Awakening
The awakening process is a ritual which gives practitioners the ability to see, use, and bargain with spirits and magic.<ref name=":2">The Awakening ritual is fuller opening of your eyes to the practice, and the commitment to your word. From that point, you would be unable to tell a lie without consequence, sometimes steep and life-altering. By committing to your word, you will be heard. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref><ref name=":1">Bonds 1.7</ref>
Doing so binds a practitioner by the rules and contracts set forth by Suleiman bin Daoud, restricting their use of lies and making them a target for others;<ref name=":4" /> by abandoning the ability to lie, their words become more magically meaningful.<ref name=":2" /><ref>“The practice, as we call it, is best summed up as an ongoing contract. By pledging to make your word inviolable, forces in this world will start listening. Routine, ritual, and expectation have formed the grooves and determined how best to communicate with those forces. Diagrams, symbols, knowing who and what to appeal to. Many, many things become possible. If your word is inviolable.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref> Awakening has been called the first step toward becoming an Other.<ref name="1.3e1" />
Process[edit]
There are many variations on the exact details of the ritual, but they are all very similar in their essence.<ref name=":3">“When making this commitment, it is best you are quintessentially, markedly you. Most do it unclothed.”
“Not gonna happen,” Lucy said. “Not in front of all of these people, and not when it’s still cold as tits outside. You said there was another way.”
“There are many variations on the ritual. What you wear may be what the spirits expect you to wear [...] If we make these the focus of what the spirits see in the ritual, you’ll find your practice is best when you’re in full raiment. It will give your words more weight then. You’ll want to keep at least one thing with you when you might be practicing.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref><ref name=":4">“Suleiman Bin Daoud took the first steps to establishing a new relationship between human and Other,” Miss said. “A lasting compact between human and Other. There are forms of this ritual where we recite old words in your language and in Suleiman’s. There are forms where we conduct old traditions. At the heart of it, however, lies an invitation. For you to join our world, and for us to cooperate with you in interacting with the world of man. Would you invite us in, Verona, Avery, and Lucy?” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2</ref> Some versions awaken just one person,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":6" /> others multiple at once;<ref name=":0" /> people who are awakened at the same time are linked, stronger magically together than apart.<ref>“You’ll be bound together if you awaken together. You’ll be stronger as a trio than as a pair, and stronger as a pair than alone.” - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.1</ref>
The first step in the ritual is to draw the diagram; 3 concentric circles, each made of smaller circles. The Thorburns used five circles in the first, six in the second, and seven in the third;<ref>Together, we walked through the steps of drawing out the chalk circle. Circle first, then measuring it out so that there were five circles at set distances around that circle, the line running through the middle of each before I carefully erased each with a damp cloth. One symbol in each little circle.
Another circle, larger than the last, around the entire thing, with six circles at set intervals. I carefully set out each one.
And then a third, bounding the others. Seven circles. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref> the Kennet group used a triangle inside a circle with seven smaller circles overlapping the edge, within one with five circles overlapping the edge, within another double-walled circle with five circles overlapping the edge;<ref name=":8">Notes on Practices #1</ref><ref name=":5">Lucy looked at the circle as it had been drawn thus far. A triangle about three feet across was contained within a circle, which was ‘strung’, for lack of a better word, with five lesser circles spaced out around it. That diagram was in turn surrounded by another ring strung with more circles.
“Almost done?” Verona asked.
“Bowls go in seven sub-circles arranged in a ring, offerings to Others,” Matthew explained.
“I’ve got the bowls for that,” Avery said. “They’re my family’s.”
“Get them out, we’ll need soon. These circles will each have an offering supplied by one of us. I’m thinking back to a ritual I was barely paying attention when went through it twenty years ago, but should be myrrh, oil, spice, quartz, and.. holly?”
“I would suggest holly,” Miss said, from the other end of the clearing. “It’s the old way, and our approach here hews to old ways. Up to the girls.”
“What’s the new way?” Verona asked. “And what does it change?”
“The materials connect to fire, earth, air, and water. The fifth spot can be wood or metal, depending on culture. Wood has roots, and metal points to the future.”
“Got it,” Verona said. She walked over to her bag and began to scribble down some notes. “I don’t have an opinion.”
“I like holly,” Avery said.
“Holly it is. Here, we have your objects,” Matthew said, indicating the outer ring. “They relate to the pillars of human experience.”
Verona, already by her bag, was ready to pull some things out.
Knife, skull, coin, timepiece, thread, Lucy recalled. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2</ref> while the Mile End coven used five in every layer and then two circles outside the main diagram.<ref name=":0" />
Next, items are placed inside the circles.
