Ashen Unbinding
From feywild
Purpose:
This ritual allows a participant of a Blooding Rite to rescind their bond with the blooded individual—but only under extreme circumstances. It is not for distance, regret, or anger. It is only possible when the participant truly believes that the blooded individual has committed a profound violation of the Old Ways, or something the participant finds morally irredeemable.
Intent alone is not enough. The Wyrd itself must agree, and it does not take such unraveling lightly.
Conditions for the Ritual:
- The ritual must be performed alone, or with a silent witness who does not interfere.
- The participant must be able to name the deed that violated the bond.
- The Wyrd will respond during the ritual to determine whether the severing is valid. If it is not, the ritual will backlash.
Materials Required:
- A Severing Bowl, which must either be the original Blooding Bowl or crafted from the ashes or fragments of another.
- A symbolic token representing the original Blooding (bone shard, cloth fragment, ash, or object given during the rite).
- A blade—ceremonial, not necessarily sharp.
- A vessel of black salt water, representing the poisoned thread.
Ritual Steps:
- Naming the Bond: The participant speaks the full name of the blooded individual, the date of the Blooding (or as close as possible), and the nature of the gift they gave.
- Confession of Fracture: They must describe, aloud and clearly, the act they believe has violated the bond. No embellishment, no accusation—just truth as they know it.
- Offering of Remorse: The participant bleeds into the Severing Bowl—not from the hand, but from somewhere more personal (traditionally the shoulder or heartline vein). This represents the grief of cutting ties.
- Cutting the Thread: The token from the original Blooding is submerged in the salt water, then physically cut with the ancestral blade. The salt water should hiss or cloud if the ritual is accepted.
- Judgment of the Wyrd: If the Wyrd accepts the reason and the pain, the bond is unmade. The participant feels a tearing inside—described by some as like losing a limb, a warmth, or a shadow that had been at their side. If the Wyrd rejects it—either because the violation was insufficient or the truth was twisted (or simply untrue) —the ritual will wound the participant. Sometimes a nosebleed. Sometimes days of fevered dreams. In rare cases, permanent loss (a voice, a potent memory, a sense).
Consequences:
- To the Blooded Individual: They feel it. Deeply. As though a familiar star has vanished from the sky. Some describe cold dreams. Others sudden silence in the part of the soul where a name once lived. They may not know who severed the bond, but they will know someone did.
- To the Participant: The act is permanent. The Wyrd does not allow second chances in these matters. Once severed, that connection can never be reforged—even if the subject changes, apologizes, or is redeemed. They are, for you, lost.
- Socially: In families or circles that follow the Old Ways, this act is not taken lightly. It’s viewed similarly to declaring a death—not just an ending, but a burial. To admit to it is to invite scrutiny, pity, or sometimes fear.
Notes & Lore:
- Only a participant may perform this ritual. A third party cannot break the bond for someone else.
- A blooded person cannot sever bonds given to them. They are receivers, not the originators of the threads.
- Some fey have tried to fake the ritual to manipulate or pressure others—but the Wyrd always knows.
- It's said that if more than three bonds are severed from one individual, the Wyrd marks them as "Forsaken." What that means is not fully known, but none speak the word lightly.
