Rituals of the Faction

• Initiation / bonding
  • Sombras que Corta — (The shadows that cut) —This ceremony is where the Godmother bonds a Cousin to a weapon. — More precisely - to the Cousin's Shadow. — The Cousin reaches out with their shadow and grasps a physical weapon (usually a hand to hand weapon) and takes it into shadow. From that point on, their shadow can use it. Shadow weapons are versions of real weapons that are IIF, desolid, affects the real world. Possibly NNDs that cause body as well (defense is a shadow defense or weapon). Godfathers and Godmothers occasionally have the power to do their own bonding ceremonies, but usually do not choose weapons. For example, Godfather Morlok wears shadow spectacles that allow him discriminatory senses on the molecular level - he can tell the decay rate of isotopes in fusion weapons by listening to them, or see the DNA of people he is talking to.
• Shadow Stealing
  • Presumably performed by Godfather Morlock to obtain a new shadow after the destruction of his original.
• Time Travel
  • The Faction, unlike other Great Houses, does not always use time ships to travel through time. Godfathers and Godmothers use their own shadows (which slowly deteriorate with use).
• Possession
  • As shown by Cousin Porsena, an Initiate can detach their shadow with this ritual, and if possessing part of the body of someone else, the shadow can overpower theirs (it stays on the ground unconscious“). Once this happens, the initiate possesses their body and loses control of their own. When possession stops, the shadows move back to their owners.”

The longer a shadow is away from the caster, and the more often it is made to move differently than the caster, the more chance it has of gaining full independence and leaving the caster permanently. These shadows occasionally become characters in their own right within Faction Paradox (such as Godfather Avatar).

• Invoking the Spirits (greater invokation)
  • Used by Lolita of House Lolita. Must be performed in the Eleven Day Empire by a witch. Involves extensive cutting of the flesh. The person becomes one with the Spirits and has all power within the Empire that they do, until the power burns them out, killing them. Usually about 30 seconds or so.
• Control Rite
  • Used to control a Shrine. A sacrifice of sufficient biomass, preferrably of the time period wanted to be reached, or a living being from near that time period. The more biomass the more accurate the biodata. The controller must also sacrifice some of their own biomass (usually blood) in order to communicate with the Spirits in the Shrine and move the Shrine. This rite can also be used to control sentient beings if sufficient biomass is collected from said being. A voluntary possession is easier to accomplish. The Control Rite must be performed on the sacrificial dias in the Shrine. If incorrectly performed the Spirits may trap the ritualist in an infinite null-time zone.
    • When controlling a sentient being, that being's soul travels to Conceptual Space - specifically to Mictlan, the home of the Celestis as some Faction technology uses Celestis techniques.
• Sacrificing to the Spirits (greater sacrifice)
  • The act of sacrificing yourself to the Spirits. The Spirits will foreshadow their need for your sacrifice with reaccuring dreams in which as a younger version of yourself, you see an older version of yourself killing you. Then, when you have failed the Spirits in some way, or they require your life, they will cause you to travel back in time so you can kill the younger version of yourself. The resultant infinite regression in paradox of killing yourself over and over, feeds the Spirits of Paradox.

• Invoking the Grandfather (lesser invokation)
  • Used by Cousin Justine to open doors or perform other telekinetic tricks. — Bloodline to bloodline, in constant transition. Our pattern, our flesh, and our one restoration. — Conception, completion, the will of the city. The Grandfather watch me. The Grandfather know me.. — Grandfather watch me. Spirits maintain me.
• The Hunt
  • As far as I can see, from the audio dramas - the Hunt is run for potential Godfathers or Godmothers. If they succeed in the Hunt then they become a godparent. — The hunt involves going back through time and killing your mother, grand mother and great grandmother. The result is to cut you out of time. It also means that enemies of the Faction will have great difficulty in ever using time against you.
• Dance of Pain
  • By concentrating on ritual words and moving the body in ritual covorts it is possible to control and ignore any amount of pain.
    • As shown by Cousin Porsena in the City of the Saved, this ritual can be performed by an Initiate's shadow.