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Impalement Ritual
ImpalementRitual
Japanese name 忌ノ儀

戒ノ儀

Romaji name Imi no gi

Kai no gi

Other names Rite of Stakes
Location(s) Chamber of Thorns, Kuze Shrine
Participants Tattooed Priestess, Handmaidens
Frequency Unknown
Purpose Put a Tattooed Priestess to sleep to carry all pain of the living to the Other Side
Game Fatal Frame III: The Tormented
Let this Priestess never awaken from her dream... for all eternity.


The Impalement Ritual, also known as Rite of Stakes, is a ritual in Fatal Frame III: The Tormented to put a chosen Tattooed Priestess to sleep and carry all the sorrows of the living to the other side with them. The ritual was a way to keep Tattooed Priestesses who could not stay asleep from awaking and wandering around.

The Impalement Ritual takes place in the Chamber of Thorns. The four young Handmaidens hammer tattooed stakes through the priestess' hands and feet, pinning her in place. While doing this, the Handmaidens sing the Sleeping Priestess lullaby to help her fall into her deep eternal sleep.

Preparation[]

EngravingShrineOutside

Outside of Engraving Shrine, Deep inside the Mansion

First a woman was picked out to be the next Tattooed Priestess for the ritual. One that had great sorrow in her life, such as losing all of her loved ones. The woman is then brought to the Kuze Family, and taken in as their own and placed in a special room to live in. Through her life, she is taught about writing all her sorrows down onto a mirror to forget everything and let it go. Eventually, the Priestess is placed in a hanging prison "etching her sorrows" into a special mirror brought to her so she can forget her own pain. Four girls are also chosen to be The Handmaidens, who will learn the lullaby Sleeping Priestess which they will sing during the Impalement Ritual. They practice by driving stakes into dolls made of red paper in one of four small rooms that they watch and practice in.

While the Priestess and Handmaidens prepare, the Head of the Kuze Family allows outsiders and visitors to come inside to pray. Most of these people are women who tend to bring large bundles wrapped up tightly. These bundles are the dead bodies of their loved ones from which Blue Ink is taken. Men are only brought into the mansion to either continue the Kuze bloodline, or to be killed for their living blood, called Red Ink, which is mixed with the blood given from the visiting women. The Engravers, or Needle Women, then mix the blood together into a Purple Ink called Ink of the Soul that is used on the Priestess during the Piercing Of The Soul ritual.

The Ritual[]

Impalementritual

The Impalement Ritual, Four Handmaidens and a Priestess

The first thing to do, before the Impalement Ritual is for the Engravers to start etching the ink onto the skin of the Priestess. This happens in a special shrine deep inside the mansion where only the Priestess, Engravers, Handmaidens, and the Family Head go. Once the ink touches the skin it starts to slowly grow and etch across the Priestess' skin on its own. She is then placed in another hanging cell deep down inside of the shrine, close to where the Tattooed Priestess is supposed to stay. When the Tattoo of the Holly and Snake completely covers the woman head to toe with the blue markings, except for the eyes, it is then that she is lowered down the circling staircase the Handmaidens walk down while singing the Sleeping Priestess lullaby. Once at the bottom, the Tattooed Priestess is then taken through two pathways, over a semi-deep river cave that is hidden under the mansion and is supposed to lead to the Other Side. The Tattooed Priestess, Handmaidens, and the Family Head soon come to the Chamber of Thorns where all Priestesses are staked and placed to sleep for all eternity. The Handmaidens place the Priestess in a spot in the Chamber of Thorns, and begin their duty. Singing while they stake the Priestess' four limbs to the ground or wall. Once done, it is said that the Priestess will soon fall asleep and forever dream a long dream, carrying all the sorrows and pain of people with her to the Other Side.

The Outcome[]

The tattoo is never supposed to reach and cover the eyes as they will turn into mirrors reflecting back the sorrow and pain the Priestess took onto everyone else around her. If this were to ever happen, the Shrine Carpenters are to make a Shrine of Sleep around the Priestess to keep her locked up inside sacrificing their lives to lock it, and the Tattooed Priestess to never leave at all. But in the end, it happened, and the ritual failed. Men were never allowed deep inside the shrine, or inside the Chamber of Thorns, but it happened. And it was with one male's death, that caused the tattoo to be reflected out of the mirror-like eyes of the Priestess and soon spread across the mansion.

Another rule is that handmaidens are to never let outsiders or men into the mansion at any cost. If they do, they must be staked down at the bottom of the circling stairway to the Chamber of Thorns, just like the Priestess herself.

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