Held once each year when the Arch Druid locates Yggdrasil, the Festival of Roots is one of the most sacred and yet most unrestrained celebrations of the Bifröst Isles. While cloaked in mystery and reverence, it is also unabashedly carnal and wild, earning Yggdrasil its lesser-known but oft-whispered name: the Sex Tree.
The Tree’s Gift
When the World Tree reveals itself, it sometimes bears luminescent fruit that glow like lanterns under its vast canopy. Their nectar is sweet, intoxicating, and suffused with a strange power — a subtle magic that works as an aphrodisiac. Even those who consume only a bite or a drop feel a stirring of warmth, desire, and vitality. Couples see it as a blessing for fertility, while warriors partake to bond in ecstatic brotherhood.
It is also said that Yggdrasil drops golden sap during the festival, which healers collect in clay urns. The sap can treat illness, but it loses potency within days, as if meant only for that sacred moment.
Rituals & Revelry
- The Root Dance: At the festival’s beginning, druids and shamans circle the roots, chanting in Old Druidic. As the rhythm builds, the entire gathering joins in a wild, stomping dance meant to “wake the ground” and stir the tree’s gifts.
- The Branch Flame: Torches are lit from resin drawn at the Tree’s base. These flames burn blue and are believed to ensure fertility in crops, families, and livestock when carried home.
- Union Nights: Lovers, partners, and strangers alike find themselves drawn to one another beneath the Tree’s boughs. Songs and laughter echo through the night, and many children of the Isles are conceived during this time. These births are considered especially blessed, sometimes marked with unusual strength, beauty, or even hints of Fey-touch.
Visitors from The Feywild
The veil is thin beneath Yggdrasil during the Festival. Some years, Sylphs, Satyrs, Dryads, and other fey creatures wander into the celebrations. They bring with them flutes of strange wood, wines that glitter like starlight, and mischief aplenty. Their presence is both revered and feared, for fey unions sometimes leave lasting legacies — half-blood children, mysterious boons, or lifelong curses.
Tales & Beliefs
- Many believe the Tree tests the Isles through the mood of each festival. A joyful Tree drops plentiful fruit; a grieving Tree may give little or none.
- One legend claims that the Furies themselves were born during such a festival, when the Tree’s fruit was consumed by grieving widows who begged for vengeance.
- Some whisper that Yggdrasil itself feeds on the ecstasy, laughter, and life born beneath it, strengthening its roots with mortal passion.
Closing
When dawn comes, the Arch Druid ends the festival by planting a single fruit pit or seed into the ground. Though no seed has ever grown into another World Tree, the gesture symbolizes renewal and ensures the Isles’ continued bond with the living, breathing root between worlds.