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The Snowdance Ball

Posted
Updated
BySuraia Silverbell

Date: Amberday, Cycle of Noent, Season of Ysandra
Observed by: Nobility and high society across the Xaverion Islands, with onlookers from all walks of life
Also known as: The Winter Ball, The Night of Falling Stars (poetic circles)

Overview

When the first true snowfall settles over the Xaverion Islands and the year leans toward its end, thoughts turn to the Snowdance Ball. Once an elven midwinter gathering, it has since become a cherished tradition among human nobility as well, who now host the event in turn.

Each year at the start of the year, the Xaverion council chooses which noble house will hold the Snowdance that coming winter. For the chosen house, it is an honour—and an immense responsibility. Their estate becomes, for one glittering night, the heart of the season: a place where winter’s cold is held at bay by music, candlelight, and the warmth of shared company.

Though the ball falls in Ysandra’s season, it sits at the beginning of the year’s closing arc of feasts. It is the grand, public celebration that leads into the more intimate days of Thoron’s Blessings Eve and Day, and finally the quiet reflection of Lantern Night.

Names & Meaning

Snowdance Ball – The formal name used in invitations and courtly circles. It refers to the signature group dance of the evening, said to mirror the swirling fall of snow.

Winter Ball – Everyday term used by servants, merchants, and townsfolk watching preparations from afar.

Night of Falling Stars – A poetic elven name, comparing lanterns and ice-crystals to stars shaken loose and scattered across the snow.

For elves, the Snowdance is a promise that beauty and unity will outlast the cold and that spring will come again. For humans, it is a symbol of prosperity and good fortune—proof that their house has not only survived the year, but is strong enough to offer warmth and light to others.

Host

  • Host: Rotating noble house, chosen by vote of the Xaverion council at the beginning of the year

  • Guests: Nobility, wealthy merchants, clergy of the New Faiths, honoured foreign visitors, and the occasional hero or celebrated artist

  • Origins: Elven midwinter court gatherings on Tanea, later adopted and reshaped by human lords and ladies

Whatever the house, certain things are expected: open-handed hospitality, thoughtful decoration, and enough music and warmth that guests forget, for a while, the frost pressing at the windows.

Themes & Colours

Themes

  • Endurance through winter’s darkness

  • Unity between houses, races, and faiths

  • Hearth, family, and found family

  • Hope and quiet joy before the year’s end

Colours

  • White and silver – fresh snow, ice, and moonlight

  • Pale blue and soft violet – Ysandra’s night sky and winter dusk

  • Deep red or wine – a hint of Thoron’s life and strength in the cold

Guests often dress to match: white or silver fabrics dusted with beads or crystals, embroidered snowflakes on dark velvet, cloaks lined with fur, winter-rose pins, and sashes in their house colours.

Setting

Though the estate changes with each host, the Snowdance Ball tends to follow a familiar pattern.

Frostlit Arrival
Guests arrive by sleigh, carriage, or escorted sled through lantern-lit drives and snow-lined avenues. Pine boughs, winterberries, and house banners adorn gates, balconies, and stairways. Stable-yards ring with bells and snorting horses as cloaks are shaken free of snow and hands are warmed on steaming cups.

The Crystal Hall
The main ballroom is transformed into a winter court. Evergreen garlands wind around pillars, icicle-like glass ornaments hang from high beams, and subtle magic or clever mirrorwork makes it seem as though snowflakes drift endlessly overhead without ever dampening a sleeve.

Courtyard of Silence
A sheltered courtyard or balcony remains open to the night, warmed by braziers, fire bowls, and enchanted stones. Here guests step out between dances to breathe the cold air, admire the stars, and speak more privately than the crowded hall allows.

Tables inside groan with rich stews, roasted game, honey-glazed roots, sugared nuts, dried fruits, and spiced cakes. Mulled wine, hot cider, and fragrant teas steam in silver bowls and ceramic pots, carrying the scents of clove, cinnamon, and orange peel.

Traditions

The Choosing of the House

At the dawn of the year, shortly after the New Year’s Feast, the council convenes to decide which noble house will host the Snowdance at year’s end. The announcement is public—often to cheers, wagers, and a year of speculation about what sort of ball that house will throw.

Hosting is costly, but it brings prestige, alliances, and no small amount of gossip.

