The "Sagotrath" or Wood Elf "Spring Release"
Ostensibly, the Sagotrath is a wood elf tradition created to aid in survival. In practice, it is a tradition that aids in courtship.
Execution
The wood elves in the nation of Codenya blur the line between being an agricultural and nomadic society.
For the spring, summer, and fall they live primarily as hunter-gathers and while periodically looking after low maintenance pastoral crops. When winter is near, they harvest their crops and hunker down in huts subsisting on these crops until the onset of spring. These collections of cabins are called "winter villages"
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Participants
The wood elves of Codenya usually live and work in clan units made up of 300 elves, give or take.
Somewhere between one-in-ten and one-in-five elves in the winter village leave for the Sagotrath.
Most winter villages house four to six clans. Most wood elves end up marrying someone from a foreign clan, but within the same winter village where they court each other under their elders' gaze.
The wood elves in Codenya have many allies who are not elves such as the Codenya satyrs and Codenya kalazotz. Most of the wood elves' allied races practice their own version of the Sagotrath in order to preserve winter food supplies and let their young adults have some alone time.
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If they survive this social gauntlet, they can pursue a more informal courtship during the Time of Sagotrath.
Newly wed couples without children treat the Sagotrath as a sort of working honeymoon. A lot of children are conceived during the Sagotrath.
This isn't solely about romance. A lot of young elves use the Sagotrath to hang out with their plutonic friends, which is also practical because survival is a team sport.
Observance
by me with Midjourney"The Sagotrath begins and ends when the elders say it does. When and how long we run the Sagotrath depends on what the weather is like and how our winter stores are holding. Usually the Sagotrath lasts twenty to thirty days. Obviously sending the young folks away early lets us stretch our food stores longer. The young folks like the bit of freedom and responsibility, but the real benefit is that the rest of us get a few weeks respite from the adolescent drama for a few weeks." -Imizael, grandmother and pillar of her community.
Non-Romantic Elements of the Sagotrath
The Time of the Sagotrath isn't just for courting. For some, it is a time of somber reflection.
This is a common time for ritual fasts, vision quests, memorials for the dead, and other somber rituals, both personal rituals and worship rituals for the Nine.
In general, Codenyans are not especially zealous Maylar worshipers, but they don't forgo Maylar worship entirely. The Time of Sagotrath is a considered an ideal time for "holy tests"
To Korus worshipers, Sagotrath is a time of new beginnings which can certainly include new romantic relationshipss, but new beginnings can take any number of forms.
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