Designing a rite of passage

[Jabrosky]

In my most recent plot bunny, I have a jungle tribe that requires its young men to gather fire from a volcano and bring it back home as a rite of passage. The challenge is that once the initiates collect the fire, they have to protect it from dousing all the way back. I'm worried that such a system would be susceptible to cheating on the boys' part, for how would people be able to tell whether the fire they brought back was of genuinely volcanic origin?

Also, how would someone protect fire from rainfall?

[Butterfly]

You could use the sulphur (I think you'd spell it as sulfur in America) - burns blue in the dark and melts to a blood red liquid, which would set it apart from normal fire. I think it also comes as a rock form, but I don't how much they would need to come back to the village still burning, also check the purity in its natural form, that could have an impact.

Protect from rainfall? Do they have the technology to make lanterns, or miners lamps?

[Queshire]

have somebody, maybe a god or spirit, or maybe just an elder from the village spy on them during the rite. That said you could also somehow change the quality of the fire similiar to Butterfly said, it doesn't have to be sulphur but any sort of unusual fire could work. Different chemicals do burn different colors, you can work that into the story.

[Butterfly]

You're right Queshire, any other chemical could be used. I said sulphur because it is produced by active volcanoes and is found in abundance around volcanic regions.

[Jabrosky]

I really do like the sulfur idea.

Protect from rainfall? Do they have the technology to make lanterns, or miners lamps?

They're more or less at a Neolithic tech level. I don't know if such people would be able to make primitive laterns or lamps.

[Fnord]

(I think you'd spell it as sulfur in America)

In fantasy,we call it brimstone!

[Legendary Sidekick]

This reminds me of the Powderstone quest from Monster Hunter, which has you attempt to carry an extremely hot volcanic rock to base camp. Of course, the real trick is to not pass out from losing health or drop it because of a monster attack. Powderstones explode easily, too.

My point: same as the sulfur idea. There should be something that makes it obvious that the boy climbed the volcano to get the fire. That something could be a bowl filled with lava with something flammable inserted into it (interwoven twigs?) to keep the flame alive. The lava would cool and look like stone by the time the boy arrives, and I imagine the boy would need to feed the flames often. Maybe an elder would be able to examine the contents of the bowl and have some way of knowing whether the flame went out, or at least whether the boy used an alternate source to revive a dead flame.

[Penpilot]

I don't know how close someone could get to the mouth of a volcano. It's pretty darn hot. How married are you to the fire idea? Playing off legendary sidekicks bowl idea why not just have them use a special bowl to pick up lava. When it cools it'll be shaped a like say an idol or what ever you want and that's how they can tell a person made the trip. When they get back the idol is broken to prevent cheating.

[Queshire]

I wouldn't worry too much about the heat, in fantasy land you're ok so long as you don't actually touch the lava as seen here; Convection Schmonvection - Television Tropes & Idioms Of course, in real life lava is PRETTY DAMN HOT and I think you need a special suit just to get near the stuff.

[Steerpike]

I don't know how close someone could get to the mouth of a volcano. It's pretty darn hot. How married are you to the fire idea? Playing off legendary sidekicks bowl idea why not just have them use a special bowl to pick up lava. When it cools it'll be shaped a like say an idol or what ever you want and that's how they can tell a person made the trip. When they get back the idol is broken to prevent cheating.

Depends on the type of lava or flow you are talking about. Some of them you can get pretty close to without special protection, at least briefly. There are also toxic gases as a possibility, depending on how much realism you want to use in the representation of the volcano.