Puck

I will never understand what the allure of Puck is. Why do those Ederian enjoy hitting a big round rock with a club along a way? There is not even a winner, most of the times!

You will never know true comradeship with an Ederian, if you never spent a whole afternoon in the freezing woods of Ederos, playing a long game of Puck while drinking more Mead then you ever thought possible.

Puck is a game usually played in the northern regions, especially in Ederos. The game is beloved for its simplicity and is usually accompanied by a larger group celebrating and enjoying plenty amounts of beverages while cheering the players on.

Even though there are some rules to this game, pretty much every village has their own additions, changes and special rules for it. The basics, however, are always the same: Two or more teams each are equipped with one rock, somehow marked for their team. The rock is usually fortified with bands of metal to keep it from shattering too easily. All teams start at the same point and take turns in hitting their rock with a club as hard as they can, bashing the rock forward a predesignated route. The goal is simply to have the own rock arrive at the end of the route first.

Some additions to the game of Puck require the rock to arrive at certain checkpoints first, require to have a rock that has not been shattered, or have penalty actions when you get too off course. Many villages demand that the wnner's rock is the closest to the goal at the very end of the round, making the last hit usually a hectic scramble to kick other rocks out of the way.

The route for a game of Puck usually is several kilometers long and can span all the way around a village or even between villages. The crowd around it is usually equipped with several wagons filled with food and drinks, as the game is usually taking place over several hours. It is not uncommon that during the festivities the teams change, switch up or just change the course entirely. After the game, all teams are celebrated and often the actual winner is not really designated, not the least because of the lax handling of teams.