Charity of Pir
"Among the rich you will never find a really generous man even by accident. They may give their money away, but they will never give themselves away."Long in Agartha's past, a dragon nearly gave every piece of themselves to give fortune to those who claimed to be in dire need. When they finally were given a modicum of their generosity back, they found that many hoarded the fortune they gave despite having enough. Thus were the ideals of generosity ingrained in a single tale through Pir-Bhràthair, and after a plague showed those hoarding nobles the error of their ways, a yearly celebration honoring Pir and his generosity began! While it's stayed rather static until the modern day, it has changed seasons, size, and cultural cross-celebration, and unfortunatley in recent years even the nobles have begun to make their loopholes around the concept. But one must wonder, if the gods are still truly among us in different forms, should the rich and greedy cross their line once more, will there be disaster to fall upon their house again? One can only hope.
History
Mythological Origins
According to legend, one of the divine offspring of The Mother Dragons, Pir-Bhràthair was an intensely empathetic and caring soul among the dragons. After his predecessors gave their lives to form the world as we know it, his generation and beyond were what remained to guide and inspire the new mortals, recently transformed from the Mortal Forms they once were. While many of the other Mother Dragons and their kin had divine power and knowledge over so many wonderful things, Pir seemed to only have any influence over Fortune and Illusion, and didn't have much power over it at the same time. His blessings of fortune could only go so far away from him before it would wheel back and turn sour. As time went on, and people going through real struggles begged for his help, he decided to pluck off his scales and give it to them, so that his fortune would continue to follow them. Others who fell on hard times asked those blessed if they could have a blessing of good fortune as well, but they were fearful of what would happen should they give up their scale, and so directed them to Pir instead. The young dragon realized he had started a trend, but could think of no way to deny them, and so gave scale after scale until his body became soft and frail. It was only then that he had to deny the wanting, as he needed to recover his scales. However, he would not have much time to rest before a rough winter threatened much of the people, leaving the unblessed out in the cold while the blessed would have miraculously safe gardens and miss storms by just a hair. Seeing he had no option to save the people, he threw an illusion over himself, and started to give away pieces of his own body, transformed into scales. This too would march on, long after the winter had passed, and long after reasonability was out the window. It wasn't until a young urchin came to see the dragon, and heard the trembling of his voice, that someone finally asked if the god was truly okay. Pir could lie no longer, and revealed his unglamored form, having no scales, wings, horns, tail, or legs, and only having one arm with one claw left, bloody and chipped from constant use. He simply could not give any more on his own, and so pleaded with the child to turn his last claw into a blade and divide up what was left, so that the rest of his fortune could be given to those who needed it. The child, who lived with the people who now had fortune to spare and hoarded it more than the dragons themselves, fell into a fit of fury, and refused to let the god come to any more harm. Their parents, who had followed their child to the cave, saw the state the god was in, and asked if they could return their scales. Even as Pir denied it, their desire won out, and the two scales they had returned to the gods body as two pieces of a claw returning. The family as a whole carried the young dragon into the village, and showed the people there just what their actions had done to him, and demanded that they give their scales back, as now Pir himself was the one most in need. Despite everyone having a moment of hesitation, they started to rush the body of the dragon, tears of shame and remorse on their face. The young and the humble gave their scales first, then the comfortable who fell into the trend. Even the needy and the poor gave their scales back, as seeing the cost was too much on their conscience to bear. One after the other people kept pushing their scales back onto Pir, as his arms, legs, tail, wings, and horns grew back with an even brighter shine than they had before. But still, despite this vast recovery, the dragon had large swathes of scales missing. The villagers wondered amongst themselves if perhaps too many people had moved away, but Pir knew the truth. He looked towards the most fortunate of the village, and saw they had more than one scale, some having more than dozens. They had been given some, stole others, traded and lied for many. It was just a handful of mortals, but they held the greatest of the dragons scales. Feeling the glare of Pir on their souls, as well as the eyes of each and every villager who knew what they possessed, one noble stepped forward and returned a single scale, hoping to look generous. But, magic was not easily worked around, and as they gave one, all scales they possessed returned to Pir, who grew back one of their larger patches, standing tall for the first time in decades. The towns people cheered and