Yearly Embroidery

The sunlight, which covers all of the layers of The Surface is terrifyingly powerful. The prolonged exposure turns anything that's not protected with oils gathered from Beasts from Above or the layer rocks to dust. Even with the protection, mere seconds completely bleach most of the materials and hair leaving only white. Because of that, the people living up there really value anything which still has some color. To the point where they trade for materials and colorful threads and seal them so they can embroider the clothes of those who managed to survive another year.

White on the outside, colorful on the inside

Once someone's birthday comes, the tribes settle down in a shaded place for a day. Next, they build a tent from thick materials which don't let any light to pierce inside. Everyone takes off their protective robes and masks and robes and those belonging to the one celebrating their birthday are given to the person most proficient with the needle in the tribe. They unseal the materials and threads that were bought from the inhabitants of the lower layers or other tribes and start to create the embroidered lining to birthday boy's/girl's robe under one of the few light sources. If the robe survived more than one year, new embroidery is added to the old one, creating more and more complex patterns. The protective mask is also adorned with various braids and beads, those, however, will be taken off before leaving the tent.
While the "needle master" works, the rest of the tribe prepares a feast and games. Once everything is ready, the one whose birthday is celebrated puts on the newly decorated robe in a way that will reveal its lining and their adorned mask on top of their head. With that, the main celebration begins. People eat, play, and spend the rest of the day having a good time.
Anyone who doesn't show any hostile intentions can join the tribe in their celebrations and will be welcomed as one of its members.

Primary Related Location

The Surface

Related Ethnicities

• People of the Surface

Components and tools:
Colorful materials and threads, needle, food, materials for the tent

The weird case of birthdays

Aside from the people who were born in The Pit, everyone who lives here awakened here 15 years ago. And while they remembered how to speak, their skills and their names, no one knows if they had any life before that. A lot of people decided to treat the day of the Awakening as their birthdays while others chose to pick that day by themselves. The only ones lucky enough to not have to choose were the children of The Pit.