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The Moon Gate

The largest temple dedicated to the moon goddess Lunara (and also the largest temple in general) in all of Moonspire. It is located in the perfect center of moonspire and constructed in sucha way that at midnight every single night of the year, the moonlight shines directly at a large statue of Lunara.

Architecture

In the center of the gate, a large statue of Lunara is placed, tall enough to be seen from outside of the temple. Around this statue, a spiral staircase winds upwards towards the heavens, marking the tallest structure in Aethera, being visible from the entire city. On top of the spire, there is a large platform used for religious ceremonies, with the namesake of the temple, a large gate in the middle. This gate is enchanted to follow the moon, turning towards its current place in the sky along with its movement. It gathers the moon light used to power everything inside the tower and directly reflecting it down to the statue beneath it, using a combination of mirrors and spells to bend the light. In order to keep the gate working, all enchantments have to be reapplied constantly, requiring a large staff of priests in the Order of Lunara to monitor it and apply the needed spells periodically.

The gate itself also has a special connection to Lunara herself, not due to any spells or enchantments cast on it. Anything passing through the gate will vanish into thin air, leaving no traces behind. It is believed that the gate directly connects to the lunar palace of Lunara, sending everything passing through it directly to her. Lunara will then pass judgement on what she has received and will either allow it into her sanctum or erase it from existence. Because of this belief, the gate is used both for offerings to Lunara, as well as for burial rites. Atop the actual gate, the tower continues in a tall pointy structure with a lantern at the top, acting as a beacon to be lit by the moonlight during lunar festivals.

The remaining temple is constructed around this central pillar with a large courtyard surrounding it allowing anyone within its walls to witness the enourmous statue of Lunara and the tower extending above it. Similar to the light-collecting properties of the temple, it has also been constructed to focus any sounds coming from the pillar and spread it througout the courtyard. Thus the priests will deliver sermons throughout the day at various points of the spire. The more important of an event the higher up the will walk on the stairs, indicating more closeness to Lunara at higher points. On most days where only the usual sermons take place, priests will not rise higher than the statue the stairs are winding around, while at special occasions they rise up higher accounting for the importance of the event. The only times when priests are climbing all the way to the top is for offerings, Lunar Passages and special festivals. For a normal offering happening once a day, any other sermons will pause while a groupd of priests ascends the tower carrying the offerings that are delivered through the gate. Once the offerings have been delivered, they will say a short prayer and them immediately return down the stairs to continue regular operations. During a lunar passage or festival, a larger group of priests gather to carry offerings up the tower. Once they have reache the top they will gather around the gate and perform the respective rituals for the festival before delivering the offerings, often in multiple steps with other rituals, prayers or sermons in between.

The yard itself is a nice garden giving the temple a very warm and natural atmosphere, with many water features and ponds. These serve the purpose of both references Lunara's love for nature as well as her love for her fellow gods Kalia and Faeryn who were closest to her. People come and go as they please, dropping by for daily prayers or to listen to a sermon. At night, more people gather for moon- and stargazing, paying respects ot both Lunara and Noctara, the goddess of stars and the night sky.

Around the yard, there are the walls of the temple. These consist of multiple layers containing the quarters of the priests working at the temple, the storehouses and other rooms containing things as ritual tools and holy texts. These walls stretch upwards multiple stories with more important rooms located further up the temple and only the lowest ones being accessible for people not living within the temple.

Under the temple a large network of tunnels connect the temple, allowing for fast travel from one side to the other or even into the center of the yard, emerging directly below the statue in its center. These stairs are also used during burials, bringing the bodies up from the catacombs where they are stored until the burial takes place. For this purpose most of the yard has cavernlike rooms below it in which many bodies can be stored at one time. These are prepared and preserved until their respective rites take place by the Guardians of the passage. Other than them, few people are allowed to use the tunnels with even lower ranking priests being only allowed to take aboveground paths.

Gate Offerings

Priests of the order regularly bring all sorts of offerings to the gate, in a daily ceremony praying to Lunara. These consist of specialties gathered from all over moonspire by a special subgroup of priests called the Moonwalkers. During more important holidays such as the lunar festivals, more and bigger offerings are brought to appease Lunara and pray for the future. Many people also bring their own offerings to the priests in the temple which are then added to the temple storehouse to be brought up to the gate. Sometimes, when the offerings pile up, special festivals are called in, in order to make sure all offerings make it to Lunaria before anything can perish. Such festivals, known as the Festivals of Overflowing Lanterns are signs of prosperity. In good times many lantern festivals take place indicating an abundance of wealth and blessings from the gods, while in bad times where the population can barely be fed they need to be paused. It is then believed that once Lunara has forgiven the transgressions leading to the period of scarcity a new era of prosperity will follow, allowing for many lantern festivals again. Some religious authorities have of course still used these for their own motives, hoping to signal prosperity while people are starving in reality. These are rare events, however, as lantern festivals are marked by abundance and offerings being carried towards the gate for hours at a time, which a struggling government usually cannot provide.

