Transitional Ceremonies

The θɛʃɾəɾi are all born as one of thirteen possible morph types. Some types are significantly rarer than others, but the distribution remains fairly consistent across the population. The morph types function in a similar way to gender in that it forms an integral aspect of identity, but are more of an equivalence rather than equal.

The morph-type can mostly be distinguished from birth, barring those who change type through the appropriate rituals and ceremonies, which can be done at any time during one’s life, as many times as needed, once they discover they are not the type that they are supposed to be. Such individuals occur approximately once in every seventy individuals, and are regarded highly, considering the required high self-awareness to discover oneself, and the determination to go through all the transitional rituals and the pain that they entail, if they so choose to (most do, but not all, and some are not able to due to lack of someone who knows how to do the rituals for them).

These rituals vary according to the type being transitioned to, as well as which ring of types they are moving from and to.

If physical transitioning is happening, there is quite a bit of pain involved, considering wings are being forcibly grown/removed, and well as the entire skeleton/musculature/other body shit otherwise adjusting. The preparation and finalising aspects take up the most time, usually a couple days either side, the actual physical transformation is exceptionally short, usually around 15 minutes, but varies according to age, with younger θɛʃɾəɾi taking much less time, and up to 20 minutes for older individuals.

The preparation is standard cleansing, and then applying markings to indicate what is being moved around. Wings being removed are blocked out in colour, wings being added are painted onto the flank, eyes are ringed in black if transitioning to gɪk'ɑlinɔluɾɛgɛlno, and white if transitioning away, etc.

How these markings are made depends mostly on which ʍɔkɛɾɪ the individual is from. Sometimes this is done with paint on top of fur/feathers, sometimes it requires removing fur and feathers to paint on the skin (regrown through the transformation), sometimes the skin is tattooed (with or without fur/feather removal), sometimes the fur/feathers are bleached and dyed.