Alkarif Rafts

The Alkarif Rafts are communities of wild turkeys who live scattered across the Everfall forest. They are called ‘Rafts’ because a group of turkeys is called a rafter. The turkeys live in tight communities and feed off of fruits from the trees and farmed insects. They generally try to stay away from the other resident of the Everfall Forest, the Woodpeckers, but the turkeys are welcome to outsiders because they're curious about tradings and such.

Each Alkarif Rafts build dens with bonnet roofs decorated in layers of orange autumn leaves on the ground. Each Raft's neighborhood tends to have 2 floors. On the second floors, the turkeys would build treehouses and hang floating gardens up there with pavements from the ground leading up. There are catwalks too in order to connect the dens. In the center of each raft is a large communal stilt house at the center of the Raft. The communal house can be pulled up and down (like a rising/descending platform) with complex contraptions by the stilts. The other stilt houses would build around the main building, and into detailed patterns that is their Raft’s crest.

## TRADITIONS

The turkies love to host parties in their Rafts, especially at night on a full moon (Fun fact: the moon looks more yellow/red in the Everfall forest). The tradition goes that each family would carve out their own table for the parties, then bring them to the main square (A main square of each Rift is located at the center of the Rift, basically the area around the communal house). Then the families would build a circle with their own tables around the communal house called The Ring. The family sits at their own decorated table, unique to their household. There, they enjoy feasts, often bringing their own food, and watch folk dances, talk, and enjoy drama shows. Most importantly, each family would create the best meal and reserve it for their forest gods. Torches of fires would be lit and the whole Raft chants prayers, letting the gods bless their foods and homes and harvest. Then they eat the food they offered for the gods, as a sign of accepting their gifts and their blessings.

Each Rafts are not to interact with each other (if they do, the Rafts will be hostile to one another) and they reserve it for “The Thanksgiving” day. On that day, the Raft leaders and the whole Raft would make a pilgrimage to The Autumn Ring, a neutral territory and divine area in the Everfall forest. There, all of the Rafts meet up and celebrate. This happens every year, on the date of mating season. In the celebration, turkeys do their mating dance, hook up with each other, talk to their relatives from other Rafts, get blessed by priests, get married (When turkeys are engaged, they can’t get married until Thanksgiving). Their most popular attraction is their wrestling contests, where champions from each Rafts face each other. Other birds from outside the forest can visit this event and watch, though they’re not allowed to participate unless invited.

Fun fact: Turkeys are often used by the peacocks as jokes or insults to other peacocks because peacocks consider fighting as ‘barbaric’ (and turkeys do wrestle and do bar fights, and they’re also related to peacock in zoology terms).