In each of the circles in one ring are bowls with items representing the elements - crystal, myrrh, oil, spice, and either iron/iron ore or holly.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":5" /><ref name=":6">Subordination 6.2</ref> In the Thorburn versions these items went in the centre ring,<ref name=":9" /> candles are placed around the outside, and incense needs to be lit and the iron ore heated.<ref>I’d heated the wax on the bottom of each candle before fixing it to the floor around the circle, and reached for one now, along with a pair of tongs.
Incense, lit. Metal ore, heated.
Metal ore, heated some more.
Okay, it took a while to get to the point where I could see the heat in it. I quickly set it down, quiet, and moved the candle out of the circle. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref><ref name=":6" /> In the Kennet version these items were not in place before the ritual began, with them instead being placed in the outer ring by the attending Others.<ref name=":5" /> In the Mile End version these went in the outermost ring.<ref name=":0" />
Another circle holds items representing the Pillars of Human Existence.<ref name=":5" /> In the Thorburn versions the second ring holds a dagger, a hourglass, a dreamcatcher, a rose, a skull, a coin (specified as gold, but a silver coin worked just as well), and something personal; and the person to be awakened must declare what each item means to them as part of the ritual.<ref>“More abstract things for the middle ring,” I said. Rose gave me directions to find each object she’d already set up on her side.
A dagger. An hourglass. A dreamcatcher. A small silver skull. A coin.
“Which catches you up to where I was,” Rose said. “I got stumped. A rose, and something personal.”
“Kitchen for the former,” I said. “I can’t help with the latter.” - Excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref><ref name=":9">I put the wine aside for later before going upstairs [from the kitchen], my arms full. Everything went into a bowl, except the rose.
The basic stuff in the inner ring. The dagger, hourglass and all the rest in the middle ring… leaving me with one empty circle. The personal touch.[...] The keys found their place in the empty circle.
I set out the food as well. One offering to each bowl, for the outer ring. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.7</ref><ref name=":6" /> In the Mile End version, these go in the major circles making up the second ring and the two extra circles outside the diagram, holding an empty vessel, something woven, a timepiece, a bone, something living, an edged weapon, and a handheld source of energy; the people to be awakened each stand in one of the circles holding one of these items.<ref name=":0" /> In the Kennet version, the outer ring holds a knife, skull, coin, timepiece, and something made of thread (a half-made woolen doll); and the trio to be awakened each held a personal item in the centre.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":7" /> A Blood Magic version of the ritual uses a skull, a coin, a dagger, a skein, a means of tracking time, and the image of a flower, all derived from a single sacrifice which is then used to empower an Implement.<ref>Rowan is initiated into the practice. Death is his first step onto the bloody path. He welcomes his pet cat Bartles into his arms, given to him as a kitten when he was four, and at his parent’s instruction, severs its head, being careful to catch every drop of blood in a prepared bowl. The ritual calls for a skull, a coin, a dagger, a skein, a means of tracking time, a flower. For his ritual, the cat’s head is the skull, the tag- his parents made it a coin, a long time ago. The tendons and whiskers are the skein, woven crudely with blood-sticky fingers and tear-heavy eyes. A drop of blood in water blossoms, to be his flower, and the weapon used to kill Bartles is his dagger. He completes his ritual and he goes to where his parents have set up a table with common implements. He chooses a chain and he soaks it in the blood he put in the bowl, before binding it around his arm. A meaningful sacrifice, the first step onto his path is a binding one. - Pact Dice - Blood Magic</ref>
In the third ring goes offerings for the witnessing Others - molasses, milk, vegetable ash, honey, meat, alcohol,<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /> and possibly bread<ref name=":10" /> or currency.<ref name=":0" /> It is essential that the offerings not be stolen, but come by fairly.<ref name=":10">Brochure, Experience Kennet</ref> In the Thorburn version these went in the outermost ring.<ref name=":9" /> In the Kennet version these were in the innermost ring, allowing the ritual participants to physically hand the items to the Others.<ref name=":8" /><ref>Lost for Words 1.2</ref> In the Mile End version these went in the middle circle.<ref name=":0" />
The person being awakened then strips naked, sits in the center, and incants the words to the ritual. This triggers the awakening. The wording of the ritual may be in the person to be awakened's native tongue, the ancient language of Suleiman Bin Daoud (with guides to pronunciation), or a mixture of both.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":4" /> Variations on the ritual where the practitioner is clothed are rare, and tend to tie their abilities to the items they were wearing.<ref name=":3" /> The ritual requires the awakened to name their associations with the ritual items, and the the circle glows and shifts as the ritual progresses;<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":0" /><ref name=":7">The entire area had darkened, but the light of the overcast sky seemed to stick, where it fell on the diagram around them and where it lit up the various items, foods, and the empty circles where items were yet to be placed.
[...]
The light that sat in the lines was so bright the world beyond was like shadows against the back of her eyes. There were only the lines, circles, triangle, the scattered items, and the Others.
