Egg Hunt!
Royal Scribe
🖼️ 264 images Mapmaker
Years ago, when I was first developing the pantheon for the halflings of my world, I accidentally recreated the Easter Bunny.
I had in mind that idea that the head of the pantheon was a grandmotherly figure. I pictured her baking pies and sitting in a rocking chair on her front porch dispensing common-sense wisdom. I had a mental image of her as an anthropomorphized rabbit, like Peter Cottontail's grandmother or a Richard Scarry illustration. But when I had the thought that maybe the living creatures of the world came from eggs that she laid, I realized that I had recreated the Easter Bunny. I decided to lean into that.
Here's my description for Mother Ailish:
The de facto head of the Halfling pantheon is a four-foot tall anthropomorphized rabbit named Mother Ailish. She is depicted as a grandmotherly figure dressed in an apron, bifocal spectacles, and a bonnet or straw hat. When she isn’t shown knitting on her front stoop while dispensing common-sense wisdom, she’s generally shown baking in the kitchen. In her ovens she bakes any manner of delightful confections, particularly savory and sweet pies, and for this reason halflings celebrate natal days (and pretty much every occasion) with pies in her honor. It is said that she baked, piece by piece, all the non-living things of the world in her ovens and then fashioned them together. Every living this in the world is said to be descended from an original that she gave birth to – not in a live birth but laid in bright, multi-colored eggs that her many children and grandchildren (all also depicted as anthropomorphized rabbits) then hid about the world until they were ready to hatch and populate the world with life. For this reason, the halflings have a spring celebration in which they paint eggs made of paper, baked clay, wood, leather, or the like, inside which is hidden toys and candy, which are then exchanged with friends and family and sometimes hidden for strangers to find. The holiday always falls on the first Estaradÿn that falls on or after the first full Caerudraal moon after (but not on) the Spring Equinox.
(Caerudraal is the smallest of my world's three moons. It takes 77 days to orbit the world, and weeks are 10 days, so the holiday is celebrated anywhere from the day after the vernal equinox to 87 days after.)
Anyway, when I created some rainbow images for St. Patrick's Day, I thought maybe I should do an Easter Mother Ailish Egg Hunt for Easter.
I used the Mike Schley Dungeon City style to create a halfling's home and garden. At first I tried to create varicolor decorations for eggs, but they're so small here that you couldn't see the decorations anyway. I tried to just create solid-colored eggs using the three-point circle drawing tool, but wasn't thrilled with the shape -- and the beveling effects didn't show up once the eggs were shrunk. I ended up just using Mike Schley's varicolor dragon eggs.
Anyway, here's my little halfling home and egg hunt:
Garden without Eggs
The home faces a rural lane, with the garden accessed through the home's back door. The garden has a gate that provides access to a side street. Everything comes from Mike Schley's city or dungeon assets except the hedges, which are Sue's connecting hedges -- and then I used her end/corner pieces instead of Mike's for the stand-alone hedges. And I think the flowers are miniaturized shrubs from DD3.
Garden with Hidden Eggs
Under the Trees and Gazebo Canopy
Mappy Easter -- er, Mappy Mother Ailish Day!
Comments
But you're not supposed to reveal them till the day!
And Easter's not till May 5 anyway this year (Orthodox) 😉!
I was going to post this on Sunday (not Orthodox!) but thought I should catch people before they left for the weekend -- long weekend, for people in countries or companies that give Good Friday off. (Mine does not.)
I just checked my Excel spreadsheet to see when this holiday would be celebrated this year (the year 3121 of the 6th Age). The first full Caerudraal moon after the spring equinox this year would fall on the Earth equivalent of April 14th, and the first Estaradÿn (which is the equivalent of Saturday) after that would be April 22nd. I will have to put that on my calendar.
So, what countries do Royal Scribe and Wyvern come from, I wonder?
Real world or campaign world?
Real world, I'm from San Francisco, California. Fifth generation, with three of my four grandparents descended from ancestors who moved here well over a hundred years ago, over 150 years ago in one case. (I know that's nothing compared to most Europeans, but for the west coast of the U.S., it's pretty rare.)
Campaign world: the starting country is a vast realm united through marriages over generations. Very typical fantasy RPG style inspired by medieval northern Europe. The southern region has a culture descended from a Greco-Roman-type empire, while the northern region is more Celtic-influenced.
@Royal Scribe So, USA does not give Good Friday as a public holiday - mmm interesting. Australia does, and we are definitely more secular than USA> Wonder why that is. And as for the campaign world - Huzzah for the Celts!!
No, not as a national holiday. When it comes to balancing religion vs. putting people to work, greed triumphs! Companies on the East Coast are more likely to offer it, but it's not universal and less common on the West Coast.
The Celtic culture in my kingdom is more Celt-inspired, but with a custom pantheon.
Wow, what a fascinating world. Thanks for sharing