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This page exist to provide further information to the core Draconism page, relating to various important facets of faith which are nonetheless secondary to core information about history and the various gods. This page is considered Expanded Lore, meaning it is not required reading for a roleplay experience on MassiveCraft but can be used to add additional depth and content to Roleplay.
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Celestial Festivals
Draconist festivals are drawn up according to the twelve months of the year, placed exactly in the middle. These festivals are open to the non-faithful as well, in the search to entice new converts. The twelve monthly festivals are:
- Wildcard Festival (January 15): Taking place at the heart of winter, this celebration is an invitation for the priests of the community to celebrate the important events of the previous year in broader retrospective of all that has come to pass. This Festival specifically also celebrates Regulus and the Blue Dragons.
- Before-Spring (February 15): Amidst the clearing of the frost, this Draconist festival sees the creation of garland, bouquets, and other arrangements to show respect for nature. Nature-walks, protests of industrialization, and celebrations of the natural world via communal learning are commonly held during this time. This Festival specifically also celebrates Aurora and the Purple Dragons.
- Storyteller’s Festival (March 15): This festival is a celebration of the power of stories, and their importance in preserving oral history, especially when so much knowledge of the Dragons has been lost. Worshippers usually gather in someone’s home, or around a large stage, and take turns telling their favorite story. The tales are usually non-fiction, but fictional stories are allowed and encouraged, as long as they have some moral lesson or point.
- All-Faith Tournament (April 15): This festival features ritualistic fighting between groups (or pairs) of warriors in the name of the Dragons. It is common for Draconists to invite fighters from other faiths, and include them in the battle, primarily to show the grace of the Dragons, but also to show off the martial prowess of the Archon and Draconists who participate. Ritualistic Dragon-Magic is used to prevent anyone from outright dying in the arena, and this Festival (unofficially) celebrates Triton and his might.
- Cycles of Creation (May 15): This festival is the Draconist version of a “Love Festival” common in many other cultures and religions. During the day, Draconists gather and encourage others to spend time with their loved ones, specifically handing out flower-wreathes to single individuals, encouraging others to talk to them. While the day celebrates platonic and romantic love, by the evening Draconists are encouraged to spend time with their romantic partner(s), and the festival is seen as a particularly holy and important time to procreate and make love, as a celebration of life. This Festival historically used to celebrate Caius and the Red Dragons, but doesn’t anymore.
- Introspection Trials(June 15): This festival is less of a festival and more of a series of quests that Draconists task one another with, based on their perceived failures and weaknesses. Draconists are encouraged to devise a “mission” for another Draconist to try and complete, specifically with the intent of helping them get over something they struggle with, or learn something new, or improve and better themselves in some way. Succeeding in this task obligates the Draconist who did the quest to treat the quest-giver in some way (dinner, drink, a gift, etc), and the opposite if the Draconist fails (as consolation, the quest-giver treats them to something nice). Outright refusal to partake is looked down upon, and obligates all other Draconists to devise an even more convoluted quest. This Festival specifically also celebrates Severena and the Green Dragons.
- Harmony Jubilee (July 15): This the largest and most bombastic of all of the Draconist Festivals, an all-day celebration including a large feast, dances, and loud music and song. Most importantly, the Jubilee has hospitality extended to enemies of the faithful during this time, meaning they will not be attacked or chased out, so long as they do not harm someone first, or callously insult the Draconists hosting the festival. It is for this reason that the Jubilee (in Regalia, at least) are usually held in the countryside, to prevent any arrests being made. This Festival specifically also celebrates Felicula and the Yellow Dragons.
- Festival of Service (August 15): This festival has no defined structure, but is a celebration that encourages the faithful to remain humble, and offer their aid to others. For the entire day, Draconists travel in groups and offer their help, free of charge or expectation of repayment, to anyone who might need it. This can range from helping someone clean up their store, to building a home, to offering relationship advice, or trying to track down a lost pet, as long as the request does not obligate the Draconists to do something violent or offensive to their morals. This Festival specifically also celebrates Marik and the Brown Dragons.
