Here's how I came to this question: I think that you can propitiate evil spirits in advance, placate them when they arrive, or banish them when they arrive. Note that you could create a table out of this, but the "fight them before they arrive" cell would be empty. But then I was thinking that theists kind of do this. They dress up in fancy clothes and go re-enact the whole "beat up the bad guy" ritual during sacred time or whatever. And, like propitiation, they get some kind of boost throughout the year because of that.
But theism works by emulating what the gods did. That's not how animism works. Animism works through personal relationships (even when they are antagonistic).
So, what does an animist do in those annual rituals to help fight the evil spirits throughout the year?
My thought is that they don't, per se. Since animism is about personal relationships, and the big evil spirits are so much bigger than people, animists can't really intimidate Black Eater or Wildfire in advance.
Instead, what they do is ask for the blessings of the good spirits in advance. My initial thought was that you have to ask for the great spirit to assist some activity that the worshipper carries out. (So, it kind of works like an augment.) I don't think that it works to say, "Oh Eiritha, make our herds expand this year." But it might work to say, "Oh, Eiritha, help our women know when our cows are sickly." This kind of makes sense to me because animism relies on a personal relationship between spirit and person.
But it also has problems. How, exactly, does the great spirit help her worshipper find sick cows? Spirits require a home when they are in the natural world. Normally, this is a charm, but it can also be a possessed body or whatever. How is the great spirit manifesting? Does she send her helper spirits out to the worshipper? If so, they need bodies and no one has prepared charms or anything.
So, my final thought was that the rituals make worshippers more suitable to great spirits. We all know that spirits are picky. After all, taboos are mainly about not doing the things that offend the spirits. So, maybe these rituals give you a little Lingering Benefit in your interactions with the spirits of the tradition. But the problem with that is one of game balance: if you got a +9 Lingering Benefit most years from making sure you got the annual ritual right, that just seems over the top.
Any help, any one?
Thanks,
Chris
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