Valenwood — H/F

Holidays and Festivals of Valenwood

Valenwood’s calendar is not measured by days but by the moods of the forest. The Bosmer do not track months as Imperials do; instead, they feel the passing of time through the growth of vines, the migration of insects, and the song of their trees. Their holidays are visceral, alive, and unbound — offerings of instinct and gratitude to Y’ffre, the Green Father, and the living rhythm of the forest. Every festival is a conversation between flesh and root, death and renewal, predator and prey.

These rites are often communal, bloody, and euphoric, binding every Bosmer to the Green Pact and to the wild harmony of the Valenwood.

The Springtide Confluence

Time of Year: Around First Seed, marked by the first full bloom of the Elden Trees.

Description:
When sap begins to rise and the canopy fills with fresh leaves, Bosmer across Valenwood gather to celebrate the Springtide Confluence — the awakening of the forest’s soul.

At dawn, the Tree-Singers climb the highest boughs and sing to the wind, their voices joined by the howls of beasts and the calls of nesting birds. Below, the people adorn themselves with fresh moss, feathers, and living flowers woven into their hair. Children are painted with patterns of sap and soil, said to hide them from predatory spirits that stir after winter’s sleep.

By midday, the tribes converge at sacred clearings. Great feasts are prepared — all meat, as the Green Pact forbids harm to plant life — and roasted on spitfires fueled by fallen bark and deadwood. The air fills with the smell of smoke, earth, and marrow.

As night falls, the “Song of Renewal” begins. Every Bosmer dances until exhaustion, their movements mimicking the motion of wind through leaves. At the dance’s end, the Tree-Singers bless the forest with sap drawn from the eldest tree, poured into the soil with whispered gratitude.

Purpose:
The Springtide Confluence renews the bond between Bosmer and Valenwood. It marks the forest’s awakening and the tribe’s promise to defend it — not through dominion, but through devotion.

Atmosphere for Play:
Primal, rhythmic, and intoxicating. Drums echo through the trees, beasts prowl at the edges of firelight, and joy teeters on the edge of frenzy. A perfect setting for initiation, revelation, or the eruption of ancient forest magic.

The Festival of the Wild Hunt

Time of Year: Variable — called only in times of great omen or need.

Description:
No festival evokes more awe or terror than the Wild Hunt. It is not annual nor predictable; it is summoned by the Green’s will, interpreted through dreams by the Spinners. When the call comes, horns sound through every glade, and all other celebrations cease.

The Hunt begins at twilight. The Tree-Singers and Shamans gather at a sacred hollow, their bodies anointed with sap and blood. They invoke Y’ffre’s blessing, chanting until the air shudders with invisible resonance. Then, before the watching tribe, the first hunters step forward — and change.

Bones twist, skin ripples, and the chosen transform into beasts of nightmare and majesty. The Wild Hunt surges into the forest, devouring all corruption, blasphemy, and trespassers until dawn. None speak of what the Hunt claims, for those taken are not mourned but absorbed back into the Green.

Afterward, the survivors — whether unchanged or half-beast — kneel in silence as the forest grows still. The next sunrise is met with reverent quiet, as the Bosmer rebuild and sing songs of cleansing.

Purpose:
The Hunt is both punishment and purification, a divine reminder that the Green is alive and merciless. It is the ultimate act of communion — to shed identity and become the forest itself.

Atmosphere for Play:
Chaotic and otherworldly. Screams and roars merge with chanting, the forest itself moves like a living body, and the air hums with divine wrath. Suitable for cataclysmic events, moral trials, or the forest’s direct intervention.

The Pact Feast

Time of Year: Rain’s Hand, when the forest first becomes thick with prey.

Description:
The Pact Feast honors the Green Pact’s founding. It is a solemn yet celebratory acknowledgment of the covenant that binds Bosmer to the forest: never to harm its vegetation and to consume only meat in reverence to Y’ffre’s law.

Each tribe holds its feast near its local Elden Tree. Hunts begin at dawn — swift, coordinated, and brutal. No kill is wasted; every part of the creature is eaten, worn, or crafted into tools. Those who spill blood carelessly are shunned for the season.

By nightfall, fires blaze under the canopy, and the oldest Spinner recites the Tale of the First Pact — the story of Y’ffre shaping the Bosmer from formless chaos and binding them to flesh. The tribe joins in the refrain, chanting, “We are the forest given form.”

