Death & Mourning

The modern funary tradition of The Fairelands involves arranging thea dead with their hands cupped over their nose and mouth before burial. Though the Ascendancy takes ownership of this practice, known as "breath-binding," it actually dates back to the time of Oldfaire.

The Ancient Fairen people believed that souls must remain with their bodies to find their eternal rest, and that a soulless body became an empty vessel that could be taken over by another entity. Souls that left their bodies would wander the earth in grief and anger, forever looking for their corporeal form. Ancient Fairens thought that, one day, the dead could awaken and live again so long as their souls were properly preserved within their remains.

To avoid this separation, and believing that the human soul was linked to breath, the Ancient Fairen people buried their dead with their mouths and noses covered or sealed shut. The average citizen would use ceremonial fabric tied around the lower half of the face; the poor, those caught unaware, or those at war would bury the dead with tehir hands covering their mouths; and the wealthy would use elaborate gold masks.

To dishonor an enemy, punish criminals, or ensure that someone would not rise in the Awakening, they woudl bury bodies with their mouths forced open, often utilizing a special contraption that held the jaw in place. Historians refer to this ritual as the "rictus rite."

Those who follow the tradition in modern times will cover a deceased loved one's nose and mouth as soon as possible upon death, even disrupting crime scene evidence or facing enemy fire if the situation demands.

There is also a tradition across Hale that invovles "pinning" a person's spirit to the cemetery in which they're buried. By pushing a sewing pin, hat pin, or needle bearing the deceased name into the graveyard fence, mourners hope to catch the wandering souls of those who were not properly breath-bound for burial.

Pre-war, this tradition was rarely observed, and the sight of a fence-pin was unusual. However, many Fairens who lost their children, siblings, and spouses to The Last Great War have taken strongly to this practice. For the bodies of soldiers who were buried without breath-binding, people will attempt to pin the spirit to the graveyard so the dead know where to find rest and do not wander, tortured and forever looking for their body.

While some have taken to arguing that spirits lost in distant war zones cannot possibly find the graveyard where they are interred, the tradtion has merely adapted to encompass a name-marked pin operating as a signal flare for wandering souls.

With this great national loss, a new and highly profitable market was born. Merchants host cars along the streets outside of cemeteris selling decorated pins for grieving customers at a steep price. There is also a passionate spiritualist movement, with local mediums, spirit photographers, and burgeoning cults offering ways for people to try to contact their loved ones. While some mediums offer genuine connection to those in the spirit world, the majority are simply charlatans looking for a profit.

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