The Owlvent Calendar 2023

For christmas this year we are releasing an entire

setting as an advent calendar. Every day of December
we will release a little bit more information about the
Domain of Delight, Hyperborea. Including an adevnture
to introduce the domain and it’s denizens to your
players.
We will be starting with a description of the domain
and will add more and more information to really flesh
out not only the domain but also the celebrations of
winter that take place all around the worlds of D&D.
Day 3 - Christmas Traditions
Read on to find out more about different Christmas like
traditions from around the D&D Universe.
Theros 3
Avernus 4
The following members of the O.P.S. worked on this Wildspace 5
document: Anauroch 6
Candlekeep 7
Chwingas 8
Pete Leet Ten Towns 9
Feywild 10
Maztica 11
The Far Realms 12
Krynn 13
Krynn (Continued) 14
Ravnica 15
Radiant Citadel 15

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, Wizards of the Coast,

Dave Aspall Spelljammer, Forgotten Realms, Greyhawk, Dragonlance,
Ravenloft, Eberron, Ravnica, the dragon ampersand, and all
other Wizards of the Coast product names, and their respective
logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast in the USA and
other countries. This work contains material that is copyright
Wizards of the Coast and/or other authors. Such material is
used with permission under the Community Content Agreement
for Dungeon Masters Guild. All other original material in this
work including the Owl Preservation Logo is copyright 2023 by
David Aspall, Peter Leet and The Owl Preservation Society, and
published under the Community Content Agreement for
Dungeon Masters Guild.
 }}

Theros

I
n the lands of Theros the Winter Games dominate the cold
season. 15 days of gladiatorial competitions. Though
this isn’t unusual for Theros the differing point is that
during the Winter Games only natural materials can
be used.
People compete in fights with sticks, log armour
and swords made of ice. The most famous adventurer
who competes every year in these tournaments is
Tios Pinebringer. He is a Leonin battle wizard who fights
during the tournaments with magically infused pinecones
illicitly harvested from Hyperborea.
Avernus

T
hey don’t celebrate any kind of Winter Tradition in
Avernus, what with it being Hell and all. But
there is a yearly tradition that comes close, if
you squint, and tilt your head while tripping on
hallucigens.
Every year all arch demons choose one long
suffering soul in their charge and select them
for ‘The Pilgrimage’.
They are all placed in the same location and made to race
to the great spawning tree. Via magical means the arch
demons watch the race (which has no rules) unfurl while
eating a great banquet.
The race in heavily bet upon amongst the Lords with
everything from souls to magical items going to the Victor.
Speaking of the Victor, the soul who makes it to the
summoning tree first is freed. And by freed I mean torn apart
by groups of hungry abyssal chickens. The Abyssal chickens
are then in turn roasted and consumed by the demon Lords
while they watch the highlights of the pilgrimage.
It may sound horrible but after centuries in Avernus you
too would take freedom by Abyssal Chicken…
Wildspace

I
n Wildspace there is no such thing as Winter but as the
saying goes “A ‘Jammer never looks a gift-scavver in
the mouth and lives to tell the tale” yeah I don’t know
what that means either but Spelljammers love gift
giving!
There are two celebrations that most resemble
winter traditions from other parts of the verse.
Fortune’s Favour and Misfortune’s Boons.
Taking place on the 25th of Icestorm Fortunes Favour is
every ‘Jammers favourite day, a day when the captain gifts
something to all their members of crew, be that a new pistol
or a day of shoreleave.
Misfortunes Boons however are a captains two favourite
days, falling on the 25th and 50th of Fire stone all crew are
required to give them a gift on both days, tradition also
dictates that the gift on the second Boon must be of a better
quality than the first.
It is also worth noting that Misfortunes Boons come
before Fortunes Favour in the Sea Cycle…
Anauroch

