Sanctuary

The ritual of sanctuary is a sacred ritual of the Orderly Faith in the Lands of the Council.
Anybody can knock on the doors of a temple blessed by the White Lady and they will be offered sanctuary if they so desire. Anybody who pursues them, even if they are a murderer, must cease the chase and respect the sanctuary offered. Not even the law can touch them at this point, instead they are at the mercy of the White Lady.
However, they are obligated to follow through with the full ritual, or their sanctuary will be revoked and they are fully not only outlawed, but it is a moral duty for any faithful to hunt them and strike them down for mocking the goddess.
The ritual itself only takes place once the seeker is fully rested and recovered from any ailments that the hunt might have inflicted on him. The temple will heal them, feed them and allow them to rest, until their condition has sufficiently improved. Only then will the seeker be ceremoniously washed and prepared for the ritual proper.
The faithful prepare a circle in front of the temple in the open, delimited by incense burners to please the goddess and guide her attention to the ritual. The seeker will be ritually washed in the morning and given a simple, pure white robe. When noon draws close, they will be guided outside by the attendants of the temple. Once in the middle of the circle, where everybody can see the outcome of the ritual, their attendants gently slide the robe of the seeker's shoulders and let it drop to the ground. Now the priest will drape the actual ritual robe around their shoulders.
In many rural temples, the ritual robe is the most expensive part of the temple and oftentimes worth more than the rest of the building. It is made of spider silk, dyed in an intense, bright red that almost seems to shine from within. The cloth is woven in a way that hundreds of feathers seem to move over the surface when the robe moves, and the seams are embroidered with black thread. Once the priest fastened the robe, they step back, and at this point it should be exaclty noon.
If the goddess deems the seeker worthy of sanctuary, the wind willbillow the robe, and the sun's light will be caught in it, but nothing else will happen. After a while, the priest loudly declares that sanctuary has been granted and all is forgiven.
Should the goddess not approve, however, the moment the light of noon will strike the ritual robe, it will burn the seeker in invisible flames, and nothing can save them from certain death. The robe's fastening won't become undone, and even if the seeker runs into the crowd - be it to take someone with them, or simply blinded by pain - no one but them will burn. It is a terrible sight to behold, and whoever witnesses a denied sanctuary will have the unearthly cries of pain ringing in their head for a while.

Related Organizations

• The Orderly Faith