Event #09: THE FETE OF KNOWLEDGE

[vivalamods]

EVENT #09: THE FETE OF KNOWLEDGE

As the month wears on, the Imperial forces withdraw, tired of scouring the seas in attempts to pick off individual Corsair ships, have slunk back to their masters. During this time, the Corsairs were hard at work finishing the Crimson Portal in Asphodel, and for the first time ever the Corsairs now have four waypoints - an enormous gain as they welcome the refugees from Vindess.

The refugees themselves are settling about as well as can be expected. Tension is still high, while the people are grateful for being saved from certain doom, a lifetime of propaganda doesn’t fade away in an instant and they remain wary, upset at the loss of their homes and way of life. Struggle is natural, and thus, the Corsairs have prepared for the second phase of the resettlement operation - the Fete of Knowledge.

As Asphodel residents stream into the Vault, music - the kind never permitted under Imperial auspices - echoes through the halls. Although the hammering of munitions is ever-present, this music is meant to reverberate through the caverns, echoing upon itself to build into even greater harmonies. This is music of the Crimson Corsairs, made to suit their purposes and circumstances. A salve for aching hearts and a beauty to bring a tear to the eye, the Vault is ready to prove that as the last repository of forbidden knowledge in the world, the wonders they hold welcome all who have the minds to seek it.

With the spring thaw well underway there is still much to be done, but the Corsairs have worked to complete it as best they can. Thus, most everyone within the three, no, four cities should find some time to partake in the Fete. As the week-long festivities commence, Corsairs are welcomed to take a much-needed break and celebrate their triumphs.

Join the Performance

The music of the day is a beautiful choral arrangement, repeated on the hour to echo through the halls, the verses building upon each other. While not enough to drown out the bombing, it’s a gorgeous piece and one that somehow provides a measure of peace and comfort. Any and all are welcome to lend their voices, there are several parts for any vocal range with the more complex vocalizations being handled by experienced musicians. And, best of all, any who aid in the song are gifted a jug of honey wine, a salve for a sore throat and a delicious delicacy besides.

Debate Hall

The Debate Hall is often lively, and during the Fete it has been repurposed to serve as the center of introduction to rhetoric. Debates between people of roughly equivalent skill are held throughout the Fete, and the topic of debate can be anything the participants choose. Debates over best foods, fashion, or even the odd lyrical exchange of truly hair-raising insults, just about any kind of confrontational discourse is currently on display for the amusement of refugees and Corsairs alike. Corsairs are free to join the stage, so long as they honor the traditions of the hall - settle disputes with words, not blades. At least while you’re in the hall, anyway.

Banquet Hall

The Corsairs have tapped their stores to create a truly enormous feast of delicacies only found in the Eternal Ocean. Aquatic creatures of all sorts grace the tables, as well as some of the native flora and fauna of Elysium’s fields, prepared to absolute perfection. And then, of course, there is the grog, free-flowing and plentiful to help take the edge off the trauma of the resettlement. The mood is mostly festive, with sober bouncers on hand to eject any Corsairs who might get a bit too belligerent while soaking in libations.

Dueling Hall

Sometimes words are not enough, and the Corsairs have set up a dueling hall within the Vault for people to test their skills against each other in controlled environments. Ether is dampened in the Dueling Hall, so while one can cast spells as they might, the lethality is far reduced, a once-searing flame is now a gentle warmth and a block of ice a pleasant mist. This, along with padded weaponry, make for a fine way for Corsairs to both test their skill and show off for the masses, with any number of interesting rules in play to make the contests of strength more interesting and enjoyable to watch. With many a pair from the Debate Hall making their way to the Dueling Hall to continue their disputes, the hall is busy for the entirety of the Fete.

Story Hall

A Story Hall has been set up near the library for actors and orators to read and sometimes act out the books and stories found within the library. While the townsfolk of Vindess are not entirely illiterate, their lower class nature as mine workers means that many cannot read, or read well, and this hall gives them an opportunity to experience the wonder of the written word, of story and legend, and to hear the histories the Empire has long suppressed. The Story Hall is always looking for more orators and actors to read or act out books and plays, and it is one of the most heavily trafficked areas in the Fete, with the Vindess residents hungry for these once-forbidden tales.

