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What is Burning Rhy'Din" It is a multiverse expansion of the temporary community experiment known as Burning Man on Earth.

As such, it follow the same 10 Principals:

Radical Inclusion Anyone may be a part of Burning Rhy’Din. We welcome and respect the stranger. No prerequisites exist for participation in our community.

Gifting Burning Rhy’din is devoted to acts of gift giving. The value of a gift is unconditional. Gifting does not contemplate a return or an exchange for something of equal value.

Decommodification In order to preserve the spirit of gifting, our community seeks to create social environments that are unmediated by commercial sponsorship, transactions, or advertising. We stand ready to protect our culture from such exploitation. We resist the substitution of consumption for participatory experience.

Radical Self-reliance Burning Man encourages the individual to discover, exercise and rely on his or her inner resources. Radical Self-expression Radical self-expression arises from the unique gifts of the individual. No one other than the individual or a collaborating group can determine its content. It is offered as a gift to others. In this spirit, the giver should respect the rights and liberties of the recipient.

Communal Effort Our community values creative cooperation and collaboration. We strive to produce, promote and protect social networks, public spaces, works of art, and methods of communication that support such interaction.

Civic Responsibility We value civil society. Community members who organize events should assume responsibility for public welfare and endeavor to communicate civic responsibilities to participants. They must also assume responsibility for conducting events in accordance with local, state and federal laws.(edited) Leaving No Trace Our community respects the environment. We are committed to leaving no physical trace of our activities wherever we gather. We clean up after ourselves and endeavor, whenever possible, to leave such places in a better state than when we found them.

Participation Our community is committed to a radically participatory ethic. We believe that transformative change, whether in the individual or in society, can occur only through the medium of deeply personal participation. We achieve being through doing. Everyone is invited to work. Everyone is invited to play. We make the world real through actions that open the heart.

Immediacy Immediate experience is, in many ways, the most important touchstone of value in our culture. We seek to overcome barriers that stand between us and a recognition of our inner selves, the reality of those around us, participation in society, and contact with a natural world exceeding human powers. No idea can substitute for this experience(edited)

But really, what is it"

A way to sum up Burning Rhy'din is to say it is a living art installation where every person participates to paint an ever changing canvas.

It is people taking an hour, a day, a week out of their regular lives to simply be.

How do I participate"

You are only limited by your imagination. Create something. Build something. Perform. Throw together a Theme Camp. Volunteer.

Or just simply be present. Be here with us as we Burn What’s this about theme camps"

Theme camps are where the magic happens. These are communal areas that make up the Village where people put up their art, perform, etc. They are spaces to crash and refresh, share food and drink, and immerse yourself into the culture.

Isn’t there a main theme as well"

Burning Rhy’din’s theme will be #hope-and-fear.

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Hope and Fear.

What two concepts occupy our day to day existence more than hope and fear"

Perhaps we wake up to face a new day hopeful for the new beginning....or with a pit of swelling dread in our belly.

Throughout the day they ebb and flow like ocean tides, sometimes gentle swells, but sometimes violent eddies threatening to sweep us away.

They are powerful things that can either make or break our world depending on how we use them.

And so the theme of this years Burn is Hope and Fear.

What is in store for your future" Your present' Your challenge for this theme is to find a way to express your Hope, your Fear—or both. It's entirely up to you to choose how you want to honor (or not) the theme

So how about it' Ready to give Burning a chance" Become a Spark today!

—OOC— See the OOC thread for full information

This thread is for: Playable theme camp descriptions, art installations, Monster Vehicles, etc. and reactions to attending the festival.

Reminder: Please "register" your theme camps (aka a brief description of what it will be) over in the OOC thread before posting here. Installation can begin IC as of now (because realistically they can take a long time) and people can start posting up descriptions to reflect that. Please try to have any camps up by Saturday July 21st if you can.

Thread is open for outfits, reactions, play as of Saturday July 21st and will remain open through August 11 to give people ample time.

Live event will be held on August 4th for the "final burn" on the Rings of Discord server. If there is interest, I will also host another event on RDI Friday or another night. Please contact me if you are, otherwise I won't know.

Information provided in this thread is available as IC information

(Morning, 7/25)

It was one of the hardest things she'd ever done, but somehow Sira managed to control her breathing through the whole ordeal.

"I can't believe I'm doing this," she said for the thousandth time to match the strokes of paint laden brush against her skin. The woman, whose name she'd already forgotten, laughed again.

The transformation hadn't taken as long as she thought it would. From prudish, reserved, restrained to....green goddess. At least from neck to toes.

It hadn't been her intention to find herself in body paint when she walked into the festival that day. She hadn't been sure she was going to attend Burning at all until she had been asked to help out with the Medic Tent—which was exactly what it sounded like and wasn't a theme. There did appear to be at least one medical themed camp, but they were clad in skimpy nurse outfits and administered jello-shot filled syringes, not medicine.

The first few days of the festival she'd stuck mainly to the tent. Briefly on the second day she'd found herself in possession of a water gun, she wasn't sure how, but she'd only 'battled' for a short while before running out of 'ammo' and that was the extent of her participation.

