Rhiassa Presents: Feast of the Leviathan XXII Hearth and Home

Greetings, friends,

It is that time of the season again and eagerly the kitchens here in Rhiassa bustle to life as we begin our preparations for the turning of the calendar and the arrival of the next Feast of the Leviathan. In truth, this is the happiest time of year for our nation. The anticipation of welcoming all of you to our halls provides us with great joy and we cherish the opportunity to fill your bellies and warm your souls. Beyond that, however, readying for the Feast of the Leviathan sustains us in a different way. The very nature of the undertaking requires that we all come together often to work long hours in preparation. That gathering of our selves and marshaling of our efforts helps remind us of our shared mission and passions as a nation. The planning for Leviathan is an opportunity, in many senses of the word, for Rhiassa to come home.

It is in the spirit of home that Lord Sir Gwen has designed this year's menu. Keeping with the format innovations from last year, we've designed a day where everyone can fully enjoy the atmosphere and activities around the hall by bringing hors devours and amuse bouche to you wherever you are. In the evening, however, dinner service will feature a hearty menu served family-style at your table. We're excited to share with you what a taste of home means to all of us.

Home means different things to different people, backgrounds and upbringings differ greatly among us and certainly everyone has had different experiences that made them who they are. Yet despite whatever specific joys or sorrows that connect us to our pasts, despite the geography of where each of us came from or the physical construction of where we grew up, the ideal of home conjures up something much greater than these details. Home is a place where we feel comforted, a place that heals our souls, a place where we are welcomed and cherished and where we in turn cherish others. A place where we truly feel at home is not always easy to come by, it can be a long journey to finally find ours and it can be hard earned even when it is in sight. But we can assure you though our own experiences that forging a home for yourself in these Realms is a possible and worthwhile goal.

So to all of you who have freely opened your homes in the past and to all of you who are still searching for a home of your own, we invite you to spend a day sharing in ours within the halls of Southland, Rhiassa. We hope you can find comfort in the friendship you will find, we hope you can heal your soul through the merriment and joy that will abound, and we hope that you will feel welcome and cherished even as you cherish those around you.

Leviathan with you,
Lord Sir Aeston, Lady Dame Areni, and Lord Sir Gwen Stromgate

For those of you who joined us at the Feast of the Leviathan last year, you’€™ll remember we made some significant changes to the format of the event that we felt worked very well and allowed people to enjoy the atmosphere and company to their fullest. This year that format returns with some modest improvements so please read below so you have a complete understanding of the day.

1. The bulk of the day will not feature traditional plated service to seated patrons. Instead, the hall will be set up with more widely spaced out tables which will seat ten for dinner but throughout the day will have seating for six. This will allow our guests to move around, sit together when desired or convenient, but be able to flexibly socialize with different groups throughout the day.

2. During this open hall portion of the day, food will plentiful and varied. The kitchen will continuously be producing a wide array of small bites and amuse-bouche, brought out by servants on platters and circulated around the hall. Beyond that, there will also be a revolving station with more hearty offerings available throughout the day. We cannot stress enough that there is no way you will be able to spend the day hungry with the volume and variety of food that will be pouring out of the kitchen.

3. We will have a bar set up this year for drink service. The hall is dry, but we will have a welcome variety of both hot and cold drinks with some specialty items as well including the widely popular Rhiassan Fruit Fizz.

4. During this open hall portion of the day, entertainment and non-combat tournaments will be dispersed around both the large and small sections of the hall. Games and challenges, both old and new, will be available with some more grandiose games, announced periodically.

5. The Gilded Lion Carnival will return with opportunities to win gold and prizes through games of chance and skill!

6. The Chimeron Casino Royale will return with more tables than ever. To encourage participation, especially by those who are new to playing at a casino, vouchers for some free chips will be available as you arrive at the door.

7. Questing opportunities will be present throughout the day from the Adventurer's Guild. To avoid spoilers, we'll leave it at that.

8. Rhiassan Cub Care will be at the event in full effect. Kids entertainment is an important focus for us this year; with families growing and our community blessed with so many children we want to make it easy and enjoyable for you to bring your whole families along. We will be having organized activities, every hour on the hour during the early day, for kids to engage in. To accommodate young adventurers who get tired early, Cub Care later in the day will conclude with quiet time and a movie. Feel free to bring comfy clothes for them to settle into for the late hour.

9. The smaller side of the hall will be set up with a stage and bench seating. Announcements such as auction results, and entertainment such as bardics will take place on this stage with interested parties able to gather close by.

10. As always, there is plenty of space for merchants of all varieties to set up their wares. Contact Aeston if you desire to do so.

11. During the early evening, the hall will transition to a more traditional format. We will ask all of our guests to all gather on the small side of the hall and sit around the stage as we offer some unique and interactive entertainment with the opportunity for our patrons to have fun and win some valuable prizes! While this entertainment is going on, the large side of the hall will be transformed.

12. For this latter section of the event, the seating capacity of each table will be increased. We will have the usual reserved seating for nations available at ten people per table. Tables will be arranged with place settings and dinnerware.

13. Per our normal procedures, you can reserve a table for your group with pre-regges. Three pre-regges from the same nation will allow you to reserve a table. Again, this year tables will seat ten instead of past years where they seated six.

14. As our guests rejoin the larger part of the hall and take their seats, a hearty family-style dinner course will be served immediately followed by dessert.

15. During dinner Rhiassa will host court, followed by the event awards and the View from Valehaven awards ceremony.

This is a dry and drug free site. No alcohol may be brought on site for any reason. All real world laws are strictly enforced at this site and camp staff will involve the authorities if necessary. No pets are allowed on site.

This is a dry site. No pets allowed.