DE: Rites of Passage

[yakalskovich]

 As I am facing one tomorrow, I have been thinking about rites of passage a lot lately. A good friend of mine from university once described them (à propos of me worrying about my MA oral exam)  with the following words: 

"You will be scared beforehand, not quite knowing what to expect, it actually will hurt a little, and afterwards you'll be part of the in-group"
 

Now, what are the rites of passage, officially or symbolically, in your characters' worlds and lives?

Comments

[bringspeopletogether]

Every aspect of that quote applies quite literally to the Joining, which is the ritual Grey Warden recruits undertake to become a full-fledged Warden. Except if you're too scared, there's a good chance you won't survive; if you're lucky, you only pass out, and if you're not, you die; and being part of the in-group means your lifespan just got chopped in half, assuming you even make it to your Calling. GOOD TIMES ALL AROUND.

Anyway! It involves drinking a mix of darkspawn blood and archdemon blood, which is why the fatality rate is so high -- darkspawn blood corrupts everything it touches. If a recruit survives, they're immune to any further corruption, and they're also psychically linked to the darkspawn. Both important tools if you're going to spend the rest of your life fighting said darkspawn! But...turns out it's not so much "immunity" as "drastically slowing the pace of the corruption." Eventually, all Wardens start to hear the Calling, which is a sign the corruption's finally taking hold and starting to turn them into a ghoul. So they say their goodbyes, head to the Deep Roads, and basically go IF I'M GOING DOWN I'M TAKING ALL YOU MOTHERFUCKERS WITH ME to the nearest cluster of darkspawn.

Someday everything in Thedas will not suck. It's definitely not this day.

[freedom_is_grey]

This.

[aaaaaaaagh_sky]

Vault 101's major rite of passage is the GOAT exam. The year a student turns sixteen, he or she has to take an aptitude exam that determines the job he or she will be assigned to in the Vault for the rest of his or her natural life. Preferences are not relevant, just test results (and any fiddling with the results that the teacher or the Overseer may see fit to let slide). Whether this is going on any more is questionable, now that the Vault is open to the surface world and Amata is the Overseer instead.

There are a few mentions in various games of some form of trial or test before someone can be considered a fully ranked member of the Brotherhood of Steel, as opposed to an Initiate or Squire. The specifics are never given in-game and on at least one occasion there's been 'okay, $CHARACTER died doing a heroic thing for us, record them as having passed their test and bury them as a full Paladin'. I've millicanoned that the Lyons Brotherhood official process involves being sent on a particularly dangerous mission and accomplishing your goal, coming back alive, and spending a night in vigil in the area where the Brotherhood keeps its eternal flame for their dead, because they're a semimonastic knightly order even if their ancestors were a bunch of MPs and their families.

[feminine_menace]

YT's was probably becoming a Kourier. It happened pre-canon and is not really explored in depth, but it's implied that becoming a Kourier involves some kind of vocational training (in addition to having experience with skateboarding).

Abe no Seimei probably went through the Heian-era rite of passage of having his hair cut and receiving his first pair of men's hakama at age 12 or 13. But for him leaving Osaka and moving to the Capital was a more significant (if less formal) rite of passage, because it meant leaving his relatively secluded childhood home behind and fully joining the world of human beings.

[freedom_is_grey]

Oh, and in addition to the Joining ritual for the Grey Wardens up above, mages have to undergo a ritual, as well, to graduate and become full-fledged mages. It's called the Harrowing. Sounds really nice and friendly, right?

So what happens is the apprentice, when the Senior Enchanters etc think he or she is ready, come in the night, escort them to the Harrowing chamber, drug them with lyrium and send them conscious and aware into the Fade to face down a demon. During this encounter in the Fade, however long it takes, there's a Templar in the chamber with them -- more than one, really, but the one is important -- holding a blade to their neck, so that if they come back with a demon buddy, they die. If they fail to come back, they die.

Mages that are considered to never be capable of surviving a Harrowing are often turned Tranquil. Their connection to the Fade is severed, they lose the ability to feel emotions, or to want anything, they obey any and all commands because they can't not, and also happily (for the Chantry), the ability to use magic. But they are great enchanters of objects, so they make loads of money for the Chantry. Hooray.

[yinyangwizard]

It's almost like the Chantry doesn't want apprentices to survive the Harrowing OH WAIT DUH.

[bjornwilde]

Jedi have rites of passages and tests all the time. Want a lightsaber crystal? Face your inherent fears first. Want to become a knight? Face more of your fears or prove you can over come your base emotions. Want to become a Master? You guessed it, face your fear or prove you can rise above petty things like emotional decisions.

Even if it is not an existing test, there are some who will try and make it into one. See Ahsoka's trial at the end of season 05. To paraphrase Mace Windu, "The Force works in mysterious ways. This was your great test. We see that now."

Fuck you Windu. Did you ever think that that was a test of the Jedi Council? One you guys *FAILED*?

Ah hem, sorry. I have opinions. = D

[i_am_your_host]

I just imagined someone saying this to a very young Emcee as he embarks on becoming a full fledged sex worker. My baby's all grown up.

[ceitfianna]

As I finally have the new October Daye book, I"m certain there's going to be a pretty major ritual for when Quentin comes of age and becomes a knight. That's how Fae society works, the last major one he went through other than political stuff was becoming Toby's squire which I don't think we ever saw. I'd have to check the books.

Will's major rites of passage was becoming Robin's squire and then soon after becoming an outlaw. A strange part of not being an outlaw anymore, he's having to learn more about the formal aspect of being connected to a lord that he missed when he was younger.

Charles' life has been full of large and small rites of passage, as part of a privileged family that's a big part of how it all goes. So going away to school for the first time, graduating, punting in Oxford, finishing his dissertation. I can see him working rites into the world of the school as they matter to him and celebrating victories matters.

Sameth had two kinds of rites, Old Kingdom and Ancelstierre, the Ancelstierre ones were about becoming older and getting more responsibility at Somersby, the Old Kingdom ones were about taking on new roles, helping Ellimere at Petty Court, getting his bells and his first sword.

William's never really had a rite of passage, other than maybe wearing pants for the first time as a boy but in his world, he hasn't experienced many of those markers as he's been too busy. Honestly his biggest rite of passage was canon and all that went on in it.

Moist, there was his first successful con, the first time he got arrested and possibly something in Uberwald but I'm not certain what.

Barrayar loves various rites and formalities and the Imperial Service is full of them, Ivan attended the Service Academy and before that a fancy private school with all their graduations and things like that.

Jane's major rites of passage were connected to her place in society, how she wears her hair and dresses, attending assemblies.

Demeter, hm, I'm not sure, same with Tumnus.