The Festival of Prataan
That very special day when the people try to use up all of the most horrible deaths for the coming year.
Origin
It is said that when the dread wyrm Tyragorn threatened the kingdom of Errance, the heroine Saraya gathered the most able-bodied men and women in the entire kingdom and organized them into units of bowmen, with the intent of shooting the dragon from the sky as he terrorized the kingdom. But she knew that no men could hope to stand against Tyragorn's dragonfire, and that if he were able to bring this, his most terrible weapon, to bear against her warriors, then all would be lost. And so, Saraya came up a daring plan to steal it from him. Following the fivefold paths of antiquity, she snuck into the underworld, the domain of the dark god of death, Prataan himself.
There, surrounded by hostile spirits and demons, she crept through the Black Palace of Despair, where all men face their final judgement, and challenged the Scales of Worthiness. And, as her heart was pure, she won past even that most impossible of obstacles, and arrived in the chambers of the dark god himself, where she found his book. It is said that within his book, Prataan writes of the fate of the world. That it is here where he decides how many shall die in flames, and how many shall drown; how many shall be slain by beast, and how many by war. And as she searched its pages, Saraya found what she sought - a single number, the determination that in the year to come, two thousand and twenty-four men would die in fire. Armed with that knowledge, it was all Saraya could do to evade the guards of the Black Palace and escape back to the surface world.
There, for two months, the forces of Errance prepared for the coming of Tyragorn. And when the new year came, Saraya led their decisive strike. Throughout the kingdom, two thousand and twenty-four criminals were burned to death, murderers, heretics, and petty thieves alike.
And when the dragon came, his flames could not touch the warriors Saraya had gathered, for Prataan's decreed number had been met. Never again has a dragon been slain so easily.
Today
In more modern times, this tale has come to be celebrated in the Festival of Prataan. "If Saraya could use up all of the deaths by burning", people say, "then surely we can use up all of the most miserable deaths at the beginning of the year, and leave the rest of the year a better, happier year for the rest of us." The question, then, becomes one of who gets to suffer these most horrible deaths. Quite a few kingdoms have reached the same answer: criminals. After all, if a bandit is going to be executed anyway, then surely it's better for him to be the one eaten alive by rats than for that fate to fall to a more law-abiding person.
The Festival of Prataan, then, falls upon the first day of every year, and is the day of execution, the day when the condemned are sent to the most horrible demises that can be conceived of in order to spare the more worthy.
Traditionally, the Festival is held near the capital city, so that criminals need not be relocated after meeting the king's judgement. The homes of powerful dukes and counts may have their own, smaller Festivals, but the king's is generally the largest, and therefore the most important. The executions themselves are normally held out of the private eye, in a field or clearing outside of town. That way, innocent city-folk do not need to witness the torments of their criminals, and can enjoy the festival day. Still, though, the Festival is normally opened with a parade of the criminals through town, that people may see the men and women who are going to die that they may be spared. Precisely the process of the parade depends on where it is being held. In some cities, it is a solemn affair, with people watching silently or praying as the condemned go by. In others, the parade is symbolic of absolution, and the condemned are given garlands and kisses as they go by.
After tha parade, the Festival splits dramatically. The condemned are led out to the killing grounds and put to death out of sight and out of mind of the rest of the city. While this goes on, most people happily celebrate how wonderful the coming year is going to be. There will be dances, pastries, and general amusements of all sorts. Some are put off by the disparity, but most simply enjoy the festivities.
Other Notes
In some lands, it is not uncommon for the Festival to be used for political purposes. A king who intends to march to war may stage mock battles amongst his criminals in the hopes of reducing war casualties. A man who fears assassins may have them poisoned or knifed. In general, however, such practices are frowned upon - the holiday is supposed to be for the good of the people.
Plot Hooks
- The PCs have been arrested and are to be executed during the Festival. Can they escape such a horrible fate? Alternatively, can they rescue someone wrongly accused of a crime.
- The PCs are foreigners. How will they react to such barbarity?
- Some progressive ruler intends to end the Festival. The people of his kingdom think he's a monster and are threatening revolt.
Mix it with other subs:
- Some incompetent servant has lost the King's Disque Esprit. If it isn't recovered before the Festival, then the royal family may be plagued by specters in the year to come.
- A whole bunch of Princesses Nemithia have been gathered up and are set to be executed. But what kind of horrible monster could let the Festival claim all those poor little girls?
Quick added scenerio thoughts:
- The characters do end up freeing some innocents causing the overall count to go down below 2024 number and nobody really noticed. Usually they have more than that so it isn't an issue but the years of peace have slowly limited the crimes that call for death.
- The King, after years of slowly gaining support for ending this barbaric custom, finally succeeds in canceling it for the year. Instead they pardon 2024 of the lesser criminals or simply don't kill them.
For either of those, what is the outcome of not meeting the requirement? Loss of all the battles that year? The return of Tyragorn to complete his attack? Does the king survive the year as proof that the tradition is foul or is the kingdom ruined?
- Those that believe in the curse to the depth of their bones go out and assassinate or kill 2024 people anyway regardless of the king's intention. So even if they king protects his subject from that fate, those that believe and fear the curse will simply go on a killing spree to fulfill the need.
