Pit Promenade
The "Pit Promenade" or "Drinks Around the Pit" is a ceremony where a resident of the Kirinal Concordance Zone has a drink, meal, or recharge in every city around the Zone in the same day. It is considered the mark of a true Kirinalo!
It doesn't matter if you've been a soldier on the Wall for years or you're here to visit Heaven for a day. If you haven't "Run the Ring", you're not really one of us.
I completed "Drinks Around the Pit" with my Ceremony Siblings the day after we made our Declarations! Ah to be freshly re-born!
When I finally made it to the Zone as a young berserker, my hordemates called me "snow fresh" and refused to give me any respect. Once I made my first "Shatter Kill" I though it would change, but it didn't. But on our next leave day, they took us "snowies" out at dawn to "Smash the Circle".
We rode the rails and drank and ate for the entire day and into the night. The next dawn I sat under Chagroth's Tower drinking a Bloody Maryam. My horde-mates came to embrace me, bludgeon my shoulders, and call me a true Kirinalo! I've never been prouder!
The popular tradition known as the "Pit Promenade" involves a group of friends or squadmates getting together after a significant event in their lives and having a drink in each city or Canton around the Kirinal Pit in the same day. More cautious revelers alternate a meal in between rounds of drinks. Teetotalers can just have a temperance drink, a meal, or a snack at every stop.
They usually take the Inner Ring Railroad, but wealthy or powerful celebrants sometimes commission skyships or portal travel to maximize their time in each city. It is considered a rite of passage into adulthood and from tourist to Kirinalo.
The incident that inspires a "drink-go-round" varies from group to group. Members of the Kirinal Defenders celebrate surviving their first combat Shatter or "Day of War".
Wizard's Peak University students come after they graduate and begin their service to the Concordance. Soulforged come after their "Ceremony of Release" when they become adults. Soulforged members of the "Ungorged" sect who do not eat or drink can instead visit a recharge station in each city.
Entulesse Origins
No one know for sure who started this drinking tradition, but everyone agrees that it was probably Entulesse elves celebrating their Cabed Maitulie before they began their service in the Thayan Armada. The "Pit Promenade" shares many of the hallmarks with the elven rite of passage: indulgence, polite debauchery, and celebrating the victory of life over death.
Running the Ring
While there are no official rules, every Kirinalo knows that you have to "Run the Ring" in 24 hours. It takes roughly one hour to take the train from city to city in each Canton of the Zone. Riding the trains takes an hour and waiting in stations can take an hour or two. With 8 to 9 hours in transit, that means each "runner" has less than 2 hours in each city to get drinks and get get back to the train station!
I "Run the Ring" at least once a year to prove to myself that I've survived another year in the Armada! My favorite way to do it is to have a drink and a balut in every slice! I've taken hundreds of recruits on their Mad God's Gamble around the Pit!!
I can always tell when some poseur is lying about being a Runner. You can see it in their eyes! We like to call them Kiri-no-nos!
Every group completes their Promenade differently depending on where they live, where they're based, and what functions they serve in the Zone. Along with the time constraints, each of the Cantons has different difficulties. Magister's Enclave does not allow non-spellcasters inside the city walls after sunset. The Tortoise city of the dwarves literally moves around inside its slice. Promenaders take all of these difficulties as a challenge!
I love traditions like this, and you capture the essence of them so well here, this is awesome!
Thank you! It was a lot of work, but I love it!
Take a look at my Institutions of Learning challenge article.
Learn about the World of Wizard's Peak and check out my award winning article about the Ghost Boy of Kirinal!