Wildcard

The Fete of Knowledge is all about sharing, so there are any number of activities, and Corsairs are encouraged to come up with their own to keep the Fete moving. You may use this prompt to do whatever you wish. Enjoy the party!

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[singlemilletgrain]

Shu is part of the audience that applauds enthusiastically, though she does not go so far as to cheer and holler as some of the more boisterous Corsairs do. It appears that several are interested in Natalia's demonstration, for she has a few hangers-on who ask her some questions. Some vaguely insinuate that they are interested in learning how to use such a weapon, though heavens only knows where they might find a meteor hammer instructor in this world.

Well.

Perhaps Natalia.

Once she is a bit more free, Shu will approach.

"That was a very impressive demonstration. Truly, I have never seen the usage of that weapon for actual combat before."

[theriflespiral]

A lot of them are turned away when she mentions that the actual reason to learn them is for a trick of erudition, which hinges on their nature as inherently soft devices. Since even minute motions and changes in Ether can effect the trajectory of such long, flexible weapons, back home they were used primarily to test the user's control over their Ether--

Most of them leave before she even describes the test, but that just leaves room for Shu to come in.

There's a moment where she's utterly shocked, and then remembers. "From-- New years', yes? And Vindess, not long ago. Shu?"

She recovers from the shock of meeting someone from such a chance meeting (surely, it was a dream?), and nods. "As I said, this was a handicap. A way to make up for the fact that I was... Uncomfortably far from that fellow's capabilities. I did not wish to fight him sword to sword. It would have felt... Bad."

[singlemilletgrain]

Shu privately observes that Natalia can get a bit long-winded, even outside the context of making boasts as was required in any good show duel. As the disappointed Corsairs trickle away, she also notes that a few of them are enjoying themselves by wrapping their arms around their friends' weapon-hands and locking up their motion much like the meteor did with the sword.

"Yes."

Is it such a surprise? They had only just worked together to retrieve Donnie and Aira, after all. Though their first meeting, she will admit, had been quite bizarre and not one that was likely to repeat until the next time she felt the urge to inflict soup upon random strangers.

"The young are apt to be... ambitious. And of course, they must keep up appearances around the Outlanders. The native Corsairs, though good comrades, I find do not wish to be considered inferior to whatever skills we may bring in."

[theriflespiral]

"Ah. Perhaps, then, I should have gone easier on him. These things are difficult." It's hard to beat Natalia in a martial-arts-off. Without relying on drug enhancement, she's one of the best there is! "And I truly do find the use of Ether through weaponry a fascinating topic on its own, though-- I suppose not everyone shares my enthusiasm."

That does explain why she's so good at it, at least.

[singlemilletgrain]

"When the purpose is a martial demonstration to boast of one's prowess, there is no need to go easy." Shu affirms. "But I am curious as to why you would choose to train upon such a weapon. I had thought you were a marksman from the display you put on earlier. Or perhaps it is simply that you are versed with all manner of things?"

[theriflespiral]

"It... Was part of the Inner Lotus training, like I was trying to say earlier. When you first start to grow the Inner Lotus, this is the next challenge: you are put in a field of targets, very thick, and made to run a hammer routine for five minutes.

"The point is not to break as many targets as possible; quite the opposite. You are not considered to have good fine control until the wild arcs of the hammers break only a minimal quota. Three is traditionally a fail. I did not stop training until I had struck none."

[singlemilletgrain]

"May I ask what an Inner Lotus is?"

She would take it for a metaphor of some sort, except that she does not think one usually 'grows' something symbolic.

"A curious training method indeed. I presume there is some demand that the hammers are swinging at all times? And so the purpose is to fine-tune your precision and control of weaponry. How long does such training last?"

[theriflespiral]

"It's a code name." She breathes and lets it unfurl. "Sometime in the mid 21st century in my home, even the divine spark of the soul was discovered, measured, laid bare before the army's knife. In some ways, it is like the heart-- pumping energy constantly through the body, letting it affect the world as more than a mere pile of meat, bones, chemicals, impulses. In other ways, it is a plant or animal to be carefully cared for. In the most important way, it is the engine that drives my abilities, and the way in which I stop myself from hurting myself."

