For @yyyqqe who asked about this, here's some vague stuff I got down for the coming-of-age traditions for children either raised in or born into the Mardi clan. I think adults who join the clan later in life might also get something kinda similar but not quite the same.
[note for anyone who might not know, this is a canon divergence AU for Arslan Senki, and the Mardi are a creation of mine that would end up being very important to the setting's lore and the AU's themes!]
The ceremony takes place at night. Either during a full moon or a new moon. Maaaaaaaybe at a particular time of the year? Haven't decided.
Anyways, the kids have to make their way to the Heart Tree in the moonswoods (what I tentatively call the wild area in Shapur's lands where the Mardi clan is currently hidden at) at night, and there they would swear an oath. Before that, though, there's probably a couple steps and rituals like, maybe the initiates wash their hands and faces as part of a purification ritual. Maybe a spirit dancer blesses them with a barsom? Is there prayer chants? Something.
In any case, the initiates will need to kneel, perhaps even prostrate themselves before the Heart Tree, the oldest in the grove, adorned with intricately woven/embroidered strips of cloth beautifully draped over the branches, bells and chimes also hanging from those same branches, swaying ever so gently in the wind.
The clan reveres the Heart Tree and centers their rituals and ceremonies around it, because of what the tree represents. The tree's roots are connected to all other life in the grove, it's the command center of the forest, it gives other plants messages and nutrition. It's essentially the concept of the “matriarch/mother tree” which probably was a misinterpretation of the symbiotic relationship between tree roots and fungus networks this is a fantasy story and therefore I Can Do What I Want, so there goes.
(the previous village's Heart Tree was burnt during the massacre, oof, maybe this iteration is a chestnut-leaved oak?)
ANYWAYS. While kneeling, the taking of the vows begins. An adult, probably the clan chief themselves (current chief is a woman), starts a call-and-response of sorts, she leads with a portion of the oath and the kids repeat it. Whatever music they had on would stop by now. Only the wind, the chimes, and their voices.
I still don't have 100% of the oath figured out BUT here are some scattered components I got so far:
Firstly they would invoke the djinn around them, the moon and stars as well, asking them to bear witness to the solemn promise that is about to be made, maybe something like this:
“Sacred moon, blessed stars,
Spirits of the land, wind, water, and fire,
Spirits of the north, of the south, of the east and west,
Blessed ancestors, all the dead and the sacred,
We beseech that you bear witness.”
Not terribly polished but you get the idea, right?
Maybe that portion wouldn't have been a call-and-response, maybe the kids would've just been expected to know or taught beforehand or it would've been said by the chief? But the next part definitely has to be led by the chief and repeated by the initiates— the actual vows begin.
Some scattered parts because I don't have the whole thing 😭
“I swear upon the high woods and the stony peaks.”
×
“I shall offer sanctuary where the great tree offers shade,
And keep safe all who seek its shelter, though the world demands their surrender.”
×
“I shall never abandon the child, the wounded, the pursued,
Or the one who hides from the scorching sun.”
×
“I am the hidden path for the lost.
I am the strong hand for the weak.
I am the silence against the tyrant's call.”
Do I know how to assemble these disparate parts into something coherent right now? NOPE! But I do know that I want the vows to close off with something similar to this:
“I pledge my heart and breath to this refuge[it's just a placeholder words for now], for all the days that follow.
O, soul of righteousness, silver moon who dwells on the high peaks, find no shadow of untruth in me.”
Maybe they share a meal, maybe that meal is a very early breakfast (because they stayed up through the night) or a midnight thing, but anyways they have their meal and then either they have a big ol sleepover only to return home the next morning (if the meal happened at night) or they just return home??? OR OR. Maybe the meal is at another location, where the rest of the Mardi have prepared a meal for the new adults??
This would happen after the kid has turned 15, because in ancient Persia the age of majority is 15.
Gieve is a year older than Isfān and Farangis, so he sadly was not their batch-mate. Farangis hadn't even joined the clan yet when he turned 15.
I do definitely need to decide when in the year I wanna place that thang (a solstice or equinox, perhaps? or do we have one for each season?)
Isfān took the vows extremely seriously. I think he might've been thinking of his own mother on that night. He probably would've had to have a “proper” more public celebration for his coming-of-age in a Parsian or regional manner (maybe that's where his position as heir also gets reinforced?) but he would most definitely hold this night very dear to his heart.
I think Farangis is just in marvel, she had only joined the clan when she was 14, so she only had a year with them, but she deeply appreciates their values and for once, she finds a sense of purpose and belonging here, after going through what she did in the temple she was raised in after her parents died.
Anyways this was what I had in mind to like, kinda incorporate the Mardi clan's whole shtick into their culture!! What did you guys think of it?
