Religious Ceremonies



Religious ceremonies are performed at various times during the year. There are a few ceremonies which are very important, like the baptism, and there are a few which are done internally within the temple.

Since there exists only a single central temple in the captial and nobody wants to put the burden of having to travel the long distances between the capital and each village on either the priests of the local population, Baptisms and Coming of Age ceremonies are all held together only once a year in villages and towns other than the captial on the same day as the Harvest Festival.

See Baptism

This is a ceremony which is held in celebration when a child comes of age and formally becomes an adult. This happens at the age of 15 and is celebrated seasonally and near the end of the season in Ehrenfest.

The commoners' ceremony is held at third bell. Apprentices generally are not allowed to participate in the temple ceremonies. Commoners gather in the temple wearing clothes using the divine colour associated with their birth season and listening to the tales of the gods read by the High Bishop. After gaining the blessing and praying to the gods they leave the temple.

How the coming age ceremony works in the orphanage: The person would bathe early in the morning and put on the newly given clothes and finally chant prayers and gratitude in the ceremony. Grey priest and shrine maidens attendants are usually given a small gift by their master or mistress.

The words of the prayer are: "O Geduldh, Goddess of Earth; O Ewigeliebe, God of Life; hear mine prayers. May you grave those who have newly come of age with your blessings. May those who offer their prayers and gratitude be blessed with your divine protection."

A noble's coming of age ceremoney is performed in the course of their graduation ceremony at the Royal Academy. The rites are performed by the priesthood of the sovereignty's temple, usually by the Souvereign High Bishop himself. It is held one day after the interduchy tournament.

See Dedication Ritual

The Fealty Ceremony is performed to introduce new blue priests or shrine maidens. It is normally held by the High Bishop in his or her chambers in front of the altar, on which the seven Divine Instruments are arranged, with the Cloak of the God of Darkness and the Crown of the Goddess of Light on the top tier, the instruments of the Five on the second tier and the third tier holding flowers, fruits, bells, incense and the Robes about to be gifted to the newly appointed applicant. The new blue priest or shrine maiden vows to serve the gods and receives their robes at the end. The vow goes as followed:

"O mighty King and Queen of the dark and light, most righteous and divine rulers of the wide heavens. O splendid gods of the Eternal Five, most righteous and divine rulers of the vast mortal realm. Goddess of Water, Flutrane, God of Fire, Leidenschaft, Goddess of Wind, Schutzaria, Goddess of Earth, Geduldh, God of Life, Ewigeliebe. King and Queen, show your divine power that extends throughout the wide heavens and vast mortal realm. Eternal Five, bless we of the vast mortal realm with your divine power. In eternal gratitude for your heavenly powers, I shall worship thee for eternity. I shall live with just hearts, calm hearts, and resolved hearts. I shall have faith in thee as the true and just gods. I vow that I shall pray to thee, gods of nature; I shall thank you, and I shall prepare offering for thee."

The Harvest Festival is held in autumn, where the blue priests and shrine maidens travel to the countryside alongside scholar officials and visit towns and villages. This is when the baptism, coming of age and starbind ceremonies are conducted for these places. Also taxes are collected and empty chalices are retrieved for the Dedication Ceremony. The blue priests are normally given a percentage of the taxes which are brought to the castle using a magic circle by the scholar official, where their families would need to fetch their collected share.

The commoners celebrate the occassion with serving food and drinks and holding a sports competetion resembling soccer and a bit of handball or rugby. In the game of warf a feybeast is kicked around with the players representing their villages.

The Healing Ritual is performed by a blue priest or priestess dressed in their ceremonial robes, after an extermination of a mana-absorbing feybeast or feyplant to to heal the land and restore the mana of the earth. It is expected to receive a call from the Knight's Order during autumn since this is the time when Trombe are most likely to grow to dangerous sizes. The priest needs a divine instrument, the Staff of Flutrane, and chant the appropriate words of prayer:

"O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change, O twelve goddesses who serve by her side. Please hear my prayer and lend me your divine strength. Grant me the power to heal your sister, the Goddess of the Earth Geduldh, who has been wounded by those who serve evil."

The Knight's Order normally calls for two priests, the first blesses the knights before the battle, and the second performs the Healing Ritual.

This ceremony is used to inaugurate the High Bishop. It requires the full turn out of the temples staff, grey and blue priests and shrine maidens to attend as they are introduced to the new High Bishop. At the end they pray to the gods using the common words of prayers:

"O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe! We offer you our prayers and gratitude. Praise be to the gods! Glory be to the gods!"

