Dianne: "Oh, that reminds me, Lucci, have you heard the rumors about Triticum?"

Lucci: "Rumors? What rumors? I had him set up shop decades ago."

Dianne: "So, it's true? He's back, up on some god-forsaken mountain, all alone?"

Lucci: "He's not alone. I put him there to help travelers make it across those peaks. Sure, not too many frequent the place, but I stop by time and again to keep him company."

Armin turned his attention to Lucci, suddenly interested. 'Wait, so you're the one who set him up there? Didn't he mind? I can't imagine anyone would be happy to be stuck living up a snowy mountain with hardly any company.'

Lucci: “He was happy to help. His presence there basically guarantees the survival of any hapless travelers trying to make it over the range.”

Dianne: “But, he always liked entertaining groups. And he was ok with this job?”

Lucci: “Like I said, he was happy to help. He didn’t seem sad the last time I visited.”

Armin didn't look one-hundred-percent convinced, but just said, 'So... d'you think we could get up there if we tried? We were thinking about going to visit him ourselves. And I guess there's no real danger, if Triticum's whole purpose being there is to stop people dying up the mountain.'

(Colors let me use percentage signs plz)

{Lucci just smiles at the notion.}

Lucci: “Of course you could, if you knew where he was, but I’m not telling you where to find him.”

Dianne: “What? Why?”

Lucci: “Because, you two aren’t ready for an ‘out of province’ trip together

'Why's that?' said Armin. 'Is this because of what happened last week? You think we're going to kill each other or something? That's not going to happen again.'

Lucci: "Maybe /you/ two won't be in danger, but a whole lot of superstitious villages on the way will be. You're going to need to stop for supplies at some points, and an entourage of draugrs won't go unnoticed. Besides, it's been hard enough keeping the hunters off of Dianne's scent without her going out and being noticed by every skittish settlement in the province."

Armin considered this. '...I guess you might have a point. But then, will we /ever/ be able to go? Those things aren't going to change anytime soon.'

Lucci: “You will, eventually. But things are just a little too dangerous right now. And even then, I’ll have to accompany you, just to see to it that Dianne makes it back.”

{Dianne sighs, looking a little discouraged.}

Dianne: “...Sometimes I forget just how big of a target I have on my back...being able to do the things I can...”

Armin didn't look particularly happy, either. 'We'd have to go with you? Well, I guess there are worse people I'd want to have along... But being accompanied by a deity who can predict everything that's about to happen is definitely going to take some of the fun out of it.'

He thought about it for a moment. 'Actually, maybe it's better that we don't go right now, anyway. I mean, it's nearly Christmas. We're probably expected to stay here for that.'

(Random timeline info:
I always imagined Shacklestone to start in the autumn, like September-October.
I'm not sure how much time the main story took up, but I think it was about two weeks, give or take.
And then there was the month where Dianne was away, followed by the week that we timeskipped afterwards.
So it's probably around November-December now. :D)

(Sounds good to me.)

Lucci: “Yes, that’s for the best. Just enjoy the holidays for now. You can go on massive trips later.”

Dianne: “Christmas? Is it that time of year again? Huh, sometimes I forget that’s a thing.”

(Re: Yeah, boi, I had to. I really like her as a character. And yeah that was the intention of making her a barkeep.)

'So do I, but we should definitely stay for it,' said Armin. 'I've heard the festivities in this city can get pretty wild. Besides, most of my previous Christmases were in Sargon's organisation, and those were never particularly fun... though Ana hosted great Christmas parties...'

{Lucci just laughs while Dianne looks mildly concerned.}

Dianne: “...Should I ask? What, was Ana a funny drunk or something?”

'No, she never got drunk,' said Armin, looking amused. 'But every year, she and a few other people would get together and organise the biggest parties possible. It was all an attempt to impress Sargon and get him to spend time with her outside of work. He wasn't interested, obviously. But as a result of her misguided efforts, the rest of us always got to have a pretty good Christmas party.'

(I'm gonna be making a lore post on Vallian Christmases sometime soon. There are a few differences between their version of Christmas and what we have here. Nothing big, but I thought it'd be fun to mention. X))

Dianne: “Huh...y’know, I never would have guessed that Sargon’s organization would have been the one that had the best Christmas parties, given that the literal slogan of Christmas is ‘goodwill towards men’. Such a strange irony.”

Lucci: “Hey, even psychos like holiday festivities. There’s nothing stopping them from celebrating as well.”

(Alrighty, looking forward to it!)

