Herald of Steel

Chapter 366 Wedding Day (Part-5)

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At the altar, Cambyses took a little time to observe the new goddess- Gaia.

She was a buxom lady, wearing a loose robe and with arms stretched towards her followers, a gentle smile gracing her face.

Her hair, made of wreaths of wheat, bunches of grapes, and vines of leaves draped over the shoulder and cascaded down to her hips, while around her feet were miniature animals such as

calves, ponies, and babies, seemingly frolicking around, their small size symbolizing the greatness of the goddess.

As Cambyses scrutinized the statue of Gaia, over time, she noted several 'abnormalities' with the statute'.

The biggest one was that the statue was dressed.

Statues of all kinds, be it the gods or humans were always sculpted in their natural form, both in Thesos and Adhania.

For humans, this was to show off their glory in the most raw form.

And for the gods, it was because they were thought to be of the perfect image and so they would show off their magnificent physics to the mortals.

Just like Ramuh appeared as a great, muscular man in the Grand Temple of Ramuh, every single one of his parts and features sculpted with great care and detail, even the private parts, which were even particularly jeweled.

Whereas in comparison, Alexander's hastily made Gaia statue appeared simple and even somewhat crude, with only little embellishments and jewels embedded here and there over the cement structure.

And the flowing robe seemingly hid the goddess's power, almost as if the god was weak and shameful to show off her features.

This figure was very much different from the one Cambyses had seen over in Thesos, which was naked with huge perky breasts, a voluminous butt, a large sex in the front, and hair curled up as Cambyses had hers, the perfect image of a married, fertile woman.

Hence, seeing the goddess Cambyses had heard Alexander talk much about all covered up and coy made Cambyses feel slightly disappointed, as she did not like the conservative look.

But Alexander had done this precisely because it was different because he wanted to show his religion was different.

If his religion was all the same as the others, how could he declare himself a god?

If his religion was all the same as the others, then how many imposters would rise up from his very religion calling themselves god?

So, it was natural Alexander would practice customs and religious ceremonies opposite to that of the 'disbelievers'.

Aside from the garb of the statue, another abnormality that Cambyses found was that the statue gave a weirdly familiar feeling.

Somehow to her, the face and the figure of the statue looked as if she had seen them before.

This was natural as Alexander had made designed the statue taking inspiration from Ophenia's face, Gelene's bust, and Cambyses's butt, forming an incongruous but strangely beautiful sculpture.

A design that Alexander kept Cambyses out of the loop about.

At the altar, Alexander and Cambyses stood opposite to each other in front of the Gaia statue, with Theocles as the priest in middle, while a soldier approached them, and placed a small, portable iron stove with fire burning inside in between the couple.

This was the very first ritual of the ceremony and it involved Cambyses.

The bride received various wooden and woolen toy dolls, horses, etc from a pouch the twins carried, all of which she threw into the fire.

Traditionally this ritual was done to symbolize a girl moving from childhood to adulthood, where she would dedicate her toys to the gods, and accept her new status as a woman.

But the toys that Cambyses was throwing into the fire as not exactly hers.

They were mostly newly made, and a few that she borrowed from Mean.

This was because as neglected by her father, she did not have many toys to begin with, but also because the nomadic nature of the mercenary group meant that she had lost a lot of her original toys during all her travels, due to carelessness, misplacing them, or them simply being stolen.

But the core idea of the ritual was still there, and as Cambyses slowly threw the objects into the new stove designed by Alexander, Theocles prayed:

Ohh, Great Gaia, Merciful Gaia:

Surely You are All-Knowing:

So we beseech Thee:

Bear witness to the birth of The Consort:

The Consort of the Son whom You have favored.

This and such similar verses were repeated over and again as each article was thrown inside until all that remained was ash.

Completed with Cambyses's ceremony, it was Alexander's turn, and it promised to be bloody and messy.

Because it required him to perform a sacrifice.

