Whispered Week
In the Order of Sarastro, the Whispered Week is the nine-day-long period of intense ritual preparation leading up to the Day of Ascension. It begins at sunrise on 31 March and ends at sunrise on 9 April.
The Whispered Week commemorates the days Sarastro spent traversing the planescape seeking true knowledge, before the Righteous Path was revealed to him on the Astral Plane.
Execution
Outside of the ceremonies, all sounds louder than a whisper (besides those necessary to perform labor or housework) are forbidden. None may eat or sleep between sunrise and midnight, and all who fall ill or die are healed or resurrected without mandatory payment to the clerics.
Participants
All practicing Sarastrans are required to participate in person at the Prime Sarastran Temple in Breughelland. The pilgrimage for some far-flung missionaries begins weeks or even a full month before the ceremonies begin.
Observance
Several individual days within the Whispered Week hold special significance.
Dawn of Destiny (31 March): This marks the beginning of the Whispered Week and the second-longest service of the week (after the Dawn of Deliverance). The service begins at sunrise with a sunrise parade that begins at the Altar of the Eye in central Breughelland, loops down through the graveyards outside of town and the Lyceum of the Dead, and ends at the Prime Sarastran Temple well after the sun has risen. After this, there are several hours of recitations of long portions of Sarastro's writings on the planescape and on what he calls the "evils and excesses" of the modern world. (These writings are notoroiously homophobic and transphobic, including a long diatribe specifically against the archmage Tenser.)
Dawn of Devils (5 April): This day commemorates the time that Sarastro spent in the Lower Planes and the many temptations he overcame while there. At sundown, the unmarried women of the temple, wearing head-to-toe red veils, perform a complex spinning dance said to ward off devils that lasts several hours. Those who are able to complete the entire length of the dance without succumbing to exhaustion are said to make the best brides, while any who fall over or faint during the dance are said to have been "dragged down by the Hells" and will likely not be able to find a husband until they complete the dance successfully the next year.
Dawn of Darkness (6 April): From the beginning of the Dawn of Darkness until the Day of Ascension itself, no flames or lights can be lit.
Dawn of Deliverance (8 April): The entire twenty-four hour period of the Dawn of Deliverance is spent by all parishioners inside the Prime Sarastran Temple, where they even sleep at the end of the final service.
On each day, the period between midnight and sunrise is taken as a miniature reprieve from the Whispered Week, when worshippers are allowed to eat and sleep. Long lines for food often form at the refectories of the Thoth Academy and the few non-Sarastran inns in Breughelland, making some unlucky worshippers choose between eating and sleeping during this time.
Dawn of Devils (5 April): This day commemorates the time that Sarastro spent in the Lower Planes and the many temptations he overcame while there. At sundown, the unmarried women of the temple, wearing head-to-toe red veils, perform a complex spinning dance said to ward off devils that lasts several hours. Those who are able to complete the entire length of the dance without succumbing to exhaustion are said to make the best brides, while any who fall over or faint during the dance are said to have been "dragged down by the Hells" and will likely not be able to find a husband until they complete the dance successfully the next year.
Dawn of Darkness (6 April): From the beginning of the Dawn of Darkness until the Day of Ascension itself, no flames or lights can be lit.
Dawn of Deliverance (8 April): The entire twenty-four hour period of the Dawn of Deliverance is spent by all parishioners inside the Prime Sarastran Temple, where they even sleep at the end of the final service.
On each day, the period between midnight and sunrise is taken as a miniature reprieve from the Whispered Week, when worshippers are allowed to eat and sleep. Long lines for food often form at the refectories of the Thoth Academy and the few non-Sarastran inns in Breughelland, making some unlucky worshippers choose between eating and sleeping during this time.
Primary Related Location
Important Locations
Related Organizations
Comments