As to the other question-- "The test itself is only those five minutes. But you are trained in fine control from the jump. For someone especially talented, who already started to blossom...? A few weeks to pass. A month to perfect."

[singlemilletgrain]

"The spark of the soul...?"

She queries with some incredulity, for this is a fantastical claim. As far as she is aware, not even gods and deities knew exactly what comprised the essence of being, the soul. To say that it was well understood in Natalia's world seemed tantamount to sacrilege.

...Not that Shu is that kind of god.

"But how does one care for the soul? I have heard, of course, of seeking inner peace and nourishing one's interests and passions, but I am not sure that is what you're speaking of."

[theriflespiral]

"A dozen different ways, a million different ways. I myself first awakened though mathematics. A moment of expanding thought, of understanding everything, of detecting the very code the world was built on.

". . . They then put a sniper rifle in my hand."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Mathematics...?"

She is lost. Which, consider her own penchant for pontification, doesn't happen very often.

"I fear I do not understand. What does mathematics have to do with the essence of conscious being?"

[theriflespiral]

"It is not the skill or hobby itself. It's--" She pauses, struggling to find the words in Imperial "A touch-expansion, a touch-creation, a sudden look at a world that is so much more vast and complex than the one you knew of. In this way, it's a lot like learning anything else...

"With the exception that you can, hesitantly, strum at those strings that sing the world."

[singlemilletgrain]

Natalia is speaking in poetic terms and though Shu is well versed in metaphor and prolix sophistry, she is too much a spirit of nature and zen to appreciate the world through a mathematical lens. Still, she supposes she has a sense of what is being conveyed.

"...I do not think that is a way that I can approach the world. But I begin to conceive of what you might be saying. Insofar as one might view the foundations of the world as anything concrete, I suppose that mathematics is a possibility." Numbers were too sterile for her heart. "So you understand your soul through math. But I think my initial question remains of how one might care for this Lotus?"

[theriflespiral]

"Right-- sorry-- Much the same as any other set of muscles or plants. Work them. Up to a point, perfectly industrial."

[singlemilletgrain]

Through mathematical problems, she assumes. Shu still does not feel much like she understands, but this line of inquiry does not seem to be enlightening her.

"Regardless of the reasons, it is very admirable that you have such control and precision - of the weapon, and of yourself. Do you find that your training is not progressing as well here?"

[theriflespiral]

"I feel... I feel like... there is so much to do and undo." She begins to get into a routine. "That I can control my body and its energies and the precise nature of it until it screams for mercy and even beyond, and have my very martial prowess become a puzzle for others to solve, and it won't change that other people took a beautiful revelation and saw only a new kind of weapon, a new way to wage war, another fascinating method of drawing blood."

Natalia cannot see it. Shu might be able to-- the way the mist swirls beneath her dance describes a rose. "I want to take up the tools of my Lotus and make music again, rather than pull bow-strings."

[singlemilletgrain]

This she understands.

"Certainly so. The training of the body and mind is a beautiful thing, championed by sages and philosophers alike. To be used solely as a tool of war is a waste of such efforts. The mastery of inner discipline is a pursuit worth taking for its own sake. My eldest brother - he has a similar understanding of the martial arts. As I seek to perfect humanity's understanding of the agricultural domain, so he wishes to attain perfect knowledge of the workings of his body.

"Then perhaps you are more free to pursue this goal here?"

The dance does not go unnoticed, though Shu does not comment specifically on it. She presumes that Natalia is guiding the mist herself.

[theriflespiral]

"But for our erstwhile Tsar, i would agree." She snaps the weights into her hands, a downbeat that releases the gathered Ether in a faint rush of cold wind. "... as caster's tools, they're not bad, but the tradeoffs might be a bit much."

[singlemilletgrain]

"Tsar?"

This is a word she faintly associates with the Emperor of Ursus, though it is not terribly commonly used.

"Your leader has gone missing? And you are saying you have been released from your military servitude in their absence?"

[theriflespiral]

"Eh? no-- I speak of the Emperor above us, not the one back home."