The Setting
The setting summarised
A Harvest Dance will take place during an in-game traditional celebration of Faekind that occurs every 12 generations. It is meant to celebrate the existence and grandeur of stories and Fae power. It is an occasion to meet old and new aquaintances, to dwell in ones lusts and desires in abundant company. The Harvest Dance is held at one of the ancient Fae groves surrounding The Waking Tree, an entity that Fae draw their power and existence from.
Different Kin from different cultural backgrounds will gather to celebrate - but also to face the lurking downfall of human faith in Fairytales and Stories and the threat it poses to Fae's existence. Each Fae will have to decide for themselves on how to continue on after the dance - stories, as they were, are changing and it is up to the characters of this larp to change with them, to force their will on humankind or to simply cease existing to the tunes of a beautiful last song.
Some characters will be human playthings, the Foundling, that are kept as pets, children or servants. Most characters will be Fae. The event is set to take place in the mid 19th century.
Note: The plot focus for this LARP will lie mostly on personal relations and drama, but also on the overarching crisis that portrays the frame for the in-game gathering.
The Waking Trees
The LARP will take place at one of The Waking Trees - one could say, the center of European Fae power, though of course, these are not terms the Fae would use themselves and are therefore only here for your off-game understanding.
The Waking Trees are sacred or simply essentially magical places for all Fae folk.
The entire place is a grove charged up with the very essence of Fae magic and being - its fate is irrevocably tied to that of the Fae. The Trees both serve as a bridge between the mortal and the immortal world, as well as being a manifestation of Fae power in both worlds.
Tied to The Waking Tree is a being that can never leave the grove of the Tree. That being is called The Dreamer - it is one with The Waking Tree and speaks for it, representing its needs and interests. Dreamers are, as a rule, not immortal and every few cycles, a new Dreamer is chosen at a Harvest Dance. Typically, they are chosen from amongst the Foundling of the Kin for they represent the connection between the Fae and the mortal world.
The Dreamer is the host of the Harvest Dance celebrations.
The Harvest Dance Celebration
Every 12 generations of humankind, Fae folk around the human world gather in the traditional celebration and ritual of The Harvest Dance at their respective Waking Tree. It is the purpose of the Harvest Dance to celebrate human faith, dreams, and stories of the world beyond their understanding at this sacred place that channels them into the actual Fae creatures.
The setting of this LARP will take place at The Waking Tree in one part of the world - there are several others out in the human realms and Fae gather there to undergo the ancient ritual as well. This is to say that of course, there is more than European Fae folk out there - we as organisers will focus on these though as they are culturally close to our own experience and we want to avoid not doing other cultures justice by getting them wrong.
The Harvest Dance is the biggest and at the same time most exclusive celebration in Fae society as the strange folk dance and gloat about each their respective stories and glamour. It is also a social highlight as old feuds or long forgotten lovebirds might meet once again, stories are being told and of course, the everlasting thirst for entertainment, drama, and vanity climaxes, as passions collide and deals are struck.
The Dance is typically also a place where the Fae mourn those stories that have been forgotten or replaced - after all, fairytales are everchanging and many a beloved face goes missing between one Harvest Dance and the next, vanished into the mists of forgotten things.
The festivities include a ball that often merges the traditional fae music with the contemporary of humans - for it is human creativity that fuels the fae and thus many of them like to incorporate it.
All in all, The Harvest Dance is an excuse for an usually large gathering of Fae folk with a ritualistic, yet symbolic meaning. It is an occasion to pay respect to The Waking Tree, to the roots of Fae power and to gather, brag, scowl and gossip.
The Mirage Crisis
This particular Harvest Dance is out of the ordinary as humanity in this part of the world has entered the age of enlightenment and scientific pursuits, replacing their tales and supernatural explanations of the world around them with fact-based knowledge and investigation. It is a spirit that is new and toxic to the Fae and challenges the foundations of how they interact with the mortals and inspire them.
In the past decades, many a story has faded and been forgotten. Many known friends and foes will not attend the Harvest Dance this time as they have ceased to exist. The usually outrageously pompous celebration is overshadowed by the uncertainty of tomorrow. Will the Fae live to see the turn of the century?
This larp is about the Fae coming together in a time of crisis. To fight over their fates, to console each other, to accept and go out with a spark.
It means that by the end of the larp, each Fae must make a decision: Go on as they used to and slowly fade into oblivion - or leave with a compromise, to change or to sacrifice, in order to survive in the new era of humankind.
At the larp, the characters will be presented with possible outcomes that they individually can choose. But really, the Mirage Crisis is just a framework for the despair, the promises, the happy neverafters that we want you to play on with each other. It's a dark time for Fae kind and each character will deal with it differently. They might make bad decisions, they might resort to gruesome or desperate calls to survive.
This particular part will be elaborated on in the Design Document to give you a better overview over possible outcomes - but ultimately, we decided to change the design and plot in this regard to allow you to choose your own individual ending. The only rule we set up is the following:
There is no free cake. Any decision your character makes about how to get out of this mess must come at a price.