Drop

The Drop is an essential event for Vanir to claim both their powers and immortality.

General Information

The Drop

The ritual of the Drop is a necessary rite for Vanir. The Firstlight grid's power is generated by the pure, undiluted light each Vanir emits while making the Drop. And it is only during the Drop that the flash of firstlight appears. The firstlight is raw, unfiltered magic. It can heal and destroy and do everything in between. Captured and bottled, the first glow is always used for healing, then the rest of it is handed over to the energy plants to fuel their lights and cars and machines and tech; some of it is used for spells, and some are reserved for whatever shady business the Republic wants. The "donation" of the firstlight by each Vanir citizen is a key element of the Drop ritual and part of why it is always done in a government center.

The Drop itself is the easy part. It's falling into one’s power. But once the bottom is reached, one’s mortal body expires. Then it's a race against the clock. Mere minutes are allowed for the race back up to life before the brain shuts down permanently from lack of oxygen. Six minutes to start barreling down a psychic runway along the bottom of one’s power, a single desperate shot at launching skyward toward life. The alternative to successfully making the leap and to getting enough momentum on that psychic runway is tumbling into an endless black pit and awaiting death.

To avoid that death, someone else has to act as an Anchor. An Anchor is a beacon, lifeline, and bungee cord that snaps their companion back up to life once they leap off the psychic runway. To make the Drop alone is to die. This is why Anchors are usually family or trusted friends. It should be someone who won't leave you stranded. If someone doesn't have either type of person to be their Anchor, a government employee has a legal obligation to be an Anchor. Some claim the six minutes are called the Search. During that time, once faces the very depths of their soul.

The Ascent

The Ascent is different for everyone and can be harder for those with more power. An Anchor helps in this stage to bring the Vanir back to consciousness. It is only upon making the Ascent and reaching that threshold back to life, brimming with new power, that immortality is attained. The aging process slows to a glacial drip and the body rendered near-indestructible as it is bathed in all the ensuing firstlight. At the end, when the Drop Center’s sleek energy panels have siphoned off the firstlight, all anyone is left with to mark the occasion is a mere pinprick of that light in a bottle.

Drop Parties

It is usual to celebrate a Drop party after one makes the Drop. These days, the newly immortal often use the allotment of their own firstlight to make party favors to hand out to their friends.

History

House of Flame and Shadow

Through Silene's memories, Bryce learns that upon arriving in Midgard, the Asteri infected the water of the planet with a parasite. This parasite burrows into Vanir and warps their magic. The Asteri created a coming-of-age ritual for all magical creatures who have entered Midgard and for their descendants. A blast of magic would be released, contained, and then fed to the Asteri. This is a greater, more concentrated dose than the seeds of power the Asteri had taken previously in the yearly Tithe. The Asteri turned this ritual into a near-religious experience and explained it away as a method to harness energy for fuel. The Asteri have been feeding off the Vanir's power ever since. Should anyone with power opt out of the ritual, the parasite would suck them dry until they died. Lies were planted about the dangers of performing the ritual in any place other than one of the Asteri's harvesting sites where the power could be contained and filtered to them.

Trivia

• Any immortal who has made the Drop can regrow just about anything if they aren't beheaded or severely mutilated and bleed out, but the recovery is painful and can be slow depending on the injuries or regrowth required.