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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39263
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39263
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Don't think of what you're describing as "ritual suicide" - that has negative connotations. At least, it does for you, since you're not confident about the topic. Instead, think of what you're describing as **giving up one's life for a cause**. I mean, that's what they're doing, right? A character gives up their life, so something can happen to save everybody else. Framed like that, it's a noble sacrifice.

Let's use Buffy as an example.

> End of Season 1, Buffy goes to face the Master. She _knows_ (prophecy) that she's going to die. She accepts death, in the hope that she might take the Master with her. She gives up her life so that she might save those she holds dear.  
> Then, end of Season 5, she does it again, jumping off a tall tower to her death, effectively committing suicide, to close a world-eating portal thing.

You could look at those examples as suicide - a character willingly letting themselves be killed, or actively taking their own life. Or you could look at them the way the story frames them - as a noble ultimate sacrifice, a necessary price paid for saving the world.

In a similar manner, when soldiers go off to battle, is it ritual suicide? When they hold their ground, hold off the enemy, letting those behind them escape, are they committing ritual suicide? No - they are being heroes.

In the setting you describe, the kind of ritual sacrifice you propose is not a futile attempt to do I don't know what, as it would have been in our world. It is a known price paid for a known, very real result. It might well be the only way to save the world. It is thus a necessary action, not a painful pointless waste as it would have been in RL.

Original score: 1