Rituals within More Humano are not static traditions nor mere sequences of symbolic actions. They are narrative structures, dynamic constructs that emerge from the relationships between the fundamental elements of the Codex, binding them together into lived experiences that reshape interpretation, meaning, and perception.
Each ritual serves as a lens, a method through which disparate fragments of the Codex—characters, locations, artifacts, symbols, elements of the Codex in general—are woven into new configurations, generating insights, tensions, and shifts in understanding. They are both exploratory and functional: not merely stories to be told, but processes to be enacted, experiences to be internalized.
A ritual is never neutral. It is an active engagement with the forces it involves, a structured yet open-ended mechanism through which meaning is tested, transformed, and sometimes lost. It does not dictate a singular truth but exposes the tensions within the elements it binds together. Some rituals emphasize conflict, some transmutation, others dissolution and endurance—but all of them lead to a moment where reality and fiction blur, where the structure of identity and perception is challenged.
The Role of crystals: anchoring meaning in reality
Rituals are not performed in a vacuum. They are not just imagined, but enacted, and their execution requires a bridge between conceptual structure and lived experience. This is the function of Crystals.
Each Crystal is more than an object—it is a vessel, a resonance, a key. Crystals serve as catalysts that cohere the ritual into reality, reinforcing the enactment of its elements. They are not passive symbols but active forces that shape how a ritual is embodied and internalized.
A ritual may call upon Crystals to:
- Impose limitations or conditions that must be endured or overcome. (e.g., in The Ritual of the Lost Battle, Crystals enforce inevitable defeat, ensuring no participant is exempt from its structure.)
- Act as mnemonic anchors, preserving the essence of the ritual beyond its execution. (e.g., if a Crystal is kept or discarded after a ritual, it marks a shift in understanding or the failure to complete the process.)
- Enhance or disrupt meaning, introducing an instability or a refinement to the forces at play. (e.g., a Crystal may embody resistance, fluidity, permanence, dissolution—qualities that directly affect the ritual’s unfolding.)
Through the Crystals, rituals move beyond abstract performance—they become lived structures, reinforcing the act of meaning-making in real experience.
The Rituals as mutable constructs
A ritual is never truly finalized—it is a system that exists to be revisited, reshaped, and reinterpreted. While each ritual has a core structure, purpose, and internal logic, its meaning is not dictated solely by its original intent. Over time, as it is enacted and internalized, it may:
- Shift in meaning, as different participants impose their own narratives upon it.
- Reveal hidden contradictions, exposing tensions that were not apparent at first.
- Be expanded or fragmented, leading to the emergence of derivative rituals or alternate executions.
In More Humano, meaning is never fixed—it is constantly built, broken down, and reconstructed. Rituals exist to make this process visible, to expose the malleability of significance, and to give form to the intangible forces that shape experience.
They are not rules, nor are they prescriptions.
They are not truths, nor are they illusions.
They are frameworks for interaction, structures that allow meaning to crystallize, dissolve, and be reforged—just as all things in More Humano must be.