Black Marsh — H/F

Holidays and Festivals of Black Marsh

Black Marsh, or Argonia, possesses a rhythm of life inseparable from the Hist. Its seasons are not counted by stars or calendars but by the ebb and flow of water, the scent of sap, and the chorus of the swamps. Festivals here are not spectacles for the eyes but communions of spirit — soft, humid, and alive with unseen presence. Every celebration honors the Hist, the roots that dream, and the cycles of birth, death, and renewal that sustain Argonian identity. Outsiders find little structure in them, for these observances are less about date and more about alignment — of season, emotion, and Hist-whisper.

The Festival of Sap-Flow

Time of Year: Early Rain’s Hand — the onset of the wet season, when the first rains fall and the swamps awaken.

Description:
Sap-Flow marks the beginning of the living year for the Argonians, the first stirring of the Hist after months of slow dreaming. When the waters rise and the air grows thick, the Hist awakens its children. Argonians gather beneath their tribe’s great tree, the Hist’s roots curling through the water like veins beneath translucent skin. The Tree-Minder drinks from the sap and anoints the tribe with it, painting swirling patterns of amber across scales. This sap is believed to carry visions — not prophecy, but memory — the shared ancestral recollection of all who came before.

The tribe chants low, deep, rhythmic tones — sounds that vibrate through the water and soil, resonating with the Hist’s pulse. Amphibian drummers mimic the heartbeat of the swamp, and the entire tribe joins in a slow dance that spirals around the Hist’s roots. No speech is permitted during this time; only the song of the Hist may be heard.

Purpose:
The festival renews the bond between tribe and Hist. It is said that the Hist dreams more vividly when its children sing, and the Argonians feel more alive when their roots are wet with sap. Sap-Flow is also when new hatchlings are brought before the Hist for the first time, cradled in reed baskets. The Tree-Minder whispers their names, and the Hist breathes its approval through the rustle of leaves.

Ancestor Confluence

Time of Year: Hearthfire, during the waning of the moons, when the swamps fall silent.

Description:
Ancestor Confluence is a night of remembrance. As the air cools and the marsh fog thickens, Argonians light phosphorescent fungus along the banks of their waterways. These glow softly blue-green, marking the passage from the living to the ancestral. Each family gathers by its designated root pool, the water reflecting the shimmer of ghost-lights.

Tree-Minders guide rituals of remembrance, reciting the lineage of each hatchling’s tribe — not in words of pride or conquest, but as living memories of survival. Offerings of carved shells, scaled ornaments, and river reeds are cast into the water, sinking to the roots where the ancestors dwell. The living speak the names of the dead until dawn, believing that to forget a name is to let its echo vanish from the Hist’s dream.

Purpose:
The Confluence reminds the Argonians that life and death are the same current flowing through the marsh. Those who have died are not gone; they breathe through the Hist and return through the next hatch. Ancestor Confluence reinforces unity across generations and preserves the collective soul of the tribe.

The Shadow’s Eve

Time of Year: Mid Sun’s Dusk — the longest shadow before the dry season.

Description:
Shadow’s Eve honors those born under the sign of the Shadow — the Shadowscales, assassins of divine purpose. Though few remain, the memory of their sacred role endures. The festival is conducted entirely at night. Every torch and light is extinguished. Villages vanish into the black swamp, and the only illumination comes from the glow of eyes and the faint glimmer of marshfire.

The Tree-Minder calls the faithful to move silently through the water. The people reenact the Shadow’s Hunt — a ritual chase where one chosen youth, masked in black bark, hides among the mangroves while others track without sound. When the youth is found, they kneel before the Tree-Minder to receive a symbolic blade carved from dark bone, marking the passage into adulthood.

Later, the tribe performs the Shadow Hymn: a soft chant carried on the night wind, honoring those who walk unseen for the balance of all life.

Purpose:
This festival celebrates not death, but purpose — the Argonian understanding that all acts, even killing, can serve the Hist’s harmony. Shadow’s Eve binds stealth and spirituality together, reminding the people that darkness, too, is sacred.

Stormswallow Day

Time of Year: Early Midyear — the first torrential rain of the monsoon.

