"Complete lack of observable evidence doesn't seem to stop this rite of passage from continuing through the ages. My best attempt at translating this is 'new beginning' or 'transformation'. The San believe this deeply, and it is not the researcher's job to argue, but none of my interactions showed any changes except a stylized braid on their garments and a sense of purpose and direction in life. Perhaps that is enough."
Chom Biitulaay, A Curious Collection of Letters: Explaining the San to a Modern World, ch 3, p 27
The violet skinned
San have lifestyles based heavily on ritual and rank. One of the most important rituals, and the first one to be truly chosen freely by San youth, is the Toh-Pak Honeycake Ceremony. It marks the choosing of a path in life based on physical abilities that are granted by a specific type of honey baked into a simple corn cake.
In a San youth's eighth summer they are taught about the Three Disciplines: Strength, Quickness, and Wisdom.* These disciplines will guide the youth for the rest of his or her life. This appears to be more than a creed to live by. The choice of honey for the cakes is the choice of the discipline and the San claim that actual physical changes occur after the ceremony that lead to specialization in the chosen quality.
The honey is cultivated from specific bees, gathered with great care, and cooked ceremonially into cakes of cornmeal and herbs. According to ancient belief, the honey is supposed to grant strength, quickness, or wisdom to the San that stays with them for the rest of their lives. It also appears that this transformation only occurs during a specific time of their life. After and before the eighth summer, consuming honeys apparently does nothing of any importance.
To keep the honeys separated is a feat of beekeeping that is one of the few things that cause the San to settle into villages. All villages have their own central beekeeping hubs and they only specialize in one kind of bee. Crossbreeding bees is strictly forbidden and the San get very defensive when asked about details concerning this.
Researchers and historians across Creation are divided as to the reality of transformations. The San live reclusive lives and infrequently interact with the other peoples. Therefore most of the details surrounding this ceremony are hazy at best and further study is needed.
*Rumors of a fourth and fifth discipline, loosely translated as Life and Death, are completely unfounded.
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