Tesseraction Eve

To live in Kingsland is also eventually to be devoured by some unknowable monstrosity in Kingsland. The days are long, the light thin, the weather irrational, and the coast inexplicably dry; living gods walk, or possibly drive, the streets, and dead mortals roam the hills. As such, it is little surprise that Kingslanders have such an affinity for the unknown and the ethereal. If a transparent membrane cursed you out telepathically in Hantu and then dissolved the back wall of your apartment over the course of eleven hours before floating off without so much as a goodbye, is it really that much more outlandish when the hooded cultist on the nearest street corner demands your belief in Grislegrinder, the cosmic intestine-tentacled abomination who devours all upon death?

Belief in the Tesseraction is considered by scholars to have begun with the proselytizing of Yphydryx Shadowhand, whose cult rose to prominence in AES 380 before dissolving upon his death in AES 384. However, in that mere handful of years, the Cult of the Shadowhand spread across nearly all of Kingsland. Central in their thought was the idea of the Tesseraction: a mythical upcoming point in time wherein our world would burst from its three-dimensional shackles and partake in higher orders of being. The popularity of the cult is rather easy to explain: Shadowhand taught that the abominations that plague Kingsland draw their power from other planes of existence, and if humans were able to access those planes as well, then they would be able to fight against the horrors on an even footing. Once his control of the city was cemented, Shadowhand predicted that the Tesseraction would arrive in the late summer of the next year, when Zor Olo reached its peak. According to historical sources, mood in the city was uncharacteristically high, and some poor fools even threw together premature hunting bands before vanishing forever into the city's dark alleys.

On the eve of the predicted Tesseraction, cultists all over the city prepared celebratory pre-ascension meals and readied their best weapons for what they believed was the upcoming slaughter. But the next day, nothing happened. Another group of cultists joined the first wave of victims in the alleys, figuring they'd somehow ascended despite not feeling different. The rest, however, waited in mounting horror until Shadowhand said he got the year wrong and the Tesseraction was actually next year. Come the next year, people made the celebratory dinners and gathered their weapons again—and were once again disappointed. This cycle continued until Shadowhand partially disappeared.

Up to the present day, Kingslanders continue to celebrate Tesseraction Eve by making fine meals and letting their children play with (usually) toy weapons. But in modern times the holiday has more of a last-meal-before-execution kind of atmosphere, as Kingslanders have collectively resigned themselves to the fact that nothing can save them from the horrors.