'Surprising, isn't it?' said Armin. 'Most of them jumped at the opportunity to celebrate. Though, maybe they just liked it because it was a chance to get drunk and have time off work.' He shrugged slightly. 'Sargon never cared about the festivities, but he didn't mind letting his minions enjoy themselves. He said it was good for morale or something.'

Dianne: “Good for morale? That dumba$s. Joining his underlings in celebration would have been good for morale. It would have made him seem much more like one of them, and not this scary old guy who doesn’t care about his people whatsoever. Y’know, every time my necromancer co-workers would throw a party, Dolorus would be all up in there, drinking, laughing, making jokes. He made the group much more cohesive by not distancing himself from his employees. For an evil serpent, he sure did know how to have a good time.”

'Yeah, well... you can't expect /Sargon/ to know how to have fun,' said Armin. 'Actually, sometimes he /did/ turn up at the Christmas parties, but he mostly just sat in a corner with a glass of wine while Ana harassed him all night. He definitely never had a good time. Dolorus sounds more fun. If he hadn't been the leader of a weird death cult, then I'd have liked to meet him.'

Lucci: “Well, that’s the thing. Dolorus treated his death cult like the average man today would treat an office job. He would go out, do his murder, then come home and hang out with his people. Because he didn’t have any cultural predispositions about his job, he could be wiping out a village one moment, and making friendly conversation the next.”

'It's kinda weird, really. That a guy who murdered civilisations could also be so friendly and approachable... Just /why/ did he lead a death cult, anyway? What were his motives?'

Lucci: “Well, long ago, in what you know as pre-history, the world was unbalanced. More things lived at once than the world could sustain. In response, the divines consulted Thanatos, the deity of death. Because of their overwhelming power, no divine could directly intervene, as their presence would destabilize reality itself. In order to circumvent this, Dolorus was recruited by Thanatos to be his chief acolyte. Thanatos entrusted him with a portion of his power, so that he could be the balancing force that prevented the Godess’ creation from destroying itself. He did this task well for eons, but he overstepped his bounds, and had to be destroyed.”

Armin took a moment to absorb this information. '...Huh, that's interesting. I never would've thought that the whole thing was originally started for 'good' reasons. I guess Dolorus just took it too far.'

(VALLIAN CHRISTMAS LORE NOVEL POST)

- There is no religious aspect to Christmas, since Vallis does not have the same religions/beliefs as Earth. It's considered more of a celebration of the year's events, and an opportunity to plan the year ahead.

- The concept of Christmas was originally brought to Vallis by people who emigrated from other lands. This happened about 400 years ago. Before this, the people of Vallis celebrated a similar holiday called the Midwinter Festival, which typically involved the wealthy hosting large feasts and inviting the poor to join them, breaking the barrier between the high class and low class for a single night.

- Most people don't have Christmas trees inside their houses. Instead, they go out and hang decorations on the trees growing outside. It's frowned upon to bring real trees indoors, since you're taking them away from their natural place. Artificial trees do exist and can be bought from markets, but most people don't bother with them.

- When it comes to gifts, it's traditional to give one present to each person you consider closest to you. If you don't know what to give someone for a present, then it's also acceptable to just give them a Christmas card.

- Kids don't believe in Santa Claus.

- On Christmas Day, most people (especially the wealthy) host large Christmas parties that traditionally last from sunset to sunrise. Drinking games are common at these parties, as well as musical entertainment.

- Snow is very common at Christmas, especially in the northern and western areas, like the Grey Mountains and the Shacklestone region.)

Dianne: “Yeah...he thought that wiping out a couple of contents would restore balance to an already balanced world. I’m not entirely sure what his plan was.”

Lucci: “He was trying to flaunt his power. He got greedy, and usurped his purpose.”

(Cool! Guess my characters have to figure out what gifts to get people.)

'So, he became too greedy and powerful? Seems like that's everyone's reason for turning evil. Pretty sure even Sargon was partially driven by wanting more power and control, even though he claimed he only wanted to help his race. Why are people so obsessed with power anyway?'

(Yup. XD On that note, what kinds of things would your characters want as gifts? I suck at coming up with gift ideas even for real people, so it would help my characters out if I knew. XD)

Lucci: “Because with power, one can shape their world to match their personal predilections. Sargon’s idea of what was right was that vampires were supposed to be the top species, so he wanted power to make it so. Dolorus thought another mass extinction event was good for the world, so he tried to do that. It always boils down to people and their ideas of right and wrong.”

(Alrighty, I need to give that some thought. I’ll get back to you.)

(Alrighty! I could do the same for my characters, if you want?)