Festival of Ædean Paths

Glic, did you get the velvet shanks as I asked you to?

Emm, about that. I kind of forgot to feed them with flames.

Glic... Either you'll get the shanks by the end of next week or you'll explain to all these people whose fault it is that they freeze their asses off. Understood?

— Cymrian mother to her carefree son, when preparing for the Festival

Summary

The Festival takes place around the time of the Winter Solstice, i.e., at the same time the Gathering and is a regional tradition of Cymrian commonfolk. Although it takes many forms and has no single place, the most famous one is held in the spacious meadows of the Woods of Four Seasons.

Preparations

For the attendees the Festival is all about the Ædean Paths — the aurora paths that the hive mind leaves while travelling through Ædeos. Since it is winter, the watchers need to prepare themselves. The adventure could take more than a few days. To withstand the cold, one usually prepares a hot stew consisting of velvet shanks and oyster mushrooms. The key part of the festival is to trace the lines of the paths and to not lose focus on to petty things — material in particular. The viewers maintain heat by burning up the wood concept gathered by the oyster mushrooms with the flame concept concentrated in the velvet shanks.

The First Red path

The central part of the Festival is to trace the first red path. By tradition, the path with the colours of the flame, i.e., red and orange belong to the Cymru, thus whoever first observes the red flare on the sky is said to be selected by Ædeos to take part in the next Gathering.

People gather in the Woods of Four Seasons to celebrate the time of the Gathering. When Ædeos is entered, the night sky is cut by hundreds of auroras.