T
he desert tribes of sand giants that dwell in the
Anauroch desert have a remarkably similar
Wintertide celebration to the those on the
sword coast. Turkey dinner, snowmen, giving
gifts etc.
You see two months before Wintertide they
start a great migration, braving the miles of
sand and sun to arrive at the coast. Where
they cool themselves in the snow before heading through
villages and towns, eating the Wintertide dinners, small folk
and snowmen that have been prepared for them.
They bring along sacks that they fill with all the brightly
wrapped presents the small folk leave out for them in their
houses under a tree…
Candlekeep

C
ertain powerful magic users have a winter tradition
like no other. One day a year the entire elemental
plane of water freezes over for exactly 182
minutes. Making it not only more habitable and
traversable by those who know how to get there
but also breathtakingly beautiful. Waves are
frozen mid crest while frozen elementals dance
a cross the surface.
Magic users who know how to get there meet every year
for a feast and a ball. Everyone brings a contribution and a
chair with them. Anyone that turns up without a
chair/contribution is ridiculed as being a scrounge for an
entire year. It’s not a mistake you make twice…
The tradition is particularly popular in Strixhaven with the
Teaching Staff. Though students are banned from joining in,
you know how students are, therefore many more students
attend than staff. Rather than punish the students the staff
look the other way for a day. Though they are very quick to
deliver an I told you so to anyone who dies…
Chwingas

I
Chwinga to take up
t is the winter tradition of families of
residence in the trees, wreaths and plants that
humanoid families decorate their homes with.
They make every effort to keep themselves hidden
during daylight hours. However during the early hours
of the night they will venture out of their hiding places
playing with the big folks possessions leaving oft
humurous displays for the big people.
More superstitious folks believe these acts to be works of
pixies and fairies. But those who know the truth consider it a
great honour to host a family of Chwinga, leaving them
miniature gifts and snacks at night time.
There have even been reported cases of families of
Chwinga becoming so comfortable with the families they live
with during the winter months that they share dinner during
the day time.
Ten Towns

T
en towns have a very strange Wintertide tradition,
in souch as it isn’t their tradition but them
benefiting from someone else’s…
Every year a Gnoll turns up to one house in
Ten Towns dressed in human colours dyed
red. For four days the Gnoll serves the people
of the household, bending to every whim and
request (within reason… a family learned the
hard way that you can definitely push them too hard…)
The truth behind this bewildering tradition comes from an
annual tournament of Gnoll tribes. The tournament is a
battle royal to the first death. The Gnoll that dies first is then
resurrected in a ritual by a Gnoll spellcaster.
They are resurrected to be shamed by being made to work
as a servant to a humanoid family wearing clothes of the
squishy humans, dyed red to remind them of their bloody
failure.
Feywild

T
he feywild have an unusually familiar winter time
tradition, there is one night every year that
snowdrop flowers bloom everywhere. Giving
the illusion of snow covering the ground. They
call this day simply Snowdrop.
During the day all of the fey celebrate with
dances, games and feasts. During the night
young fey (below 100) across the wild are
visited by the Boggle King. He rewards fey that have been
particularly tricksy during the year with a gift, a small golden
acorn.
The acorn can be used during that year to ask for the
Boggle King’s help via one of his subjects in an endeavour,
however the tricksy nature of the Boggle King himself is well
known and people don’t tend to cash in their rewards.
Instead the wear the golden acorn upon their body, as
jewelry, hanging from their necks/horns/branches.
Those wearing a golden acorn are shown a certain amount
of respect in the fey circles.
Maztica

O
n the continent of Maztica there is no season
resembling winter. However they do have a
tradition that resembles some of the gift
giving traditions celebrated elsewhere. During
the hottest days of the year the inhabitants of
Maztica travel towards the Valley of Nexal
which is known as a fertile and therefore
much cooler place. The travelers often form
caravans on the way, wagons laden with supplies for a huge
feast.
The inhabitants of Nexal prepare for the influx of travellers
by hanging coconut husks in all of the trees around the
valley, resembling baubles on a Xmas tree. When the
travellers arrive the first thing they do is construct temporary
huts for themselves and their families forming a temporary
town.
When the sun recedes and everyone prepares to travel
back to whence they came it is tradition to shower their
generous hosts with gifts before the camp is dismantled. The
dismantling is usually done with no lack of gusto, a true and
gleefully unabashed demolition. Afterwards everyone travels
back to their respective homesteads, full, happy and
hungover.
The Far Realms

