Category: Ritual Object — Naming Rite / Sacrificial Implements
Origin: Probable Pre-Mirecourt Cultic Use (Wetlands-Affiliated)
Status: Contained — Vault MRC-R, Blade Archive Shelf 3
Description:
A ritual blade approximately 18 cm in length, fashioned from fired clay and bleached bone. Shaped in the abstract form of a leaf or fish fin, with one edge bearing uneven serrations. Despite appearing blunt or dulled, the blade penetrates as if sharpened, though no incision is visible post-contact.
The weapon is consistently cool and moist to the touch. Testing reveals an outer coating of sediment proteins common to saltmarsh fen environments.
Recovery Notes:
Recovered from a sealed cavity in the wall of the ruined chapel at Allhallows. The cavity was mortared over and deliberately disguised beneath crumbling render. Blade was wrapped in wet linen, bound with decayed reeds, and marked with a faint circle-and-bar symbol—commonly associated with rites of oblative naming and identity excision.
Initial contact caused nausea in one attending officer. Two additional operatives reported hearing “soft breathing.”
Function and Ritual Use:
- Bloodless Sacrifice:
When pressed against flesh, the blade draws sensation and pain equivalent to a deep cut, but leaves no wound. Victims describe a cooling burn followed by partial memory dislocation. - Naming Rite Application:
Believed to have been used in rituals intended to alter or remove names, especially during child-offering ceremonies linked to the Mirecourt boundary cults. Children subjected to this rite were recorded with new names, their original identity removed and sealed. Blade reportedly retains awareness of prior names through haptic memory—reacts with warmth or vibration when held by those who have undergone the rite.
Field Note — Agent Thurlow, 1997 Re-examination File:
“One of the missing girls from the 1973 case was found to have an older name inscribed in bog-ink beneath her skin. She could not recall it, but the knife knew.”
Containment Protocols:
Item housed in sealed clay urn with marsh-wrapped lining. Handle must not be touched directly. Blade is not to be used in any experimental rites under current Institute regulations. Dream Unit has requested access; currently under review.
Faylinn Defence Group 