Description:
When the storm clouds gather and lightning flashes across the deep green sky, Argonians emerge from their reed homes and stand bare-scaled beneath the deluge. Stormswallow Day is not a festival of words, but of sensation. The rain is the Hist’s cleansing, its voice made liquid.

Tree-Minders wade through the floods, blessing the waters with their hands. Argonians dip cups and drink directly from the sky. Drums made of stretched frogskin boom across the wetlands, synchronizing with thunder. Children laugh and swim, their tails cutting waves through the flooded clearings. Elders recite ancient chants to invite balance — not to banish the storm, but to thank it for coming.

As the night closes, small clay jars filled with swamp lilies are sent adrift. Each jar carries a promise whispered to the Hist: words of thanks, repentance, or hope for the coming season.

Purpose:
Stormswallow Day celebrates the unity of destruction and renewal. To the Argonians, every storm brings death and life alike — fallen trees feeding new roots, drowned prey feeding new beasts. The rain is the Hist’s reminder that all things must dissolve to continue.

Renewal of the Mired Paths

Time of Year: Late Last Seed — just before the waters begin to recede.

Description:
When the height of the floods passes, Argonians embark on the Renewal of the Mired Paths. The waterways, clogged with debris and new growth, must be cleared — not through domination of nature, but in partnership with it.

Priests and hunters take to canoes woven of living reeds, singing rhythmic chants that guide their work. They use hooked poles to gently remove fallen branches and shift the flow of the water, ensuring the swamp’s veins remain open. Each cleared path is marked with a bundle of glowing reeds tied into a spiral — a symbol of safe travel blessed by the Hist.

At sunset, the workers gather in the central village to feast on roasted fish, smoked insects, and boiled roots. The air fills with the hum of stringed instruments fashioned from bone and sinew, their tones soft and meditative. The Tree-Minder proclaims which routes shall be used for trade and which are to remain wild for the Hist’s creatures.

Purpose:
The Renewal ensures the lifeblood of the swamp continues to flow. It is a practical rite turned sacred — maintenance made holy. To close a waterway without the Hist’s consent would be blasphemy, for even mud must breathe. The festival embodies Argonian cooperation with the living environment, blurring the line between work and worship.

The Egg-Kin Hatchday

Time of Year: Variable, celebrated when new eggs begin to crack in the communal hatcheries.

Description:
Egg-Kin Hatchday is one of joy and reverence. The Argonians gather around the hatchery pools, where warm vapors rise like mist. The Tree-Minder performs the Egg Song — a slow, melodic hum believed to coax hesitant hatchlings from their shells.

As each hatchling emerges, it is greeted with gentle hissing tones from the crowd — the closest Argonian equivalent to laughter. Small gifts of shell fragments, painted pebbles, or carved bone charms are placed near each newborn. When all eggs have hatched, the tribe carries the young to the Hist for their first sap-touch, anointing their foreheads with a single drop.

The evening ends in quiet celebration: the sharing of smoked fish and bright-colored fruits, the telling of stories about ancestors reborn. Some Argonians claim to recognize traits of old kin in the eyes of new hatchlings.

Purpose:
Egg-Kin Hatchday reminds the tribe that the Hist’s dream never ends — it only continues in new bodies. It is both a celebration of birth and of eternal return, binding every generation to the same ancient pulse.

The Festival of Returning Roots

Time of Year: Evening Star, when the last rains of the year fall and the swamp prepares to sleep.

Description:
This closing festival marks the end of the living year. The Hist slows its dreaming, and the marsh begins to rest. Argonians spend the day in silent labor, mending homes, repairing canoes, and securing hatcheries. At sunset, they walk to the nearest great root, each carrying a token — a scale shed during the year, a shell from a meal, or a carving representing something they wish to release.

One by one, they press these objects into the mud around the root and whisper, “Return to the root.” Then the entire tribe kneels as the Tree-Minder pours a bowl of sap-water over the offerings, sealing them beneath the soil.

As night falls, the marsh becomes still. No music is played, no torches lit. The people sleep in silence, listening to the deep rumble of the Hist’s slumber.

Purpose:
The Festival of Returning Roots embodies the Argonian truth that all things must return — to mud, to water, to root, to memory. The swamp does not mourn endings; it welcomes them as nourishment for what will come next.