Cruciamentum
from the Buffyverse Wiki - a free Buffy and Angel fan community
- Travers: "The Cruciamentum is not easy for Slayer or Watcher. But it's been done this way for a dozen centuries whenever a Slayer turns eighteen. It's a time honored rite of passage."
- Giles: "It's an archaic exercise in cruelty. Locking her in this tomb... weakened, defenseless... unleashing that on her."
- — Quentin Travers and Rupert Giles[src]
The Cruciamentum, officially referred as Tento di Cruciamentum, is a rite of passage practiced by the Watchers' Council to test the Slayer if she lives to see her 18th birthday. While some of the more conservative members of the Council consider it a time-honored rite of passage, other less ruthless Watchers consider it to be a brutal, antiquated practice.
In the weeks prior to the Slayer's 18th birthday, the Watcher is forced to administer to the Slayer a number of chemicals that weaken her powers, leaving her with the strength and reflexes of an average teenage girl. Then she is taken to a specially prepared location where she is locked up with a particularly vicious vampire selected by the Council for its potential to actually kill the Slayer, the intention being to determine the Slayer's skills as a tactician rather than simply resorting to brute strength to defeat her foes.
Following the destruction of the original Watcher's Council by the machinations of the First Evil, as well as the activation of multiple Slayers, it seems likely that this practice has been discontinued.
Known Cruciamentums
Sources
- Helpless
- Spin the Bottle (Only mentioned)
