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| | | [[Heroic skills]] |
| The orphans lined up on the marble steps, ready in their best clothes and every face covered with a mask - all except one small petulant blue face in the middle ranks. One of the guardians of the Little Mother soon swooped forward.
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| ''"Giovanna, put your mask on!"''<br>
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| ''"But Mother, it is uncomfortable, and the ribbon makes my gills itch."''<br>
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| ''"It's terrible luck if the Reaper sees you! Do you want him to know your face?"''<br>
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| ''"But Mother, in lessons they said luck is a heretical idea and not real."''<br>
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| ''"Hearth Magic is very real though, and very powerful." The guardian helped the little girl tie her mask back on. "Besides, if Mother Bishop catches you showing up our Church without a mask he will make you wish the Reaper would take you..."''
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| Even in mourning, the League cannot help but make a grand show. Each year at the Winter solstice, the Masquerade of the Reaper offers citizens of all four cities a chance to celebrate the lives of those they have lost, which they do with great style.
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| The festival has its roots in dramaturgy and the League's love affair with masks. At Anvil, the central part is said to be played by the nation's egregore, who dons the mask of The Reaper, bringing back the shades of the recently deceased from The Labyrinth in a grand procession through the streets.
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| It is very common at League funerals for someone trustworthy to be asked to play 'a death guiser'. This person wears the clothes and mask of the deceased, so grieving friends and family may say a proper farewell or pass on any last words they never got the chance to say in life. At the Masquerade, this tradition comes to the fore as the central feature. The Reaper tours the camp, visiting every guild and being given a gift. Anyone who has died in the last year might be represented by a death guiser, who will then follow The Reaper in their procession, ending at the grand plaza. There, any of the great citizens of the League who attend Anvil may speak with them.
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| In recent years it has been extremely fashionable for people of import to be remembered this way. Being asked to take on the death guise at any time is a huge show of trust and respect, but especially at this greatest of occasions. Any words said to the masked figure are, as far as Leaguers are concerned, spoken to the dead and thus to be taken to the Labyrinth. Significant Dead Reckoning is often recorded both for the favour of taking on a guise and the honour of being asked.
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| Powerful hearth magic surrounds the festival. It is considered the worst possible luck to let The Reaper see your own face, as then they will know what to look for during the year to come. Any Leaguer thus knows the importance of wearing a mask for protection, while many have tales of someone who flauted this tradition and came to an unfortunate end soon after.
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| The festival includes a great many entertainments. And as naturally as breathing, the League cannot help but be at least informally competitive about them. No-one ''officially'' judges who performs the finest play or hosts the finest gathering, but be in no doubt that citizens keep score of who and what has impressed or offended them. Leading theatre troupes and musicians will be sure to perform publically and many of the more fashion conscious will choose this time to reveal their new outfits.
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| Some of the competition is more obvious to an outsider. Bridge Duelling is a popular sport between bravos, where one team will stake out an area as their 'bridge' and challenge all comers who wish to cross it. This culminates in a grand series of duels where competitors fight for ribbons. Duellists can choose to stake a number of ribbons from their collection against each other, but a greater number are often won from admirers in the crowd who applaud showmanship, wit and style as much as combat prowess. In keeping with the masked nature of the festival, it is common for combatants to adopt a persona and announce themselves under a name chosen for the occasion, rather than their own.
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| The giving of gifts to loved ones is very common during the festival, although individual guilds have very varied traditions; outsiders would be well warned to subtly find out what is normal for any guild they have regular dealings with. For some, the gift of food and drink is the norm, while others take pride in giving small but much more personal trinkets.
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| Festivities will continue long after dark, with the guilds remaining open for business as the central Plaza transforms into the night market. A visitor to The League camp at this time might be forgiven for thinking the whole area was reminiscent of a stage, with every citizen performing. They would not be far wrong.
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