Dwarvish funeral ceremony

What happens when a dwarf dies nobody knows, but it's widely accepted that the spirits of persons live on in some form. Among all dwarves, there is a strong belief that spirits or souls of deceased people cause flowers to bloom. This is why Bees are revered as spiritual animals as caretakers of souls.

Once a person dies it is believed that part of their essence remains in a physical item: a Spirit amulet
Once a dwarven child is born, their mother carves a spirit amulet out of wood, and gives it to the child. Once the child turns 10 they carve a replica of that amulet out of bone as part of a celebration that they survived the hardest years, and return the wooden amulet to their mother. If they die before the age of 10, the amulet is returned to the mother after the charring ceremony. As they reach 20 years of age, they carve a new amulet out of Ivory during a coming-of-age ceremony. The bone amulet is then given to the mother and replaces their wooden amulet. Dwarves often spend a lot of time practising carving amulets as the piece is closely related to their pride. At this ceremony, they can choose a spirit-bond with another dwarf. They then both carve an element of the other's amulet into their own to signify the bond. If one bonded dwarf dies and the other lives, their personal spirit amulet is given to their spirit-bond. If one dwarf dies that has no living spirit-bond, their amulet(s) are given to the clan's spirit guardian.
Once someone dies, a special fire-resistant plate is placed next to the pyre. The amulet of the deceased person is placed in the middle of the tray. All the people of the clan then gather around and place their own amulet on the plate. As they place their amulet on the plate, they say a wish for the spirit of the deceased. The tray is then hung over the pyre. The person is burned and their spirit is believed to pass the tray with items and absorb all the intentions laid inside the items. To allow for this to happen in the best possible way, the tray has holes inside it where the flames can creep through, and touch all the items. The tray is hung high enough that the amulets don't burn, but they do char on the outside.
After the burning ceremony, all the people take back their own amulet, believing it to be infused with part of the spirit of the deceased. The amulet of the deceased is given to their spirit-bond, or if there is no living spirit-bond, it is given to the clan's spirit guardian. The ashes are then scattered across flower beds, which are then watered. These flower beds are carefully tended by the spirit guardian all year round.
The amulets are worn on the person at all times when outside the house.
You can tell quite a few things about the amulets someone is wearing: If they have wooden or bone amulets next to their own ivory one, they have children. If one or more of those is charred, that means they have lost a child. If someone is wearing two ivory amulets, their spirit-bond has died. If their personal amulet is heavily charred, they have lost many people of their clan.

History

The dwarven funeral ceremony comes from a long-standing culture of giving something of yourself to the spirit of the deceased, and the spirit returning something to the living.

Ancient times

When the dwarves were just created they conducted the ceremony along with the Ancients: When a dwarf died, their comrades would place a personal item of theirs on the body as a sort of gift or offering.
The antler-headed would sprout a nest of twines for the deceased to lay on top. The eagle-winged would flap its wings and set the twines ablaze. The six-legged would then douse the flames and crystallize the pile of ashes. The fox-tailed would then imbue the crystals with light from the moon and sun.
The dwarves would then take a crystal from the mound as an amulet.
The six-legged would then cover the pile with earth The eagle-winged would then call on the wind to send seeds The antler-headed would then water the pyre The fox-tailed would then sing a song of blooming.
These mounds would bloom with flowers and the soul crystal would gleam with white and gold in the light of the sun and moon. these mounds can still be found in the Crystalline Lake .

Dark times

As the dwarves were forced to live under the mountains, they lost contact with the ancient ones. Without the help of the ancients, the ceremony could not be done in the same way. This is how they did it during those times:
They dug a hole and laid out a layer of dry wood and roots. They placed a personal item next to the body. They then burned the body using lava. After it had cooled they took some of the charred bones out of the pile of ashes. Placing the bone fragments in a place where the light from the sun and the moon could reach through openings in the walls. Then they would cover the pile with earth Sow seeds And water the mound. After all this, they sang a song of passing.
Burning a personal item had an obvious downside, so they started crafting reusable amulets to use instead. As bones didn't fully burn in the fire, they started crafting amulets out of carved bone. However, after regular ceremonies, the bone amulets started to disintegrate, so they started hanging the amulets high above the fire. After a while they perfected a method that gave the amulets a subtle black charring after the event, keeping it intact while also giving a visual reminder of the ceremony. After a while, they started reusing certain ivory items for this ceremony specifically. Eventually, it turned into an art form of crafting different amulets.

Cold age

After the end of the ancient ones, the dwarves came out of the mountains and started living on the surface world again, though the climate was significantly colder now. There was now plenty of wood and earth, so they started building bigger pyres and mounds. As they explored and discovered other animals and plants, they discovered that ivory had similar properties to bone. As ivory was seen as a more precious commodity, they started to decorate the items with intricate patterns and shapes, slowly turning it into somewhat of an art form.
As the dwarves dispersed and settled in places far apart, most of the ceremony remained the same. However, the way they shaped the amulets started to change drastically. Inspired by the differing environments of each of the clans.

Silver rain

After the silver rain, and the warming of the climate, the populations started to grow and contact between clans became easier and faster. There wasn't enough space to create a new mound for all of the dead ones, so they only built pyres and scattered the ashes across the fields.
The human custom of burying the dead, and covering their grave with flowers was a shocking happening for dwarves, as picking flowers is like severing a spirit from the world, and was strongly forbidden by the dwarves.

Components and tools

• A pyre
• A fire-resistant plate with holes in it, and a distinct area in the middle for one amulet to lay
• A suspension system for the plate
• The spirit amulet of the deceased is placed in the middle of the plate
• The spirit amulets of the clan members placed around it on the plate
• Fire
• A song of passing
• water

Participants

The clan's spirit guardian: leads the ceremony
The entire clan: places their amulets on the plate and speak a wish for the spirit of the deceased