Drowning of the Eye effigy
For as long as the people of the dark land remember, the drowning ritual was a tradition supposed to bring closure and harmony to their home. More common in rural towns than big cities, it has grown in popularity since the Everdark, as it evolved to carry a different meaning.
Tradition
In the tradition, the ritual takes place every five years or so, during the last nights of winter, when the weather is still chill but warms up ever so slightly. Every family cooperate to craft a small rag doll stuffed with a carved piece of wood. The children pick out the colored rags that the parents sew together, then one grandparent paints a giant eye on the effigy's face while the other carves in a branch the figure of the guardian animal of the family.
The roles are not so strict and anyone can do anything, however it is meant as a moment of reunification of the family, where everyone in the house has to make their own contribution. Nonetheless, the painter of the eye and the woodcarver must be two different individuals, even if it means asking a neighbour for help.
The eye represents the all-seeing entity that knows of everything happening in the world: from the number of ants in a nest to the deepest, darkest secrets kept by the townspeople. But for all the Eye sees, it has no voice to speak. Secrets remains smothered and allow bad blood to remain. The animal is a representation of the family, their secrets and truths.
By laying the effigy in the river and letting it flow away, the threads trapping the sculpture loosen and the family, with its secrets, is free from the grasp of the Eye. The ceremony, always followed by a communal feast, is a time for people to let go of their grudges and mysteries. What is said here cannot be judged and is meant to lighten the burden of unspoken words. A time for truths, a time for cries, a time to forgive.
Modernity
With the Everdark, the ritual entered the cities that had ignored it for so long, albeit in a different form. Instead of truth, it now carries hope and prayers. The roots of this evolution are in the belief that the Eye decided to turn its entire focus on Vanderbriss rather than overlooking all the realms under its domain. Its immense eye is what hides the light, and only when it gets bored with spectating their lives would brighter days come.
This new form foregoes the wooden figure and only considers the rag doll, as well as paints that dissolve into water. The night of the ritual, any pool of water works, even a filled bucket. The doll has to remain immersed until the eye is completely gone, as a message for the Eye that it is not welcome in the land.
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