Freeday, 1st of Juno, 470th Year of the Fifth Era

It had been a few days since the incident between the youths of Goria and its allies and the catholic Halak realms. Sectarian disagreements as one would call it. It had threatened the relatively cordial relations between the protestant and catholic realms of the Halaklands, but thankfully a temporary accord could be reached.

In the midst of adversarial and somewhat hostile pagan and moslem realms who cared not for the difference between the christian sects, the Archbishop of the Halak church had held a private meeting with the catholic church's superintendent of the Halaklands. The meeting was attended by the other high-ranking elders and kings of the christian realms.

Josias didn't know all the details of what was discussed, but basically it was agreed that there will be a general 'ceasefire' so to speak between the catholic and protestant realms of the Halaklands. They had agreed to 'divide' the Halaklands between them so to speak in terms of missionary rights of proselytisation.

They had split the Halaklands into North and South. The Northern realms would fall to the Protestant Halak church and their jurisdiction while the southern areas were the territories of the catholic missions. It had seemed that from the perspective of the adults, the matters had been settled as accords were reached.

But, Josias' own personal vendetta against the Sinarian youth – specifically Alvaro and his sister – was far from quenched. He was as determined as ever to crush the catholics in the tournament. He vowed to himself not to feel satisfied until he saw the Sinarian prince humbled before him and whimpering for mercy in a public humiliation.

Were these thoughts proper for a good christian to hold? Perhaps not. But he was still only human and he'd just have to hope that God would be ever merciful to help him to change after he beat the snot out of the Sinarians.

All these thoughts were swirling in Josias' head as he sat upon the carpets in the main central courtyard – or more aptly called a field – of the Dolok Mulajadi. He was sat as always close to the front, flanking his grandfather to the left while his own father was at the king's right. He set next to his mother and the rest of their family as well along with rows and rows of the other clan elders.

It was a large field and in total, Josias could see thousands of people gathered in that one spot. The number could be anywhere between ten to twenty thousand, but what Josias knew for sure was that never before had he been in such a crowded place in all his years of living. But to be fair to himself, he had spent most of his life around villages and settlements that had about less than five thousand people at most.

All twenty kings of the Halak realm had arrived upon the Dolok Mulajadi and were now present on the field. Josias understood that this was the first time in over two decades where such a thing had happened, the last time being when his grandfather was given the title of 'Hulubalang Nabolon'. All the great clans and their elders had gathered here for the Gotilon Harvest Festival.

The people were sat in a 'U' formation as everyone was positioned to focus their attention to one spot in the middle. At the center of the court was constructed an altar called the 'Langgatan' decorated by 'mare-mare' or sugar palm leaves tied to it as decoration. Next to the altar was a large equally decorated pole-like object that served as a secondary altar.

It was already the second day of the celebrations and ritual. The Raja Malim and believers of the Old Ways had named the celebration as 'Sipaha Sada Nasalpu' or a belated harvest festival. Usually they would have held the celebrations a month or more before, but a late harvest as well as awaiting the arrival of all the kings of the Halaklands to arrive delayed the festival by quite a bit.

Josias was half-heartedly paying attention to the rituals that were currently being led by the Raja Malim. The pagan priest-king was offering prayers of offerings to Mulajadi Nabolon as well as the god's three sons, the Debata Natolu. Josias was somewhat unfamiliar with the details of such rituals but he was familiar with the mode of worship. Archbishop Ludwig was very thorough in his adaptation of traditional culture into Goria's christian framework. Regardless, the sound of the Sarune and rhythmic beats of the gondang drums were highly captivating to say the least.

What captivated Josias' attention more than that however was the sight of a great wooden gate constructed between two pillars on the face of what looked like a large cave. The pillars were carved into the mountain rock and made into the shape of the tunggal panaluan similar to what each of the kings of the Halak were holding. Behind those gates was the great dungeon of the Dolok Mulajadi, the place where it was said the great ancestor Si Raja Halak had appeared from in his occultation.

