Nevriset B'Xhadari
Holidays
The Annual Haddu Skyfire Festival
As the sun dips below the horizon, your eyes are fixated on colorful lamps and the smell of fresh stone-fired breads. You now find yourself deep in the bustling caves of B'Haddu. No matter if you're used to the nightlife of this city or just visiting for the Nevriset B'Xhadari, it's difficult to deny the comfortable warmth of the environment.
A glimmer catches your eye and you decide to stop in to a dug-out stall. What would be furniture, like shelves or seats, is carved directly into the stone walls and floor. A soft glow illuminates each product from above. The shelves looks to contain various gems and materials. Your nose brings you to a long armed table with a very detailed beaded rug casted over top. You can make out small boxy depictions of the Haddu, who seem to dance as you follow the pattern up. Moving along the table's length, you notice a delicious selection of seasonal fruits in baskets before a pair of scaly hands holding a bowl of small cookies comes into view.
"They are irresistible." A low feminine voice calls to you from the dark and looking up you can make out a Haddu. A gold chain with Skyfire gems rest across the bridge of her nose and she smiles fondly at you. "Freshly made too. If you haven't tried a Lucky Treat yet- you better soon. By sunrise I always sell out." You catch her smile with her eyes before she sets the basket down and interlaces her fingers.
"Welcome to Skyfire Exchange. What will it be this time . . . ?"
The Nevriset B'Xhadari, roughly translated as the Honored Heavenly Skyfire Festival, or just Skyfire Festival for short, is an ancient Haddu tradition stemming from the days long before the formation of the Alurizan Reserve.
The name comes from the B'Haddu name for the sky, B'Xhadara, "The Honorable Heavens", and the Xha Nevri, or "Skyfire", an abundant phosphorescent mineral that has long been associated with the sky.
The indigenous Haddu are a nocturnal people and, thus, live their lives in the nighttime and dark underground caves. The holiday tradition begins at sunset with feasts, games, and revelry in the dying light. As nighttime falls, the fires are banked down to coals and things quiet down as people settle down into groups to observe the night sky. Traditional stories are shared by elders and teachers, songs and music are performed, and audio dramas are played out by actors as audiences lay out to watch the constellations and shooting stars while listening to tales unfold. Almost like a human’s music festival, one can move through the night to find other groups sharing other kinds of stories, with snacks, treats, and games along the way. The celebration ends as the sky lightens before dawn, as everyone heads off to bed.
The Midnight Ensemble
The Midnight Ensemble is a wordless play performed at the darkest hour of the night. Guest may seat themselves along the banks of a caldera-like structure in order to watch the performance. Below in the center, one may see many performers preparing themselves for the synchronized dance. Each is adorned with jewelry featuring Skyfire stone centerpieces that illuminate the dark. The dance is meant to mimic the night sky, full of swirling 'stars', and tells the story of how the Haddu people learned to traverse the desert using only the night sky as a map. This inclination is so strong amoung the Haddu people that many refer to cardinal directions using the names of celestial bodies. These names change seasonally as the skys shift.
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