[...]
“Who are you?” Miss asked.
Lucy let go of the hands of the other girls. She brought the sheathed knife she held to her chest, pressing it against her sternum.
“I am Lucy. Lucille Desiree Ellingson,” Lucy said. “I picked the fox mask because I wanted something with fangs.”
It felt like an admission of weakness to say that much, and that admission was jarring enough that she almost thought the ritual would end, forcing a complete restart from the beginning. It didn’t. Everything was suspended, the lines of light tense.
“…The fox is smaller than a wolf, clever, capable of finding its way into henhouses, unraveling hedgehogs, and using cleverness with those fangs instead of brute force or a pack. Even though it has fangs, it’s not always a carnivore. I picked this knife because… family. It came from family and it can protect those close to me, who are family by blood or friendship. Because I wanted something that was a tool and a weapon both. Same idea.”
It felt like everything was brighter, but when she fixed her eyes on them, they didn’t seem any different. It took Lucy a moment to realize that even though she wore the mask, it wasn’t hampering her peripheral vision anymore.
[...]
Miss stepped out onto the diagram. The diagram had become more complicated, with more lines like constellations, squares, and sub-circles orbiting bigger circles. There were three dimensions to it, and the circles that had held the items were now arches.
In the darkness where it was only Lucy and the other girls, the diagram, the items, and the Others just beyond the diagram’s perimeter, the light from below didn’t reach Miss’s face or extend to her hands. The woman walked on the light, small bright circles forming stepping stones, lines serving as roads to cross the void. Through the arch-circle with the doll, which turned its head to watch her enter and walk past it. To an empty circle, where she placed down a dull orange stone. She had to walk a quarter-circle of the way around before she reached Verona, moving a hand to indicate a bowl. - Excerpt from Lost for Words 1.2</ref> this is visible even to the unawakened.<ref name=":6" /> They may experience small changes in their appearance such as tattoos shifting, eyes shining unnaturally bright, clothing or hair changing slightly, etc.<ref name=":1" /><ref>“Holy shit,” Ty said. He looked at Evan with eyes that were too bright. A lingering, very personal effect, like my tattoos had been.
[...]
Her coarse hair shifted as if in a gentle breeze. A juxtaposition of the supernatural and very natural.- Excerpt from Subordination 6.2</ref>
There are other rituals that awaken a given person without explicitly referencing the Awakening ritual handed down from Solomon.<ref>
- Beth found her patron while exploring old ruins, who inducts her into the practice and crudely awakens her with a knighting rather than the standard awakening ritual. He was a Chosen of a power from the lost realms, who sought help, so he took up her gifted weapons and sought to recruit allies. The patron’s motives when recruiting her Chosen were not as poor or hapless as they seemed: she sought to make him fat on Fate before eating him and his companions, and she almost succeeded, consuming his allies before trying to eat him. He escaped and cast down his weapons in fear of the witch-goddess from getting a hold on him, but the half-eaten knight persists in limbo now. His cast down weapons are gifted to Beth, in hopes she will help him. He knows little about Collectors, but believes that the collection will help moor the items and him in reality. Beth now bears scissors with barely any power to them, their use a mystery (her patron cannot speak of them without reinforcing a dangerous connection), and a yardstick that, when she experimentally slaps her hand with it, makes her very exact and precise in her thinking, and less human - something recovered by putting it away and waiting. Her path likely begins with finding a source of divine power to fuel the scissors, the scissors’ use, and a way to reduce the drawback of the yardstick. - Pact Dice: Collectors</ref> Typically this will involve a bargain with a Greater Power.<ref>I saw a man in the smoke. With red hair and a red beard, red fur jacket. He said I had power so long as I kept my word, never tell a lie [...] It’s possible for someone to awaken without referencing the seal of Solomon. A divine endowment, a compact with an Other of standing… - excerpt from Fall Out 14.4</ref>
Pseudo-Awakenings[edit]
Also called raw awakenings in story.
If an Aware person refrains from telling lies and repeatedly attempts some magic, it's possible for them to get the spirits to start paying attention to their words and actions the way they would a Practitioner's. This can potentially lead to them experiencing a "raw" Awakening, or messing themselves up with magic and becoming an Other.<ref>“What happens if she kept some of my magic notes and she’s copying them?”
“It shouldn’t work,” Matthew said. “Not without a power source, or the emphasis and attention on her words and actions that comes with being Awakened. Even if she had the notes.”
“It could,” Edith said.
Matthew raised his eyebrows.
“It would need a few things. If her word wasn’t trusted, it would slow her down a great deal. But if she knew enough to be careful about that…?”
Edith trailed off, leaving it almost as a question for Verona.
“I didn’t write down any of that, pretty sure,” Verona said. “Nothing about awakening, or words, really.”
