“A year ago, we rode for battle. For blood, for glory, for home and country. Tonight, we ride to celebrate a city, a kingdom, a home reclaimed!”
This was how the Tourney of Roses in Gilneas opened last night, courtesy of Countess Violet Griswold. A testament to the resilience, bravery, and enduring spirit of a people who have had their homes stolen from them—but not before having ridden to the city, all the way from Stormglen Village, most on horseback, in a forty-plus display of military strength, even if the start was delayed by ten or so minutes due to the organization required.
To Stoneward Prison, everyone rode, together.
Despite complications with Lord James Griswold’s health, Countess Violet Griswold stepped in, ensuring that the opening continued. A valiant fighter and the lady of Gilnean house, she showed the very same bravery during her speech that she did during the reclamation.
“A year ago, we stood here too, within the ruins of what once was one of the greatest of our kingdoms. A ghost of its former glory, broken apart by the Cataclysm, then defiled first by cruelty and blight, then by heresy and fanaticism.”
The crowd was burning with that very same feeling she stood with, and you could feel it, standing there—solidarity, honor, and sacrifices made. Remembering those who had given everything for the city.
“For Gilneas!” she yelled, and retorting replies ranged from
“For Gilneas!” to
“Death to the Scarlet Crusade!”—others yelling
“Our blood is true and right!”
Soon, everyone walked, together, toward Adelric’s Repose, where another speech was given—this one about sacrifice and remembering to burn bright, even when there are those who wish to snuff out our lights. A passion for homeland, with an offer for others to come and tell their stories—of those who died, those we must remember, so their stories carry on through us.
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T.J. Smith, a fine-clothed warrior with a gilded saber, wished for everyone to remember his father, and solemn faces dipped in respect.
One Kyleigh Hare, a Warden of the Light, urged the crowd to
“love well, for it is always wise. Even in your darkest days, you are loved, too.”
Grethlem S. Meltherne, a Gilnean mystic, recalled the Northgate Rebellion and the devastating loss of life to the Forsaken in later years, recalling all those Gilneans lost.
“For the fallen. For Gilneas,” he said.
“For the fallen. For Gilneas,” the crowd repeated.
Desartin Greymantle held an especially important speech about his grandfather, Salfalur Greymantle, who was raised in Gilneas and later moved to Lordaeron—where he perished during the destruction led by the would-be Lich King. Still, he answered the call of Gilneas, aiding the reclamation and offering his unlife for it.
As speeches came to an end, lights and candles were lit upon the gravestone resting in Adelric’s Repose to the soft notes of a harp played by one Arnaud de Arles. Lanterns were released, rising into the night sky during a moment of silence asked for by Violet Griswold, offering a final farewell to those we had lost.
The opening ceremony of the Tourney of Roses concluded not with fanfare, but with a quiet, shared understanding—a feeling that the spirit of Gilneas is alive. Marked by loss, by being part of something greater than ourselves, the opening of the Tourney of Roses was a powerful confirmation of the resilience and pride that everyone in Gilneas—foreigners, citizens, soldiers, or those in-between—will remember.
For the fallen. For Gilneas.