In Weyr culture, eggs hold a great deal of meaning. From the Krmohn to the Temple at Liberator, they're used in very many places in Weyr society, and here's why!

Eggs in many cultures are taken as symbols of fertility and rebirth, and it's no different in the Weyr culture. When Nukiam took dEviat, and made him into an immortal like himself, DEviat was reborn from a painted eggshell.

Temples like the great Liberator have egg-shaped rooms and towers, which symbolize and draw this meaning back into the everyday. People take hollowed, specially-treated eggshells and smash them to bits during wedding celebrations to find out how long their marriage will last, and specially trained shell-readers can do fortunes from them.

Typically, painted eggs for the Weyr are made around the beginning of April, as things begin to become green again, and life sweeps the land. They take it as the symbolic rebirth of the world and their people, as DEviat was reborn after nearly starving to death in the harsh winters of Youndetr.

The colors of these eggs are always green-blue-back oriented, because of the connection of life with the Sea. (Nukiam came from the sea and saved DEviat from death.)

Thousands are left every April in special rooms in temples all over the continent as special thanks to good Nukiam for saving them from destruction and ruin.

Designs vary from culture-to-culture: For instance, First Tribe people will paint fish on theirs, and Second people tend to design theirs with Birds of Butterflies. While not as common as they used to be, family designs are still easily distinguishable in the masses of offerings found at Liberator each Spring. Below is an image of an Arankasha-family egg:

And a Makujeo:

The designs developed over many many years, and it was once considered a great honor to be trusted with creating the family egg for the year, but recently the prestige has been lost, and many young people view this tradition as both a 'waste of food' and a 'waste of time'.

Who knows how many more generations will continue to take part in Krmohn celebrations? We can only hope very many.

Now you do it!

Make your own family egg! Send me a jpg copy of it in email (e.jaaime at gmail dot com), and I'll add it to the page!

Here's the template (Please keep the original frame size, but feel free to get rid of the pattern egg and make your own!):

The eggs that I've gotten so far: