The Boy and the Ghost

To New Z'hratians, death is not always the end. The Recycling and Decay Union is the guild responsible for the disposal of corpses, whether that be breaking them down for fertilizer or reanimating them to serve as skeletal laborers. In fact, being of use to one's family and community after death is a point of pride, as it's a practical way of looking after their loved ones after they've finally passed on.
But death is also a deeply spiritual matter in a world where hauntings, seances, and ghosts are reasonably common. Spirits- vengeful undead and shadow monstosities, vampires and invisible eldritch beings- can prey upon the city's vulnerable, tangible living, but it takes a spirit to truly drive them away.
And, during the longest, coldest night of the year, the spirits come out to play, turning New Z'hrat into a battleground. Those people who have given their corpses in service of their loved ones band together with the Silent One to protect the living they hold dear.

Summary

Once upon a time, before the dawn of cities and magic, there was a young and curious child, always getting himself into no end of trouble with all sorts of mischievous schemes. One day, he was out playing in the field, pulling earthworms out of the wet soil for his latest prank, when his father called out to him with terrible news. The boy quickly returned home, just in time to hold his mother's hand as she breathed her last. 
His mother had always warned him about the Day of Silence, the day when the dark and cold seemed to never end, the day that evil spirits roamed the land. On the Day, all the townspeople locked themselves in their homes and hung up magical talismans to keep the spirits away. But the greiving boy knew that there were good spirits that roamed as well, so he snuck from his home in the hopes of seeing his mother again.
The boy had made it less than a half-mile from his home before he was attacked by some sort of monster, a creature of grief and fear, of shadowy claws and red eyes. He tried to run, but a nightmarish tendril wrapped around his leg, biting like a snake, and he could not escape.
Just when he thought all was lost, the ghost of his mother arrived. A bright beam of light,  which eminated from the love in her heart, destroyed the shadowy figure. Her warm glow guided him safely back home into the arms of his father. His mother swore to always protect him, and the boy promised that he wouldn't cause any more trouble.
But death comes at the end of everyone's story- even the gods are no exception to this basic truth. The shadow monster's sting had injected him with a mysterious venom that the local Healer could not neutralize. The boy died the very next night. From then on, his bright little soul would be forever near his mother's, protecting his family for the rest of eternity.

Historical Basis

• Roaming spirits on the Day of Silence is real. Ghosts, undead, and other intangible monsters always become more active around that day.
• Some even report seeing the Silent One, the deity of death, even though the Silent One died alongside the other gods. They often take the form of a young night elf boy, although the Silent One's child form and this story are debated as a chicken-and-egg type of scenario.
• While this specific event is generally seen as a fairy tale, the fact remains that, every year on the Day of Silence, there's always a few people who die or go missing because they failed to heed its warning.

Spread

Everyone who's capable of language has heard at least some version of this story. Parents and teachers use it to warn young children to avoid evil spirits.

Variations & Mutation

• In most versions, the child is a night elf boy, but not always.
• There are probably hundreds of different ways the mother dies, but it's usually as a result of illness or childbirth. Sometimes, it's a fall or other fatal accident, and the boy arrives too late to hear her last words.
• Sometimes the father dies instead, and sometimes the boy is orphaned.
• This is actually the happier version of the story. In most cases, people killed by evil spirits become evil spirits themselves, and early tellings were more brutally honest about that particular danger. More modern parents find that the fear of death is more than enough to keep kids in line without scaring them to death.
• There have been modern-day retellings as well, including a stage adaptation. 

Date of First Recording

112

Date of Setting

Pre-0

Related Organizations

• The Recycling and Decay Union