First Snow Invitations

Formal invitations may not be sent until the first “true” snowfall of the season, when roofs and roads lie under a proper blanket of white.

When that day comes, messengers ride out with heavy paper invitations sealed in wax shaped like snowflakes or stars. Some houses tuck a pressed sprig of frostfern, winterrose, or a tiny twist of evergreen into each envelope as a token of good fortune.

The Snowdance

At the heart of the evening lies the dance that gives the ball its name.

Musicians strike up a sweeping piece whose melody rises and falls like drifting snow. Couples begin in simple pairs, but the pattern quickly opens into slow, turning circles that expand and contract, with partners changing at set beats. Movements are graceful and soft, meant to echo the spiral fall of snowflakes.

  • To complete the Snowdance without misstep is said to invite a “gentle winter” for one’s household.

  • To stumble means you’ll need others’ help in the months ahead—a superstition young people in particular take as an excuse to laugh and cling to friends.

Among the younger set, there is a quieter belief: if you share the final measures of the Snowdance with someone, your paths will cross often in the year to come.

Breaking the Frost

The evening begins formally: proper introductions, careful courtesies, and elegantly measured dances.

At a chosen hour, usually when the moon stands highest, the host calls for the Breaking of the Frost. Servants carry in a great bowl of steaming spiced wine or clear winter spirit, and the host offers the night’s first communal toast:

“To warmth shared freely, and to hearts that do not harden in the cold.”

From this moment, the mood eases. Music grows livelier, conversation loosens, and even stiff-necked lords find themselves laughing over old stories. It is considered poor manners to bring politics or old quarrels into the hall after the Frost is broken.

Evergreen Hall

Most hosts raise a great evergreen tree or living evergreen bough in one corner of the ballroom or in the entry hall. In the days before the ball, the household decorates it with:

  • ribbons and glass drops in their colours

  • tiny carved animals, stars, or snowflakes

  • occasional offerings from guests—small charms, bells, or tokens from allied houses

At the end of the night, favoured guests may be invited to take one ornament as a keepsake, leaving a new one behind the following year when their paths cross again.

Starglass Tokens

A habit that began in elven courts and spread to human ones is the exchange of starglass or snowglass charms: small pieces of etched glass or polished crystal, worn as pendants or tied at the wrist.

Friends, lovers, and would-be allies sometimes trade these tokens during the Snowdance or in the quiet of the Courtyard of Silence. To wear someone’s starglass through the rest of Ysandra’s season is to show that you carry them with you into the long nights.

Midnight Flurry

Near midnight, the music shifts and lanterns are dimmed. Balcony doors or courtyard arches are thrown open and guests are invited outside for the Midnight Flurry.

Where magic is available, an enchanted snowfall drifts down—gentle, glowing flakes that melt on skin without soaking cloaks. Elsewhere, guests simply step into whatever real snow the season has provided.

A shortened reprise of the Snowdance is often danced here, under open sky. Many quietly count the year complete only once they have danced at least one turn under falling snow.

Cultural Notes

  • Elven Houses
    Among elves, the ball keeps more of its original, almost ritual feel. Their Snowdance favours smooth, flowing movements and long, shimmering melodies. Decoration leans toward natural elements: bare branches hung with crystal drops, pale winter flowers, and softly glowing mage-lights in place of roaring fires.

  • Human Nobility
    Humans often embrace spectacle. Some hosts commission towering ice sculptures, elaborate carved candleholders, or displays of magical “snowfall” in the hall that never melts. For them, the Snowdance is part celebration, part stage to display wealth, alliances, and eligible heirs.

  • Mixed Courts
    On islands where elves, dwarves, humans, and halflings mingle more freely, the Snowdance can blur into a blend of courtly strictness and village festivity: stately waltzes giving way to boisterous reels, improvised snowball fights in the courtyard, and children peeking from staircases to watch the grown-ups whirl.

Place in the Calendar

The Snowdance Ball is held each year on Amberday in the Cycle of Noent in the Season of Ysandra, opening the cluster of end-of-year observances:

  • Snowdance Ball – Great winter gathering of high society; a night of beauty, connection, and shared warmth.

  • Thoron’s Blessings Eve & Thoron’s Blessings Day – More intimate, hearth-centred feasts, with formal blessings, charity, and household rituals.

  • Lantern Night – A quieter farewell to the old year, when lantern-lit streets echo with faint strains of music first heard at the Snowdance.

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