Midsummer Festival - Jygust 30th ET

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Morg
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Midsummer Festival - Jygust 30th ET

Post by Morg »

It was shaping up to be a beautiful eveningtide in the city of Dort. The sun was still high above Castle von Beersel and was already beginning to take on an orange tint, hinting at a blood red sunset to come. Only a few clouds disturbed the tranquility of the clear evening sky.

Down below, crowds were gathering around the harbour area in preparation for the carnival procession. Every yahren, a large part of the population of the city - and all those who came to visit, usually numbering at least the nobility of the other areas of Dort - would process from the waterfront, via the Market Square, to the walls of Castle von Beersel, where a bonfire would be held. In times past, early in the reign of the current Duke von-zu Dort-Billigh, the bonfire had been held in the courtyard of the castle itself, but the city's population had grown so greatly in the last few yahren that it now took place on a broad expanse of common ground just outside the city walls.

The festival and carnival were ancient traditions, but the advent of Pecunian influence had made its mark here, just as it had in every other aspect of Dortenese life. Now the procession was largely made up of sizeable wagons known as "floats". Decorated with floral wreaths, material drapes and other trappings of wealth and opulence, each of these floats was operated by a local business or organisation eager to promote themselves. One that stood out from the crowd was the float of Fontravel's Western Emporium - "The Best of the West" - which was strung with hundreds of burnished silver Eyes of the One, metal circles containing an X-shape, which jingled and jangled as the float moved. Also visible was a wagon devoted to the Dort Trading Guild, and one operated by the O'Brien clan of Jura, which was colourfully decorated with clan tartans and noisy with the sound of bagpipes. The most dramatic of all, however, was the float of the Blessed Temple of Wealth. A gilt-painted statue of the Golden Goddess towered over all the other floats. In one hand she held a chain and shackles, and in the other a massive coin bearing a passable likeness of the Duke's head. The priests and priestesses themselves were dressed in simple robes of royal blue, and the odour of rich, musky perfume surrounded the whole construction.

The nobles and moneyed merchants mostly watched from the upper floors of buildings or from horseback, while the general populace milled around in the open. Small stalls had been set up and were selling grilled meat and a dark, sticky toffee, as well as Dortenese dark ale.
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