You may have been wondering why, as some of you had noticed, on the first day of travel towards Rittenratch Varden had chosen not to take part in any of the conversations that day. In fact, now that you think about it, Varden had seemed to say nothing at all on that date.
This is an old observance that dates back to when the Volavti were a numerous and far flung people. That was a time when Anasheron loved the land, and those who dwelt here were his chosen peoples. There was great abundance, great culture, sophistication, and works of science and art and magic that we fear will never be equalled.
It seems, however, that the inhabitants of this land forgot to stop and consider the cost of these achievements, and there was a Great Cataclysm. The exact nature and cause of which has been lost to history, but the results will probably be as a scar on this land until the end of all times. Some of the land itself disappeared, and many of the populations of the chosen peoples either died or disappeared. Also, in the Great Cataclysm there were created many abominations of magic, from which only the Volanti that hid themselves in the forest seem to have survived.
It is a custom in our nation that on this day every year, as a tribute to things past, we do not speak, and instead contemplate the course on which we are headed, and if it is parallel to the paths of the past.
