The First Serving

Tideriders and atoll dwellers who worshipped the ocean had an arsenal of rituals that varied from family to family, but the tradition of the ocean's first serving is one that every group carried out.

Origin

No specific origin for this tradition is mentioned in any records, but certain pieces of evidence can be linked to suggest one. Late in the 6th Oceanic millennium logs began to record scattered incidents in which a person rose from the ocean at the side of a boat, boarded, and asked for food. Within 100 years, the first serving was widely practiced throughout the known ocean. Its universality is best explained if it rose from an experience shared by all the communities that adopted it. We now know (or can assume) that these visitors were early Water Seekers, but to the oceandwellers of the time walking on water was unheard of. It would have been quite reasonable for them to conclude that the ocean was taking the shape of a human to declare its desire for gifts of food.

History

Toward the end of the Oceanic Era, a series of bad storm years accelerated the atolls' erosion. Ships exploring the Great Gap discovered the Cluster Islands, and the atoll residents evacuated there. For the first time since ocean worship began, people were living too far from the coast to deposit the first serving in the water. They continued the tradition by designating a proxy to be fed in place of the ocean.
The idea of the ocean as a hungry god faded as Tideriders spent less time sailing the Gaps and islanders lived more removed from coastlines. However, the first serving persisted as a way to honor guests by giving them the first portion of a meal. The first serving has also been adapted into the wedding cups tradition, practiced almost everywhere in the Cluster Islands.

Observance

How often the first serving was performed varied between Tideriders and atoll dwellers. Families living on boats, with the ocean constantly within throwing distance, reserved a part of all food for the ocean whether it was a meal taken in company or a snack eaten alone. On the atolls it was impractical to keep running to the water whenever someone wanted to eat something, so they would feed the ocean only once a day.