The feast continues until dawn. Some tribes practice symbolic fasting afterward — a reminder that indulgence must always be followed by humility.

Purpose:
To renew loyalty to the Green Pact and affirm the Bosmer’s unity with the living forest. It is their holiest annual ritual, blending gratitude with discipline.

Atmosphere for Play:
Savage yet sacred. The forest glows with firelight and blood. Every shadow seems to breathe, and every feast carries an undercurrent of reverence and danger.

The Naming of Leaves

Time of Year: Mid Sun’s Height, when the canopy reaches its thickest and the light turns green.

Description:
The Naming of Leaves marks the high summer and the celebration of identity within the collective. Each Bosmer child, upon reaching their tenth season, receives their adult name under the gaze of Y’ffre’s song.

The ceremony takes place in the heart of the forest, where druids and Spinners weave vines into living circles. The Tree-Singer touches the child’s forehead with a drop of sap from the nearest root, then listens. In silence, the forest murmurs — through wind, bird, or insect — and from that sound, the Spinner declares the name.

Following the naming, families host hunts in honor of their young, who now join the tribe as full participants. In the evening, the new adults gather around the fire to share their first tales, while elders drink to Y’ffre’s continuity through them.

Purpose:
To bind each Bosmer’s personal identity to the will of the Green — individuality within the living harmony of the forest.

Atmosphere for Play:
Peaceful yet mystical. The sunlight glows emerald through leaves, the air hums with unseen voices, and every sound feels significant. Perfect for scenes of growth, initiation, or divine communication.

The Feast of Stories

Time of Year: Hearthfire, as autumn whispers through the canopy.

Description:
When the first leaves begin to fall — or rather, when the forest permits them to fall — the Bosmer hold the Feast of Stories. It is the season of the Spinners, when tales of past heroes, beasts, and spirits are told to keep the forest’s memory alive.

In every village, fires are kindled and surrounded by listeners of all ages. The eldest Spinner begins the night with the Song of Y’ffre’s First Word, and then others take turns recounting legends. These tales are not mere entertainment; they are living spells. Each story spoken renews its truth within the forest, binding memory to reality.

The most gifted Spinners enter trance, their voices echoing in harmony with unseen spirits. The air shimmers, and scenes from the tales appear briefly in the firelight — phantom stags, spectral trees, glimmers of long-dead warriors.

Purpose:
To preserve living history and weave the past into the present. The Feast of Stories sustains both memory and magic, ensuring the Green’s song never falls silent.

Atmosphere for Play:
Ethereal and haunting. Words take shape in the air, spirits gather unseen, and the boundary between story and truth dissolves. Ideal for visions, ancient revelations, or the awakening of forgotten legends.

The Night of Root and Bone

Time of Year: Evening Star, as the forest sleeps.

Description:
The year’s end in Valenwood is not celebrated with light but with silence. The Night of Root and Bone honors death — the necessary decay that feeds new life.

As the last full moon of the year rises, the Bosmer extinguish all fires and torches. Villages fall into darkness except for the pale glow of the fungi that bloom after rain. Each family gathers at the roots of their chosen tree and buries a token from the year: a lock of hair, a piece of hide, or a shard of bone from a past hunt. These are offerings to the forest’s hunger.

In some tribes, hunters don masks of bone and antler, patrolling the perimeter to drive away restless spirits that fear to rejoin the soil. Others remain in stillness until dawn, listening to the heartbeat of the earth through the roots beneath their palms.

Purpose:
The Night of Root and Bone acknowledges that death is not loss but transformation. It teaches that decay is the foundation of growth — and that the forest must consume as much as it gives.

Atmosphere for Play:
Silent, somber, and otherworldly. The forest breathes slowly, shadows move with intent, and the air feels thick with memory. A fitting setting for closure, burial, or communion with the Green itself.

Cultural Significance

The Bosmer live in a covenant of flesh — the Green Pact that binds them wholly to Y’ffre’s design. Their festivals are not distractions from survival but affirmations of it. They celebrate the forest not as backdrop but as kin, and themselves as its voice and teeth.

Every celebration renews a different aspect of the Pact: Springtide Confluence awakens; the Pact Feast sustains; the Feast of Stories remembers; the Night of Root and Bone releases. The Wild Hunt, rarest and most terrible, cleanses. Together, these form a cycle mirroring the forest’s eternal pulse — birth, hunger, memory, and decay.