On Reaping Day, the leader must somehow identify
(mythically, via HQ) the enemy with plants that have
been sown, then go kill a bunch of them. "This army
is like a field, ready to be reaped; ready your
scythes."
On Plow Blessing Day, the leader must identify the opposing army as the ground to be plowed. "This army is a field, ready to be cut open with the plow. Our cavalry is like Barnatar's sacred plow; you spearmen are like the farmer who pokes the seeds into the ground behind the plow."
In each case, the enemies killed form part of the sacrifice.
All of this is dependent on the power of analogy.
Some analogies are going to be better that others
(compare the two above, for example). The better
analogies will be more successful; the more strained
analogies will be less so.
(Improvisations might be defensive in nature. There's
nothing saying they have to be offensive. The fact
that both of my examples are offensive was intended to
show how some analogies will be better than others.)
Anyway, that's probably how I would handle it for
Orlanthi. It seems to me like it fits their culture
fairly well, because "Violence is always an option,"
which seems to me like it can be used to justify
improvising any holy day ceremony to fit a violent
need. This might be much less successful with other
cultures that are more bound to specific ceremonies
(e.g., Dara Happans).
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