Spirit Offerings
History
There was a time, long ago, when settlements were new and far more rough and rustic than they are now, that the world was a more difficult, dangerous place. For over a decade the weathers changed, the seas becoming rough and the flora and fauna stopped growing the way it should. A famine rocked through the land and in their desperation, the Vellich turned to the Places of the Spirits, reaching out for those with more power than they did in a hope that these Spirits could turn things around. These acts of desperation took the forms of offerings of lives of smaller creatures outside the Places of Spirits.
After the famine passed, and the ecosystem returned to the norm, these offerings dried up almost everywhere, but Vellich living in the harsher parts of the world. like Kolesta and Stron, still practice these acts.
Now, these rituals are considered barbaric, unnecessary and wasteful by most Vellich.
Execution
Those parts of the world where this is still practiced hold their ceremony twice a year, in the spring and in the autumn.
At sunrise, the Village Ruler leads the rest of the people through the settlement and out towards the nearest Place of Spirits. When they reach the sacred space, the animals are brought forth and thanked for their gift by each member of the village. The Storyteller tells the story of the animals and of the village and of the help needed from the Spirits to see the village through. It is the job of the Gatherer to sacrifice the creatures. The village offers the spirits a moment of their silence and then the Village Ruler leads the people back to the village in silence.
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