She'd only seen a fraction of the playa when she happened across someone emerging from a camp painted like a white tiger. They had even supplied a tail to go along with it and had inches long fake nails to match. Curious, she'd stopped to watch the artists work.

Then she somehow found herself convinced to walk into a free, tarped off stall. She'd thought about just having her face or her arms done but....she surprised herself by stripping down to her skivvies. The artist was pleased.

The airbrushing had taken minutes, but now the brushwork details seemed to take forever. Stripes and swirls and layers of color. The woman working was polite, respectful, but clearly had no qualms about getting up close and personal while she added details.

"Done!"

And then it was all over. She was staring at herself in the mirror, this alien figure she didn't even recognize. There was just thin plastic between her and the rest of the world seeing.....so much of her.

The artist seemed to understand her trepidation. "Here, someone forgot this."

A mask. Outstretched emerald wings tipped in flame red. Her hands shook as she took it.

Hope and Fear, right' Fear was part of it. And Sira sure felt a lot of it when she left the flimsy 'dressing room' clad in paint and little else.

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Lucy is committed to spending the full couple weeks at the festival with only a few visits back to the city. She spends most of each day running Campsite #19 with Mallory St. Martin and Benjamin Piers. While her magical abilities are a significant part of the camp's operation, she tries to keep her involvement a little low-key.

Whenever she has free time, she wanders the playa, introducing herself to individuals, in particular seeking to meet artists and designers.

At night, she crashes in her private base camp.

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From the simple to the complex, Strawberry reveled in every piece of art she put on another person. Even knowing that they would disappear before the day was through, she flexed every ounce of artistic creativity that she could when airbrushing and handpainting those that came to the Colorful Bodies camp. Flaws were covered or accentuated on request and at one point, she spent a little extra time on a henna piece while talking to the woman about just how the dye could subtly highlight the geometric patterns in the scarring they were covering. In her down time, she often painted herself, the complexity of the pieces varying by the day (and her attention span).

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The Adventures of Stardusk and the Electric Witch

"Yoooooohoooo! Who's in here?" The canvas of Lucy's tent wobbled as someone tested the door-flap from outside. "Why isn't this open?"

Lucy sat up in her tent, set her book aside. "Uh—hello?" Scrambling, Lucy hurried to unfasten the tent flap.

A tall figure loomed, his Elven ears pointing up from beneath the goggles perched atop his head. He blinked at her, dust circling his bright green eyes. "Whatcha doing?" He was wrapped in black muslin, with little mirrored beads sewn in like a scattering of stars twinkling when they caught the setting sunlight. He bent to see her through the tent opening.

"Reading." Lucy blushed and mumbled into her excuse. "I got tired."

"Supposed to be keeping your tent open." He tsked. "Gotta be more welcoming than that." He smiled even as he chastised her, then leaned to peer past her into her tent. "Ain't even dust in here!" He chuffed a laugh, then held a worn, wrinkled hand out. "Come on, I'm gonna show you the Burn."

"Where are we going?" Both brows raised as Lucy looked from his hand to his eyes. She couldn't stop thinking about what Saila had said to her the other night. That this was supposed to be about radical inclusion and radical participation. She took a breath. "I don't know you."

"Yeah, you don't know you either." He chuckled at her. "I'm Stardusk." Then he tapped an invisible wristwatch. "Let's go, Witch. We've got things to do."

——————————————

Into the playa the pair went, the Elf towering over the redheaded Witch as they explored. They went for drinks first, knocking down shots at Bar Haus with a group of hard-partying Goblins that kept trying to steal the mirrors off of the Elf's wraps before guiltily apologizing, then trying to steal them all over again. Stardusk watched with interest while Lucy recharged cell phones in exchange for the drinks, and then he spent the rest of the night introducing her as "The Electric Witch."

Throughout the night, the playa was their playground. They joined a game of pick-up soccer at Camp Free Fun, danced and smoked weed at the Steam Stack, and rehydrated at the KoolDown where they sat on blocks of ice maintained by an Ice Giant. Lucy traded mini lightning shows for experiences while Stardusk offered improvised limericks to any who wanted one. At Camp Solo Shot, he got into a rap battle before a crowd of shouting onlookers.

Stardusk had a booming laugh for a man so slight, and Lucy grew rather fond of it over the course of the night, using it as a beacon whenever she got separated from him in the crowds of revelers. His mirrored black wraps caught the light as they danced, as if he were a walking disco ball making a party out of every moment they spent together. He always seemed to know where he was going even while it was plain they were just wandering.

Stopping by Colorful Bodies, Lucy stripped down enough to get a henna tattoo on her bare back and thighs, leaving the design up to the talented ladies there. From there Stardusk and Lucy borrowed a tandem bicycle from a pair of Victorian jugglers, and rode it around the playa, stopping whenever they wanted to engage with something—-or needed to reinforce their buzz. At Carnival of Thrills, they got lost in the mirror maze, then stayed to dance more as the DJ spun, while Lucy kept an eye out for Saila.

