The Amis Feast

In the western reaches of the continent of Mirateia, where the forests are believed to be older than most of the races that currently call the continent their home. Some villages in this region hold on to old and strange traditions. Like the village of Mirevale, a quiet place with smoke curling from moss-topped roofs, fields of barley and wheat rolling down toward the local river.   Every year when the first frost covers the ground, the village holds a feast known as the Amis Feast. They have been doing it for generations; no one remembers a time when they didn't maintain the tradition. The older women of the village tell stories about how it began as a promise between two friends. Other stories tell about how a harsh winter hit the land and the village starved, many died and those that survived til spring swore that they would remember those that didn't make it by sharing an extra plate of food whenever the frost returned. But over time, the stories and sayings about the feast darkened.   When the first frost hits the land, each household will set a extra plate at the table that night, on the plate is filled with the same food as the other plates around the table, no one touches the food, no one sits on the chair, it's said that the food is for Amis. People say that if you forget to set an extra plate, you will wake up in the night to creaking floorboards and a fait sound of someone sitting at your table, if you are brave enough to go looking, a chair at the table will be pushed out as if someone just stood up. By the morning, a member of your family will be gone, leaving no footprints in the snow.