ThaumaturgyRelay/RitesOfPassage
The third theme is Rites of Passage.
These are Rituals which people - of any sort - go through to mark their passage into some new phase of their lives - adulthood, to become a warrior, member of a secret society etc; In creation, these are no mere social proof of status - they have power, either to grant or change ability or to bind members to certain taboos (Or perhaps something else).
The Dragon's Echo • (Edward_Fortune)
This ritual is a common tool of swindlers throughout the realm, and has been performed on dynastic and peasant children alike. However, for many it marks the point where a Realm born child ceases to dream of exaltation, and accept his fate as a mortal.
The Dragon's Echo is an infamous rite that involves the all 5 elements in a series of gruelling tasks.
Rumoured to have been created by the Empress herself to allow those destined a greater chance of Terrestrial Exaltation (It doesn't, and it's unlikely she'd even have cared but still, the rumours persist.) It’s technically illegal and certainly frowned on by many Dynasts.
However, the harrowing nature of this ritual has caused some to exalt, and thus, the rumours persist.
The ritual takes three hours, and requires resources • • for robes, incense and drugs, as well as three motes of essence and a point of willpower, or two points of willpower.
The ritual also requires five other people, each dressed in ceremonial robes. Typically, the extra participants assume elemental roles, though in all cases, they assist in endangering the targets life.
The target is then exposed to a series of gruelling tests based round the five elements. For example, the would be Exalt may find themselves stripped naked, fed hallucinogenic berries, thrown into a shallow grave, dragged out and dunked head first into a body of water, and then asked a to hold burning pyre until they receive a vision. More deadly variants exist.
During the ritual, the target must make 5 separate stamina roles, difficulty 1. Failure results in at least two levels of bashing damage. (Two lethal if the ritual is a more deadly version). If the supplicant survives the rite, she is gains a +3 dice bonus to the resisting the harmful affects of one, non-magical element (players choice) for the next week. (For example, a +3 bonus to avoid burning, unless it was a magical fire.)
In addition, the target receives a vision of some kind, often related to the elements or the dragons, though this is often nonsensical. The ritual has no effect on the chances of Exaltation, but often leads to a mortal having a moment of clarity in regards to there place in the world.
Child of The Woods Passage •• (FrivYeti)
The woods of the Far East are dangerous and filled with hazards for the unwary. Even those who can usually make do sometimes find that the blessings of the Forest can go a long way to their survival. To that end, these blessings are gifted to the children of certain tribes, marking them as Children of the Woods.
The ritual takes a full night to create, and costs 3 motes and 1 Willpower from the shaman (or 2 Willpower), as well as 1 Willpower from the target. The target must imbibe hallucinogeic herbs (Resources ••), and the shaman must use a specially-made green dye to ink tattoos onto the subject.
If the ritual is completed successfully, the tribesman is bound to the woods, and is considered a full-fledged member of the tribe. If the character fails any Survival rolls while within his tribe's domain, or Resistance rolls against the poisons or diseases of the area, he may re-roll with half of his original diepool (round up); if any successes are rolled, he is considered to have succeeded with one success. However, this binding comes at a cost. The character may never leave his domain; if he does so, he will take one health level of unsoakable lethal damage every (Endurance) days. This damage will not heal until the character returns to the woods.
The process of Exaltation damages the Passage tattoos; an Exalt so tattooed, whether before or after Exaltation, receives none of the benefits or penalties of the rites. Their Essence Shard prevents them from being bound by such weak magics. In addition, sorcerous countermagic ruins the tattoos. A character whose tattoos have been ruined in this way can sense it; however, there is no visible sign for bystanders (some shamans will be able to tell, as the tattoos do not register to Essence senses once ruined).
Strait of Roses ••• (FlowsLikeBits)
This ritual is sometimes used as a method of induction for merchant (or more rarely, naval) crews. It is well known in the West, but rare elsewhere. First a large number of fresh flowers of five types must aquired along with several calligraphied verses. (Combined cost of resources ••• ). This ritual must be performed out of sight of the coast(*), it is usually done as soon as possible. It cost a total of 7 willpower or 21 motes, although only 5 willpower (15 motes) must be payed by one person.
To perform this ritual, one set of verses is fixed to the bow of the ship, and one to stern, with the person doing so spending 1 willpower or 3 essence. (Old ships have hooks for this purposes). Then one member must swim around ship 5 times, carrying a different blossem each time(5 consucitive rolls, stamina + athletics, difficulty 3). This part of the ritual is the most taxing, and is often assigned to new crew members.
This ritual provides a minor benefits in the form of good luck and safe passage. The ship will generally have better than average luck, even if the mast is struck by lightning, it will tend to crash into the water harmlessly, rather than poking a hole in hull. This reduces penalties caused by adverse condtions by 1, to a minimum of zero.
More importantly, this provides a powerful ward vs the agents of Kimbery, the demon sea. They are at a penalty of 3 dice to find, track or follow the ship. If they initiate hostile action anyway, they still have a one die penalty. Notably, this includes Lintha pirates. If the orbit of the ship part of the ritual is repeated at noon and midnight(at a cost of 1 willpower or 3 motes each time), each repetion increases the penalty to the demon spawn by 1 die, both for tracking and combat.