T
here exists an Uvuudaum in the far realms who
once was satisfied with revealing its existence
to anyone foolish enough to venture into the
far realms. Driving them quickly insane this
Uvuudaum had an unusual talent, during their
Spike attack when they drained their life force
they also drained their memories.
One day after mentally destroying a traveller
from the material plane, a planet called Oerth, and absorbing
their memories they discovered a myth of a jolly fat man in a
red suit who would visit sleeping humans and leave gifts. But
more inticingly would punish the humans that had
misbehaved.
This sparked ambition in the Uvuudaum, and there is
nothing more dangerous than an Uvuudaum with ambition.
Every year, this Uvuudaum keeps a record of anyone has
wronged the travellers who enter into its territory. At the end
of the year it visits the native planes of these wrong doers
and drives them insane by its presence.
Tales of this Uvuudaum visiting people who have done
harm to others has permeated through the planes, and it has
gained the title Baba Kiyamet: The Doom Father. A title of
which it is very proud.
Krynn

T
he Eclipse is an occurrence that happens once every
year, falling within the winter months.
With the three moons perfectly aligned, the
energies surrounding the plane were
heightened, creating an evanescence of
brilliant colours piercing the night sky.
Once thought to be a wondrous event,
bringing friends and families together, slowly
divulged into a glorious dance of battle.
With each moon affecting the different forms of magic,
being Good, Neutral and Evil, the alignment of the moons
cause each form to be heightened; and so a brilliant, but
deadly agathokakological war was born.
Wizards of Good and Evil magic use this time to do hearty
battle, to try and get the upper hand. And whilst every spell is
to kill, a charming and carefree aura fills the air, as if it was a
sport between respected rivals.
Krynn (Continued)

T
hose who do not wish to partake in the Great
Alignment Battle, spend their time down at the
tracks, far away from the spell slinging.
There they do hearty battle also, but on the
race tracks of Gnomert, where people from all
over the plane bet on who will be the fastest
Giant Space Hamster!
Whilst waiting for the races, it is common to
exchange presents between contestants as a form of
goodluck for the races ahead.
The hamster who wins the most races, is crowned
champion, and their statue is placed on one of the many
pedestals of the HOF (Hamsters of Fame).
Ravnica

E
very year during the winter months in Ravnica the
ever present rain turns into snow for one day.
For that one day the Guilds forget their
squabbles, rivalries and egos. All of that is
put aside and they come together and play a
tournament of Tenball.
A game that has it’s origins in Ten Towns.
It is played between teams made up of 3-6
and has complicated rules involving four different zones that
have sepertate rules, two dodecehedron balls and its fair
share of injuries.
To further avoid the rivalries of the guilds,teams are often
made up of members of several different guilds.
The Radiant
Citadel

I
n a city where there is no discernable day and night, and
definitely no seasons, you would assume they don’t
celebrate any winter traditions, but you’d be wrong.
So many of the founding civilisations have their
own unique winter traditions that the people of the
radiant citadel decided to come up with their own.
They call it Merry Cold Day, a day in which everyone
in the city dresses in cold weather clothes despite the
average climate, and swaps gift with those from other
civilisations.
Jelly wine from Zinda is swapped for cream buns from
Saibsungkoh, polke from Sancitlan is exchanged for hush
puppies from Godsbreath.
But the highlight of the day is the phase tree race. The
clavigers for each civilisation are tasked with phasing their
concord jewels back to their home land, retrieving the
biggest tree they can fit into their jewel and then bringing
them back to the citadel.
Once every civilisation has a tree, participants from each
lift their tree high and launch them into the deep ethereal.
The lack of gravity means the tree’s momentum carrysnit it
through the pastel sky.
A gith void cruiser is stationed roughly 1000km from the
citadel, and whichever tree reaches them first is declared the
winner. The current champions are the people of
Godsbreath, who’s blighted and dying trees are light enough
to launch with a fair amount of heft.