Smiss

During the hottest time of the year the people of Sahul are visited by an host of golden smiss beetles. This is a sign by Tenno that it is time to stop working and to celebrate **Smiss**. Smiss is celebrated for a week filled with feasting and meeting family. It ends on the longest day of the year which is called Wurian Day, after which a new year begins. This festival is celebrated in honour of the Wuriun and Tenno; therefore it can be seen as the antonym of the night of the crescent which is celebrated on the longest night.

## Celebration

The first step of Smiss is to set up bonfires and decorate the house with lamps. This is done on the evening after the visit of the sacred smiss beetle host. As the fires burn and the light show begins the smiss beetles will fly around, landing on the shoulders of those that Tennos blesses for the new year. Then the next few days are spend fasting, sleeping, and avoiding the scorching rays of the Wuriun during the day and either visiting family and friends or preparing a feast in the name of Tenno during the night. Poorer communities will collectively create one large feast for the entire neighbourhood while the rich pay for their feasts themselves.

### Wurian day

Across most of Sahul Wurian day is one of the warmest day of the year. This lends the festival a character of refreshment. In the morning when it's still cool people will bring small offerings to Tenno. During the warmest periods of the day people will seek bodies of water to cool themselves. Here they will relax and mostly talk to friends, family and neighbours. Free drinks are handed out by brewers, inns and taverns. Magic users will use their mana to cool these drinks so everyone can have a good refreshment. Bathhouses also open their doors for free so common folk can use the service to cool down during the hot day. During the evening when things are less warm a communal food service is held. In small towns every villager will join the large table setup will in the cities individual blocks will organise these meals. After the meal everybody will mingle around a bit before everybody is invite for a great dance around the a large pyre. Due to constraints by government officials in most cities the pyre is a small campfire instead. It's not uncommon for citizens of cities to travel to the country side for the day to experience the festival properly. During the whole day but especially during the night young folk will search each other for it's said that you will find your true love on Wurian Day.

## Kaiser Nicholas the Butcher

In 788 a dwarven Kaiser known at the time as Nicholas the Crow decided to retake the Ancestral hall of Aurum Invicta by himself. So he took his regiment of Legolsian Guards and took off for Ortus Mons. When he arrived he took one look at the frigid mountain tops and marched straight back off the mountainside. In an attempt to save face kaiser Nicholas instead decided to raid the surrounding villages, scalping the heads of anyone disrespecting him by not bowing down and stealing their children as slave labourers with their tongues cut out. Back home he claimed that the scalps he brought back were of baby giant and that he liberated these children from the evil grasp of the giants. For a full year these children were forced to work for the kaiser until they had repaid him for his "kindness". However on the morning of Smiss a beetle landed on each of the children their shoulders, and none on that of the kaiser. They all took this as a sign and in the evening the threw him into the bonfire. They then scatered and attempted to escape the Imperium. Those who survived came home, writing about the horrors of Kaiser Nicholas, who from then on became known as Nicholas the Butcher.