Dedication Ritual

The Dedication Ritual is a winter ritual where the blue priests' mana is collected in the temple to be distributed throughout the duchy during Spring Prayer to ensure good harvests in the fall. It is held in the ritual chamber where only blue priests and shrine maidens may enter. They also pray for new plants to grow safely.

# Ritual Procedure

To contribute mana, blue priests and shrine maidens place their hands onto a red carpet made from mana conducting fabric and let mana flow through them. Placed on top of the carpet on an altar are several small chalices representing Geduldh's divine instrument, in which mana is stored.

Having a group of priests of varying levels of mana can be dangerous if the disparity is too great, because the carpet can cause them to unwillingly release more mana than can be done safely.

In times of severe mana shortages, the High Bishop and Archduke can grant special exception to use the mana of people other than priests for the dedication ritual to supplement that of the resident Blue Robes. This is done by pouring the mana from such nobles into feystones from which it is later transferred into the red carpets by Blue Priests during the ritual.

## Prayer

O mighty King and Queen of the endless skies, O mighty Eternal Five who rule the mortal realm, O Goddess of Water Flutrane, O God of Fire Leidenschaft, O Goddess of Wind Schutzaria, O Goddess of Earth Geduldh, O God of Life Ewigeliebe. We honor you who have blessed all beings with life, and pray that we may be blessed further with your divine might."

# Story

The Dedication Ritual was the primary reason given by Ferdinand to Myne as to why she has to stay in the temple over winter, rather than letting her commute to the temple as agreed upon earlier, fearing that a blizzard could have stopped Myne from contributing mana in the dedication ritual.

On the day the ritual begins, Ferdinand informed Myne that he wants her to limit her contributions. When Myne asks if this will cause issues for him regarding the High Bishop, he informs her that he will tell the High Bishop that he deceived the High Bishop if they bring it up, assuring her that doing so is the best decision for them at that point.

When they get to the ritual, Myne observed that the only people present in the room are her and Ferdinand, when she asked why, he states that if the other blue priests were to see her contribute, they might get jealous due to her mana capacity, and that due to the nature of the dedication ritual, they might get compelled to contribute lethal amounts of mana because of said capacity. Ferdinand then stated that he alone has the mana to keep up with her when she contributes.

After several days of contributing mana, they got close to having filled all the chalices, then the High Bishop brought in ten more chalices under the premise that the Archduke wanted Myne to fill them. Ferdinand stated that he had heard no word of such. The High Bishop questioned whether Myne will obey Ferdinand but not him, causing her to divert the answer to Ferdinand. Ferdinand stated that with the High Bishop's permission, they could fill the additional chalices the next day. Once the High Bishop left, Ferdinand stated that the Archduke likely was not responsible for the additional chalices, and that he would investigate once the snow had cleared, and that for the time being they would feign obedience. He then asked Myne if she would continue to help him, to which she agreed.

In the first Dedication Ritual under the leadership of the new High Bishop Rozemyne, the mana of two criminals was transferred into feystones and used to supplement the mana of the priests. It fell to Kampfer and Frietack to dedicating the mana in the feystones to the gods under Ferdinand's guidance.

While Bezewanst's mana capacity was too low to be accepted into noble society as an archnoble and thus saw him sent to the temple as a child, he still held significantly more mana than any of the other Blue Robes save for Rozemyne and Ferdinand. Taking the lower amount of mana the temple had available due to his Bezewanst's execution into account, the new High Bishop Rozemyne estimated the temple would have only be able to fill five chalices for Frenbeltag after finishing those of Ehrenfest. Unfortunately, Sylvester had already promised his relatives to supply ten chalices before consulting Rozemyne and Ferdinand, which necessitated this special exception.

# References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 2 Volume 3. Chapter 8: The Dedication Ritual
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Ascendance of a Bookworm. Part 3 Volume 3. Chapter 7: The Dedication Ritual (Take Two)