Date: First Week of Sun-Return (Annual)
Location: Cinder-Ford, Ashen Crest Dynasty
Patron Saints: Lorik the Unfrozen & Revna, Mother of Divergence
The Founder's Forge Festival is a unique cultural hybrid, born from Cinder-Ford's dual heritage. It honors two seemingly opposed figures whose spirits both define the settlement's stubborn existence.
For one week, the relentless industry of Cinder-Ford transforms into a celebration of its own harsh ethos.
Day 1-2: The Great Hunt & The Return
Weeks prior, the Jötun-Bane Brotherhood is contracted (for a hefty sun-stone fee) to guide Ashen Crest hunters in tracking a truly colossal beast—often a Great Horned Elk or a Dire Frost-Sloth. The hunt itself is a ritual of patience and precision, honoring Lorik's methods.
The beast's return is a grand procession across the treacherous Ash-Ford. Its ritual butchering is a public display of maximum efficiency—every organ, sinew, and bone has a designated purpose (feast, leather, glue, tools). This is Lorik's lesson: respect the kill by wasting nothing.
Day 3-5: The Games of Divergence
These are not mere tests of strength, but of applied intelligence and ruthless practicality, celebrating Revna's spirit.
The Anvil Toss: Competitors don't throw for distance. They must land a 500-pound anvil onto a precise pressure plate that triggers a Rube Goldberg-esque chain reaction of falling weights, turning gears, and ringing bells. The goal is to complete the most complex sequence.
The Pipe-Race: Teams are given a pile of mismatched, seemingly incompatible pipe segments, valves, and seals. They must assemble the longest, pressure-tight section of functional piping in the fastest time. Leaks mean disqualification.
The Ash-Ford Sprint: A deadly serious footrace across the river of cooled, brittle lava. Knowledge of geology is key—competitors must memorize which dark, glassy plates will hold weight and which will crumble into ankle-snapping pits. Speed without wisdom leads to disaster.
The Foundry-Feed: A cooking competition where teams must prepare a gourmet meal using only standard forge rations, scavenged lichen, and geothermal heat. A tribute to Lorik's survivalist ingenuity.
Day 6: The Forge-Choir (The Climax)
As twilight falls, the entire population gathers. From the central Heart-Forge, a conductor—usually the head Stone-Wright or senior Engineer—coordinates the Symphony of Industry. At their signal, every steam-whistle, pressure-release valve, hammer on anvil, and grinding wheel in Cinder-Ford is activated in a precise, thunderous, rhythmic performance. It is a beautiful, deafening, and terrifying noise—a literal song of power and control forged from chaos. This is Revna's hymn, the sound of mastery over a hostile world.
Day 7: The Quiet Return
A day of rest, storytelling, and trade. Tales of Lorik's journeys and Revna's experiments are shared. The Stone-Wrights and Ashen Crest engineers, having competed fiercely, now share techniques learned during the games. The festival concludes not with a whimper, but with a shared, satisfied silence before the great hammers of The Heart begin their regular, relentless beat once more.
The Founder's Forge Festival is Cinder-Ford's soul. It reinforces their identity as a people who thrive not in spite of their harsh environment, but because of what it forces them to become. It teaches each generation that survival (Lorik) and ambition (Revna) are two sides of the same, well-forged coin. In a world of frost, they celebrate the fire they have stolen from the mountain, and the unbreakable community they have forged in its light.