The Wine of Fealty (忠誠のワイン, Chūsei no Wain) ceremony is a Highlander ceremony performed in Suikoden II.
Information
The Wine of Fealty was one of the traditional ceremonies of knighthood in the Highland Kingdom.
First, a witness serving as a poison taster takes a sip of wine and hands it to the knight. Upon receiving the wine, the knight pours his blood into it to show his loyalty to the king. When the king drinks the wine, he accepted the loyalty of the knight.
In the middle of the Dunan Unification War, Prince Luca Blight, seeking to seize the throne, attended Jowy Atreides' Knight's Oath ceremony as a witness and poisoned King Agares, his father.
Jowy had taken antitoxin beforehand, and had taken the poison himself prior to the ceremony, allowing Agares to be poisoned without having to evade the wine tasting. This conspiracy would spark destabilization in the Highland royal family and eventually lead to the nation's fall.
References
- Genso Suikoden Encyclopaedia (ISBN 4-575-16297-3), page 172