Never allow your sorrows to be immolated
Never let your thoughts be razed
Never begin what you cannot finish
Always immolate upon that which you gazed.
–The First Great Immolation, a poem by author unknown

The Immolation of Sorrows took its name from the poem, “The First Great Immolation”, as a destructive but nonlethal protest against the Sovereignty and Secession Acts of 5274. The first one occurred in s.y.v.p. 5275 on Crilinka, and the tradition continued each year henceforth.

The ritual was actually similar to the Bring Down Fire phase of kriegball. It involved finding the residence of, the favorite restaurant of, the working place of, and the store that sold the first childhood pet to an official of the Ctjn Empire. As soon as all four of these had been located, they were simultaneously evacuated (with force, if necessary) and firebombed to the ground. The major difference between the Immolation of Sorrows and the Bring Down Fire phase of kriegball is, of course, that in kriegball, the restaurant owner, working place workers and pet store owner are reimbursed for their loss.

In the Immolation of Sorrows, the official to target was originally based on who had done the most egregious act benefiting the empire; as the tradition continued, the official eventually was chosen at random, or through the judicious use of a Perception Field using Exile Day’s daily lottery number as a seed for the field.

—Sarlin Corvaxis Fon