Lure of Lornon's Eve
The "Lure" of Lornon's Eve
by Chutnee BornOdepression
Sylvan Cultural Lore
************EDITOR'S NOTE************
This bit of cultural lore is strictly player "legend" and is in no way forwarded as official.
************END NOTE************
PREAMBLE:
Being of the sylvan race means being of a culture vastly different in many respects from other cultures. It means embracing the concept of community in the most specific sense, being one with nature as much as possible, and accepting the right of nature in all situations.
Because of this aspect, some things which are part of sylvan lore in many communities, if not most, are very... secretive and unchanging. Yet sometimes, to be understood by other races, it becomes necessary to lift that veil of secrecy to outsiders.
Thus should the lore I will relate be viewed in such light. Not as a betrayal of my race, but as a means for other races to come to a better understanding of my own.
THE LORE:
There is a bit of lore about sylvans which usually shocks. How could such generally gentle folk turn so savage for one ritual? Is it fact? Or fancy?
As to whether it is fact or fancy, I will leave that determination within the minds of my readers. But as to why the savageness comes out of such "gentleness" for this one rite... well, nature is not always gentle, and sylvankind are attuned to nature, after all.
The observance to which I refer is that of Lornon's Eve as practiced within sylvan community.
It is said on Lornon's Eve the moon of Lornon gains a red haze to act as a form of mystic summoning for those whom nature holds close, and to serve as signal for the performance of an ancient rite of passage. When this haze is spotted, something happens to sylvans as their attunement with nature comes fully to the fore. There is a kind of frenzy that overtakes both the body and the mind. Despite the fact many might consider this an unpleasant occurrence, blocking reason and care for bodily harm as it does, I can only say that there is as well a seduction to the very condition itself. It is viewed as a mark of continued oneness with nature.
The reason the continuity of this oneness with nature becomes most important during this time is because the frenzy is played out in a specific way: An elf not of sylvan blood is ritualistically hunted and killed in the woods where a sylph community makes its home. Only one such elf. And is always an "intruder" into the woods. For on this night is any such specifically viewed indeed as an intruder, and a betrayer to the bond nature initially had with all elves.
The belief is nature must have its due. It was betrayed and must avenge that betrayal upon one of the person of the offending race. The elves who left the woods left nature behind and chose the way of politics and magic. In so choosing, the lore states, they affronted all nature itself.
The hunt used to corner and finally kill the intruder elf is played out over the course of the entire night. Within the forest on this night, no fair elf or dark elf can hope to escape the sheer mastery of the sylvan. Nature is demanding its "toll" for allowing so many to choose to abandon its hold. A chase is initiated through the woods during the dark hours, a chase during which the sylphs often make it appear as if the intruder elf has confounded and escaped his pursuers. It is never so. From the trees, the sylvans watch and calculate each move in the hunt, the frenzy reflected in their eyes.
In the end, the prey is cornered, and killed with a single arrow through the heart by one of the most renowned of the community. Decision on who will be permitted this honor is spur-of-the-moment, voted on only once the intruder elf has been trapped without hope of escape. And then the kill is made and the frenzy fades as nature has its vengeance.
The body of the intruder is buried with all honor in the woods, generally at the base of a modwir tree. Bringing back to the earth and thus to nature what was lost.
