A reader pointed out on this Discord that this
has a vaguely eldraeic flavor.
Which it does. Not something a direct analog to which would exist *there* , mind you, inasmuch as defending yourself and civilization is something written right into the Imperial Charter, Section III, Article V: “Responsibilities of the Citizen-Shareholder”1. But the underlying sentiment, that certainly does.
(And the technarchs have their equivalent of the Ritual of the Iron Ring, too, as do many others. One of these days, I should trot out, for example, the plutarch version.
No-one has forgotten or denigrated the memetic power of ceremony in this ‘verse. What else, indeed, is the Logarchy of Protocol, Ritual, and Symbology for, or the entire profession of symposiarchs?)
And if you were wondering if the lay orders of Barrascán have appropriate ceremonial along these lines, well yes, they do.
- Well, that, and you aren’t going to find anyone prepared to tolerate being described as “the weak”.