#TSRF2019

[skaldofskarmouth]

From Thisby by Skald of Skarmouth

Let me send a postcard from Thisby

An elegy to the Mare Goddess’s Memory

A story recorded on island sands

Marked by the tracks of mare and man

a winner will rise, high as the tide

High as the cliffs they race alongside

[thescorpioracesfestival]

designed by @skaldofskarmouth

Official dates for the 2019 Scorpio Races Festival! Take this time to prepare before water horses and tourists alike start coming ashore this November.

Remember to tag all your festival content with #tsrf2019

[ask-the--stars]

Catching a Capaill Uisce 

Week 1 - Challenge 4  @thescorpioracesfestival​

[mareandmagpie]

moodboard I made for my characters in this year's running of @thescorpioracesfestival

Keaton Elizabeth St. James & Iascaire

[novemberseas-novemberskies]

Rising up to my full height and holding the hot, salty blood in my mouth, I take the final few steps up to the top of the rock. And then I turn, even as the woman reaches for my hand to slice my finger, and I spit that mouthful of blood onto the red-spattered stone below with as much force as I can muster.

“I will ride. Collette Darling. Nyx. By my blood.”

[talesofmaehem]

Week 1: Character Challenge 1

I was born on this island and I’ll die on it. 

Today, the possibility of death seems more potent than usual. It might have something to do with the ominous gray clouds that sit low and heavy in the sky, whipping the ocean to madness. More likely, it has to do with the blue roan capall that watches me with her sly eye, her lip peeled back in a morbid smile. I flick a length of red leather tied to a hawthorn switch at her and she rears her head back, offended. 

She is hot and lathered and I have not even convinced her to wear a saddle yet. We are high on the cliff tops, though I do not think it does much to muffle the song of the sea. Not with the clouds as low as they are. Not with November crouched mere weeks before us, hungry and eager. 

The wind tears at us as it races over the cliffs and my capall picks up her feet, trotting in place, restless for speed. A wild, dangerous part of me wants to slip onto her back, no saddle between us, and chase the wind across the cliff tops. I think of my mother disappearing into the waves on the back of the grey stallion. I do not think that race would end well for me. 

I twist the three iron beads I wear on a length of red thread wound around my wrist. I twist them seven times, though it is more out of habit than true superstition. My father was there when they pulled Columba from the ocean, looking as though he only slept and not at all like he’d been swallowed by the sea months ago. Ever since then, my father had sworn off the old ways, but I never understood all the fuss over a man even the sea didn’t want. My mother felt the same. She’d always tell us bairns the old stories when our father was out on the boat. Giants and fairies and capaill uisce pulled from the tide. 

I eye my capall. She is sleek and slippery as the rocks at low tide. I can’t imagine how I will ever be able to ride her. I hear Connan’s voice telling me I am a fool for pursuing this endeavor, but it is drowned out by the ocean beating against the sand far below us. 

It sounds unnervingly like hoofbeats. 

I remember my mother telling me that names have power. In all her stories, the fairies kept them secret because knowing their true name gave you power over them. I watch my restless mare paw the ground and toss her head to the wind. Her slender legs are nimble and blacker than sin. I turn my mother’s stories over and over again. I do not know this capall’s true name, but perhaps if I give her one of my own, she’ll be less inclined to drown me. 

I listen to the whistle of the howling wind through the cliff grass. The name slips easily from my tongue.

“Nimm.”

She turns her great dark eye and looks at me. 

[we-dream-instead-of-drown]

Kaf

Jay paints a skull on the face of Kaf because a rider would have to be pretty confident in their skills to let their hands stay that close to a water horses face.

@thescorpioracesfestival

[applecakeandchainsaw]

TSR Festival Committee Slack

If you helped with @thescorpioracesfestival last year and were part of our team in slack, please respond in slack if you would like to help again this year or not. I’d like to get a headcount early.