The Spring Prayer is held in early spring before the farmers move from the winter mansions back to the farming villages. When the priest or priests arrive at a winter mansion they hand over the mana-filled chalice to the land-owning giebe. Farming villages within Ehrenfest's central district, are filled with mana by the blue priests, pouring the mana out of the chalice. The amount of mana they are given directly affects the size of the crop harvested. If no mana is given then it is still possible to farm for a few years but the land will quickly become barren. Prayers recited by the High Bishop:

"O Goddess of Water Flutrane, bringer of healing and change. O vwelve goddesses who serve by her side. The Goddess of Earth Geduldh has been freed from the God of Life Ewigeliebe. I pray that you grant your younger sister the power to birth new life. I offer to you our joy and songs of glee. I offer to you our prayers and gratitude, so that we may be blessed with your purifying protection. I ask that you fill the thousand lives upon the wide mortal realm with your divine color. Praise be to Geduldh the Goddess of Earth and Flutrane the Goddess of Water!"

Spoiler from Part 4 Volume 4 When the small chalices are handed over to the local giebe, there are ceremonial words that are spoken. First the priest gives a prayer: "Thanks to the efforts of Flutrane the Goddess of Water, the binger of healing and change, and the twelve goddesses who serve by her side, Geduldh the Goddess of Earth has been granted the power to birth new life. I pray from the bottom of my heart that the thousands of lives upon this mortal realm are filled with Flutrane's divine colour."

To which the giebe replies: "Indeed, Geduldh the Goddess of Earth is filled with Flutrane the Goddess of Water's mana. Blessed be the melting of the snow. Blessed be the coming of spring."

During the actual spring prayer that is performed the next day by the giebe, priests to not have any further involvement, even if they choose to stay. In most provinces while the nobles start to eat, the commoners already start to play music on instruments, dance and sing. Once the nobles have finished their meal, they join the festivities by performing sword dances, dedication whirls and songs to praise the gods.

At least some of Ehrenfest's provinces - like Haldenzel - have special stages used for Spring Prayer and a song that is performed at the prayer each year. From her studies of an ancient bible in the possession of the High Bishop, Rozemyne recognized the words of the song as a very old prayer for spring. What had been lost knowledge for an unknown amount of time was that there were magic circles embedded inside this stage. During Rozemyne's visit to Haldenzel after her first term at the Royal Academy the female nobles of Haldenzel, lead by Elvira, gathered on the stage to perform this prayer song together with Roezmyne. To everyone's surprise this activated the up to this moment forgotten magic circle. It drained the entire mana of the small chalices and considerable amounts of mana from the performing women, enough to make the laynobles pass out and have the mednobles collapse, barely conscious. The combined mana shot out over the entire province and over the course of the following night melted all the snow and made flowers bloom. Since this arrival of spring came much sooner than naturally, Rozemyne deducted that this was the purpose of the magic circle and that they had by accident rediscovered how spring prayer was performed in the past. .

The Starbind Ceremony is the wedding ceremony and is practiced yearly sometime halfway through summer in Ehrenfest. The High Bishop is normally the one to conduct the ceremony for both the nobles and commoners, reading tales of the gods to the newly married couples and blesses them. The commoners' ceremony is done earlier in the day, with the nobles' ceremony being done in the evening of the same day. Couples dress up using clothes which are coloured on the colour of their birth season.

The Starbind Ceremony for nobles is held in the archduke's castle, followed by an nighttime party where singles, without an engagement partner, are obliged to participate. Children aren't allowed to attend the nighttime party as it is meant for adults to look for a marriage partner.

The actual ceremonies are held during the night, since nighttime makes it easier to receive the blessing of the God of Darkness.

Spoiler for Part 4 Volume 5

Unlike any other wedding, weddings of members of the royal family and archduke candidates - unless they marry "down" into regular noble families - are held in spring during the archduke conference. The ceremony is performed by the Sovereign High Bishop in the chapel of the Royal Academy.

Commoners call this day the Starbind Festival.

On the day of the festival, most commoners start their day by going to the forest to gather taue fruits for later use. At third bell the betrothed couples are web by the High Bishop in the temple, where they are read stories of the Gods and blessed. This last roughly until fourth bell.

Once the freshly married couples emerge from the temple and reach the central plaza, the people waiting outside - unmarried adults in particular - start to throw their gathered taue at them. It is a chance for the new husbands to show off how well they can protect their wives by trying to defend her from getting wet. Once all the couples have become sufficiently soaked or managed to flee, the people just start to toss the taue at each other. Anyone not wet can expect to become a prime target.

Later in the day there is a great feast at the central plaza after which the children are sent home and forbidden from leaving their houses for the remainder of the day. Once the children are home, the newly married couples return and the alcohol is brought out. During the evening and night the new couples are celebrated and unwed adults look for romantic partners.

In the past the entire Starbind Ceremony was held at night for commoners and nobles alike, but at somme point the population of the city became too big to wed everyone at once, so the wedding for commoners was moved to the daytime.

Outside of the capital there is no seperate day for the Starbind Ceremony or Festival. Instead the couples are wed during the Harvest Festival by the visiting blue priest or shrine maiden.


 * Myne's first dedication ceremony started on Earthday.
 * When Rozemyne became the High Bishop the adults around her would recite the tales of the gods as her childish voice does not carry well.
 * When Rozemyne became High Bishop she was very strict with the children during the baptism and made everyone repeat their first prayer until they got the posture right.