Death Night (ritual)

The Death Night was a ritual 'rite of passage' conducted by several tribal peoples in the Malazan Book of the Fallen.
==Awl==
For the Awl, it was an ordeal that older male children had to undergo to bring about their spiritual 'rebirth' and thus mark their transition into manhood. The rite involved the youth being buried, for the duration of a night, in a coffin (a hollowed-out log)Reaper's Gale, Chapter 4, US TPB p.115 which was then covered by an "arm's reach" (about a yard/meter) of earth and stones. Usually the Death Night was preceded for a period of time by a variety of traditional rituals, the whole process being in the hands of a clan's Shouldermen.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 4, US TPB p.95/98
Seeking to avoid the extreme panic and terror engendered by the Death Night, some individuals smuggled 'bledden herb' into their coffins with them, which when chewed, would then cause oblivion. This was felt, however, to completely bypass the whole point of the Death Night.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 4, US TPB p.111
==Barghast==
Little was revealed of the Barghast version of the Death Night (sometimes spelled Deathnight) other than its marking of the passage to adulthood. It was possible that Barghast received their names as part of the ritual, as Trotts fought Humbrall Taur's still unnamed son in combat two moons before the youth's Death Night.Memories of Ice, Chapter 11, US TPB p.297-298
==Seti==
The Child Death Song was the Seti rite of passage from whelp to adulthood. Both boys and girls were entombed in hollowed-out coffins, called grave logs, and then interned overnight in a crypt of the bloodline. Buried alive, the child was said to have died and the adult have been born. The ritual was a test against the spirits of madness that lived inside each person as worms coiled around the base of the skull. The Seti child learned a chant to help them through the ordeal.The Bonehunters, Chapter 7, US SFBC p.339-340The Bonehunters, Glossary
==Mott Wood==
The swamp witches of Mott Wood used a similar ritual to inculcate their initiates with power. They buried girls as young as four in peat for two days and a night, bound in ropes with only a breathing tube to keep them alive. The process was said to kill the girls, but the sorcerous qualities of the peat trapped their souls in their bodies so that most could be revived. Once the soul had broken free of the body, it could forever after wander free in the realm of dreams. Sometimes spirits lurking in the peat fought with the witches to claim the bodies of their young charges, pulling their bodies into the foul deep. These lost souls emerged "only once every year, on the Night of Awakened Children with blue-brown skin and hollowed-out eye sockets, with hair the colour of rust or blood, with long polished nails – walking the swamp and singing songs of the earth that could drive a mortal mad."Toll the Hounds, Chapter 13, US SFBC p.514-515 
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Category:Events