The Festival of the Five Moons

Fittingly for a planet full of shapeshifters, the night sky above Gadalla is an ever-shifting thing. There is only one night per year when the five moons could be seen standing together in the sky overhead. And early kíndallans saw this as an evening of great significance.

The chieftains of warring tribes across the planet met on a neutral plains and decided that no fighting would take place on the day in question, nor for the four days and nights which followed. There would also be no changing of form for these five days, as a way of discouraging subterfuge. Eventually, as a one-world Kédalikín society began to emerge, the once-solemn ritual evolved into a joyous celebration of all that the planet’s people had achieved in the last year.

The modern celebration differs from the ancient tradition of silent reflection is many ways, but there are two key elements to any true Kédalikín five-moon feast: one for adults and one for children.

Adults celebrate each night of the festival by bedding a person they’ve never slept with before. This leads, of course, to Kédalikíns “saving” some of their potential hook-ups throughout the year—which in turn leads to a certain wondering over whether the person you’ve been flirting with for months, but who never makes the final move, is saving you for a special occasion.

Kédalikín children, on the other hand, celebrate each night with an exchange of gifts. A Kédalikín child is given a gift by each of their many parents, and each child is expected to make a gift on their own for any sibling they have met—a tradition which is meant, over time, to prepare them for the making of gifts for their own children.