- Mourning Festival (September 15): It is common for this festival to feature processions in the streets of towns and cities where Draconists carry candles to graveyards of other religions, to offer their condolences to remember the dead and honor their memory, no matter their religion or culture or citizenship. This Festival specifically also celebrates Umbra and the White Dragons.
- Harvest Ritual (October 15): This festival celebrates the harvest via a large potluck, where everyone contributes some ingredient or dish. The feast is a large public gathering, where non-Draconists are welcome to bring their own food and dishes. It also features lots of colors, as it is common to have dyed chalk that is smeared across people’s skin and clothes to mark them as worshippers of a particular Dragon. This Festival specifically also celebrates Daiana and the Gray Dragons.
- The Eternal Vigil (November 15): This festival is a solemn vigil in remembrance of the Archon who gave their lives historically, and even now, to protect and champion the cause of the Dragons. It is a festival that reflects on the suffering of the Archon, and even of the Dragons, at the hands of demonic forces. This Festival specifically also celebrates (or mourns) Caius and the Red Dragons.
- Gift-Giving and Sharing Ceremony (December 15): On this day, Draconists traditionally give each other personalized and thoughtful gifts of little monetary value. Usually, Draconists will choose a small number of people who they felt helped them the most throughout the year, and offer them gifts, with the expectation that everyone should get something. During this time, Draconists also partake in the ritual of sharing and absolution, wherein Draconists can reveal secrets or things they have kept hidden, that they regret or feel shame about, with the promise that by sharing at this ceremony, they will not be completely shunned or abandoned. To reveal a secret at this festival is a sacred act, and while it will not absolve them of all possible sins, it does ensure that the other Draconists will work to help them through it, and repent (if needed). This Festival specifically used to celebrate Nox, but, after his sin and banishment, it no longer does (publicly, anyways). Nox worshippers and Slizzar still hold this festival as a celebration of him and his wisdom.
Priestly Activities
Rising
The act of Rising is one of the more complicated rituals a Draconist priest can perform, and is a harmless event performed in the name of Daiana meant to give closure to a member of the living through the calling forth the target of their communion. It should be stated clearly that this ritual is not a Summoning or Evoking, and the entity that appears is only a visual construct from the memories of the participating party. This form can be the appearance of dead relatives, close friends, or those who were sadly taken too soon from a partner that they loved. The act of Rising is meant to provide closure, and priests as channelers of the ritual and also emotional guides, speak through their “puppet,” being granted temporary access to relevant memories shared between these two figures, or which might be useful in providing the living subject closure. Rising is seen as sacred among Draconists, while also being something that a priest does not perform lightly. An individual usually has to have a real emotional block in their mindset regarding a lost loved one for a priest to consider a Rising.
Scrying
A long time ago, Draconist priests developed a unique method for supposedly foretelling the future. Scrying originated in priestly efforts to try and aid leaders, community members, or the religious figure themselves in making decisions, or to at least warn them of the future. It is believed in the modern day that the art of tarot reading emerged in mimicry of this action, given the similar elements involved. For a Scrying, a priest must collect some twenty or so metal charms, small and simple symbols or figures relevant to the local culture. Each has a piece of string or cord attached to it, and are wound together, obscuring which length’s end leads to which charm. The priest then has an individual desiring advice or to know a possible fate hold onto three or four strings, while the priest then unravels the remaining charms from the small group chosen. The priest then reads the charms for the interested party, interpreting them based on their cultural meaning and how they might factor into the individual’s life. Most Draconists try not to buy into Scrying too seriously, as using the actual powers of Dragons to read possible futures is considered invasive and tampering with destiny if not done for a very good reason, but instead use it as an elaborate form of ritual hot-cold reading that substitutes more direct methods of advice giving.
Trivia
- TBD
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