Josias had once asked his grandfather what was in the dungeon, being one of the people who had made the pilgrimage to the site back when Goria was still a pagan realm. He was told that the dungeon itself was remarkably unremarkable. A small cave-like realm not that much larger than the dungeons that Goria manages. Besides some cave mana beasts and the odd rarely-seen rock-golems as well as a stream of water from a central pool, there really was nothing much to it.

Legends had said that the pool within the cave dungeon once held another portal to the divine realm of Banuaginjang but it was sealed off from access by the gods when Si Raja Halak had emerged from the dungeon.

Whatever the case may be, the location itself was still a point of interest for Josias. This was the origin point of his people. A place that must be held in reverence regardless of what faith or truth any individual Halak may hold. Without the legend and the mythos of the Dolok Mula Jadi, there was nothing to truly distinguish the Halaklands from the rest of the continent.

Taking his focus back to the ritual being carried out, the Raja Malim had invited all the people to stand up as they performed the 'somba' towards the altar. Soon enough, the music started to play in a more rhythmic mode as everyone there bent their knees up and down and swayed their bodies accordingly towards the music. Their clasped hands also moved up and down accordingly with the beat of the gondang drums.

Before the Gorian contingent along with their Hutangali and Rumaparau committed to the dance, Bishop Ludwig had led them in making the sign of the cross and to speak the trinitarian formula out loud. "Marhitehite Goarni Debata Ama, dohot Anak, dohot Tondi Parbadia, Amen! (In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen!)" The people said aloud.

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This action had earned the contemptuous gazes of some of the other priest kings and realms. It could obviously be taken as a form of provocation regardless of how the Ephorus had said it was to maintain Goria's integrity as a christian state. The Raja Malim had shot back a careful glance towards the King of Goria but quickly readjusted his gaze as he did not wish to earn the ire of the only swordsaint of the Halaklands just yet.

Seeing the Gorians and their allies do such a thing, the other subsets of the Halak peoples who no longer followed the Old Ways also followed suit.

"In nomine Patris, et Fili, et Spiritus Sancti!" The realms of Tanjung Naria and Inamaria spoke in accordance with their own catholic tradition.

"Bismillahirrahmanirrahim! Takbeer!" Another contingent who were located far away from the Gorians could be heard as they chanted. "Allahu Akbar!"

The tension within the air was practically palpable as the ritual tortor dancing commenced. The division within the Halaklands itself was obvious to see both politically and religiously. The Raja Malim and the other Halak kings and followers of the Old Ways couldn't do much besides just tolerating the plurality with scowls clearly plastered on their faces.

Josias had even catched a glimpse of the delegation from Saorma. There, next to their king, he could see his bapauda (uncle) Partogi standing with his wife Lamria. Though they looked to be engrossed within the Malim rituals of the old ways, they didn't do much to hide their scowls as they looked towards the Gorian lines. Specifically, the visible hatred on his uncle's face as he glared at his grandfather. Regardless, King Parhal took no heed of any of that.

Choosing to ignore his son as well as the other heathen kings, Josias' grandfather continued to dance to the drum beats as did the other elders.

As the music went on, the Raja Malim approached the altar before he turned around to face the crowd. He then beckoned to them to come with a gesture using both his whole hands in a beckoning sine to the rhythm.

Each of the twenty realms had their kings and a few elders and women approach the altar to place offerings and goods. The men held up plates of uncooked meat and other such foods while the women carried the tandok (traditional rise grain sacks) on their heads. Some women even danced with both hands as the tandok was balanced upon their heads despite the up and down motion of the Halak dancing.

As they approached the altar, they placed the plates at the front and the rice grains into a larger sack as a symbolic gesture of offering. One by one the kingdoms had given their offerings. The order in which the kingdoms got to give the offerings first was determined and chosen by the Raja Malim himself. In this, the Raja Malim had chosen for the Gorians to go last.

