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Designing a rite of passage

Jabrosky

Banned
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

Auror
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?
 
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Queshire

Auror
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

Auror
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.
 
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Jabrosky

Banned
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.
 

Legendary Sidekick

The HAM'ster
Moderator
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

Staff
Article Team
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.
 

Steerpike

Felis amatus
Moderator
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.
 

ascanius

Inkling
Why not just use the honor system. It could be something that is spoken about often to the young men, how they are going to prove themselves, to themselves and the rest of their people. To just cheat would be unheard of, no one does, it would be like drinking pee, you just don't do it. Being dishonest about doing something could be considered a taboo equal to incest, torture. So The childrens own sense of honor prevents them from cheating.
 
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