cried for his return, and the less cynical praised the fortunate one for their generosity. Bitter, the nobleman mentioned all the nobles by name, imploring them to return all the scales he knew they had, since "now" they knew how much it hurt Pir. Begrudgingly, they did just that, as the alternative was suffering the wrath of the village. By the time the sun set on that day, Pir had grown all of his scales and missing pieces back, and shined with the luster of good fortune and generosity. But it was then that he made a decree he did not wish to, that no more could he offer his scales to anyone, nor would he offer any change in fortune. Instead, the people needed to share amongst each other, to know when to rely on others and when to be relied on, to give when they have plenty and recieve when they have little. If they did not, then their fortune would all be worthless in the end. With that, the dragon left the land, flying to parts unknown. The wealthy scoffed at his claim at first, but after a year of more hoarding and greed, they each found their families struck with plague, and nothing could cure them, even the most expensive and valued medicine and healing available. They would all die alone with nothing but their gold to satiate them, and so the lesson was learned.Historic Details
The Charity of Pir as a festival stretches back to at least -4000 EE, as it was an already established event by the time of the Three Kingdoms Alliance, although how commonly it was celebrated is up to much debate. Nonetheless, by the time of the alliance and cross-cultural community within Edda, the celebration was large enough to be held in the central World-Mountain Agartha. As far as records go, it began sometime after the end of it's mythological origin story, as villages would hold a yearly festival to honor Pir and his sacrifice, as well as the virtue of generosity he preached to them. While said generosity is an eternal concept, the festival eventually became a reason to hold larger charity drives and collections, especially if there is an ongoing crisis such as during the Border Wars or during the Red Wrath epidemic. It has been challenged and decried over many years, especially through particularly conservative eras of the nation, but even in the most critical of times there was always a cultural angle that kept the festival ongoing, even when nobles would sneer and spit in the faces of the impoverished. Still, the nobles are very few, and the prideful can only be so arrogant during a festival of generosity honored by the vast majority of the population. The average Agarthan knows humility and generosity like breathing, and that has been a historic throughline even now. Sometime before the Eternal Era the festival began to be conflated with various winter festivals of Edda, which similarly had themes of generosity and community kindness, in other renditions in order to stave off the harshness of winter. It's still held mostly in Agartha, but as the nation has become more of a cross-cultural experience especially in the Mountain itself, the idea has spread around the world. None celebrate is as lavishly as Agarthans, however, for better or for worse. In the modern day many question if it has lost it's original purpose, as many of the rich donate to charities their friends have set up, with many claims of embezzling and miuse being abound. But, given that the circle speakers are also among this class, there's no one to ordain how it must be done. Still, the common public look out for each other and serve each other as best they can, on this day and any other. Perhaps the old curse will continue once more, and these nobles will once more feel the shame of helplessness despite their great wealth.Execution
The Charity of Pir has stayed a rather evergreen festival throughout the years, with many affluent members of the community giving to charities or putting their money forward in active ways to provide food, clothing, essentials, etcetera. Even those without much money will often take part in large mountain-wide potlucks, donate what they can financial or material, and even businesses who still need to turn some profit will hold heavy sales and in more modern days match customer donations.
Especially as it's turned into a winter holiday over the years, there's plenty of warm foods and songs of the season going around, and tales of gods and heroes by the same beat. But, in the modern day, the main event has turned into a winter gala of sorts, where technically all are welcome, but only the affluant are expected and celebrated. They lavishly give to each others charities and foundations and funds, passing along the same lump of gold amongst each other. Sure, many still give a pittance to actual causes, but only enough to look good while still holding onto their own hoard.
In relatively recent years, starting around 762 EE, a ritualistic mound of pyrite and other gold-painted obejcts have been placecd in a giant offering basin, and ritualistically offered up to Pir in recognition of what he gave, and the reason they as mortals give to each other. After a prayer and a hymn, people are free to take an item from the mound, just not the one that they offered up themselves.
Observance
Originally the festival was held sometime in the middle of summer, but with it's current conflation with winter holidays around Edda it's celebrated in the middle of the winter season before other holidays take up the bulk of the later part of the season.
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