The Blooding
From Mizahar Lore
The Blooding is a ritual performed in the Temple in Taloba upon a Myrian youth's completion of her Coming of Age Trial.
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Requirements
- The drinker must be Myrian, or at least have Myrian blood in them
- Completion of the Coming of Age Trial
- Myri's permission to drink from the Blooding Basin
The Ritual
The current incarnation of the ritual is a quick process due to the magical properties of the Blooding Basin, which eliminates the need for every Myrian adult to contribute a bit of their blood in the Basin. It is now only performed in the presence of the Goddess-Queen, the Council, and family and clan members. Myri would acknowledge the youth's successful completion of her Coming of Age Trial before giving permission for the celebrant to dip her hand into the bowl of blood and drink from it. She would then be made to contribute her own blood into the bowl.
Once done, she would be welcomed as an official member of the Myrian people and receive her first Prowess mark from Myri.
No non-Myrian is known to have been allowed to drink from the Blooding Basin.
The Blooding Basin
(Properties pending Founder approval)
Effects
Partaking of the blood itself does not give a Myrian any known special powers or abilities. Instead, the ritual grants them the status of being recognized as an official member of the Myrian people. While outsiders may not fully grasp the significance of this, they have to understand that an adult Myrian who has not taken the Coming of Age Trial, and consequently drank from the Blooding Basin, are viewed with contempt by those who have. They are seen as a lesser, an incomplete person, a non-Myrian even, until they do.
Of important note in the ritual is the permission given by Myri for a Myrian to drink from the Blooding Basin. Anyone who tries to without such permission will die horribly and painfully in seconds, for the blood acts as a potent poison in this scenario. Victims will have their own blood forcefully expelled from every orifice in their bodies until they are nothing but a dried out husks while their blood pools around them. No amount of healing magic or poison antidote can prevent this process once it has begun. It is rumored that this is a magical property of the stone bowl itself and not the blood it holds, but no one has been able to confirm this.
History
Even before Myri united all Myrians under her rule, each clan had their own version of the Coming of Age Trial that was unique to their respective tribes. A Snapping Jaws youth, for example, might be required to capture a live crocodile, while someone from the Patient Shadows might be made to camp out alone in the jungle for a night, and an aspiring hunter of the Creeping Death clan might be asked to stalk and hunt the most dangerous creature they could find out in the wilds. One thing that was common among these rites of passage was the Blooding.
Upon the youth's completion of her Trial, the adult members of her tribe would gather in a place large enough to accommodate them all - be it the tribe's main longhouse, the chieftain's hut or the village center - and spill a few droplets of their blood into a bowl of wine. Depending on the size of the tribe, it could be an hour-long or day-long event. Once everyone had taken their turn, the youth would be made to drink the bowl's contents. Only then would she be considered an official part of the tribe.
Myrian records indicate that Myri held a similar ritual in Taloba upon uniting the tribes. All living Myrian adults at the time - those who have passed their Trials, in essence - spilled their blood into a large stone bowl and, once done, each and everyone took a sip from it. Myri herself was the first to slit open her wrist and gave a pint or more of her then-mortal blood. It was her way of saying that not only were they collectively a single race now, they were brothers and sisters in blood as well.