The Religion of the Ninth House is similar to the Religion of the Eight Houses, however, over time it has morphed to be a reflection of their duty to guard and protect The Locked Tomb. As such, the religion of the Ninth House has gained unique practices and prayers from the rest of The Nine Houses System.
Worship Services[]
Gideon Nav mentions three types of worship gatherings for The Nuns of The Locked Tomb:
- Recitation of the intercession of The Locked Tomb
- Call-and-speaks
- Knucklebone orison: "There was no spoken invocation in the Ninth service. There was only the clatter of bones—knucklebones, all threaded on woven cords, notched and worn—worked by nuns whose old fingers could pray on them so swiftly that the service became a murmurous rattle."[1]
Prayers[]
The primary intercession of The Locked Tomb is as follows:
"I pray the tomb is shut forever. I pray the rock is never rolled away. I pray that which was buried remains buried, insensate, in perpetual rest with closed eye and stilled brain. I pray it lives, I pray it sleeps... I pray for the needs of the Emperor All-Giving, the Undying King, his Virtues and his men. I pray for the Second House, the Third, the Fourth, the Fifth, the Sixth, the Seventh, and Eighth. I pray for the Ninth House, and I pray for it to be fruitful. I pray for the soldiers and adepts far from home, and all those parts of the that live in unrest and disquiet. Let it be so."[1]
Ortus Nigenad ends the intercession of The Locked Tomb with a more ancient epithet:
"And so hail to the Lord of the Sharpest Edge, and the gossamer thinness of his blade, and the cleanness of his cut."[2]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Gideon the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 3
- ↑ "Harrow the Ninth," Act I, Ch. 8