On Becoming Virehnai

Khes’tara Virehnai, is the name of the ritual of becoming in ancient Virehnai. It means The Becoming of Blood

“The Ritual makes you immortal. The Ceremony after you ascend makes you Virehnai.”

The Becoming of Blood ritual happens first.

It depends on how, and where you are made, what you will likely see.

If you are being made where there is a Great Hall, there will likely be a dais, or an altar. The ritual will be conducted by the Vel’sheth (Virehnai version of priest.) They will have the candidate there on it, and if a close human relative (especially a parent) has taken a blood oath with the same clan, they may permit them entry during the ritual. If this happens, it’s customary for the relative to stand by one shoulder, and the patron who will become the sire to be by the other. It’s both for moral support, along with holding the candidate down should they get partway through the ritual, and the human urge to live kicks in.

Before beginning the ceremony, the candidate is ALWAYS asked by the Vel’sheth, “It is your wish to become Virehnai?” Think of it as a final sanity check, and what makes the Vel’sheth feel comfortable in having someone hold you down later.

After the candidate consents to the ritual, the next question is to ask the sire if they choose to both make the candidate Virehn, and if they will be admitted to their clan.

“It is your wish to claim this mortal being, and remake them as Virehnai, for the good of your clan?”

Once the sire-to-be gives their assent, the Vel’sheth priest takes over. “As it is spoken, so shall it be.”

There is an actual litany and ritual the Vel’sheth follows.

“From the first drop, we become. With the last, we rise. What is mortal will die. What drinks will rule. We remain after all else turns to dust and blows away.” The words, although these days are spoken in English, it is merely a newer translation of something quite ancient. As the Vel’sheth finishes speaking the litany, all who are gathered are expected to respond with the reply:

“Ashera Virehnai. Kharva’an et Sol.”

(We are of the blood. We endure beyond the sun.)

This is the point in the ritual where it gets down to business. Every hall, every Vel’sheth has a damned sharp knife, that looks faintly like the original knife that the first flames used when they became Virehnai.

The Vel’sheth officiating will quickly and decisively cut first the left wrist, and then the right. As sharp as the knife is, there is still pain. There are basins to catch the blood placed beneath each wrist, which hangs off the sides of the dais. None will be wasted. What is gathered will be taken up, and all those Virehnai gathered who would be clan mates would drink from the basin, and of the newest member.

There are normally lessons that occur prior to the ritual of becoming. Most of these are learning the history of the Virehnai, and what’s expected of a new clanmate.

By the time someone has reached the point in their transition process that they’re laying on a dais, they’ve been schooled in what to expect and how their body would react. Everyone knows going into the process what will happen; their ‘sponsor’s’ job is to make sure they know.

First, the Vel’sheth cuts the wrists, and there will be a bit of pain; but that fades away. Eventually, consciousness is lost as blood is lost, and the candidate progresses into physical shock and their organs began to fail.

Every candidate is told, without fail to never forget one thing: to become Virehnai is to die. You live again, but before you drink and live – you bleed and die. “You have been chosen; you are loved. You will die, but you will live again, and your patron will feed you himself. You will rise, and your patron will now become your sire. There are stages you will pass through before that can happen; some of them will feel scary. Just remember that even though you may feel frightened, or feel a sense of impending doom as your body passes through those stages that you will rise as Virehnai.”

Some candidates lie quietly as they reflect upon their human mortality as it slips away. Others don’t. They may cry, whimper, or shake. Some have even struggled to get up - which is why there are those who would hold them there on the dais to prevent it. It’s no wonder why a human would react in such a way. It is normal, right and natural for your instincts to survive to kick in. As a candidate lay there, their heart beating faster and faster, as they grew sleepy, they are acutely aware that their body is dying; there was no tap dancing around it. The process, while peaceful, was frightening for most. Candidates do their best to remain calm; most find their body shaking, and may find themselves crying. If the candidate isn’t trying to escape, the last things they see are their patron and sire-to-be, a family member, and those Virehnai gathered around them who are witnessing their death and resurrection. Their presence is meant to be a comfort, and for most, it is. If a candidate has been adjacent to Virehnai their whole lives, the Virehnai surrounding them they will have known or seen all their life. It is hoped that the love a candidate feels both for them and from them will help to counter the fear a candidate feels as they began drifting into oblivion.

At this point in the process of becoming, the Virehn who will be their sire is monitoring the candidate’s condition closely. Once most of their blood is drained into vessels, and they have fallen unconscious, the patron is listening for the candidate’s heartbeat, waiting for it to slow to the proper, critical point. Once the time is correct, their patron will use the same knife responsible for taking the candidate’s life to cut their own wrist, and give the candidate life anew. As blood flows from their wound, the patron will place their copiously bleeding wrist carefully at their candidate’s lips, and allow it to flow into their mouth. As the blood pools, the soft tissue lining the inside of their mouth, permeable with numerous nerves and blood vessels, begins absorbing the blood, and the transition begins. They are now becoming..

