Shepherds of Haven Sneek Peek/Update (August #1)

Hi everyone, welcome to the second official month of this Patreon!

This summer has been crazy for me, so my online presence has been a bit scattered. For all of June I was taking the LSAT and then immediately flying to Asia for several weeks. For July I visited my partner's family for two weeks, then immediately flew to Canada to visit my family for two weeks. Now my partner's family is visiting (and we're hosting them), and as soon as they leave, we're taking a road trip with some friends to attend my best friend's wedding (for which I'm her maid of honor)! Then a few weeks after that will be another LSAT!

Anyway, all this to say that I've only written a bit more of Chapter 2 itself, but have gotten some more done on future sequences of the game (or changed overall aspects, such as the shop and day off systems). I've also been playing a bit of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which I'm honestly obsessed with, and it's really inspired me to incorporate even more social elements into the gameplay of Shepherds of Haven. So, a few changes:

There will now be birthday events as well as at least two holidays that can be celebrated in the game.

• In the current alpha build, when you get close enough to a character, their birthday will appear in the calendar found in your codex. I meant this to just be a fun easter egg to reward people who check those materials throughout the game (there are a LOT of things that 'update' behind the scenes), but I'm going to take it a step further: between chapters or on day offs, the game will now let you know when it's actually a character's birthday, and you can choose whether or not to spend time with them! (This will not take away from the free time on your day off.) This is where you can give them a gift, which you will have want to have bought from the shop beforehand--and if it's the perfect gift for them, they'll be really happy and you can get a huge bonus to your relationship!
• I'm also planning to have the players specify which season they were born in during their flashback to their thirteenth birthday, so their own birthday event can trigger at a suitable time during the game! If they're well-liked among the Shepherds, something special might happen then...
• There is the Ascendancy Festival, the nature of which I won't go into at the moment, but you can choose to attend Haven's biggest street fair with your character of choice. You can eat festival food together, watch the fireworks, and attend a play staged by the Kinley Players (seen in last month's short story), who will actually be putting on their own performance of the recent deeds and heroes of the Shepherds' Order!
• There is the Lovelace Celebration, a holdover from the Old Faith that's sort of like Valentine's Day. You can weave an offering to a love goddess out of (you guessed it) lace and pray that your romance goes well; you can attend an Officer's Ball that Lavinet insisted on putting on with your partner of choice; and you can buy a poesy ring for the object of your affections--and if they feel the same way, they'll buy you one back! Long-standing followers will remember when I randomly made this (very complicated) sequence after seeing a historical post on Tumblr...

Your appearance in the stats screen will even update with the custom ring they chose for you!

• Ideas being worked on: Wintersun (tentative name), a feast day held on the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. Activities are focused on celebrating the worst of winter being over, the coming of spring and the new year, and themes of renewal and cleansing. A giant cake is baked with golden raisins and honey (inviting bees and birds and spring to return) and a huge potluck-style feast is held and shared with as many people as you can gather, to keep each other warm and safe on the winter solstice. Extreme believers in the holiday also jump into icy rivers completely naked, to cleanse the sins and regrets of the old year and move into the new year renewed. 
• All Heroes Day - a fall holiday dedicated to celebrating heroes and iconic figures of the past. A masked carnival is held at night, and people (children and adults) dress as their favorite heroes in order to invoke their spirits and honor their lives. Although many Diminished heroes have been erased from the canon by the Autarchy, people still get around this by denying that they're a particular hero to authority figures who may ask. 
• I want to do even more! Chapter 2 of the alpha build mentions Candle Day, but this won't be something the MC actively celebrates; do you think these are enough social events, or do you crave more? If you have any ideas for holiday equivalents you'd like to see, let me know in the comments below! And as always, thank you so much for your amazing support!