By Christopher "Janus" Donnelly
I am going to start off being blunt here: a lot happened at Feast of Voraniss, and I likely don’t know half of what went on. Showing up at the start of the day, the feeling of Voraniss was very clear. The decorations, even outside, were apparent. Silver and wolfsbane had to be declared, and you had to obtain a permit to carry it (you only paid for the license to carry weapons. For currency, the permit was free.) Honestly, this made me feel very welcome right off of the bat (for those of you who don’t know, I currently have lycanthropy.) Right next to silver registration, there was a giant list of tournaments and activities going on throughout the day which people could participate in that covered many different walks of life. There were ritual tournaments, bardics, a boar pit, a bolos toss tournament, an art tournament, a knowledge of Voraniss tournament, a hunting tournament and I believe a few more.
If the day was composed only of the tournaments, it would have been a busy day, but there was more going on than that. Various locals of Voraniss arrived and chatted. People learned about the various factions in the area, among them a scaley group that lived in the swamps that had a venomous touch, other tribes of lycanthropes, along with elves. One group of elves left a sealed stone chest in the area, which would only open if the spirits of the area thought people proved their worth in challenges. I personally never saw one of the challenges, but they were to be found and awarded a stone, which when all 12 were combined, opened the stone chest and revealed more information within. The people who were solving the runic tournaments had been deciphering the languages of the area in Voraniss and were able to translate this new information, which appeared to be the journal of a person who had an Ent. In addition to this the people hunting were finding poachers, who the grapevine said were not just poaching animals but were also growing wolfsbane.
Wow...look at me get caught up in all these activities, and I haven’t even mentioned the food yet. The food from Voraniss honestly was what I expected. Not fancy, but really well made. Early on in the day, all the tables got pumpkin bread, and then small delicious sandwich wraps spirals. And later more cheese and bread came out. These were only appetizers of course to hold people over, for dinner had a large amount of really good food. Starting with a soup course (almost our entire table had the potato and leek soup) and then a salad, dinner just seemed to keep on coming once it started. Sides such as carrots, green beans, and red cabbage came out, followed by sausage and peppers, glazed ham (which smelled good enough that Rosetta left his incorporeal form to try some), and penne and broccoli alfredo. While we ate the performance categories took place. Rituals (where each person had a role) and Bardics were our entertainment while eating.
After dinner, the coronation took place, which contained the ceremony and ritual expected of Voraniss. It began with a procession showing exactly how large Voraniss has become. The gods of Voraniss were invoked, and the spirits of Voraniss also were invoked and appeared, with each statement of theirs punctuated with a thrum in the air. Finally, they invoked the stag who approached with the crown of the king. After Hygar made a number of oaths, he was declared the Druid King of Voraniss and was crowned. Following this, Siltana appeared in form, and announced that many of the trials Hygar had to overcome in the past several years were tests to help Hygar be the best Sacred he could be (if I understood it correctly anyway.)
Following the coronation, the first court was held. A new member was inducted into Voraniss (unfortunately I cannot remember their name) and many friends, nations, and churches gave gifts (and a few gave some advice) to the new Druid King for the occasion. Kyara was inducted in the Order of the Peacock and Clove got best dressed. The church of Vandor took a new acolyte and promoted a (now-former) acolyte. After court came a very delicious desert course and the winners of tournaments were announced. Overall, if you missed the feast, you missed out on a very good event.