Muraekai

Muraekai (meaning Wall Burial in language of mountain elves from central Markarian Peninsula) is a traditional way of burial typical for their culture. Its most well known example is the so called Thousand Steps in Valley of Ashes, which is a muraekai burial area for ancient elven Kingdom of Ceralyn, preserved forever by the nature of magical anomaly.
Today it is severely degraded due to general barbarization of local elves, but is still happening, especially when people of some importance die.

History

Muraekai probably has an origin in long forgotten times when local elves were still a part of Xylian Dominion. All that is known is that Kingdom of Ceralyn formed right after its collapse and that it started using muraekai right from the start.
The apex of it seems to have come during the last days of Ceralyn. The biggest tomb on Thousand Steps was the one belonging to Marylyna Tesawvir, insane queen that brought an end to the Ceralyn. After she was buried alive, what remained of the kingdom began using rather pathetic excuses of muraekai tombs. Even this leftover degenerated further when humans overrun remnants of Ceralyn, the rest mostly being a very primitive wall burials.

Execution

Muraekai means 'wall burial' and it is pretty much a good description of what it is. Mountain elves carve tombs on the walls of the cliffs. In most cases they are barely a hole in the wall, where the dead is ceremonially laid to rest.
In ancient times the muraekai tombs were bigger. The Thousand Steps includes entire burial complexes, with kings of Ceralyn laid to rest together with their entire courts to attend to them in their death.