"I never met a Priest who could tell me what the future holds. Well, unless you count the Priest of Morr who Doomed me for thruppence, but don't they say that death and taxes are the only things we can be certain of?"
- —Sylvextr Jutzenbach, Ostermarker Noble[2a]
A priest of Morr performs a dooming on a child.
Sometime near their tenth birthday, every child in the Empire should experience the Dooming, a rite of passage that ends with a foretelling of Death.[1a]
How the Dooming is handled varies greatly across the provinces, although a priest of Morr is commonly involved. In the cold forests of Nordland, communities gather their children on New Year's Day around a great feast of bloodpie and beef to celebrate "Doomtag" before the daylight fades and a local Morrian priest begins the foretellings. In civilised Reikland, Doomsayers of Morr criss-cross the land, conducting the Rite of the Dooming wherever they encounter children of the correct age. Across the rolling plains of Averland, doomsayers are rare, so communities typically conduct a simple rite without a priest, relying instead on a village elder or parent to make the foretelling. By comparison, the Ostermarker Dooming is a complex ritual, held each year on the Day of Mystery, and involves hundreds of candles, bizarre conical hats decorated with bird skulls, and sacrifices of milk and horse flesh. These latter are firmly gripped by chanting children as, nearby, blood-covered Morrian priests swing great skull-shaped censers.[1a]
No matter the exact details of the rite, one thing is always the same: at the end, a pale-faced child is brought forth to be told how he will die.[1a]
Dooming in Tilea[]
Dooming is an Imperial custom, not performed in Tilea except in one region: the city of Luccini, home to the Cult of Morr, and its environs. Scholars believe that Luccinan mercenaries returning from Reikland brought the practice with them, many having married Reiklander spouses. Now children on reaching their tenth birthday are often taken by their parents to the Great Mausoleum in Luccini, where the Veggenti, a female order of Mystics dedicated to Morr, cryptically pronounce their fates.[3a]
A Typical Dooming[]
As daylight fades, the nervous child, bearing sacrifices for Morr, is brought before the black-robed doomsayer. The sacrifices are cast upon a sacred brazier, and the priest pleads with Morr to accept them instead of the child into his realm. The doomsayer then lights specially prepared black candles. Thick, muggy smoke coils from the candles and wraps around the face of the child, twisting into patterns and forms that are believed to represent the child's doom.[1a]
The doomsayer explains what he sees in sombre tones, and then concludes that the sacrifices will only appease the God of the Dead until the day that doom comes calling. The child then leaves, now much closer to becoming an adult, though often in tears.[1a]