——————————————

It was nearing dawn when Lucy first sensed and then saw something strange on the horizon. She nudged Stardusk and he frowned for the first time the entire night. A wall of gray in the low light, crackling with lightning. "It's a sand storm, sweetheart."

The storm moved faster than Lucy could have imagined, gaining speed as it blew from the foothills and came barrelling across the playa. "How secure is your tent?" Stardusk handed his goggles over to Lucy, and pulled part of his wrappings up over his face to protect his eyes.

They were still a few minutes away from her tent when the full force of the sand storm reached the campsite. Lucy grabbed Stardusk by the arm and opened a protective sphere around them, stilling the sand inside and protecting them from the buffeting winds. As they navigated through the campsites, Stardusk kept reaching out and pulling people into their protective bubble. By the time they reached her tent, they were a ragtag group of ten seeking shelter from the storm.

The whole group of them stumbled into the tent, the sandblown lot of them hurrying to make sure it was securely lashed down. Together, this unexpected group spent the day together—-waiting out the storm, getting to know each other, sharing Lucy's drinks and snacks. On one corner of the bed, the Electric Witch finally drifted off to sleep, her head resting on Stardusk's shoulder, recharging her energy stores for the next wild night in the Burn.

Millicent....would wear colour for burning man. At least most of the time. If metallics can be called colour. The bright, ghost of a girl would shimmer like a ripple of water over the hot ground. She'd shift through the sands with a soft grace.

She wore her hair in a tussled mess, either upswept and unapproachable, or down in her tendrilling tangles of white.

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She was a mirage. https://78.media.tumblr.com/9d6fe0969a063fe4b542b74978b8a4f6/tumblr_pcwx1nsiga1wa8dzpo1_500.jpg

She felt like one.

And sometimes, at night, like a specter, she was water vapor. Her soft, pretty laughter trickling through her camp and those that she visited in a convivial delight at being around people and art. https://78.media.tumblr.com/7971539bf6a14f30d47976bba570db1a/tumblr_pcwwyl7Auz1wa8dzpo1_400.jpg

Her cousin had purchased a tent and quarters. Or something like that. It was somewhere to sleep and collect herself in the aftermath of the release of her second solo album.

Did she sing one night, to the tune of her acoustic guitar? Of course she did. She did many things.

The last two weeks had been some of the busiest in Mallory's life, juggling the responsibilities of running a newly opened shop, organizing a murder mystery, and setting up the Field of Light tent with Ben and Lucy. She hadn't stayed overnight until this week, when she and Eri finally took Saori's RV out to spend a long at the sprawling desert festival. They parked between a camp of firbolg who'd set up a pit for venison barbecue, and a palatial nanofiber tent occupied by a pair of android DJ's whose LCD faces flashed hearts, smiles, and equalizers.

The witch had spent most of her visits so far helping with the tent, but now she could divide her time between the experiments in arcane electromagnetism and everything else the festival had to offer.

During the day she carried a large pagoda umbrella that, no matter how she angled it, seemed to always trap the witch inside a column of shade unless she tried to reach beyond its protection. It kept the harsh sunlight from damaging her pale skin or any of her twenty-odd tattoos, most of them unobstructed by the swimwear she typically wore out on the playa.

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For the big event Saturday, she wore a black bikini with a sunflower pattern, and a pair of black combat boots with rose red laces. She carried little, but with a flick of her wrist and a conjured vine tightening around her hand, she could summon any number of items she was happy to share or trade: water, snacks, a few pairs of protective goggles, more than a dozen carefully rolled cigarettes, and a deck of tarot cards for an impromptu reading.

It was hard to be radically open, wary as the witch was, but having Eri at her side helped her to worry less. She wandered towards the interesting sights and sounds that carried across the playa, and followed the ebb and flow of magic and other forces as they pulled people into the countless halos of light clustered together in the inhospitable expanse of the desert at night; but just as often she pulled others out of the darkness and into her orbit, beckoning them to join her and whoever else happened to be with her for a seance, a smoke, or to dance among the constellation of glittering crimson moths that flowed from her hands.

((For those who wish to vapor an appearance at the Final Burn))

The Final Burn

As the sun faded from sight behind the dunes people began to collect around the massive wooden cage centerpiece.

Tables were set up with drinks, food, and many camps donated their seating so there was a collection of chairs and benches and bean bags for people to lounge.

A DJ booth was set up with speakers pumping out music and more musicians roamed the open space playing. Somewhere there was a drum circle for those who wished to merely sit and jam.

An impromptu dance floor formed near the DJ where dancers created an ever changing canvas with the weave and spin of their bodies.

Last minute Hopes and Fears could be carved into the sculpture until a half an hour before midnight.

At that point the Burn was finalized.

With the moons watching high above, a handler carried a hooded bird, red with gold edged feathers, towards the cage. As the crowd cheered the hood was removed and the phoenix took flight.

It buzzed the crowd a few times, gaining speed as it caught fire. Bathing the crowd in warmth. Once its flaming feathers reached their peak it dove into the cave, swooping through the open structure again and again until it was a blaze.

The party continued until the sun rose again in the morning. By then the cage was nothing but ash, the Hopes and Fears carved into its structure released to the universe.