Nidrak-Bek

Nidrak-Bek (Night of Souls) is the final event of Rapadruk, the Krona festival of the dead which lasts a Gunurashian month and is celebrated once every four galactic years.

On Nidrak-Bek, legendary Krona figure Elder Druk, bearing a blackened mukblud, is said to to ride on the back of a gigantic flying Tarak beetle named Nidra, raising the souls of the dead as they travel, creating a rampaging army of mayhem that reaches its culmination with a huge and riotous final celebration with many parties, feasts and riots that rage all night in the streets and homes of Gunurash III, said to be shared by the dead themselves.

The parade of Elder Druk and their army of mayhem are said to give out sugary and spicy treats on their rounds to raise the pulses and therefore the appetite for chaos in the people they pass, and therefore it is traditional to give and receive candy and foods as spicy as possible during this time.

Traditions vary by family, city, country or community, with some groups of Krona actually bringing out the remains of their relatives to stand in deathly observance of the celebration, some reading out tracts or performing songs by or to celebrate the 'Glorious Dead', while a popular contemporary tradition is for family members to upload a "Bek-zhim" or "Soul-mask" whilst still living, which is representation (usually a holoprojection) of them. The latest Bek-zhim are installed with an AI of the person's mannerisms and speech patterns, left specifically so that they may 'join in with the festivities' for ever more.

Once only celebrated by Krona, the festival has gained sector wide popularity in recent times, with many people emulating the traditional Drukpyr (a lantern made from the exoskeleton of a giant Tarak beetle's head) by carving pikatos to bear grisly, illuminated faces.