Spirits were understandably low at the start of the 4th Aeon. The war that had ushered in the cataclysm had no clear victor, leaving the world scarred, with the Sun Machine broken and the old empire diminished. While Emperor Regulus brooded and adjusted to the eternal day that now washed over his home, he decided that something must be done to lift the spirits of the people. He eventually thought of something, decreeing that there would be a great gathering of the skilled, strong, and clever in the newly christened Sol Alliance each year, right in the capital of Aeon. There they would compete among their peers to see which was the greatest in their particular field.
And thus, the Radiant Festival was born.
Overseen by the First Hero himself, the Radiant Festival has grown in complexity and scope over time but the basic structure remains simple: a few series of contests are held over a period of a week, the pool of contestants for each dwindling as the defeated are ejected from the competition, until each particular skill or vocation has a victor (or team of victors) to receive a gift from Regulus himself. The games include everything from mock combat, sports, poetry, and crafting contests. These are accompanied by parades and other grand displays. During the Radiant Festival the city of Aeon becomes lively and boisterous, its people thrilled to see what remarkable talents it will bring that particular year.
Aeon's ever present military guard has always brushed up uncomfortably against the city's cosmopolitan nature, and the Radiant Festival has always further tested this tension. Celebration around the the competitors and lively carousing are mostly ignored, assuming they don't get out of hand. These practices are seen as generally harmless. More mercantile activities are a different story however. Rumors of opportunistic individuals selling means to cheat in the competition, dodgy paraphernalia, and potentially dangerous snacks were enough to get traveling peddlers banned from the city proper during the festivities.
One year found a whole gaggle of merchants ejected from Aeon for this very reason. Undeterred, they decided that while they weren't allowed to do business within the city nothing said they weren't allowed to do something about half a days walk out from it.
On that day, Radiket ( a portmanteau of Radiant Market) was born, starting just a few days before the Radiant Festival and ending just a few days after. What was a small cluster of tents and blankets off the side of the main road towards Aeon has grown into an event that is in some ways, as grand as the more official festival that spawned it. A variety of temporary structures provide shade to merchants from all corners of Outer World as they sell a number of things that might be difficult to peddle anywhere else. Merchandise related to the Radiant Festival is the most common, but the sorts of things on sale include (but are not limited to) one of a kind crafts, novels and other works of fiction, cursed treasure some adventurers might have discovered in some forsaken ruins, and of course, odd snacks of all sorts.
The city itself has a tenuously friendly relationship with Radiket. While officials were quite annoyed, it is rumored that Regulus finds the whole thing rather amusing and more importantly, helpful to his goal of raising the spirits of the people of the Sol Alliance. As long as those participating in Radiket don't cause any trouble for Aeon itself, he's more than willing to overlook it.
There is of course, rumors of The First Hero himself visiting Radiket in disguise now and again...but of course, no one can prove anything.
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