LUM-02: Summertide
Given what we’ve just seen about Lumacian national pride—and the heights that it can reach—it should come as no surprise that Lumacia has a festival that celebrates its independence.
Not independence from a former oppressor or imperial master, mind you. The festival of Summertide celebrates Lumacia’s self-reliance, its independence from the rest of the world.
Perhaps this was true in Lumacia’s early days, but in today’s world, bound up in international webs of travel, trade, and politicking, no country in Avelliron is truly independent. And yet, what is one Lorekeeper’s skepticism against the swell of national spirit that sweeps across Lumacia during this country-wide festival?
Around the start of summer every year, the tides on either side of the Drowning Peninsula rise with frightening speed. There are many theories on this strange phenomenon, but there is no consensus. Ultimately, in the span of a day or two, Lumacia’s land bridge disappears underwater, cutting it off from the rest of the continent. The Painted Sea and the Lonely Ocean become joined, fraught with rough waters, disturbed sea creatures, and raging storms that no ship dares to brave. So begins bubble season.
Meanwhile, on Lumacia, the entire country is celebrating.
The beginning of bubble season is the start of Summertide. Every seaside settlement, from remote fishing villages to seedy merchant ports, participates in the festival. It begins with a banner, staked into the beach sand and raised high into the coastal wind. With local and national icons flying in the wind, residents tie shells of all shapes and colors to the pole.
Next come the tents and pavilions, springing up around the banner and forming a makeshift festival town. Merchants of all types set up shop: seasilk weavers, armorers of iron coral, fish-grillers, and vintners with their crop fresh from the Drowned Peninsula, among many more. The assumption being, of course, that everything is sourced and produced in Lumacia, with flavors and varietals only available in bubble season. No sooner do the stalls open do the hordes of locals spill into this Summertide market.
Activities abound around the festival town and market. Shell hunts and contests. Nightly bonfires and sunrise swim races. Lighthearted sea theater, half of whose comedy is derived from actors being suddenly swept off their feet in the middle of their performance. Crowds cheer on their favorite riders at the tidehorse show, a dazzling display of horsemanship with rings, poles, and barrels, all amongst sparkling tidal pools. And for the well-to-do, the final night of this weeklong Summertide is marked with the Coral Ball, located in whatever castle or lordly house overlooks the local festival. Here, Lumacia’s lords and ladies mingle, dance, and scheme behind masks of ornate coral.
And that is just the first festival of Summertide.
The second festival of Summertide occurs at the end of bubble season, a handful of months later at the end of summer. Whereas first Summertide is celebrated locally in pockets all around Lumacia, second Summertide is celebrated exclusively in the kingdom’s capital, August Cove. A veritable deluge of Lumacians flood into the city, from its wealthy clifftop quarter to its dockside shanty town.
Second Summertide has all the trappings of first Summertide, except they’re enlarged and emboldened by the wealth and power of the Lumacian crown. Markets boast everything under the Lumacian sun, while shows feature the nation’s best performers attempting incredible feats of bravery, whether that’s shark wrestling or jumping off the mast of a burning ship. Royal water priestesses perform rites of all kinds, such as ritual drownings (they are resuscitated—most of the time…) and the annual Reading of the Tides.
But by and far, the most exciting event of both Summertides is the Tidal Joust. In this grandest of Lumacian sports, knights—sparkling in their pearly, coral-encrusted armor astride enormous tidehorses—ride against one another. Backdropped by the setting sun, with glittering surf crashing against the sea rock just beyond the field, it is a breathtaking spectacle to behold. All eyes are drawn to this grand finale of Summertide, even those from the King and Queen. Whichever knight emerges champion from the Tidal Joust becomes an avatar of Lumacian pride, entering its pantheon of national heroes forevermore.
As the tides recede, the Drowning Peninsula returns, and bubble season ends, Lumacia remembers itself as a kingdom among others in Avelliron. The fever of national pride breaks…but only temporarily. Indeed, the moment Summertide is cleaned up, Lumacians begin the countdown to the next one.