When it came time for Goria to give its offerings, King Parhal himself had joined the group of elders in the dance to bring the offerings. However, what surprised Josias the most was that the one leading the group wasn't the king or any of the other clan elders either. The one leading the procession in an almost entranced-like state of dancing to the sound of the sarune trumpets and gondang drums was the Lord Ephorus and Archbishop of the Halak Church himself.

Archbishop Ludwig was dancing there not as a prelate of the christian church, but as Goria's technical foremost 'shaman'. He wore his usual black cassock attire but over it he also donned an extravagant ulos draped over his shoulder. Instead of his bishop's mitre, he had wrapped another ulos over his head in a triangular style called the 'talitali'.

Josias saw that many of the Halak followers of the Old Ways from the other kingdoms had a surprised expression as the sight of a western man so skillfully and faithfully dancing according to traditional Halak custom. At that moment Josias was not seeing Ludwig Rappmeister the foreign missionary. No. The person who was dancing there was 'Ompu Tuan Guru Eporus Rapmasari'. The pinnacle of faith intermingling with tradition. The beacon from which the light of Christ within the Halak church shone through.

Josias saw that many in the crowd had mixed reactions. His uncle Partogi had an unreadable expression save for a slight frown. Many of the Parmalim (Followers of the Old Ways) were impressed and had an amused look. Some even had looks of admiration. However, the largest amount of frowns that he saw obviously came from the Povorian Catholic missionaries working under the realms of Tanjung Naria and Inamaria.

As much as the catholic church were attempting to steal from the Ephorus' playbook of evangelising the Halak through the local culture, they had a major disadvantage when compared to the Protestant missionaries. And for Halak people in particular, that disadvantage was far too pronounced.

Unlike the protestant priests and missionaries he was familiar with, Josias was confused to learn that the catholic clergymen were barred from being married and having descendants. To most Halak, celibacy and the inability to have children may as well be a death sentence. It was a death sentence to the legacy of one's clan and bloodline. If becoming a servant of God meant forgoing the ability to have children, then most Halak men would rebuff the idea of joining the priesthood. This 'church discipline' greatly limited the pool from which new and local priests could be trained.

All that was in stark contrast to the Halak church's development strategy. Most of the priests of the Halak church – even the earlier foreign missionaries – were quick to marry into the local clans and assimilate themselves into the Halak way of life and culture. This was one of the reasons for the birth of a great many Malaok within the protestant Halak realms.

And it was in that tradition of assimilation did the Ephorus dance in front of the great many kings and priest-kings of the Halak realms.

After Goria was finished with giving up its symbolic offerings towards the altar, the music within the great field had stopped. Once more, the Raja Malim addressed the crowd as he began the final part of that day's ritual. It was the tradition of offering a live sacrifice to the altar which in this case was a large water buffalo.

The bull was particularly massive and looked very strong as it took about ten or so men to pull the beast and tie it to the offering pole next to the altar. Josias wasn't sure whether the animal was just a regular if slightly larger variant of a buffalo or if it was a creature either spawning from a dungeon or a mana-enhanced beast. Regardless, it looked menacing and its roar reverberated through the air.

After making another prayer of offering, the Raja Malim unsheathed a ceremonial dagger as he approached the buffalo while a servant of his held a bucket close. The buffalo was still grunting and struggling as it was held down by more than a dozen men who were most definitely aura warriors.

As the Raja Malim drew close, he made one final prayer before plunging the dagger into the bull's neck and letting it bleed out into the bucket. The symbolic offerings would then be prepared for a great feast that would take place in a few days. Obviously, the rest of the grain and meat that the realms had brought and stored within the granaries of Matanitao would also be prepared in anticipation to feed tens of thousands of people.

In the meantime, before the grand feast takes place, the next several days will mark the official start and commencement of the much-awaited Gotilon Festival Tournament.

When the Raja Malim had dispersed the congregation there, Josias took a deep breath as he steeled himself to face the upcoming tournament.

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