Hlal's Words (Holy Day)

## Garracks Eats it

Whilst the name of this holy day sounds
clumsy when translated into Illian its meaning is significant. “Garracks eats
it” is an incomplete sentence which, devoutees of the faith say, is correct no
matter how one completes it - Garracks devours all things.

This is the most unpleasant of the holy
days for humanoids. Whilst sacrifices can be demanded on any day of the year
other than Hlal’s Words, Garracks Eats it is the day they are most often called
for. Leaders of all nations make sure they keep their prison cells stocked in
the lead up to this day in the hopes that they will have a ready supply of
criminals suitably deserving to make up the numbers, but often they fall short
and the innocent also suffer.

In addition to live sacrifices, all adult
humanoids are required to sacrifice items of value, handing them over to
kobolds who either throw them into great fire pits or take them to be used by
the regime. While peasants can get away with sacrificing low value items like
food or trinkets, the kobolds keenly watch those who are known to be wealthy
and any rich person sacrificing items that are too low in value stands to be
punished.

Garracks Eats It occurs on the day after
the northern hemisphere winter solstice and it is intended to serve as a day of
pleading to Garracks to allow the world to be reborn in fire from its cold
torpor. In places such as Venac, with a warm climate all year and reversed
seasons, some of this symbolic meaning is lost.

## Judgments

Judgments is one holy day that occurs twice
per year, on both equinoxes. It is intended to show reverence to Chronepsis,
the god of fate, death and judgment.

All people are required to gather together
publically and pass judgment on themselves and their peers. Kobolds monitor
this passing of judgment and will publically shame anyone who they feel is
holding back by having them judged in front of their entire community. Many an
otherwise happy interpersonal relationship has been ruined by people being
appropriately honest towards their loved ones and many a reputation has been
ruined by people being too honest about themselves when they can’t find an
appropriate lie.

Venac has added a secular civic tradition
to this compulsory religious event by following up the kobold-supervised judgments
with invitations to citizens to pass judgment on the Guild Council and its
members. This tradition has existed for as long as the nation has, however how
free citizens allow their tongues to be varies with the temperament of the
current councils members; Tarsis has perfected the art of receiving criticisms
in a receptive, statesmanly manner, however it is well known that smart
citizens avoid raising a few thorny topics (most notably piracy).

## Day of the Covenant

Unlike the other holy days, which are devoted
to a single deity, Day of the Covenant is devoted to celebrating the creation
of history’s most important ‘document’ (if there indeed ever was an actual
Covenant document).

People are required to show their thanks
for the great mercy displayed by the hierarchy in creating the covenant and
this ‘thanks’ tends to manifest itself in kobolds demanding menial services of
humanoids all day. Given that the majority of places where kobolds would want
services performed (their cities and citadels) are off limits to humanoids the
majority the tasks actually have some value to humanoids – things like cleaning
streets and repairing public infrastructure. It’s said that people were once
required to perform useless tasks on this day but kobolds over time have become
far more pragmatic. Despite the value of the work that often gets done people
universally despise it, especially people of the upper classes and those whose
usual occupations don’t involve manual labour.

Day of the covenant is held in early winter
(southern hemisphere seasons) on a date determined based on lunar phases.

## Hlal's Words

Not all draconic holy days are things to
dread. Well, ok, 3 of them are, but one out of four is an ok hit rate isn’t it?

That 25% positive is a day called *Hlal’s Words*, a day dedicated least
unpleasant of the draconic pantheon. It is a day for story telling and
learning.  Whilst all citizens are
required to attend a mass delivered by kobolds, where they are told about how
they owe Hlal big time for all creativity and knowledge, it all goes uphill
after that. It’s also the only day of the year when sacrifices are never
demanded.

In Venac the guild council usually uses the
gathering of everyone in the town square after the mass to make a few civic
proclamations (the kobolds find this acceptable as it’s evidence of humanoids
using the power of knowledge to work together) but after that’s out of the way
around mid-morning everyone has a grand old time for the rest of the day.

It’s a public holiday so no one is allowed
to work unless you’re job is something like a barkeeper. Throughout the city,
presentations of artistic works and scholarly discoveries take place in every
inn, park and square big enough to fit such a thing and people drift from place
to place enjoying it whilst generally getting more and more drunk or off their
heads on greenweed or spin (a hallucinogenic fungus the use of which, in Venac,
is illegal on other days but is grown by licensed mycologists for use on this one
day of the year).

The main square of town, in front of the
temple, is the most prestigious venue for this where only highly respected
artists and scholars are invited to present, but the other parts of town are
often more fun. The university theatre is well renowned for putting on amazing
comic performances whilst a normally seedy inn by the docs called The Drowned
Mermaid has had a tradition over the last few years of hosting incredibly
engaging talks by scholars that draw crowds spilling onto the streets.

And maybe best of all, after the mass all
the kobolds fuck right off from town for the day and (presumably) have their
own piss up in their barracks, so everyone feels a little more free than usual.
Makes you wonder what life would be like if they vanished permanently…

Hlal's words is in mid-spring, on a date determined by moon phases.