It's connections to the celestial arcana have caused the realm to suppress knowlege of this ritual, and especially the knowlege of the last two laps. It persists in the west however, where the Lintha are a threat.
This ritual is actually a powerful astrological effect created by a direct petition of Leviathan and the heads of the Solar Deliberative and Bureau of Destiny to the Maiden of Journeys.
(*)Effectivly, out of sight of land, except for the Pole of Earth. You can see that EVERYWHERE.
Rite of the Acolyte •••• (Dmccoy1693)
With every town and emerald between Fort Bear and Leaping Island use to being attacked/raided by zombies, death cults, and the like, a new exclusive society has emerged, the Acolytes of the Small Gods. Only the strongest, wisest, most faithful may join. Their job is to defend the town and every inhabitant at the peril of their own lives.
To join you must first be asked and then you must perform the Rite of the Acolyte. Once tapped, the potential acolyte must first seek out the shrines of 5 gods that they wish to devote their lives to. These gods tend to be close to where the initiate lives but it is not necessary. They must spend a full 24 hours at each shrine praying to that particular god (Sta+Resistance Diff 3 to stay awake, resist cold and not eat or drink anything during that time). If the roll is not successful, the initiate falls asleep, is distracted and stops praying, needs water or otherwise fails and the god will not support him during the ritual. Once all 5 gods have been prayed to, the initiate, all 5 gods, and the three members of the society gather at the center of the town where the initiate lives during a new moon at midnight. The ritual continues until sunrise wherein that time the initiate makes sacrifices pleasing to the gods (Resources • to •••, ususally a freshly killed animals), spends 5 motes and 1 WP (one per sacrifice, this binds them to the society and to the gods), the initiate kisses the hand of each god while on bended knee, the three Acolytes present pray each of the 5 gods and ask to accept him as their Acolyte. The ritual ends with each god blessing the new Acolyte with one of their stronger blessings.
From this point forward, the Acolyte receives the benefit of the blessing with no cost to the god as long as the Acolyte continues to make regular offerings to the gods (as perscribed by each god), is taught to be a lay priest of each of those gods and may someday become a priest of one or some of those gods. They are also expected to be a defender of the people and the god standing up to anything, save the wyld hunt. No matter where the Acolyte goes in the society's influence, they are welcome in the home of any other member.
Ritual of The Dedicated Vassal ••••• (FrivYeti)
With this Northern ritual, a thaumaturge blesses a mortal king with leadership, and binds his direct servants to him in an hours-long ritual of dedication and purity. First, the king and all those seeking to declare their loyalty must be each ritually bathed in water mixed with rose essence and four drops of blood from a wolf. Then, the thaumturge recites the oath of allegiance, a process which requires ten minutes of uninterrupted speech. The king then repeats the oath, and those who are to swear it step forwards one by one. The king asks for their service, the vassal gives it, and the thaumaturge proceeds to bind the two together. The king cuts his hand with a knife and passes it to the vassal, who cuts their forehead lightly. The king then presses his hand to the vassal's forehead, sealing the ritual. Up to (the thaumaturge's Essence x2) vassals may swear allegiance at once; the king need only cut his hand once, but all vassals must use the same knife to cut their foreheads. The king and the vassal must spend 1 Willpower; the thaumaturge must spend 2 Willpower or 6 motes (or 3 motes and 1 Willpower).
Once enacted, this ritual acts to prevent betrayal on the part of either king or vassal. If either of the two bound seeks to betray the other, they must spend a point of Willpower and fail a Conviction roll. if the betrayal is carried out, they develop the flaw Unlucky (1), permanently, and the oath is dissolved (neither party will be automatically aware of this dissolution). (As normal, Emerald Countermagic will dissolve either the oath or the Unlucky flaw granted by it.)
The next theme will be "Death", but I'm going to let whomever picks it up archive this thread so's people can see it. :) - FrivYeti
Comments
Hi, New to the Wiki. What do you think? - Edward_Fortune
Nice
-- Darloth
No ones added to this in ages, does anyone mind if I break form and add another one? I'll give it a week and then I'll do something.Edward_Fortune
- Go ahead, there's been tons of times where people post with only one entry between their's. ~ Seiraryu
- It's not even breaking form, really. It might be if you did two in a row, or filled an entire relay with stuff, but, hey, ThaumaturgyRelay moves pretty slowly anyway. I for one would not complain if you have tons of nice ideas, it's nice to see them!
-- Darloth
- It's not even breaking form, really. It might be if you did two in a row, or filled an entire relay with stuff, but, hey, ThaumaturgyRelay moves pretty slowly anyway. I for one would not complain if you have tons of nice ideas, it's nice to see them!
Thoughts on mine? - Dmccoy1693
- underpowered... Yours is nicely flavoured, and fits very well, but I'd put that sort of ritual at rating 1, personally. It doesn't actually DO anything much, mechanically speaking. As a social construct it's fine, but I don't think the actual effects justify the difficulty of someone learning it as a 3 dot ritual. Maybe if the spirit's blessing was extended or worked any time they were defending the town in question? (without the spirit paying further essence?) That, on the other hand, seems marginally -over- powered... Anyway, those are my thoughts ^_^
-- Darloth
- Ops, you're right. How's this? - Dmccoy1693
