Quoted By:
>The civilisation gets +0.05 Culture.
>The civilisation gets +0.02 Militarism.
>The civilisation gets -21 Population and Standing Military.
>The civilisation gets -188 Standing Military temporarily.
>The civilisation gets +5 Cohesion and Happiness.
>The civilisation gets -5 Productivity.
>The civilisation gets -10 Security.
A grand tournament is declared, one that shall be held in the fighting pits of Ancron and that shall last from winter's end to summer's end. Every last blood-drinker and mountain man will be given the opportunity to prove their worth by brawling each other before a great audience. When the announcement is made at the great feast, spirits are certainly lifted and the declaration is greeted with cheers and excitement.
Certainly, when spring comes around, warriors flock to Ancron to prove themselves. Hundreds of fighting men batter each other for over a thousand ecstatic onlookers. The absence of so many soldiers in the source of some trouble – Grovic and Scagravic alike are able to get away with their crimes unmolested and traders are left vulnerable to theft. The fact that so many common folk are busy watching this bloodsport rather than doing their duties doesn't help either – the price of food rises dramatically and plenty of work that should be done is left forgotten and incomplete.
By the time summer is over, the throngs of eager spectators return to their homes across the great lake, satisfied by the carnage. The soldiery are pleased with the violence that they wrought on each other as well, though many of them have been grievously wounded. Seven dead mountain men and fourteen dead Vuvovic, as well as over fifty Sharovic and over a hundred and thirty blood-drinkers who will need some time to recover from their injuries.
During this period, an important change occurs. Caught up in the excitement, the last of the Anamilivic finally embrace the Sitrunic way. Among the common folk, worship of the Great Father and the customs of scarification and blood-drinking have died out. The only tradition of this lost tribe that is still practised by the Croglatovic is the consumption of <span class="mu-s">provul</span> – blood curd, a cooked and solidified mixture of pig's blood and groundnut flour that is usually eaten with honey and berries.
>The civilisation gets -0.05 Culture.
Unfortunately, not long after the end of summer, it happens.
Sitrun succumbs to her frailty and passes away, at the age of forty-three.
She is buried in a field just outside of Ancron, so that the flowers may take her vital energy and pass it on to the bees, who shall then give it back to the Croglatovic in the form of honey. Her essence shall pass back to her people and they shall grow stronger for it. Yet those who carried her to her resting place claim strange things – that she scarcely weighed more than a feather, that her skin felt like dead leaves, that her body was curiously hard, as though it was filled with rocks.
