Tide-Speaker
The Tide-Speaker derives their authority from the god Ilmos, particularly through the sacred Dream Trials held in the Temple of the Blooming Gaze. While their appointment is sanctified through ritual, their role is also recognized and upheld by the Circle of Drift, the city’s ruling council. The spiritual authority from Ilmos is the root of their legitimacy, while the council’s support ensures political balance.
Qualifications
Candidates must have completed both the Hunt and Dream paths, having brought back a sacred trophy from Ilmos’s Maw and correctly divined a major celestial omen. They must also be recognized by at least two of the three branches of the Circle of Drift as spiritually sound and politically capable.
Appointment
Selected through a Divine Dream Trial, wherein candidates must walk the moonbridge between the two temples during the Harmony Tide and receive Ilmos’s vision. The Circle of Drift ratifies the result publicly, and the crowning ceremony takes place at the Fane of the Tide-Beast, where the new Tide-Speaker drinks from the mirrored chalice of starlit seawater.
Duties
Serve as the living voice of Ilmos in Taldozen
Ensure harmony between the paths of Hunt and Dream
Interpret omens and dreams relevant to city-wide decisions
Deliver annual blessings to tide-hunters and scholars alike
Act as moral and ceremonial leader in all major city festivals
Responsibilities
- Oversee ritual cycles and the sacred calendar
- Maintain balance among the Circle of Drift factions
- Approve major infrastructural or spiritual expansions
- Serve as judge in spiritual disputes and inter-guild tensions
- Bless all outbound sea voyages longer than 12 days
Benefits
- Personal sanctum in the Twin Fang Temples
- Symbolic control of key artifacts (e.g., the Harpoon of Blooming Salt)
- Immunity from secular taxation
- Authority to call Dreamfasts (city-wide spiritual holidays)
- A stipend provided through tithe offerings, in goods and coin
Accoutrements & Equipment
- The Harpoon of Blooming Salt, a ceremonial weapon blessed by both aspects of Ilmos
- Starglass Robes, woven from moonlotus fibers and enchanted to shimmer with constellations
- Tide-Knot Circlet, a silver circlet adorned with shifting pearl that glows under the moon
- Dream-scrolls and tide-charts inscribed with holy ink used during ceremonies
Grounds for Removal/Dismissal
A Tide-Speaker may be removed through a Threefold Petition:
- A unanimous vote by the Circle of Drift
- A failed re-initiation during the 12-year Moon-Silence Trial
- A confirmed false omen or manipulation of Ilmos’s rites
Dismissal must be declared publicly at both temples and marked by the Unfurling of the Frayed Net, a rare and shameful ceremony stripping the Tide-Speaker of their accoutrements and banishing them to a year of isolation in the sea caves.
Comparable to a High Oracle, Spiritual Regent, or Starborn Patriarch in neighboring religious traditions. Politically, it equates to the Governor of a City-State in secular territories.
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