> Look:
> Chris should write down what his vision of the Praxian rites.
> Screw the theory!! SHOW US
> Someone has a variant? Give us a NARRATIVE of its difference
Here is my view of the Kolat ceremonies: The main backbone for these can be found in the Kolat documents on the glorantha website (http://www.glorantha. com/support/Kolat.pdf).
Karjakan
Karjakan is described as the great bad
spirit who conquered the world during the darkness with his spirit army. Kolat rescued his followers and other good
spirits and together the fought back defeating Karjakan and driving him back to
the spirit world. In every Kolat
ceremony there is acknowledgement of Kolat's victory over Karjakan.
In Storm season the ceremony on Good Winds
Day is more than just acknowledgement of this. The ceremony calls upon spirits from the water and sky to help Kolat
defeat a common enemy. This ceremony gives
Kolatings the opportunity to meet water and sky spirits and possibly to make
friends with some of these spirits. They
are usually named for the great spirits that helped Kolat in his battle. Watery Seleran who drowned the spirits that
crawled on the earth or burrowed through it and proud Veren Vu who took the
battle into the sky where Kolat could not reach and rent his foes with his
powerful claws and protected Kolat from being struck from above.
Before the ceremony the shaman walks
through the clan collecting objects from the six directions. A feather falling from the sky, a rock, a
worm from it's burrow in the soil. Each
year the objects change and the shaman only knows what objects are required
when he finds them. The objects are
bound together in a straw body to form a crude man. During the Battle Dance the figure is kicked
and beaten by the dancers and attacked by their spirits and the spirits of the
sky and water that respond to the summons. Towards the end of the ceremony the shaman opens a new spirit window
that shows only darkness he then takes the effigy and casts it through into the
darkness as a warning to Karjakan that his presence will not be tolerated. Then all the participants dance the Joyful
Dance reaffirming their friendship and possibly making new friendships.
In this case the reward for the ceremony
would be friendship with new spirits. This can be manifest in a number of ways. If the hero doesn't have either of the two
spirits then they have the opportunity to acquire one. If the hero has the spirits then they can
gain a lingering bonus which manifests as additional spirit friends
materialising when the hero has to battle the bad spirits. Failure means the ceremony only angers the spirits
and the free spirits persuade those already friendly with the Kolatings to
withdraw their support, weakening the tribe against spirit attack. Completer failure may mean that the spirits
summoned are hostile and attack the participants.
Malia
Kolat defeated Malia
four times, each time he defeated a family of diseases. The families of diseases are catalogued by
their targets. So we have diseases that
affect the mind, the spirit, organs and the body (meaning the skin, muscle and
bones). Each season, apart from Storm
season, a great ceremony is conducted to propitiate one of Malia's disease families. However the ceremonies are very similar. A lamb and a fawn are used to host the
disease spirits because they don't live long in the mortal world without a body
to occupy. The shaman also prepares a special
gift for the spirits that come. Each one
is unique and is made to entertain and be attractive to the diseases in
question. Often gifts for mind diseases
are puzzles, articulated toys are popular with the body diseases, anything
covered in gore and bile makes a pleasant home for organ spirits. During the ceremony the physical object is
used to construct a spiritual representation that the diseases can take with
them. At the end of the ceremony the
physical object is attached to a yew stave. This stave is used by the shaman in driving out diseases as the presence
of the physical object serves to remind the spirit of their gift and promise.
The presence of the spirit stick acts as a
focus for the benefits or penalties imposed by the success or failure of the
ceremony.
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