🌿choosing Ceremony

A great feast and merrymaking event marked by the roasting of rare animals of the forest. Warders who have gone on to become masters provide the slain animals while the women of the village prepare them and harvest the remains to turn into suitable goods for trade. This ceremony is a rare social opportunity between the women of the village and warders of the wood. The occasion is also taken as an opportunity to exchange goods to the Warders as well as mating.This is regarded as a joyous event that many of the Voras look forward to and take great care in preparing for.Once the feast has concluded at nightfall, the male masters name their chosen wards that have come of age that turn and promptly disappear back into the jungle without sharing any parting words with loved ones. This portion of the event is largely carried out with silence in reverence of the hardships to come for the new wards.

🌿Salve-maker apprenticeship

This is one of the few exceptions in which a female may delay having children when she is socially recognized as an adult. The apprenticeship can take several years to complete (usually 5 to 7 years).🌿During this time, the apprentice will hone her skills in crafting medicinal cures from physical plant matter as well as its mist.
🌿Each apprentice will also craft her own garb to be worn upon her graduation and the remainder of her lifetime using any materials she procures through trade or foraging.

🌿Salve-maker Rite of Passage

🌿The Salve Maker’s rite of passage entails hunting a rare and dangerous creature, the Vorpal Hare, who only emerges once every 7 years. Its tail is used to create Vision Dust as the apprentice's rite of passage.
The apprentice must take on the hunt alone, relying solely on instinct, skill, and cunning to succeed.🌿Vision Dust has a variety of uses which ranges from a necessary ingredient in making particularly potent salves, to crafting obfuscation wards around the village to shield from would-be invaders.

🌿Pairing

🌿 As with most Vieran tribes, the mating ritual in which a male presents a trinket to a female to mark his lineage is commonly practiced in the Voras tribe.Pairs are largely free to choose their mates as they see fit, but selected pairing does occur. In a majority of cases, this is to solidify alliances with other tribes, to ensure genetic integrity, and prevent inbreeding.

🍃Birthing Traditions

Nothing is more sacred or important to the Voras than breathing new life into the wood. The Voras believe that revitalizing the wood will favor their lineage and ensure its continued existence.

🌿Mother Blessing Ceremony:
A ceremony honoring expecting mothers for their service of breathing new life into the wood.- Mothers are adorned with circlets or necklaces made from the local flora to symbolize an infinite connection with nature.- Women of the village take this opportunity to impart wisdom and encouragement for raising the next generation of kits. This is particularly important for new mothers.- Attendees of a Mother Blessing Ceremony are tasked with bringing a bead or small charm that will be strung together for the mother, symbolizing the support and connection each tribeswoman shares.- New mothers are visited by the village shaman, and a symbol is inscribed with a blessed ink upon her skin. Once the mother has given birth, the symbol is tattooed into her flesh.

🌿Silent Births:
It is believed that mothers and all present during labor should remain silent so that the first sound the new child hears is the whisper of the Wood.

🌿Newborn Names:Kits are not given a name until the mother ventures alone into the Wood, where she will wait in meditation until the wood reveals the name to her.

Superstitions & Manifestations

líflaust tré

🌿The lifeless tree

🌿Just outside the village proper stands a towering tree with innumerable branches, where no flora thrives and no animal makes its home. Though the tree has stood for centuries and continues to grow new bare boughs every year, very little of the wood’s life force courses through its roots, casting a sickly, mist starved visage as a reminder to all that to abandon the village is to forfeit the gifts the wood has generously bestowed.If a tribe member is exiled or willingly breaks the Green Word, a law speaker or village shaman will whisper their name into a white translucent scarf, which is then tied around the branches adorned with a small personal keepsake, usually a piece of jewelry.The arrangement is used to signify to others the "passing" of the oath breaker or exiled person. From that point forward, their given name is never to be uttered again as communion with the dead is a forbidden practice that all within the tribe abide by.

Mikil fórn

🌿Great sacrifice

🌿Although a Voras tribe member may be cut from the Wood, the Voras yet believe in paths to redemption. The Wood is greatly renowned, not only for its harsh nature that encourages perseverance and strength to survive, but also its mercy and forgiveness.The Mikil Fórn, or Great Sacrifice, is one such path. It is believed that the 'dead' individual hears the call of the Wood with such an unignorable intensity that they can focus on nothing else, including sleep or food. If they accept the wood’s call and reach out to commune, they are then presented with a sign from the Wood of what they must sacrifice to rejoin their tribesman. This signal can be an immediate one or presented over several days. Upon receiving a sign, Mikil Fórn may grant permission for the individual to enter the village. The ‘dead one’ presents themself to the elders, makes a full confession of their sins, and then carries out the intended offering or sacrifice. Once the ritual is completed, their scarf, along with the trinket, is taken down from the Lifeless Tree and burned in a ceremonial pyre, their sins dissipated into nothing, and their name restored to life. They are then permitted to rejoin the tribe, their past transgressions never to be raised in conversation by another again.

andardráttur viðar

🍃The Wood's Breath

The birth names given to the children of the Wood are sacred and are never to be given to outsiders nor uttered outside the wood. To give one’s Wood given name to an outsider is believed to bring severe misfortune to both the giver and the receiver.