Wayward Hearts Festival

Taking place on the 15th day of the 2nd month, for the last 24 years, the Queen Norah Glyn’s Royal Mascot Wayward has held a festival that extended from the palace into fairs in the streets around. This festival was called the Wayward Hearts festival, as it was established to bring people together in a celebration of love. People give gifts, attend street theatre, eat food together and generally enjoy the atmosphere. Many couples take advantage of the festival’s many romantic attractions to take steps in their relationships and many friends develop deeper bonds as they engage in games that are designed to form stronger connections with the people around them.

              Being a Princess when this festival began, the aforementioned Norah Glyn used to partner up with her husband and her blue phoenix to give a speech and deliver a small performance as the opening ceremony for the festival, however for the last 8 years Wayward has been instead performing this opening ceremony with the Queen’s daughter: Prince Anduin Glyn, who often composes a new love song in line with the overarching theme of the festival.

              For example, two years ago, public interest in the festival was waning due to the recent global tragedy, and thus Wayward deigned that the theme of that year’s festival was ‘constellations’. He had said in his opening speech “Love never goes out, like stars. Even when they’re blocked by the stars on dark nights, the beautiful tapestries that they paint across the night sky together still shine.” And after having a druid cast a spell to ensure the clouds never covered the sky that day or night, Anduin then played a new song that they’d called ‘Stars and Scales’, in tribute to her father’s past relationship with the late dragon Zerephraantor.

              Revered Mother Chen and her clergy have been especially busy since the festival’s inception, with her rushed schedule alternating between marriage ceremonies, sermons and poetry readings at her Sakura Sanctuary, near ethereal readings to entrance listeners at the pool and surrounding green, which is usually packed with people seeking to be transcended by the combination of her words, her the new sprouting buds of her trees, and the warmth of Aerys’ Love passing over them. During the ‘Constellations’ year, many members of the audience had sworn they were shifted to Celestia itself, with the stars brightly visible in the orange sky.

              This isn’t just a festival for adults though, as stalls that sell treats and toys litter the walkways and fields. Carnival games painted in bright colours can easily be found, and young bards at the start of their careers can often be heard performing for the children.

              In addition to that, but the large lake to the east of the palace walls is a popular spot for partners to take romantic rowboat rides down the river, or for friends to have not-so-romantic fun with the various pool toys, diving boards and other aquatic activities around the area.

              Wayward himself is also present throughout the festivities, and it has become somewhat of a local legend that if an attendee encounters him, and he gifts them with one of his long blue and white tail feathers, that he has delivered a blessing on their relationship, and they are destined to be happy for a long time. He’s also kind of a riot to be around, with many guests gathering around him just to hear him tell stories of the Queen, the King, other amusing anecdotes from other festivals and stories he’s heard from around the world. Another thing quests often note about these encounters is that his relationship advice is surprisingly adept for a bird who has been single for most of his life (aside from a short fling with a rat of course).

*“Whether it’s love for your siblings, love for your friends, partner, parents , extended family or love for your children, Queen Norah Glyn has taught me one thing that sticks out above everything else: that to find love is the most common, but also the most beautiful mission in the world.*

*Like bees to pollen, people are drawn to love, and find so much of their own centre in the love they feel from those around them and they feel for themselves.*

*The Queen is certainly a practitioner of magic, arcane, divine and primal, but even she has said in her own wedding vows that the Weave isn’t what holds the multiverse together: It’s love.*

*From the beginning of time to the end of the universe, and we have people who’ve been there to back that up, people will always fight and live for love.*

*So take a look around you, all the other people that came out on this beautiful day of celebration, and remember that you have always and will always be loved.*

*Now, it’s a beautiful day and you’ve already been lectured too much by this tiny hopeless romantic, so I think it’s time to declare this years Wayward Hearts festival, now officially begun!”- Wayward Glyn, excerpt from the opening speech at the 24th Wayward Hearts festival ‘Eternity’*