Children's Mystery Cults Tradition / Ritual in Mudewei | World Anvil
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Children's Mystery Cults

"Children's mystery cult" is a general term given to a wide variety of groups of children, from those just leaving puphood to adolescents about to undergo the Citizenship Trial, which seem to exist to propagate childlore within their communities. They are probably the closest Stenza civilization gets to a formalized religious structure.   They commonly engage in their own storytelling and other child-specific activities, such as legend tripping and specific rituals, such as that the Greater Pass Stenza children engage in to honor the hundreds who pled for the Snow Warrior's help during the Battle with the Stone Menace. It is considered improper for adults to attempt to study active children's cults, but many are willing to recount their own escapades from childhood to others.

History

The idea that children can engage with the sacred around the Stenza is almost as old as (and possibly older) than Stenza civilization. In fact, it is common knowledge that the Snow Warrior and his Pups have a special fondness for children. (In some versions of Pentho and the Warrior, Pentho is an adolescent at the time of her near death, instead of a newly minted adult. This may possibly be the oldest version of that story.)   In mimicry of adults, children circulate stories and legends and practices amongst themselves, evolving alongside the broader culture around them (the go-to recent example is Migration in Mourning, which originally circulated as a children's legend until adults began having encounters, as well; an older example involves the aforementioned ritual of Greater Pass children that sprung out of an attempt to gain supernatural aid against the Stone Menace). The most famous bits get folded into the folklore and folk history of adult Stenza, although there seems to be an unspoken understanding the children thought of it first and understand it the best.

Execution

Of religious and spiritual practices specific to children, legend tripping is the best known: adolescents venture to the site of a known spiritual encounter or urban legend in a bid to garner insight or have an encounter of their own (and if they are successful, they pass the story along, adding to the legend). This is mostly equivalent to the practice of mountain climbing, involving students of religion engaged in an arduous journey in order to gain spiritual insight. The children considered the most knowledgeable on lore, muhye and gods are almost always the ones who legend tripped at least once (they may also, but not always, go on to become religious experts).

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