Worldbuilding 201: Rituals
Greetings and sheol! ...I don’t believe in an afterlife, but it does match how I imagine any afterlife will inevitably be like if infinite. Anyway, you know how I start… Almost like it is a ritual! Well, isn’t that fitting? Today's topic is rituals!
The Ritual of Defining Definitions
As per the ritual, I will provide a definition that I think works!
A ritual is a sequence of acts done in a prescribed or structured manner.
A ritual doesn’t need to be particularly majestic, grand, personal, or anything. It simply needs to be repeated in the same way over and over again. They can, of course, be tied to big holidays, big events, big personal achievements, or anything. Sophonts LOVE rituals and tie meaning to them. Sometimes they can come up for no reason, and people retroactively make up symbolism and meaning to them.
Classes of rituals
Of course, like everything, we can start creating groups or classes of things, and with rituals, it is no different! I would say there are 3 broad classes of rituals.
Cultural
These rituals are tied to the culture and can have very broad appeal. In my post on cultures, I talk about cultures not being monoliths. I repeat it many times, and small changes in rituals are a great way to diversify a culture to make it less homogenous and more heterogeneous.
Typical rituals are weddings, funerals, coming of age ceremonies, cultural holidays–all kinds of events that are culture-specific.
Religious
Religions are full of rituals. They range from being daily, which is how some religions pray. Some take the praying thing…to a very large extreme that completely baffles me, but whatever makes them happy!
Other religions have more weekly rituals, others can have monthly, and then we, of course, have the annual religious holidays, which can be enormous. What these rituals do, like all rituals, depends on their history.
Personal
Everyone has their own personal rituals that they do for various reasons. Like I always eat the crust of my sandwiches first. Why? Who knows, I generally find it less tasty, so I want it gone first and savour the good stuff for last. But rituals can also be clothing-related, hygiene-related, or literally anything. ANNE! What is a personal ritual you have? (Anne: My cat climbs in bed with me at night, and I rub her tummy until we both fall asleep! 😀)
That is one hell of an adorable ritual to do. If I weren’t allergic or the fact that I’d be an absolutely terrible pet owner, I’d definitely want something like that myself!
Why rituals?
So why do people do rituals? Why are they maintained? There are many reasons for this. One reason is that people have found the rituals give them something they want, like I get to enjoy more of the yummy sandwich by eating the crust first. Another reason is that a ritual reinforces neural pathways in your brain, making it easier to do it the next time. So rituals are in that way self-enforcing.
Another aspect is, of course, the social. If you all know what to do and do it together, it is a social activity, and social activities bond people. No matter how much you hate a person, if you sit down and start being social with them, it gets progressively harder to hate them the longer the interaction goes on. Almost like being exposed to people makes you less hateful 🤔
This helps with cultural cohesion, religious cohesion, and cohesion in general for all groups by sharing rituals. That is why starting rituals is always good if you want to make a club or something; it helps keep it together.
Another aspect of the cultural and religious ritual is, as I have said in many posts, the symbolism. Symbolism means stories, and stories are powerful to people. So rituals have stories, can tell stories, and have symbolism that tells a story that is powerful to people.
Destructive vs Constructive rituals.
Before I continue, I want to say that I don’t place a value judgment on rituals by calling them destructive or constructive; people are free to do rituals as they please out of their own volition. By destructive rituals, I mean rituals that cause harm, somehow, seemingly as their primary purpose. Constructive ones are, well, the opposite. They seem to only do positive as their primary purpose.
Despite this distinction, it is important to note that rituals and habits that are entirely negative do not survive in the long run, so they must fulfill some kind of positive purpose to linger. A classical example is the so-called flagellant movements. It was a movement in Christianity where people literally grabbed whips and started whipping themselves while walking around. And I mean really whipping themselves, they were really trying to harm their backs and all to bleed and the like.
