The Marches hearth magic

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The very existence of the Marches is based on what other nations might call hearth magic, Its prosperity is created by the magical tradition that runs from every child's poppet to the most powerful of Landskeepers, who'd be called ritual magicians elsewhere in the Empire.

The good that Good Walder looked for was as much adherence to these hearth magics as abstract morality. The simple magics of soil, woven straw, and offering drink to the land.

Soil

Soil brings luck to a ritual.

Marchers remember the land in their travels by custom. In many a burial overseas, a layer of March soil lies under the body. A traveller far from home might keep a pouch of soil round their necks. Before a battle, a line of Marchers might kneel and rub their hands in the earth to remind them what they're fighting for. (It might also keep a sword from slipping in sweat, of course.)

Landskeepers take this custom further, and use soil in their rituals as a hearth magic.

Poppets

Poppets bring protection to children, and some folk use them as elements for focusing medicine or magical effects.

Every home in the Marches has at least one straw dolly or poppet, made at the time of harvest to bring good luck to the house and ward off evil omens. These intricately twisted and knotted effigies of straw, corn, oats, rye, grass or rushes traditionally bind the vitality of the field and bring their strength into the home.

Marcher folk place great store by their poppets. Every child is given a straw dolly of their own; stories abound of children separated from their poppets prematurely who suffer a terrible fate. A poppet protects a child before they are old enough to look after themselves. In particular, an expectant mother will carry a poppet to ensure the health of the child. When the season turns again to sowing the seeds for the new crop these poppets are laid on the fields and ploughed back into the earth, or occasionally cast into a bonfire, ensuring a bountiful harvest for the following year.

Wassail

Wassail brings prosperity.

After every harvest, Marcher fruit growers perform a traditional ceremony, a wassail, to scare away evil spirits from the orchards and ensure a good crop for the coming year. Wassailing varies from place to place but typically involves parading through the village singing and drinking to the health of the trees. Cider from last year's crop is used to toast the trees and poured on the ground as an offering. The parade is led by a Wassail Queen, or sometimes a young child called the Tom Tit. As the fruit growers go from house to house they share cider with their community and receive in return produce that each household has in excess from their own harvests.

Wassail songs can be found on the Marches Music page.

At each Autumn Equinox, the Marchers parade from camp to camp, singing the Wassail and sharing their cider (or other home-grown produce) with other nations in a more general blessing for good harvests in the year to come (and as a non-too-subtle reminder of where much of the Empire's food comes from). Although it is not expected, other nations sometimes reciprocate in small token exchanges of goods or services that their own territories have in abundance.

Libation

Libations bring luck.

The Wassail is for prosperity, a libation is a smaller thing, for luck in any endeavour. A soldier might flick foam from their beer to the ground the night before battle, and a Landskeeper might pour some beer during a ritual. It's remembering the wealth of the Marches comes form the soil, and their gold is the gold of ripe corn.

Jack-of-the-Marches

The Marcher Egregore is Jack, a simply-dressed figure carrying an axe, amd often adorned with leaves. It is possible to discern Jack’s mood from the nature of the foliage or the type of axe; flowers indicate Jack is filled with Spring’s hope and joy, keen to see new life prosper, taking a particular interest in Marcher children. Jack’o'the’Spring is the woodcutter, and carries a small hatchet, or pruning-hook.

A forest bill, or battle-axe, indicates that Jack is girded for war, supporting Marcher troops as they line up to fight, and interested in the work of Marcher generals. That’s Jack-in-the-Green, the soldier, who often bears leaves of binding ivy.

When Jack appears bearing a ceremonial axe crafted from gold, then their interest lies with the political life of the Marches; Jack with the Axe of Gold is a reminder to yeomen, stewards and Wardens alike that the Marches prospers through its honesty and integrity, rather than through taking short cuts.

And finally, when Jack appears bereft of foliage and carrying a scythe or executioner’s axe, then their mind is focused on matters of religion and introspection. Jack Frost speaks rarely, and only when there's something important to say; almost always intended to guide the Marchers to stay true to the old ways and tend to the land.