As winter slowly loosens its grip on Ivras, excitement is building for the yearly springtime Feast of Flowering, a festival where everyone—commoners, nobles, merchants, farmers—are called upon to ask the Patrons for a prosperous new year.

Historically, this vibrant, sometimes frenzied feast day was celebrated by individuals building shrines and performing ritual sacrifices to any of the three patrons in exchange for fertile agriculture and… fruitful family planning. Now, practice has become more secular, and many willing Ivratians simply tithe: extending generosity to neighbors, reflecting & showing contrition for past wrongs, or giving of their worldly goods to the state treasury (or that of the Order, if you’re so inclined).

Still, some more spiritual denizens take an old world approach, continuing to answer a direct call to sacrifice gold, crops, or whatever they have to offer at an individually-crafted shrine.

The Main Event associated with the Feast of Flowering is the burning of a massive wicker effigy in the central square of Faline, just outside the palace gates. Any Ivratian who can make the journey is encouraged to bring something to throw onto the effigy, signaling their commitment to a strong, unified Ivras. This is a modern nod to historical spiritual practices, as well as an excellent excuse to partake at some of Faline’s finest alehouses before setting a huge horse on fire.

Last year, one year after the corruption of Archmage Hagia, the Feast of Flowering celebrations were subdued, and in some cases, canceled entirely.

The year that followed has been considered bad by many. Now there are whispers among the superstitious—and others—perhaps the bad year was a consequence of unhappy Patrons, snubbed of their yearly springtime offering?

Others scoff at this, citing more worldly reasons for the rough times. What’s certain is that this year’s celebration will likely be more well-attended than the last… better bring your most heartfelt, flammable offering to the effigy!

Many smaller cities and towns have elected to raise their own effigies, spreading the tradition from Faline to most corners of Ivras—at least the parts that recognise the Crown’s authority.

flowers galore 💐🌷🌸🌻

A new custom has emerged, starting in Faline but quickly spreading throughout the country: during the festivities, masked shrine wardens are handing out bundles of spring flowers to honor each of the three Patrons, but you’re supposed to only pick one of the Patrons to receive flowers from.

Despite this, a rumour has spread that if you manage to get your hands on a flower from each Patron, and bring all of them to the effigy to be burned, your year will be prosperous and fruitful…

Back-alley trading of flowers, bartering, even outright stealing has become rampant.

• To participate, either pick one Patron whose flower your character will start with, or head over to the #rolling channel to let RNG decide for you.
• To gain the remaining two flowers, depict your character asking for, trading, bartering, or stealing a flower from another player’s character who has that particular flower.
• Each piece must be worth at least 5g before the double bonus is applied. Collabs and roleplays are welcome as long as it is clear what flower each character receives, and that each player contributes 5g to the finished piece.

Rewards: Every piece will earn double gold, and if your character gets all three flowers, they will earn either +1 to Power or Discipline (mages) or 50 bonus gold (nonmages) and a special badge!

This activity is open to both mage and nonmage characters.

✨ event tag in wanted-ads forum

In the wanted-ads forum of the Anathema Discord server, you can now add the '💐 Event' tag to event-related posts, and use that tag to filter threads so you can find someone to RP, collab, or art trade with during this event!

📖 two story prompts

Explore the festivities with these two story prompts! One is especially geared towards nonmages, but all characters can of course complete them. Mages will earn stat rewards for every response.

Click here to see the story prompts!

🔥🐐 collab prompt

Earn double gold with this collab/roleplay prompt:

How do your characters show goodwill during the Feast of Flowering? Will they use the holiday to surprise the other with an act of generosity or as an opportunity to make amends?

🌟 ley token raffle

A ley token gives you access to the mysterious Ley Lodge, a place of deep magic and powerful items that allow players to create new kinds of characters and access other valuable in-game rewards.

Write, draw, or describe what you would use a Ley Token for. A new character or a current one? Create a piece worth at least 1 gold to enter the raffle, and when the event ends, we will let a random number generator pick a winner!

Click here to post your raffle submissions!

📚 new prompts

Nine new prompts have been added to the Prompts page! Dive into your character’s interests with these new questions.

🎲 d20 roll prompts

Stuck in a roleplay? Unsure what to draw? Head over to the #rolling channel on Discord to try out our new D20 Roll Prompts! You will get a randomly chosen prompt of a word or phrase that can be interpreted in whatever way you like! Literally or figuratively, as an overarching theme, or mentioned in passing—anything goes (as long as you can point it out to staff if we ask about it!)

Every work that contains a D20 roll prompt will earn +2 gold!