The Lunar Passage

The other main purpose of the gate are the burial rites. These are reserved for the most noteworthy people in all of moonspire, having to go through a long process before even being considered for the privilege. When such a person dies, their body is brought to Aethera into the temple where someone close to the dead person has to make their case to the priests as to why this person should be considered for the Lunar Passage. At this point any others having traveled with the procession can add additional support to the case, explaining their relationship to the deceased and why they should be considered. All of this is then brought to the highest priest of the order, who then consider everything carefully before making a decision, sometimes for multiple days. In the meantime, the bodies are kept in the catacombs under the temple, where the Guardians of Passage perserve their bodies until a decision has been reached. Upon a positive decision, the rites are immediately prepared as to bring the body to Lunara as fast as possible. At this time, a festival comparable to a lantern festival is initiated where the body is carried up the spire along with many offerings as to appease Lunara before it is brought through the gate as the head priests gives a sermon, explaining the deeds this person has done during their lifetime. It is then believed that Lunara will judge their souls once they reach the palace and depending on her decision, she will either grant them entry into her palace where they live in happiness and prosperity for eternity, or she will judge them not worthy and eliminate them from existence.

As with the Lunar Festivals, these are not always fully motivated by heroic deeds, many monarchs and other wealthy people want to be remembered this way and will spend a lot of money on the temple to get their requests approved. However, as the Lunar Passage is one of the biggest and most expensive festivals taking place at the gate, the priests still have to be very selective about who they will allow. Usually this means that for anyone to be considered without the deeds to back it up, they will have to provide financing for the entire festival to even be considered, with a generous donation to the order to boot. Apart from these rare cases, anyone buried at the gate is indeed a heroic figure, and the less weight a family name already carried during their lifetime, the more heroic they have to be to get approved.

For anyone trying for approval but getting rejected, their relatives can either take the body back for their own burial services, or take the alternative the temple offers. These regular burials take place in front of the statue of Lunara in the center of the temple, where the Guardians will carry the body after carefully preparing it, placing it in such a way that Lunara is facing the dead directly. A priest, again depending on who is buried this might be one of the head priests or one of the lower priests, will then give a sermon recapping the life of the deceased while the guardians light it on fire. They then gather around the fire and give the last prayers.

The Lunar Festivals

The following festivals are the usual ones held at the moon gate:

The full moon festival is the most basic of these festivals being held once a month during the full moon when the temple shines brightest. Similar festivals are also held in other temples following the examples set by the moon gate festivals. The other festivals are all on special occasions, replacing the usual festivities with even grander ones. Since both blue and red moons appear periodically and the lunar passage and lantern festivals can happen at any time, there have been rare occasions where they are combined, leading to unique events most people can witness at most once in their lifetime.

Full Moon Festivals

Once a month during the full moon, the lantern atop the spire ligths up the entire temple in the glow of the moon. During that time a majority of the city gathers at the temple to witness the monthly event, participating in the ceremony and then moongazing for the rest of the evening.

The preparations for the festivals begin early on the first day of the full moon, the entire temple preparing for to coming festivities. Many moonwalkers return that day or the day before bringing new offerings to the temple. In addition to these unique gifts, the temple also collects additional gifts from the city and their storerooms. These are then all brought into the courtyard just before the moon rises, at which point the real festival starts.

All the priests available in the city then gather around Lunara's statue and deliver the opening prayer, after which the first group of priests climb up the stairs chanting praises to Lunara and bringing the first collection of offerings up to the platform. This then takes until just before the moon starts hitting the lantern for the first time that night and as the moonlight floods the temple, the first offerings are delivered. After another prayer, they then descend the stairs again, praising Lunara as they did on the way up. This then continues for most of the night until all offerings have been delivered. In between the deliveries different other events are held, which are different each month. There are sermons, songs, plays about the gods and stories are told, mostly about the gods, but sometimes also of others that have been granted the Lunar Passage.