Why would people do such destructive behaviour and rituals? A lot of the gain is social. By doing these obviously bad things, you show traits that the collective values, raising your social status in the group. And that social gain can significantly outweigh the harm it does to your body. What is a minor scar compared to suddenly being seen as really righteous and pious?
Hazing is another example, which is meant to be less dangerous, but stupid young people who think they are immortal take it to extremes… Fun fact, where I went to university, we called it zeroing 🙂 Anyway, from my understanding, which may be highly flawed as I never engaged in it, it is meant to be humiliating so that you demonstrate a willingness to endure something bad, the humiliation, to be in the club. You’re not serious if you aren’t ready to be humiliated a little!
Designing a ritual
So, how would one go about making a ritual? Well, that depends on what you want it for! If it is for small personal things, well, it can be something as silly as my eating the crust first. It needs no big reason or anything. It is also a fantastic way to show the personal quirks of characters. Their small individual rituals help define them.
For bigger things, the first question you should really ask yourself is this: what is it meant to symbolise? I tend to think that most often, a top-down approach is better for rituals, but like everything, there is no set way to do it. So what is it meant to symbolise? What is it that it is?
Then, when you know what it is meant to be seen as, think about how they, as a culture, look at things. What is it that the people value? What traits are good? What traits are bad? Is it constructive, destructive, or neutral? If it is a destructive ritual, where is the line drawn where it becomes “too much”? After all, there is always a point where it becomes too much and too dangerous, just don’t let 20-year-old men decide where the line is… it tends to go very far then.
So you know what, with that, why don’t I show you one of my own big rituals?
Mini-practicum: The Imperial Crown’s Journey
If you have read my post on the Raixher, you should know that the Raixher is a species I love very much. So let’s do a quick rundown of them.
Planimal species
Has 3 sexes
Is a monarchical democratic stratocracy
Values loyalty
Loves big displays despite being pragmatic
With the last one, you can probably imagine they like big elaborate rituals, and you would be correct, my highly intelligent reader.
Now, as the title says, it is about the crown, but what kind of journey does it go on? Well, like many monarchies, the crown that the Xhaisin (Empress) wears is of great symbolic value. Loyalty to the crown does not mean loyalty to the Xhaisin, but to the Empire itself and its people. It symbolizes their unity as a people; the Imperial family may wear it, but they are also subject to the crown because it is also for the people. One wears it for the people and the Empire, not the other way around.
So it is quite decorated, expensive, valuable, and insanely precious to the Empire, as you can imagine. So, again, what is this magical journey it goes on? Well, it all starts with a death… or abdication, but most often the death of the Xhaisin. The Empire no longer has its Xhaisin! The horror! No need to worry, though, there is the Heir-Crownling who is to inherit the title and crown!
Well, here comes one of the first parts of their ritual: the Xhaisin-to-be is forbidden from touching the crown until she is crowned. As long as the crown remains on Raixhla (their homeworld) and hasn’t gone on its journey, it will only be handled by a figure called the Crown Guardian. They, as their title suggests, guard the crown. Under normal circumstances, unless the crown is in immediate danger, they are not allowed to touch the crown, but currently, the crown has no owner or regent to sit upon, so they are allowed to touch and even carry it.
The Crown Guardian coordinates with some agencies in the Imperial Palace to set the crown’s journey in motion. Eventually, the basic preparations for the first destination are done, and the Crown Guardian sets course for Djonte, the homeworld of the Djonee, the first people that fell to the Raixhen Empire. With this ship and a small armada for escort, they arrive at Djonte.
Once at Djonte, the Crown Guardian arrives at the court of the local Quing (hermaphrodite monarch) and hands over the crown to zhim. And this is where the Crown Guardian resumes their original duty, to never touch unless the crown is threatened, but they will be in the crown’s vicinity throughout the entire journey.
The Quing then has to arrange the travel to the next planet in the chain. This chain contains the homeworld of all species that are in the empire. Zhi will then personally travel there and be in charge of the crown. The Crown Guardian has strict orders not to reveal anything they hear during the journey, no matter what. And then it continues like this for all member species, where it is handed from one monarch to another and continues until the very last one. While each monarch knows they cannot hold the crown indefinitely, they can keep it for a prolonged and noticeable time to mark discontent over something, which will be noticed.
