Entertainment
What is there to do?
Even the smallest village will offer a range of entertainments to enjoy. Local affairs include social gatherings, community dances, and sports contests. From time to time, travelling groups, strolling players, and troupes of carnival-like entertainers may visit a settlement.
Larger villages may, in addition, have a village fair, usually on or around holy and holidays, but quite often based on very local events or customs.
Everyday entertainment
Sport is a popular pastime in Kalderesh, and includes football games, foot racing, horse racing, horseshoe pitching, strength contests, wrestling, boxing, and archery.
Games of chance are common, usually using dice, gambling stones, or playing cards. Large settlements may have dedicated gambling houses.
Most people enjoy dancing, and venues range from an informal open space to large dance halls with accomplished musicians.
Musical performances, sometimes accompanied by singing, are commonplace and boisterous music halls are well frequented. These sometimes include side-shows featuring comedians, acrobats, gymnasts, and jugglers.
Fine music performed by an orchestra may be a feature in a large town or city.
Listening to storytellers is always popular, and ranges from a casual event in a marketplace or courtyard, to a well-advertised and costly upmarket affair. Tales will be of mythical events, legendary heroes, famous criminals, distant places, and so forth, all with some amount of fabulous content.
In certain cities, visiting museums, art exhibitions and art galleries are popular forms of entertainment.
Religious holy days
On official holy days, communities hold special public celebrations and festivals offering a range of entertainments such as sports events, dancing, story telling, and fairs. The celebrations are sponsored by the respective faiths, and are usually a highlight on the social calendar.
Secular holidays
Communities across the kingdom arrange some form for celebration on Founder’s Day, Winter Festival, King’s Day, and the Day of Roses. Activities on these days are supported financially by the duchy. On Founder’s Day, additional funds and goods are made available by the Treasury. These public festivities are also opportunities for the wealthy to show their support, loyalty, and largess. Festivities include parading groups, fancy dress events, dancing and singing and general carousing. Members of the upper class are unlikely to attend these events, instead holding private themed celebrations.
Benthantium Project
Since the reign of Queen Aelyssa, the Court has sponsored a performing company to travel through Kalderesh, along the Royal Loop, and present a programme of entertainment at each city along the route.
Known as the Benthantium Project, it is composed of carefully selected members of three Guilds: Music & Performers Guild, Artists Guild, and the Scholastic Guilds. The Project is responsible for compiling accurate material and presenting it in an engaging fashion.
The goal is to educate the Kalderani people about the kingdom’s heritage. The content deals with stories of the great kings and leaders that established Kalderesh, and tales of famous people and events.
Theatrical plays, story-telling events, musical performances, and an art exhibition, are presented. In addition, very popular comedy routines are interspersed among the more serious items. There are also special kid-friendly presentations.
A typical visit to a town or city lasts for two weeks, of which three days are used to set up and take down the mobile stages, tents and stalls. The caravan consists of 20 to 25 large wagons, a number of smaller auxiliary carts, and a complement of 100 to 150 people.
The Project is on tour year-round, and is eagerly anticipated by villagers and city folk alike. The tour starts in Camfor, with a performance of new (and favourite) material for the Royal Family and other nobility, usually at a one-day gala event. The full programme is then publicly presented before the troupe leaves Camfor to go on tour.
There is strong competition amongst performers to be accepted as a member of the Project, and the names of popular performers are well-known amongst the people. New material is constantly being created and existing items updated. Composers and playwrights vie to have their material taken up in the programme, as slots become available when less popular items are stricken off.
Specific city festivals
Some settlements have become known for unique events celebrating a local custom or highlight. Two of the most famous are staged in Pai each year. The annual Pai Harvest Festival is held in November, drawing large crowds from across Kalderesh. Pai also hosts an annual Poetry Competition, promising big prizes (both fame and fortune) for the winners.
In Camfor, the Festival of Kithrel showcases the incredible horsemanship of the city’s military riders, both on land and in the sky. The land-based performers demonstrate dressage at each of the city’s famous equestrian statues. Overhead, the sky helms perform daring aerial manouevers. The festival culminates when the land-based mounts take flight and join the sky helms flying in formation over the city.
The annual Esterhedge Market Festival is held in that city, where, by law, each seller of goods or services has to offer a certain fraction of their wares at half-price. The free city swells in size to double its normal population in this time.
Organized events
Formal plays of religious or secular nature are presented in theatres, specifically built for such productions. A small number of circuses (independent travelling theatrical productions) are active from time to time, usually with accompanying side shows.
Fairs are generally held once or twice a year and feature some sort of livestock (cattle, horses, etc.) or goods, brought for exhibition and sale. Various other entertainments are usually on offer.
Martial events and competitions are held from time to time. These include jousting (for the upper class), mock combats, fencing competitions, and archery.
Amongst nobility and the upper class, balls are a highlight. These night-time strictly-invitational events feature socialization, refreshments, and dancing, and are always held at the home of the host, who invites only people of equal or higher social status to attend.