Right at midnight, when the biggest procession prepares to walk up the stairs and the most valuable gifts are delivered before the official festivities end, the new apprentice priests as well as the ones right before reaching full priesthood are also included. As they reach the top, first the new apprentices are sworn in, pleading themselves to service for lunara before delivering the first half of the offering. Once these are finished and more prayers have been offered to Lunara, the final initiations of the older apprentices are performed. For these, each apprentice calls on Lunara and pleads their life to her, before offering her one of the remaining valuable and unique items to her. After which they kneel in silence before the gate waiting for Lunara's judgement, which is believed to come to any priest not worthy of this status. And altough this has never happened in recorded history, the tradition is still observed every time. Only when everyone is sure the new priest has been accepted are they allowed to rise and take their place among the full-fledged priest and the ceremony continues with the next one. After all of them have finished, one last prayer is sent to the heavens and the very last item is offered to Lunara. This is always the most valuable item avaliable for that month, and once it has been delivered, the priests return down the stairs, singing the ending chant signalling the end of the ceremony.

Once all of this is done, the rest of the night is spent without any official programme, with everyon still there talking, eating and drinking and watching the moon until it sets. Once the moon has set for the night, the first day of the ceremony ends.

On the second day a similar procedure is followed. During the day, more offerings are collected in the courtyard in preparation for the evening. Then the ceremonies again start once the mooon is visible in the sky with the same opening ceremony as on the first day. For the second part of the festivities, instead of simply delivering prepared gifts, everyone in attandance gets the chance to bring their own offerings. These are collected until enough has been collected for the next offering ceremony takes place, repeating until either not enough offerings can be collected or until the last procession before midnight climbed the tower. Just before midnight on the second day, the most important ceremony of the festival takes place. For this part, priest from all different religions of moonspire are invited to gathered all bringing their own offerings both for Lunara and the gods their religion worships in particular. They are then all distributed into different processions for different gods, all accompanied by a single priest of Lunara. Just before midnight, the first one rises to the top starting off the ceremony with prayers and offerings for Lunara herself. After they have climbed down the tower once again, the next procession starts their ascent, usually led by followers of Kalia. Once they have completed their ceremony, the next procession, usually for Faeryn does the same. This continues until everyone got their chance to bring offerings, which often takes many hours until deep into the night. Lastly, another procession of Lunara climbs the tower, officially bringing the celebrations to an end. They bring the most valuable and rarest offerings that could be gathered this month, bringing them before Lunara in the hopes of another prosperous month.

Blood Moon Festivals

Blood moon festivals, only taking place once around every four years have a similar structure to regular full moon festivals. But as a blood moon usually lasts longer than the two days a regular full moon takes, these take up at least a week, possibly even longer. While blood moons are generally predictable, their exact time and length cannot be known before, forcing the priests to rely on few astronomical clues to determine when the festival should start. The most reliable one is a slight red tint the night before the blood moon. Once this has been spotted, the ceremony needs to be fully be prepared by noon of the next day in order to get it started in time. The first day contains the usual opening ceremonies in honor of Lunara, as with the usual full moon, of course with a greater amount and rarity of offerings. That day at midnight, people from all over moon spire gather in the yard to gaze at the red moon as it illuminates the temple in crimson light and the blood rains fall down upon everyone. The remaining days are then dedicated to a different god or group of gods each, usually starting with one day for Kalia and one for Faeryn and the remaining days being dictated by how many followers of the different gods arrive. These ceremonies are also always led by priests of the remaining churches, instead of the ones at the moon gate. Thus each day can look very different, the only constants being a beginning and ending prayer to Lunara herself, and concluding the festivities by admiring the blood moon and rain.

At the last day, about one week after the beginning, when the blood rains are slowly letting up and the moon is returning to its normal color, the highlight of the festival begins. Again similar to the climax of a full moon festival, but more extravagant and grand, the day starts with the usual opening ceremonies. After that each church in attendance sends another procession up the spire, often many times more than were present during the week. Even followers of gods that seem to have been forgotten by the world will show up in large numbers, honoring their god in their own way. These ceremonies start immediately at dusk as the moon is barely visible and continue long into the night, with the closing prayers often only beginning right before dusk.

Blue Moon Festivals

In principle, blue moon festivals follow the same structure as a red moon festival with only a few key differences. As the blue moon indicates Kalia visiting the moon to be with Lunara once again, these festivals are entirely dedicated to these two. The only time any other gods are even mentioned in any official capacity is at the opening ceremonies when a special procession for Faeryn climbs the tower, mourning his falling out with Lunara and Kalia and praying for their eventual reunification. Afterwards, the rest of the week is entirely dedicated to Lunara and Kalia and their union. Another specialty of these festivals are presences of Infernals and Abyssals, the only higher beings created not only by Lunara herself, but with the combined powers of her and Kalia. Thus they are very dedicated not only to Lunara but Kalia as well, often worshipping them as one, considering the union of these lovers as even more holy than either of them on their own. Many of the ceremonies during a blue moon week are even held by representitives from the various churches, similar to the ones at red moon festivals.