Now he has to decide to I continue the custom and spare the innocent citizens or fight those that would defy his decision.
(can't stop)
- Because the king stopped the killings, many small villages that are deeply superstitious start blaming any misfortune on the lack of sacrifice. This leads to an almost religous zeal backing the belief. Slowly, through self-induced hysteria they may start killing their own criminals or lynching those that are only accused of crimes in order to alleviate their own personal misfortune. All it takes is a drought "cured" by a killing to provide "proof" that it works and soon the entire countryside is deep in their own version of 2024.
-- King decides that following the decision is better than this outcome and follows through with the sacrifice. Now he needs to get word through the kingdaom. Will the believe it? Will it be enough to stop what has already begun?
--PCs could have witnessed the fixed sacrifice and be charged with bringing this word, or carry it as they adventure because they want to stop the killing. Each time they come to a village would bring possible conflict. They villages might believe their word or call them liars. A new tension and moral dilemna for the players to have decide whenever they see an injustice based on the sacrifices.
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? Responses (12)
Quite brutal. It paints a pretty strong picture of the overall culture. I imagine a particularly paranoid ruler might get a little overzealous in defining what makes a criminal in order to be sure enough deaths occur. I wonder if these executions actually make a difference? The first success against the dragon was done through subterfuge but perhaps these executions have already been accounted for.
Very nice tale. This of course plays on the ancient concept of "Scape-goating" and is done very well. The fact that this is an annual holiday adds to verisimilitude. I also like how the festival forks, the condemned go to die, the rest go off to party hardy (some not caring, some feeling slightly weird about it, some trying hard to ignore it and enjoy themselves, some thanking their gods that *they* were not among the culled this year...etc)
If I gm'ed this scenario, i'd probably try to have the PCs on the side of those seeking to end this controversial practice, I think.
This also gives me a bit of the "Wicker Man" vibe, for some reason. (the original one, not the nicholas cage thing)
Also, i like the progressive ruler plot hook, but would make him not a progressive ruler, but a thieve's guild master, or some other less than moral character, who maybe (ironically) sees the "light" through this ritualistic "depravity". Just to add to the moral ambiguity a bit more. :)
Brutal, but unfortunately something quite realistic. In real life, murders sanctioned by the government, have been committed for less. I imagine that before the festival, diviners try to predict what kind of deaths can be expected, to improve the 'efficiency' of the festival. Of course, if they end up wrong, they are the first 'volunteers' for the next festival...
This would be excellent cover for someone trying to raise a demon through violent sacrifice.
Most of what I had planned on saying was said, although I disagree with Muro should I run this I would inevidably end up throwing the players or some of them into those who got arrested the night before and end up on the shopping block in the morning none the wiser for being from somewhere else. Kudos.
An interiesting concept, although the opening tale does irk the evil gm side of me a bit. Granted the flame would not kill Sarya's bowmen now the number had been met, surely the flames would still have set fire to their equipment, and horribly disfigured them none the less?
(Granted they may not have been able to die from fire, but bieng burnt tortured shadows of their former selves for the rest of their lives, or dying from secondary infections to the burns/smoke inhaliation is how my evil GM side would make the end battle turn out, just to remind players that twisting fate does not always result in victory, merely a different kind of loss.)
Then again the truth behind the legend could well have become buried in the past and exaggerated into the current form; which is a way to hide the horrific truth.
Opening legend aside, I like the premise behind the festival, and can imagine a group of unwitting PC's stumbling into the town on festival day, enjoying the celebration only to find out later what the celebration is all about, and the hideous deaths those guilty of relatively minor crimes will be facing at the end of the festival. (Certain to spur some heroic action and tug on morals, especially those with a soft spot for good hearted rogues.)
Fun sub, and something I can see myself using next time I run a fantasy campaign.
Awesome. I like it because there is so much you can do with it. You have a benevolent ruler that does it as a matter of course or you can get a bastard (in the attitude sense, not the offspring) that brings the torture and defilement into the main city.
Then there are so many little plots and twists you can throw around that could have as wide reaching reprecussions as you want. If they don't sacrifice then anything that happens in the world against the kingdom can be tagged part of the curse.
I loved the Legend/History; I think I would have some logical hang ups about implementing it in a game I ran.
It's easy to think of this as an awesome, believable superstition for a culture, but I like the idea of it potentially being very real. I'm hung up on the concept of a fixed number of deaths of each type, so cool! What if it didn't (or stopped) changing throughout the years? How would characters deal with the ensuing population explosion, and the potentially apalling outcomes Silveressa pointed out?
I think that without a figure like Saraya using supernatural knowledge to obtain the correct 'number', the festival would only partially successful each year.
For example, most deaths in such societies would be from such things as disease and starvation, things not really possible to do in the space of a festival. So, this festival would mainly be used to reduce the numbers of murders and 'accidents'. Memories of those deaths that were not prevented in the past year would be a big driver - closing the barn door as it were.
But in truth, it may be quite ineffective, as it would be impossible to know if there were enough deaths of a certain type to cancel them all, not without a ridiculous amount of actuarial work. It would help sweep the streets of n'er do wells though, and a convenient means for a corrupt ruler to remove enemies.
