It’s the eve of the Summer Solstice, the highest point of the sun and one of the greatest festivals in the Thalassian year. At one of the many pockets of celebration starting to crop up around Silvermoon as the Midsummer Festival begins, food carts and vendors of wares have gathered near one of the Solstice ritual oathfires.
Join us Sunday, June 19th, from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm server time for a night of food, festivities, and traditional ritual for declaring oaths both old and new.
We are currently seeking vendors to join our corner of the festival!
While we’ll be ICly assuming that an ongoing street festival is scattered throughout many areas of Silvermoon City, we’ll be centering our event at the northeast end of the Court of the Sun. There are three carts present that would make natural backdrops for vendor booths; however, if more than three booth-runners are interested in joining us, more are welcome to bring their own feast table, noodle cart, or other props along!
Please contact Axiann, Eledris or Runa’the if you’d be interested in taking a place, or post here to let us know what sort of booth you’d like to run.
Non-Sin’dorei vendors are welcome so long as they’re interested in taking part in a Thalassian cultural event.
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The Ritual of Oaths
*As the summer solstice is a traditional time for oaths and commitments, this ceremony is presented as a traditional Thalassian observance that marks and blesses those oaths as a public ritual.
Many versions of this ritual can be assumed to exist – some highly traditionalist, some more influenced by thoughts and practices from the Church of the Holy Light, some specific to and customized by a particular order or organization. The version performed this evening will be public, and leans a little more traditionalist than not.
Interested participants come to the flame one at a time, at any time throughout the ritual’s duration – please feel free to come and go in your own time. Each participant brings their own personal oath, on any topic that’s sufficiently important to them. Oaths can be new, but they can also be renewals of past or standing commitments. The attending ritualist, a Magister Sunpriest, will guide the participant in performing a short rite to declare their oath to the public.
Vendors and Festivities
While oathing rituals may be a serious matter, Midsummer is still a time of celebration. Festivities can be found right on the bonfire’s doorstep, with the following vendors joining us for the evening! -
Duskwatch Saberguard Booth
A summer themed collection of Suramar jewelry, silks, and perfumes.
- [Summary of another booth here]
- [Summary of another booth here]
(This post will be updated with more links and info soon… we just really wanted to get this info out today!)
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Excited to be helping host this - albeit, I will not be there on Runa’the (in game: Runathe) most likely.
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We are still looking for a couple of booth-runners to join us for the evening!
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We Duskwatch will be there! Gotta support our Sin’dorei allies!
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Still looking for vendors! Comment down below or get in touch on discord.
My handle is Axiann#5749
Two booth spaces are still open! Aside from vendors of food, drinks, and items, we’d be interested in fortune tellers, IC portrait artists, clerics who’d like to bless attendees, or other creative ideas that anyone interested might have.
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I’ll be marking this on the Guarde’s calendar, very excited to attend!
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We look forward to seeing you!
Bump! See you all this Sunday!
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The view count on this thread makes me wonder just how many folks are gonna be there!
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It’ll be fun!! Can’t wait!
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Giving this a bump! It’s tonight!
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Happening soon!
The Ritual of Oaths will open at 5pm server time and remain open until 7pm server time. Attendees can participate at any point during the ritual’s duration, and should feel free to peruse Shal’dorei wares at the nearby market stall or chat with others while the ritual is ongoing. We only ask that mingling and chatter not happen on the steps where the fire is located – everywhere else is open!
We imagine this ritual to be an old Thalassian tradition (though non-Thalassian visitors are absolutely welcome to participate). Feel free to RP this as something your character has participated in or heard of before, or not, as suits you.
Look below if you’d like to see more information on the ritual and how it’s conducted! In-character guidance will also be available from our ritualists, Kelarion Bloodveil and Lanthranlor Sweetsage.
Nature of the Ritual
- The purpose of the ritual is to consecrate personal oaths and commitments by stating them before witnesses and adding a representative token to the communal solstice fire.
- Each participant should bring their own oath to make — something important to them, big or small. One’s oath might be based on a goal to achieve, a value to embody, a relationship to mend, a cause to swear allegiance to, or whatever else the character might choose to commit themselves to. Oaths can be new, or be renewals of old or standing commitments.
Ritual Format
- The leading ritualist will open the ceremony with an invocation and the lighting of the bonfire. From this point on, the fire is open to participants. Participants should come up to the fire one at a time — if several attendees are interested at the same time, the assistant ritualist will help organize so that everyone can take a turn.
- When an attendee approaches the fire, the lead ritualist will ask whether they’ve an oath to make and are resolved to fulfill it. With the participant’s confirmation, the ritualist will hand over a prepared ritual object to cast into the fire as the oath is spoken.
- If someone wants to participate, but standing up and making an oath in front of everyone is inaccessibly anxiety provoking, they can either come up to the fire and speak quietly to Kelarion or ask Lanthranlor to come to the fire on their behalf. Kelarion or Lanthranlor can cast their token for them if necessary, and will accommodate the attendee’s wishes around whether to speak its topic, or the attendee’s name, while they do so.
- After the oath has been made, the lead ritualist will speak a short blessing for the oath-maker and their commitment.
Come visit us in less than an hour!
This was probably THE most successful event I’ve ever helped host and it was a lot of fun! I hope folks enjoyed the vendor and the on-stage opportunity (literally!) to announce their characters’ goals or priorities!
Hope those of you who found yourself alone in the crowd enjoy your new companion pets/seahorse!
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This event, a first of its kind, was very, very nice!
Here are my best screenshots from the event:
Thanks to everyone who came and especially to our co-planners!
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