Edith continued, “…then it could be accidental. She’d have to be isolated or otherwise be unusually principled about when, where, how and how honestly she chooses to speak. She’d have to be unusually dogged about copying and setting down patterns.”
“So, like, cooped up in her room, not talking to her parents, drawing the same runes over and over again? I could sort of see that second part. Not the not talking to her parents bit, probably.”
“It’s unlikely,” Matthew said. “That’s a lot of effort repeating something that isn’t working on the first, fifth, tenth, or fiftieth try.”
“Yeah,” Verona said. “Hard to imagine. She’d need something that let her think she had a shot.”
Matthew sighed. “A bit of a relief, then. Besides, most would become Other, instead of Awakening in a raw way. With no clear power sources on hand, she would be draining from herself. Depending on the practice she’s trying, and how well, she could spend too much of herself and invite the wrong thing in.” - Excerpt from Back Away 5.2</ref> Further Greater Powers can display the ability to awake an innocent and eat any cost involved without doing a ritual.<ref>“Not generally,” Florin said. “But a lot of rules are being bent and broken. It’s possible for someone to awaken without referencing the seal of Solomon. A divine endowment, a compact with an Other of standing… but if the Judge is setting the bar this low, other rules might get their own creative interpretations.”
“No.” The word came from Odis, the old man with the nasal voice, black suit and slight hunch to his back, both hands resting atop a cane. “There are hard and fast laws handed down by Solomon and there are principles. A principle can be bent, like the standard for Awakening. But the laws are immutable.”
“Perhaps,” Florin replied. “But I’m not sure I’d rule anything out.”
“I would,” Odis replied.
There was a brief discussion about precedent, and other rules, but it was mostly between Deb and Ann, Odis Saulsbury and Hugh Legendre.
[...]
“Taking responsibility tends to mean a master-apprentice type situation. Like inducting someone into the practice, or awakening them, you take on some of the karmic debt if they screw up. There’s no need,” Florin said. “She should get permission to stay, you can still guide her without setting it up so you get dragged under if her ship sinks.” - Excerpt from Fall Out 14.4</ref>
Similarly, if an Aware individual or individuals were used to conduct a ritual, they would weaken both the ritual and their own Innocence in equal measure, effectively becoming (non-Awakened) Practitioners who can perform weak rituals.<ref>Wildbow:So... routine, rituals, stuff like one killing every month with practice and words to the spirits, letting the townsfolk come up with their theories, and then taking those theories and building up the practice to incorporate them, would be one way
Lysa|GM: Mhm
Wildbow: But doesn't let you really do the designing.
The killings themselves would provide the power, the pattern is established there.
Lysa|GM:alright
i think you could maybe do like
chance "sightings" tho
have the yokels make those stories up on their own
maybe they have a select few family members retain their "innocence"
to help spread the rumors
Wildbow:Mmm. I feel like that'd hurt the pattern though.
Lysa|GM:like blackguards?
Mhm
Wildbow: And the innocence.
By pretty equal measure - if there's any pattern established through that kind of intentional lie, with proximity to power, you're sacrificing innocence and becoming a practitioner, even if you aren't awakened.
You're just... doing a very weak ritual.
[...]
SirSureal | Cleric (Estuse): So being a tool in a ritual makes you a practitioner to the spirits? Interesting.
Wildbow:To some degree.
Most Blackguards do stuff that runs contrary to practice and ritual and everything else, rather than working with it or facilitating it.
SirSureal | Cleric (Estuse):So is it the willingness to participate that makes people into practitioners?
Wildbow: If you're blindfolded and told, 'hold this, then bring your hands down' and you're made to stab someone in the chest to complete a big ritual...
You've participated in a ritual. You may not have been willing or knowing, and karma might be offloaded, but you're a part of that picture. - IRC conversation on creating Others from rumor</ref>
Trivia[edit]
- Rose Thorburn Junior used holly instead of iron in her ritual, as instructed by her version of the text, but it didn't work. This led to widespread speculation in the fandom that you weren't supposed to use holly until Pale confirmed it was a valid variation.
- A copy of the ritual is found in the book Essentials.<ref name="1.3e1">Read Essentials. It sits on the book stand. A novice’s guide to the most basic things, it outlines the steps to awakening yourself. Be warned, these steps open the door to becoming Other, in a respect. The oldest of them made agreements in times well beyond us, to guarantee safety and maintain a kind of peace. Foremost among these agreements is truth. Should you lie, you may well forfeit your power for a time. Break a promise or an oath, and you will be forsworn, and you will be stripped of every protection afforded to even the common, ignorant people that decorate this Earth. On finishing Essentials, awaken yourself. - Excerpt from Bonds 1.3 </ref><ref name=":0">Pact Dice: Mile End - Essentials</ref><ref name=":6" />
Appearances[edit]
References[edit]
<references/>