One bright day, before the Queen’s own royal procession, the Great Wizard Merlin’s wandering laboratory clattered into the town of Willy-Nilly on the Wash. Merlin appeared in the square with a jangle of bells and a wide grin.
“This place overflows with magic already!” he told a curious village girl. “Look there—a blacksmith shaping raw elements into a nail to hold your lucky horse shoe. And there—someone knitting a hat that will exist nowhere else in the world. And there…” He tapped his staff gleefully. “Strangers who only met this morning now sharing a drink as friends!”
The girl shrugged. “Happens every day here.”
“Exactly!” Merlin beamed. “That is why this place is rare. I’ve walked all lands and all times, and I can tell you—this sort of magic is not so common. Where it is missing, the world is poorer.”
His gaze grew distant, then his eyes lit with a knowing smile. “I shall weave a spell here. All shall be welcome to this festival—past and future, near and far…” His staff swept wide as the air shimmered with octarine threads, drifting like a great net over the village.
When he finished, the girl plucked one of the threads. “Pretty snazzy!”
“Snazzy indeed…” Merlin tugged his beard, sensing his work was not yet done. “By the stars! I’ll leave a challenge for the curious. Let them seek the true magic of this place and carry it into their own worlds.”
Raising his staff, Merlin intoned:
What power transcends time and space, forging connections no eye can trace?”
Earth from the Mudde Show pit, water from the Dragon Fountain, and fire from the roasting turkey legs swirled together, hardening into a shining mug.
He handed it to the girl, who traced the cipher etched in its clay. “How will I solve it?” she whispered, breathless.
Merlin’s grin grew even broader. “Look to the stars!”
Welcome to the 2025 Ohio Renaissance Festival!
This season’s commemorative mug features the Great Wizard Merlin, casting his spell over an arcane tome as he asks: “What power transcends time and space, forging connections no eye can trace?”
The answer lies hidden in a scrambled cipher.
Merlin’s Challenge: Solve the cipher and enter your answer for a chance to win a prize package that includes two 2026 season passes!
Pick up your 2025 ORF commemorative mug at Treasures of the Realm, just inside the front gate.