Rituals and Celebrations

Rituals

Genesis Ritual

Religion: Orderism

Occasion: Birth

Anywhere where the Orderist temples have been established, the people of that area are pressured to participate in the Genesis Ritual. This ritual is explained to the common people as a purification ritual that prevents babies from being possessed by daemons or swayed from the correct path. However, it is more practically a way for Orderists to uncover which children are or are not mages.

In cultures where mages are accepted, if a child is found to be a mage during the Genesis Ritual, they are marked with a cut from the center of their forehead to the crook of their nose. This cut is allowed to free bleed until it scabs over on its own. This scar allows the child to be recognized as a mage for the rest of their life.

In cultures where mages are not accepted, these babies are then offered up as a ritual sacrifice to One. It is said that, for every mage child who is sacrificed to One, this village or city is given more blessings by One. Some peasantry even hope they give birth to a mage baby so that it may be sacrificed to bring fortune to their people. 

If the baby is found to be an Orderist, the parents must give that baby over to their local Orderist temple to be raised by the Orderists. This is seen as a great honor to the parents, that they were of such good spiritual stock that they birthed a paragon of Order and thus it is rare that there is any resistance to this affair. Furthermore, the parents are taken care of by the local Orderist temple above and beyond simple charitable giving. Some of them are even raised to the status of lords and ladies and given land to control.

If a family lives in area where the Genesis Ritual is common, yet they do not present their child for the ritual, the whole family is to be put to death. It is said that those who actively avoid the Genesis Ritual have been possessed by THE and they must be purged for the spiritual safety of the people.

Celebrations

Palagorum

Religion: Palatheanism

Occasion: Yearly, upon last frost, in Borsa

A holiday among the unincorporated townships in the Human kingdoms, celebrating the planting season and asking for mercy from Palathea in the month of Borsa. This holiday lasts for three days. The first day, the people stay within their homes and fast. The second day, they all sacrifice the foodstuffs they would have consumed on the previous day in the middle of the city. The third day, the peasants all take to the fields and begin planting season. Many peasants also have sex in the fields, attempting to get pregnant so that they may have children blessed by Palathea, and so that this act of fertility might act as worship to Palathea.

Remembrance

Religion: Sarkin social custom

Occasion: Yearly, beginning in Gotaniban, then ending in Vagus.

Every year in Gotaniban, the Sarkin take their best spores and plant them in pots with very fertile soil. However, they then seal these pots up and do not open them again until Vagus, five years from that point. Each year, the pots are opened from five years previous and it is shown that the best spores in the most fertile soil have died nonetheless. Speeches are given reminding one another of the importance of community, that no matter how good one's nature is, each Sarkin only thrives when they are nurtured together in good circumstances. A sealed pot will always die. The dead pots are then used to fertilize the soil within community held gardens, where they all begin to cultivate the spores that will be harvested for food later in the year.