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<Homeland> is pleased to announce that this year's Festival of Sen Pad'rek will be happening on Saturday, March 14th, at 5 drumbeats. This year's festivities will be held at the Westward Island of the Echo Isles, in sight of the Darkspear homeland.

For those unfamiliar with this holiday, some background

The Trolls, including the Darkspear tribe of the Echo Isles, have long had a relationship (sometimes good, sometimes bad) with the snakes that live in and around their settlements. Snakes can be found in a wide variety of environments and were famously common throughout the troll city of Zul'gurub; the trolls that lived there until recent years often worshipped snakes, fashioning bows and staves, among other things, to resemble the scaled serpents in the belief that snake worship would keep the snakes around them happy and that the Loa of Snakes would see fit to keep her people in and around trolls' settlements.

The Trolls depended on the snakes for food, skins, pest control, and for religious worship. Sometimes, they even extracted venom from some species of snake; the tips of their spears and arrows were dipped in the venom to create lethal weapons with which to kill their enemies -- for trolls were, and still are, a notoriously warlike people. To this day, many Troll tribes do not welcome outsiders and will kill on sight. Only the Darkspear tribe of Kalimdor has allied with the Horde or the Alliance -- and even they have only recently given up their cannibalistic ways (and whether any of those traditions remain alive among themselves, the Darkspear aren't saying).

It is said that Sen Pad'rek brought the snakes to the Trolls. Some say that it was Pad'rek who convinced the Loa to help the Trolls -- but, in any case, the Trolls don't need much of an excuse to party. For reasons long since lost -- although some will venture the guess that the Loa perhaps first appeared as a green serpent, or that the first snakes that appeared in Troll villages were green -- the color has been associated with the festival. It's possible that Sen Pad'rek feast celebrations were once more religious in nature (trolls will still pray to the Loa and invoke the "voodoo" when opening Festival of Sen Pad'rek celebrations) but today the celebrations are largely secular in nature.

This year, we are fortunate to have as our special guest Arjah of the Darkspear, current acting director of the Royal Library, and foremost expert on the Festival. Arjah will be bringing her immense knowledge of Sen Pad'rek and Darkspear culture to the gathering, as well as, perhaps, some items from the Library which will be most enlightening to the layperson about this special occasion. Traditional Darkspear refreshment will be served (i.e., alcohol with a certain sting to it).

As usual, there will be the trivia challenge, for bragging right, of course; as well as the annual Most Outrageous Outfit contest -- how green can you get? (We're not talking green-quality items here, or naked Goblins, but literally-green items). Accessories count, including mounts and pets! And if you can't go green, how outrageous can you get? The best outfit as determined by our guest of honour will receive the Sen Pad'rek Prize Pack!
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(tl;dr)
Festival of Sen Pad'rek

• Saturday, March 14th, 2015, 5pm server (concluded in time to migrate to the AAMS lounge in Hardwrench!)
• Westward Island of the Echo Isles (the one closes to Darkspear Strand, with the bridge to the main island)
• Wear green (or crazy!) for a chance to win prizes

((Oh boy! I remember attending this last year at a time when I had like... no RP outfits and no snake pets. This was shortly after I began RPing again :P Think I was able to win the trivia contest too... not sure.))

"Foremost expert"? Well...ah've been to a few Sen'Padrek parties, ah guess, an' ah think ah met ma third fiancee at one -- or was it ma fourth?

Mostly we just started celebratin' it in the Homeland because all the Horde's holidays seemed ta either be goblin commercial extravaganzas or dreary memorial exercises. "Drunk people in green, woo," was the general sentiment.

Ah'll try ta polish that up a bit for Saturday, shall ah?

Nothing shines brighter than the truth, and a good bout of happiness, Arjah. Change not a thing.

((Hey gang, very sorry, but I've had a family obligation come up suddenly, and will not be able to make it tonight. Have fun with the event!))

Had a wonderful evening. Thank you for the information on troll lore and trivia. I am sure it will assist me further with my endeavors dealing with the little troll orphans in Orgrimmar.