Baptism by Stone
A 'baptism by stone' - or simply 'baptism' in certain contexts - is a Evermornan Patronist ship christening tradition that dates back to ancient times. It has since been adopted by other Cobalt Protectorate member states - especially the League of Lepidosian City-States - and persists into the era of space travel.
History
Baptisms by stone have been carried out all the way back to the time of the Chitiquish abductions or earlier; the historical record is somewhat fragmentary with regards to the practice before that time. As Planet Evermorn is a cold, watery world, the practice of sailing out into glacial bays in search of warmer climes and riches beyond the edges of the known world was formative to the later Evermornan culture.
Later, when the Harkinite Expedition reached Lepidos and liberated the Northern Lepidosians from the Magocracy, the newly-formed League of Lepidosian City-States armed forces adopted similar rites into their own shipbuilding practices. However, while the Evermornan tradition involved dedicating vessels to the protection of Izetsu, the Monotheist Lepidosians instead sought to bless their vessels in the name of Raikep, The Waters of Creation.
Execution
Traditionally, a baptism of stone took place during the finishing process of a wooden vessel before the application of pitch or other water-proofing. The hull of such a vessel would be scrubbed and polished with the ground stone of its native port intermixed with fresh water. In the most traditional of ceremonies, both of these materials were to be sourced from the runoff of glacial melt, whether directly at the glacier head or in the lakes, bays, and tributaries formed as a result of this process. Hymns to Izetsu - the Patron of the Waters among other titles - would be recited over the vessel during the course of this process, bonding the spirit of the Elder Patron, the shipwrights, and the vessel together with well-wishes towards the crew. The ship's new name would be called out at the very end of this process, 'animating the spirit' of the vessel as a newly-complete and distinct entity in the world.
Observance
With the advent of space travel, it became no longer feasible on both logistical (i.e. lack of access to glacial melt) and technical (i.e. risk of abrasion on sensitive equipment) grounds to conduct a baptism on the whole of a vessel. Instead, modern adaptations of the practice make use of whatever coarse sand and water is available to the master of ceremonies (i.e. ice asteroid melt) to baptise a small piece that will subsequently be affixed to the inner hull, thus 'merging' the blessing into the ship by 'spiritual conduction.' Often, this component will be part of a structural member bearing the ship's unique identifcation number; while general purpose modules and crew may come and go, the ship's identity - and, thereby, blessing - shall persist. When a ship is about to be scuttled, scrapped, abandoned, or destroyed by some other means, it is considered best spiritual practice to take this piece from the vessel for later preservation in monuments like Walls of Account or museums.
The agnostics and atheists among the spacer's number see no transcendant meaning to such pomp and ceremony, but generally respect its observance as an exercise in social bonding among the ship's builders and eventual crew. The baptism by stone of a vessel is involved with the natural tendency of crew members to anthropomorphise their ship and certain components of it (i.e. combat drones). However, unlike with other components, a working spaceship is considered indisposeable in most circumstances and, thus, is considered worthy of this treatment despite the usual advice against becoming too attached to equipment. The permanent integration of artificial intelligences, including the occasional HLAI with full legal personhood, into starships only serves to bring more gravity to the baptism by stone tradition.
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