Cheska Ovar. The Heart Endures.
Office of the High Warden
Luxemburry / Culture / Music and Storytelling
Luxian music is made for walking uphill in the dark and for singing at a long table. It has one anthem, a book of winter songs, the bells of Valdoria, and one story that is told every year.
Skada Ovar, The Snow Endures, written for the first races at Purgnar in the 1890s and adopted by Abselet III. It is sung at the First Descent, on Warden's Day, and at the end of the Solstice feast. The first verse is on the symbols page. Luxians sing it slowly on the way up and fast on the way down.
The torch walks of the Solstice have their own songs, one for each of the seven nights, in Luxian, with a rhythm made for walking in snow. The Archives hold them as the Luxians sang them before the Realm; the dictionary has the words.
The Cathedral of the Stone Heart rings the season open on December 1 when the High Warden reaches Purgnar, rings the feast to table on the 24th, and rings the Charter read on June 12. Luxians in the Cinder Highlands say they can hear them on a still day, which is not true, and say it anyway.
On the night of the 24th, before the toast, the youngest citizen at the head table tells the story of the Stone Heart aloud. It is the same story every year and it is not shortened. The Realm listens, and then it eats.
The vaelhorn, a long wooden horn from the Forest March, sounded from village to village on the torch nights; the fiddle; and the drum of the Sentinels, which is the only instrument allowed on the mountain during the Luxian Descent.
