Bédenes/1st edition/23

The eight-day Festival of the Pillars ends on the 8th of Agrazhar with the Feast of Balefire ceremony. The Festival is the single opportunity each year for aspiring acolytes, priests, and Warriors to impress their masters with their talent, spiritual fervor, and discipline.

The Festival is planned by Bedai Borganau, acting Master of Acolytes, but is presided over by Maral Laltanae, the Master of the Middle Discipline, and Bryren Aryne, the Master of Silence, who makes the annual pilgrimage from Golotha to represent Senesharil Klyrdes.

During the first two days of the Festival, the population of Bedenes swells as craftsmen come from as far away as Tormau and weaponcrafters from even further afield. The order reveres excellence in certain crafts and there are gifts and positions for those who impress the priests. A lucky few may win places as bonded masters in the household of a Meketa. The unlucky may learn how the jealousy of one Meketa can deprive another of a talented master craftsman.

On the remaining six days, acolytes, priests, and warriors seeking preferment or promotion offer themselves for judgment at "The Pillars of Ordeal" in an effort to demonstrate that they are favored by Mamaka.

The Emesa Beast Fair starts shortly after the conclusion of the Festival of the Pillars. During the chaos of the Beast Fair, the Master of Silence assembles and equips the newly ordained priests chosen to continue their training at Golotha. At the end of the Fair, the priests return to Golotha with the Beast Fair caravan.

In the ceremonies of the Six Pillars of Ordeal, those seeking promotion must show skill, shed blood, and endure pain as they endeavor to impress the masters.

The Pillars of the Ordeal of the Stranger
On the third day of the Festival, and in the seclusion of the House of Ordeals, aspirant acolytes and Warriors demonstrate their skills on captives held in the keep. Captives are interrogated in the Adagro-het, punished in the Adagro-pria, and tortured in the Adagro-unah. At the climax of this unique Ceremony of the Lesser Ordeal, the captives are sacrificed to the Holy Flame.

The Pillars of the Ordeal of the Friend
During the next three days, those who displayed particular flair in the Ordeal of the Stranger rituals are permitted to make their own sacrifices of blood and pain in the Ceremony of the Greater Ordeal.

In the Inagro-het, each would-be Warrior is interrogated by an aspiring priest in a contest of skill and will. The winner of this test punishes the loser on the following day in the Inagro-pria. Carefully watched by their betters, the clerics pit their lmowledge of Mamakan rites and the art of torture against the physical and mental toughness of their Warrior brothers. Only the most talented proceed to the Inagro-unah, held on the sixth day, during which they are tortured by the attending masters. Their silence through this ordeal is their passport to ordination or promotion.

The seventh day sees Warriors who have excelled compete with their brothers in a tournament. Even the members of the Akarata's bodyguard must defend their places. The Warrior who remains in the field when all others have been defeated is named the Anasi-Maparas, the Akarata's Champion, for the next year.

On the eighth day, the festival concludes with the ordination ceremony of those acolytes who have demonstrated they are ready for the priesthood.