Once it reaches the end of the chain of members’ homeworlds, that one takes the crown back to Raixhla. On Raixhla, they have prepared for the coronation with all the spectacles one is to expect. People from other star nations are invited to join as it is politically fit, which generally means the core members of the Concert of Stars and the Empire's own clients.
Then, when the last monarch arrives, all others have already arrived, and preferably (and with some arrangements), the last monarch arrives as the final ceremony of the coronation starts. All the previous monarchs stand in a line with the Djont Quing being the one closest to the Xhaisin-to-be.
As the final journey, the crown is passed from hand to hand of all the monarchs, in reverse order, each one swearing loyalty once again to the crown, until it reaches the Quing, who then hands it to one of the members of the Council of Generals who places it on the Xhaisin, finishing the crown’s very long journey around the Empire and back. And the Xhaisin holds a speech thanking all and swearing her own loyalty to all people and all species of the Empire.
This journey is meant to symbolise the thing that the Raixher prize the most: loyalty. It shows the Raixher's loyalty toward the other species by showing them immense trust in letting them handle the crown. But it is also to show that all monarchs of the Empire have to agree together that the new Xhaisin is worthy of the crown, and with it, truly rule over the people with their consent (to some degree). The Council of Generals crowns the Xhaisin to show that no one is above the military, not even their own Xhaisin in the end. The ceremony ends with them swearing loyalty to the crown, and then the Xhaisin does the same, all to show that the crown is of the people, for the people.
I did mention that sometimes one of the monarchs within the Empire might hold onto the crown a bit longer than they are meant to. This is with the Crown Guardian present, mind you, so it is not like they are safe if they try to just keep it indefinitely. While I do portray the Empire as functional, let’s be real: not everyone is going to be entirely happy that they were once conquered and absorbed into the Empire, no matter how well they are treated. That is just the nature of people.
But despite this history, they receive the crown to show that they are equal parts of the Empire, like everyone else. Your history of being conquered does not diminish your status within the Empire. So they are treated with respect and loyalty like any other member. But if something has happened that some people feel like “We need this to really be addressed,” they can hold onto the crown to mark their discontent with the current situation. As time passes, this will call the attention of the Xhaisin-to-be and will make it known to all that something is greatly amiss without ruining anything. And with most Xhaisins since the expansion into space, they tend to move quickly to fix whatever caused the delay. A happy Empire is a strong Empire.
Summa Summarum
Rituals can be as simple or as complicated as you want. In cultures that favour simplicity, they will be on the simpler side, but they will still exist. In cultures like the Raixher, where big displays are prized, they lean on the more complex side.
Remember that personal rituals are great ways to build character quirks, while broader rituals build culture and history. As you can see in my Raixhe example above, the ritual can be VERY long; it takes MONTHS to do the entire journey with many cogs in it and all involved having their own job, so don’t be afraid of making it excessively complicated, because sometime, the complexity is its own part of the ritual.
And symbolism. Remember that things in a ritual, especially grand ones, mean something and serve a purpose. The entire ritual for the Raixher is about trust, loyalty, and how all serve the crown, even the Xhaisin herself. No one is above the crown, and all serve the crown; the crown is the Empire, the crown represents the people of the Empire, for the people are the Empire.
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Copyright ©️ 2025 Vivian Sayan. Original ideas belong to the respective authors. Generic concepts such as Rituals, subtypes of rutals are copyrighted under Creative Commons with attribution, and any derivatives must also be Creative Commons. However, specific ideas such as Raixher Species, Empire, and Journey of the Crown and all language or exact phrasing are individually copyrighted by the respective authors. Contact them for information on usage and questions if uncertain what falls under Creative Commons. We’re almost always happy to give permission. Please contact the authors through this website’s contact page.
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