Banuda

Banuda ('giving of light') was a Pemantian ritual where banuvastra lamps were used to communicate in blinking code in a highly choreographed, theatrical manner, intended for a large and solemn audience. Some common practices included holding the ritual in a dark enclosed space such that lamps were the only source of light, the veiling and masking of faces of all attending, and the maintenance of silence &mdash; particularly an absence of speech. There could be one or many different 'speakers' at such light-shows each using lamps for their own messages.

Originally functioning as a more formal and diplomatic way of semaphoric communication within Pemantian communities and between them and partner peoples, the ritual also came to proclaim regal authority in Pemantian states such as Isnaria, or simply affirm for a community that its vishes retained the intuitive understanding of each other making non-oral, unwritten, signal-based communication feasible. After the Reign of Lamps, elements of banuda were incorporated Pastic liturgies, and conventions associated with it were part of court custom in many cultures around the Confluent Seas.