The Ascension to Rekeh
Every 6 years on the winter solstice, Tanishites sacrifice a Sun Maiden to Rekeh, the creator. This is the most important ritual of Tanishite Polytheism. The ritual begins half a year earlier, during the Feast of the Sun. That morning, a girl is selected from The Sun Maidens. It is always a girl from the Twilight Maidens who is young enough that she has not been given as a concubine yet. The sacrifice must be beautiful, virginal, and youthful. She is presented to the king in waiting and gathered crowd, and sits in an honoured position at the noon banquet. That evening, she leaves Zedda with an entourage of priests and guardians.
What follows is a 6 month tour of the kingdom. They travel through all four provinces and visit as many villages as possible. At every stop, the maiden sits in the nearest shrine and listens to the prayers of the people directly. She is gifted with clothing, jewellery, and precious artworks from petitioners. All of these gifts are gathered up and taken with the convoy. Local leaders, those educated enough to be literate, write the prayers of their region on long strips of white linen that are sent along with the convoy.
Throughout this time, the maiden fasts. She eats very little other than nuts and berries, drinks nothing but small amounts of water, and rapidly loses weight. By the time the convoy reaches the final stop in Yakilu, she is very weak.
In the morning of the winter solstice, her entourage escorts her to the Shrine of Rekeh by the oasis in Yakilu. There, she again meets the king in waiting. The priests and guardians depart and the king in waiting offers her his prayers and the desires he wishes passed on to Rekeh.
Then, she is given a drink with a strong sedating agent causing her to fall asleep. The king in waiting binds her hands behind her back, her ankles and knees, and then winds the strips of linen covered in prayers around her body. If the drug was not strong enough, he may summon the priests to help if she is still conscious and panics. Once she is fully wrapped (leaving space around her face so that she may breathe) she is placed on a cart. The king in waiting accompanies the priests and guardians to The Ascending Ground to a prepared tomb. The tomb is made from slabs of limestone and is half-buried in the sand.
The still-living body of the maiden is laid to rest within, and a final slab of stone dragged across the entrance. There, she will eventually die of dehydration or starvation. The hot, dry conditions of the desert combined with her dehydration and low body fat upon immurment, will aid in mummifying her body. It is believed that during this slow, isolated death, the maiden will leave her body before it fully dies to ascend to Rekeh and deliver to him directly the prayers, hopes, and desires of the people. She will become one of the Spirits, and be a wife to Rekeh.
The men return to Tirasha. At twilight, feasts are held across the kingdom to celebrate the ascension of their emissary.
Related Ethnicities