The Lunar Passage

This festival is even rarer than a blue moon festival, marking the death of some of the most significant figures in all of moonspire. As these are only granted to very few individuals, all of which have a very high public interest, the ceremonies are enourmous. And since they also only take a single night, the temple is always overflowing. In preparation, most of the inner yard of the temple is walled of the moment the passage has been granted in order to leave enough space for the ceremony to even take place. Almost immediately after these are erected and people have taken notice, people gather around in hopes of securing a good spot when the passage begins. Such a waiting period might take multiple days, as a Lunar passage always takes place during the second day of a full moon, but people are still patiently waiting for as long as it takes.

When the ceremony finally starts with the normal full moon opening, the Guardians of the Passage carry the prepared body up the temple stairs onto the courtyard. At this point silence falls over the yard and even the ones watching from outside. The Guardians place the body before the statue of Lunara kneeling around it and starting the traditional chant for the deceased. Once they have finished their chant, they rise up and face the crowds, at which point the head priest begins a lament, first on their own, then with the other priests joining them and finally with everyone watching joining as well. It is a sad song heard in the entire city and with many across the lands joining in at at least roughly the same time. After the lament is over, another period of silence begins, during which the Guardians slowly carry the body up the spire, followed by the head priest. Once they have arrived at the top, the Guardians will stand in front of the gate holding the body up, waiting for their signal to initiate the passing. The head priest will then start a sermon recapping the persons entire life and all the deeds that allowed them to take the passage. They always go into great deal making the Guardians hold the body for up to three hours at a time before they conclude. Then the Guardians finally push the body through the gate and descend the spire in another lament echoing through the halls. Following the guardians multiple other processions climb up the stairs, carrying offerings to bring with the body. Each of these processions walks up in silence, brings the offerings and walks down singing another lament until the next procession follows them. Once the last procession has given their offerings, the head priest will give one last prayer, ending both the ceremony as well as the full moon festival. They then descend in total silence, signalling everyone else to leave, at which point the temple falls into silence for the rest of the night.

Overflowing Lantern Festivals

These are the rarest festivals in the spire, sometimes not taking place for hundreds of years. An overflowing lantern festival only takes place in the very rare circumstance when the temple storehouses are overflowing and perishables have to be moved out of it before the next full moon. Such festivals are the only ones taking place outside of the usual moon cycle, at any time of the month, as they are very time sensitive. They are festivals of prosperity giving huge amounts of offerings to Lunara as well as spreading them amonst the population. Outside the usual ceremonies of a regular full moon festival, these involve enormous celebrations of everyone involved, usually even including the priests themselves. People have compared them to what must be happening during a blood moon celebration on the moon, and they are not entirely wrong in that assesment.

Behind the Gate

As with most religious believes, no one really knows for sure how the gate works and what is behind it. It is indeed true that the gate directly connects to Luanra's palace, to an identical gate directly in front of the palace entrance, bringing everything that passes throug it directly to her. Other gods even use these gates to travel from earth to the moon and back, altough some prefer other means of transportation.

There is however no such thing as a hall of ancestors or any judgement by Lunara when a dead body is sent through. Instead, Lunara will keep a close watch during the ceremonies, honoring the heroes legacy and wait for them to be sent to her. She then dissolves the body into the moon itself, where it turns into moon stone, to be rained back down to earth.

The other offerings are received by Lunara who collects and preserves them. She has her own gallery for all material goods such as paintings and sculptures where she collects everything that finds her way to her, and where the gathering of the gods during a blood moon takes place. Food and drinks are brought to her storage, where they are magicall preserved for the next blood moon. Then, all the gods gather in Lunara's gallery and enjoy what their creations have brought for them this time, and have a huge party. As there is another big ceremony during the blood moon, the gods then gather in front of the gate on the moon, waiting for the offerings to arrive. Anything making its way through there during the blood moon gathering will then be incorporated into the gods' festivities.

Sadly, there have also been incidents of misguided priests or others who managed to sneak past the temple's guards to try themselves at the gate to see what is on the other side. Of course, human bodies are not prepared for the amounts of magic it takes to transport matter from the earth to the moon and everyone who has tried ended up on the other side merely a shell of their former selves, finding their death shortly after. Since there is nothing stopping anyone from entering the gate and coming out the other side alive, it is still possible for someone to make the trip itself, witnessing the lunar palace in all its glory as the very first person. It does however seem very unlikely that anyone could pull off such a task.