Homage

A ceremony to forge lasting bonds

The homage is a ritual that establishes the division of powers from a lord to their lieges. In the most common form, the liege kneels, wearing a simple cassock, before his lord to swear loyalty to him. In reply, the lord would hold their hands and swear to protect them as a good father does and accept their loyalty. After the exchange of vows, the lord would ask the liege to raise as "Sir of" followed by the lands offered as a fief. At this point the liege would be addressed to a changing room to wear some clothes adequate for his rank.

The vigil

In preparation for the homage, the liege is generally expected to spend the night in vigil, and generally in prayer to the Deity they hold dearest. Since it is a life-term commitment, despite the great advantages that grants, nobody takes it lightly, therefore a night of meditation is expected to clear their mind and ease their fears. They would pray their favourite God to obtain courage in the task ahead and unwavering loyalty to their lord even in the darkest moments. At dawn a silver chime would ring and the liege would be requested to don their cassock.

Witnesses

Most of homages are celebrated within a church, cathedral or within some areas commonly regarded as blessed. If they ceremony takes place into a temple, the local clergy are called to witness and attend to each phase of the ritual. Furthermore, from 1045CM every homage as been writtenly recorded by the monks of Oghma and this is particularly useful as most of the titles are considered hereditary.

A plentiful meal to wish abundance

by Jovan Vasiljevic

The final phase of the Homage is constituted by an abundant meal shared between the liege, the lord and all the other dignitaries and people invited to take part to the ceremony. The gesture of breaking bread together has an allegoric meaning of becoming members of the same family and will not be taken lightly by any of the parts involved. The meal would be as rich as possibly doable, for the venue that hosts the ritual, to wish richness and abundance to the newly created Sir, for this reason is not unusual that homages are planned several months ahead to build up resources toward this special event.