The iron stove was soon removed, and in its place was replaced a large, shallow bucket, while Azira and Azura led a newborn goat, or a kid by the rope to near the bucket.

"My lord," At the same time, Theocles bought out a sheathed sword from behind the altar and offered the sword to Alexander while kneeling, his head lowered towards the marble floor, and arms stretched towards the pasha.

This sword or other ceremonial knives would usually be offered by the bride's father as a gift to his son-in-law when they would perform this ritual inside the bride's home temple like the one huge statue of Ramuh Pasha Muazz in his inner hall, which Alexander had demolished.

But since Cambyses's guardian was Alexander, and the girl had no real next of kin, this act was performed by Theocles.

Alexander accepted the sword by gripping the lavishly designed solid golden handle which was embedded with huge rubies and sapphires, and then in one swift motion unsheathed it off the scabbard, letting the steel glint of the sunlight light.

It was a double-edged sword with gold etchings done on one side of the blade that read

'Beyond life and blood' while the other side was 'Through the heavens for all eternity'.

The crowd watched with rapt attention as Alexander bought this large sword, made using the best techniques in the world, under the soft neck of the baby goat, making it bleat helplessly as he then gripped the soft neck and sliced up the throat in a swift, strong motion, warm blood dying the golden etchings.

The lifeless goat thrashed its soft, weak legs as the blood drained out of its body and pooled into the bucket, as soon another group of soldiers removed these two articles.

The point of this act was to symbolize a man's willingness to even kill something small and weak, in order to protect his woman.

Alexander had been careful to not get any blood on his suit during the process, and with the two basic ceremonies done, only one last remained- The vow.

In fact, there were many more ceremonies in between depending on which region of Adhania one lived in, such as the couple rubbing color on them, reciting various types of religious chants, lighting candles, and worshiping the statue, to name just a few.

But Alexander had decided to keep the number of rituals to the absolute minimum and restricted them to the most common ones.

And thus came the ring, probably the most iconic article in all marriages across all times.

Alexander took out the ring from a velvet box that was in his breast pocket and then presented the iron ring with rubies studded into it and a large diamond atop to Cambyses's left middle finger.

The reason for the ring being made of iron rather than of other more precious metals was for the same reason Cambyses's hair clips were made of iron.

It was traditionally made from iron used to kill a boar thus symbolizing fertility.

And the custom behind the left middle finger was because Adhanian doctors believed that during human dissections they had found a vein running directly from that finger to the heart.

So putting the ring on that finger meant a direct access to one's heart.

As Alexander put the ring on Cambyses's finger, a shy smile grew out of the girl, while Theocles in the meantime was busy pronouncing the vows.

And these vows were slightly different from the modern ones, with the greatest difference being that there was no asking Cambyses- 'Do you take Alexander, the Pasha of Zanzan as your rightful husband?'

This was not only Alexander was the pasha and when the pasha wanted to marry you, you did not say 'No', you said 'When'.

But also because given the time period and the status women had in society, that would have been a joke.

Women had no free will of their own and were considered just tools and properties of their fathers and husbands.

So when Alexander had proposed the former way of pronouncing the vows, Theocles at first tried very hard not to appear too incredulous so as to not offend Alexander.

And then he persuaded Alexander out of it saying such a thing might cause the audience to laugh out loud, damaging the serious and formal occasion.

Hence Theocles instead carried out the vows in the traditional way, addressing the crowd and asking, "Is there anyone among us who thinks this union should not be graced by the gods? Is there anyone who believes they deserve either the man or woman more than them? If there is please speak up! Please speak up now!"

Naturally, there was no response, and so Theoles formalized the marriage with the words, "Then from now on I declare Alexander, the Lord of Zanzan and Baroness Cambyses husband and wife. Let us bear witness. Let all of Zanzan bear witness. Let the gods bear witness."\

And hence Alexander and Cambyses were formally husband and wife.