The Mystery of the Ritual

In September 2015, Anne Norman, 28, a historian, was commissioned by a cultural foundation to examine the historical remains of a blood ritual called the "sword ritual" in Dresden, a historic city in southeastern Germany.

According to legend, the Czech Queen's Royal Guard included a maverick "Virgin Guard" of young, beautiful, and skilled unmarried women, which at its height operated mainly in the Vidovlei mountains of northern Czechoslovakia, adjacent to Dresden. "The Virgin Guards relied on the queen to expand their power and became an independent kingdom in the area. The "Virgin Guards" had an extremely cruel ritual of the blood sacrifice of "swordswomen" before going to war.

The so-called "martyred sword girl" is some female warriors in the guard who had secret love affairs with men without the permission of the head, and were put to death for losing their virginity. Before the execution, they wore a sheepskin masks with a hollow pattern on their faces, and the executioner stabbed their faces with a sharp blade through the pattern. In the blood-soaked screams of the tortured, the mage holds torch lit by a laurel branch, while chanting exorcism incantations, while shaking the torch to smoke the face of the tortured. After the blood sacrifice, they will be buried alive.

"Most of the authoritative information on the "sword maidens" is now available at a folk history institute in Dresden, the most valuable of which is a codex documenting the blood rituals of the "sword maidens. Since 2009, the institute has been organizing restorations of the blood rituals of the "swordswomen" based on this book, and in 2014, the institute accidentally discovered a sheepskin mask of the "swordswomen" during an archaeological expedition in the Vidovlei mountains, which has attracted several In 2014, the institute discovered a sheepskin mask of a "sword martyr" during an archaeological expedition in the Vidovrai Mountains, thus attracting many experts to visit and exchange ideas.

Anne had planned to film the whole performance of the blood ritual of the "swordswoman" but was told that the performance had been canceled at the request of the police because the actor who played the "swordswoman" had died two days earlier during the rehearsal.

The deceased was a young female assistant of the institute, and during the rehearsal, she was wearing a mask with her arms bound to a cross by the script, and then reenacted the torture scene together with a dozen actors. During this time, the "sword martyr" had called for help and struggled, but those present mistakenly thought it was necessary for the performance until someone noticed the difference and untied the ropes, only to find her breath was completely gone. The crowd rushed to unmask, only to see its eyes open, blue face, a gruesome death.

The preliminary results of the autopsy, the female assistant caused from convulsions caused by tachycardia caused death. However, she was 24 years old and in good health, and people could not figure out that she would die in a dramatic episode with thrilling implications.

Because of the strange death of the female assistant, led to the spread of local rumors. According to the rumor, the "sword martyr" sheepskin mask because of the virgin blood-soaked in the most Yin, so the spirits attached to its opportunity to nuisance the living, so that their delirium to witness the blood sacrifice tragedy and death of the heart.

After Anne's initial understanding of the strange death of the female assistant, she asked the director of the Institute, Klette, "Is it possible that the actor was wearing the real sheepskin mask during rehearsals?"

"Alas, that's the worst part. Originally there was a special imitation mask for the performance, but on the day of the rehearsal an actor brought his friends and relatives to see it, and without permission, he took the real thing and showed it off." Director Kellett explained with a sigh, "Because of this, so that now many people imagined and nonsense, and even some foolish members of Parliament to 'ominous objects' as the reason for the motion to destroy."

The "Martyred Sword Woman" sheepskin mask does not have value-added like ordinary cultural relics, but it is this object that is still "remote" in the field of research but led to the strange death of living life. The "sword martyr" sheepskin mask's strange ornamental pattern swept through her mind, and an inexplicable chill rose from Annie's heart.