on the first Chirots to enter the plane of Belariath when Shaera took them and placed them there to recover from the eternal battle. This festival that takes two days reveres the first five Chirot on the plane. Ygmar and her mate Archin, Hurmes and Bizn the knights and Oilandra the priestess of Shaera. This celebration takes several communities that come together in one community, randomly chosen each year. During this time five Chirot are chosen who normally have NO power in the Chirot community to act as leaders for the two days by assuming the roles of the five. One day before the festival the Chirot chosen go into a trance to incite the guidance of the first five to let them be fair rules for those two days. Not that much rulership is needed for the two day are full with simple celebrations that mostly consist of large banquets and ends in general in a large orgy led by the five who started the Chirot race on Belariath.*

Practice of burial. Landre go kirn.

*On the question, what do the Chirot with their dead? Since the Chirot do not have any problem with death they view on a dead body simply as a worthless shell that should be returned to nature. How cruel it may seem to other races, they simply put the body of the dead, stripped completely of anything they had, out in the wild and leave it for the animals and nature to claim. One will thus never encounter Chirot graveyards. While one might find the remains of one in the forest and think it might be one who simply did not survive in the wild, it might as well just be one who got dumped there.*

Festival of slaughter. Kalen go trinutar.

*This day is one that makes Torians especially totally furious with the Chirot. On this day the Chirot celebrate their superiority over the feather-winged beings in this world. The worst part that Torians know of is that the Chirot communities try to capture a Torian in advance to be as the festival suggests, to be slaughtered. Who the unfortunate Torian who gets taken by the Chirot for they die the most horrendous deeds after hours of torture witnessed by most of the adults of a community. The Chirot hatred for the feather-winged beings is great enough that they actually revel in the sight. Luckily for most Torians that they do NOT know of the Chirot race's practice of this.*

Ceremony of selection. Oden go hugr.

*Chirot belief in breeding their own kind in order to strengthen their race, love and reproduction stand loose from each other. As such each community takes to having one day in the year that all the fertile Chirot who are willing to reproduce come together with one of the elders who through rituals written up by the first five will determine which pairs will make the best offspring with the best survival chances and with the biggest potential. This means that sometimes some Chirot are excluded from breeding if they are deemed unfit to breed. (A reason some Chirot leave and go explore.) It comes to no surprise that the end of this day tends to end in a orgy.*

Song for Shaera. Sharea ti jirr.

*Every year about half a year after the Celebration of 'When the first was there on Belariath.' the Chirot have a day of song, to strengthen Shaera in her fight. During this day just about all the Chirot will be singing a song of battle as Shaera herself supposedly has sung it during the first day that the battle with Kiroa had started.*

Music: Similar to 'Flight of the Valkyries' by Wagner.

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