Dal Rhea: Dances to be Performed Atop a Fallen Warbody

Colloquially known as the Dal Rhea (Low Juran: "Dances of Victory"), the fully-named Dances to be Performed Atop a Fallen Warbody are a series of celebrations set to song and dance, initially created to celebrate the first victories over the calamitously powerful Warbodies of the First Age Lichlords. Indeed, in their strictest form they are to be performed using a fallen warbody as a stage.

In the Modern Age, the Dal Rhea have since branched into several different seasonal celebrations, generally themed around the strength of the human spirit and the triumph of freedom over tyranny. As most of the original warbodies have since been lost to the Deluge or otherwise buried by the sands of time, artificial warbodies are sometimes created at major Dal Rhea celebrations (or otherwise done away with in lieu of normal venues). They are often accompanied by processions wherein a person on stilts dresses in a warbody costume (often of painted papier-mâché or light wood) and marches through the streets menacingly; kids are given walnuts, pinecones and other objects to throw at the marauding thing, then rewarded with sweets for their bravery.

Origins

---

Warbodies were usually colossally tall, vaguely Humanoid (though sometimes bestial) constructions, amalgamations of metal and bioengineered flesh, meant to house the souls of the Lichlords who ruled First Age Materia. They were one of several body types among entire "wardrobes", meant for warfare or shock & awe tactics. These creations were nigh-unbeatable and represented a major trump card against the Lichlords' main foes, the Insurgent demigods.

The first victories against the warbodies are credited to the great kaiju hunters and demigods of adventure, The Chorus of Seasky, who innovated new techniques—mixtures of artifice and magic—to topple the great beings and rapidly deconstruct the shells hosting their ambulatory souls. The Chorus happily disseminated these methods across the Insurgent pantheon, ushering in a new age of allied victories.

In the Modern Era, these methods are primarily carried on by the Cedas of The Stormlords Ronom and Ranarim; indeed the Dal Rhea celebrations are most famed in places where the Stormlord church is influential.

Major Celebrations

One of the few Dal Rhea still performed on the remains of an original warbody is located in the Sultanate of Typha on Khayyam. The warbody once belonged to the "Skyreaver" Indu'una, before its destruction at the hands of Insurgent Archmagi Tekchinyulot Ch'tosé and the Anzu Riders of Tel.

Banner: Various warbodies (Left and Right). A Dal Rhea performance (Centre).

Musical Sidebar: A basic Dal Rhea dance performed for chamber ensemble. Instruments vary by region: the melody may be performed by a full brass section in Dalmatica or a simple fiddle-flute combo in rural Valamon.

---

A depiction of a First Age warbody.