[thescorpioracesfestival]

Just wanted to announce for those who may not have noticed the sneaky little bio update:

The 2019 Scorpio Races Festival will run November 1st to December 1st

[thescorpioracesfestival]

Where do you think the mare goddess dropped her shell?

RULES:

Reblog this post and add the location of the shell.

Choose wisely! You may guess only once!

Open to all Festival participants until NOV. 15th.

Winners earn a bonus entry in the giveaway.

You will be messaged with a code if you’ve guessed correctly.

Once you have been notified, go to the giveaway widget on the RULES page to enter the code!

[thescorpioracesfestival]

The Scorpio Races Festival 2019

If you’re participating in the Character Challenges, sign up as either a Rider or a Tourist.

Reblog Gratton’s Chalkboard with your character’s name, your capall’s name, and your url to sign up as a Rider.

About Ask Submit

[thescorpioracesfestival]

Week 1 Character Challenges: Arrival

1. What led you to Thisby? (postcard, brochure, legend, other?)

2. Where are you staying? (with locals, at the hotel, on a farm, other?)

3. How did you travel? (Across the world or by ferry? How does Thisby contrast to where you’ve been?)

4. First day on the beach (Did you get a capall? What was the most dangerous moment?)

Reading Challenge: prologue - chapter 16

Introduce yourself! Who are you, how many times have you read The Scorpio Races?

Any favorite quotes from this section? Favorite scenes?

What initial impressions do you have of our main characters? The world? 

Any favorite worldbuilding features?

Creative Challenge A tribute to a Connolly family dinner. Recreate what you feel this event represents. Perhaps your own version of mint tea and apple cake, a soundtrack for the evening, another project Finn might take up when he’s finished fiddling with the chainsaw, anything you can imagine

Respond to all or any of the prompts in any media you like. Submit your post (recommended) or tag @thescorpioracesfestival​ and #TSRF2019 when publishing to your blog.

Sign up as a rider or tourist About Submit Submission Tutorial Claim Entries

Art designed by skaldofskarmouth source

[thescorpioracesfestival]

Create-a-Capall

The magical night of the Scorpio Festival is over. You’ve spilled your blood and officially chosen your mount by saying the ancient words.

“By my blood... I will ride.”

Now it’s time for training to begin and you must present your water horse to the island! Choose from one of the coloring pages below to personalize and bring your capall uisce to life. Completing this special activity will earn you FIVE additional entries to the giveaway!

SUBMIT or tag @thescorpioracesfestival and #tsrf2019

(Stallion and mare versions by @denimwingsface​)

(Mane and no mane versions by @sailingthroughemotion​)

(Mane and no mane versions by @skebryna​)

[thescorpioracesfestival]

Join the conversation

The festival now has a group chat!

Its purpose is for friendly conversation; no official challenges will be issued there so you won’t miss out if you don’t want to join.

We hope this will help foster collaboration between participants and help everyone get to know each other better.

Request an invite to start the fun!

[thescorpioracesfestival]

I Need Your Help

If you have previously participated in The Scorpio Races Festival and made your posts extra fancy with links, images, and format coding, I would appreciate it if you could submit a previous post here as a test. The post will not be published.

I am considering changing festival entries to submission only. Please reply to this post with your vote:

1. Yes, change the festival to submissions only.

2. No, keep the festival the way it has been.

3. I don’t understand, can you provide more information, please?

4. (Provide your own comment)

[thescorpioracesfestival]

The Scorpio Races Festival 2019: COLORS

“I quickly find the race officials’ table in the shelter of the cliff; two men in bowler hats sit behind a table with tantalizingly varied racing colors folded in front of them.”

Attention, riders! Your official racing colors are now available for you to pick up!

If you’ve completed at least one Rider Challenge, these colors qualify you for the races. First, Second, and Third place will be chosen via a random number generator, and their colors will be posted.

The winners receive extra entries in the giveaway.

You can include these colors and standings in your Race Day posts or choose your own outcome.

If you’re still catching up, don’t worry! You can keep participating in the challenges up until the end of the Festival, even after the race is run.