[@Mirandae] great opener!

But considering the people behind Cetra's worldbuilding have leaned pretty hard into it being a technofascist cryptostate that eats human atrocities for breakfast, does their representation at the Festival of Lights concern no one? Should we perhaps infer that Cetra's Regaliae were banned from attending but Cassiel's marketing team ignored the ban, pushed for him to show up anyway, and basically dared someone to try to stop him? I'm wondering if this isn't at least slightly reminiscent of the Olympics situation, where the games can decide that a certain country is barred from participating because of recent antisocial actions taken against other countries.

Alernatively, Cetra [i]is[/i] hated by communities like this one but Cassiel's popularity supersedes that?

But if exploring a dynamic like this doesn't interest you or if it doesn't fit into your vision, that's cool too. I'm only wondering for the sake of early brainstorming.