Never forget: the becoming is an act of magic, perpetuated by blood. The inherent magic in a sire’s blood as it finds a home in the candidate, spreading like wildfire through their body. The wounds they endured, and bleeding out only mostly killed them. The magic in their new sire’s blood finished killing them, as it simultaneously paved the way for their new life. Moments after giving the candidate their blood, the candidate’s heart abruptly stops, and the magic takes hold. The candidate is then gently carried to a ‘quiet room,’ adjacent to the Great Hall, and there they will wait for twelve hours to pass. At some point, the sire or someone known and trusted by the new Virehn will sit beside them. At about the six hour mark, the heart will begin beating again - slower than a human’s. They will regain a bit -only a bit- of their body temperature. Virehnai are much colder than a human being, naturally. The skin picks up a paler, translucent quality.

When the new Virehn awakes, they will be bombarded by their new senses, which is why they put them in a ‘quiet room.’ It wasn’t always so; that is a more modern sensibility, meant to ease the transition. The light is too bright; the sounds are intense, and their sense of smell is heightened. They are given a half hour to 45 minutes from waking to test out simple things like standing up; walking. Their reflexes are now sharper, and it takes a bit to not faceplant when they try to stand.

Once they have their bearings, they are introduced to the Virehnai congregated in the Great Room as their newest Clan member.

The next thing that follows is the Ceremony of Ascension.

In the days before the Compact, Ascension was…different. A child received their sire’s blood, and they could see their sire’s past, and their sire’s ancestors, and they knew -in a moment’s time - their complete blood lineage. The Virehnai adage “Virehn Zuth Akret” means “The blood never forgets,” and one of it’s many meanings is that of seeing all those you come from, now that you come from your sire.

After the Compact, all this still held true. What was different was that the magic inherent in the blood sped that remembering up; it felt akin to being on a roller coaster, and somewhere after that montage, you felt the Compact kick into place within your very bones. New Virehn have reported sensations akin to their hearts being squeezed, to feeling dizzy or lightheaded, to several blacking out momentarily. That last doesn’t happen often; usually when it does, it’s a portent of things to come, and is carefully noted.

And that’s what happens when you become and ascend on a schedule, according to plan. Most Virehnai meet their new, nearly immortal lives in exactly that fashion.

Most.

As the old adage goes, “Life is what happens while you’re making plans.” Many Virehnai become without any fanfare, with no advance planning. They started out the day as a perfectly happy, mostly well adjusted human, and ended it as a Virehn. In cases like these, decisions are made in the heat of the moment, and unfold as life and whatever situation they find themselves in also unfolds. The one thing that is certain is that no one will have the opportunity to ask the human who’s having a really bad day whether or not they want to live forever. Instead, the Virehnai involved simply do what they must, and hope for the best.

Accidents happen. There are feeding accidents, where someone nearly kills a perfectly good human, and turns them as recompense, leaving them with a hastily scrawled note, apologizing, and telling them to “go here,” so they can further understand what’s happened to them. This was the case for one of the exec’s for VarenCorpUSA’s Security Management team. 17 year old Noah Shorngetter, one of the PA Dutch, decided that during Rumspringa, he wanted to see a Yankees game at Yankee Stadium. The one time in his life he decides to cut loose and do something he always wanted to do…he died. A newbie Virehn nearly drained him accidentally as an 8th inning snack, and felt so bad they turned him.

Other notable ‘non-scheduled turns’ are VarenCorpUSA’s Security Director, Archie Fuller. He was a blood sworn police officer to Clan Westmore, and was occasionally called to help in Virenai-related criminal issues. One night, he responded to a jewelry store heist, and was shot twice, in the neck and the abdomen. His partner died at the scene. Once at the hospital, as it became clear that Officer Fuller wouldn’t survive the night, a Virehnai doctor called his patron, Harry Conover - who came and turned Officer Fuller right there in the hospital. Later, Fuller brought his expertise to bear at VarenCorp, and quickly became Security Director for North America.

Theresa Rittenhouse is another one of those ‘non-scheduled turns.’ Until recently, Miss Rittenhouse worked at Cypress Hill Retirement Community, helping the VarenCorp folks deal with VAS - Virehnai Aging Syndrome. While a handful of humans working there were covered under Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Theresa was the only human on the campus who was oathsworn. One of the Virehnai who was too far gone, and was in the ‘locked in your room ;til you die’ phase of VAS accidentally escaped. The Virehn who escaped was none other than Tim Warner, only recently the CEO of VarenCorp International, until it was learned that he, like his father, had VAS. While out and about on the campus, he encountered - and killed/ate - several people. One of these was Theresa Rittenhouse, Night Shift Supervisor. Normally, in this day and age, VarenCorp prefers that permission to make a Virehn happens first. In this case, there was no time to ‘run it up the chain.’ Instead, a snap decision was made in the heat of the moment by Jeff Garver, who was her boss and her patron; Kennedy Mace, a representative of Clan Casimir, and Matthew DeLoache, of Baltimore’s Clan Westbrook, as well as the head of Clan Cypress Hill. The situation was monitored closely by VarenCorp International after they were notified of the situation, and the extenuating circumstances. Miss Rittenhouse has transitioned exceptionally well, and is proving to be an asset to her new Clan, Clan Robichaux.

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