Across Terra, there is a hard rule given by the God of Death that all must be buried in order to pass on to
Limbo. Only after the deceased has been buried can their ghost manifest, and begin its journey to pass on and one day, hopefully rejoin the cycle of life and death. Despite this, the actual customs of funerary rituals and how bodies are handled varies wildly depending on one's race and culture.
Angels
Among angels, the only 'correct' form of burial is for an individual to be buried in the ground with an individual tomb constructed above the grave, with the most complex belonging to those of higher class. No matter one's social status, ranking, or wealth, those who do not receive such a burial are seen as lowly or even criminal. This way of thinking is most prevalent in upper class angelic society, and heavily pressured in regions high in angelic population that no matter the cultural, religious, or racial differences, this practice must apply to everyone. Angels are often very particular with the rules and traditions surrounding their graveyards, in that remains must never be allowed to be moved once they have been buried; moving a body once it has been buried considered disrespectful not only to the dead, but their surviving family as well and taken as a personal insult. Angelic graveyards are often extremely crowded, and given the rules that bodies cannot be moved even if a graveyard is full, graveyards often are covered over with more soil, stacking remains and creating hills. Graveyards are often found at the center of cities and towns, surrounded by walls to keep the soil within them.
Outcasts of angelic society, such as criminals, the poor, or those angels commonly discriminate against such as vampires, werewolves, and demons, are often given quick burials in shallow graves marked only with stones. This is a point of contention between these groups due to their differing cultures and ideals surrounding death and burial. For vampires in particular, this form of burial is considered one of the highest forms of disrespect.
When an individual dies, their body is washed in scented oils and perfumes, wrapped in white linen, and buried among idols and statues of their patron gods. Within angelic families a common conflict is which divine idols their family member should be buried with, often with the individual's wishes overlooked for the ideals of the surviving family. The body, once wrapped, is dressed in elaborate chains often made out of gold, silver, or copper and decorated with scripture and semi-precious gems. The body will be laid to rest nearby the graves of other family members, but never allowed to actually touch their grave or tombstone. Tombstones are most often made out of marble, granite, or for lower class and less wealthy families, concrete, carved with elaborate depictions of the gods.
Arachne
Centauri
Centauri funerals closely follow many traditions within
Shia's Cult. Funerals are celebrations of the life lived that has now been lost, and all their acheivement, and meant to be a merry affair as their essence rejoins the world to perpetuate the cycle of life and death.
Demons
Dragons
Fairies
Just as in life, in death a fairy's role revolves entirely on the cycle of sustaining the fungus farms that allow their hives to survive. No matter their caste, when a fairy dies, their body is taken back to the hive if the death occurred outside it, and buried under sections of fungus that need additional nutrients. Bodies may be broken up if they are too large, such as with drones or queens, and spread to different areas of the fungus chambers. This is not seen as a grim act or as butchery by fairies, but rather as one of the most important acts a fairy can do to further their hive and better all of its population. By being buried in the fungus farm, the fungus receives nutrients from the bodies to grow and later be fed to larva and pupae, ensuring the next generation has food.
Although the exact rituals themselves can vary depending on each hive, it is near universal among fairies that to not have their bodies buried within the hive is seen as a great shame- Not one of the individual, but that they cannot be honored in such a way. Wars, conflicts, and disasters often result in fairy bodies being unrecoverable and unable to be transported, as well as predation by wild animals or dragons. Soldier casts in some hives will occasionally try and seek out what caused the death of their comrades, and view killing it to be buried in the hive as a suitable replacement that can restore any lost honor to the individual who has died.
Harpies
Mages
Mermidae
When mermidae die, their bodies will float for a time on the surface of the water. Most mermidae societies will deliberately sink bodies in order to prevent it from floating as way of preventing disease, scavengers, and predators from lurking near their homes and hunting grounds- This is most often done by piercing through the throat, swim bladder, and stomach to release gasses, and the body cavity may be filled with rocks or shells. Sinking bodies is almost always done in open water or near the drop offs of reefs and other underwater formations, where they are feasted upon by fish, sharks, and other scavengers.
Naga
Werewolves
Werewolf society favors natural burials in unmarked graves far outside of living spaces. Bodies are disposed of quickly, generally at most two to three days after death, before major decomposition can occur. Among werewolves, more importance is placed on the personal remembrance of an individual than physical tombs, graves, or markers, which are often viewed as excessive, wasteful, and as worshipping a person's corpse. It is important in werewolf culture that bodies are not treated with chemicals or altered after death and should be allowed to return to nature- if a body is dug up by scavenging animals, then it should be allowed to remain as such.
Vampires
Among vampiric society, there is a long lasting tradition where their dead are cremated and remains stored in family mausoleums. These mausoleums are typically massive, holding multiple generations worth of ashes and bone fragments in partitioned chambers, organizing the remains based on which branch of the family tree a person belongs to. Ashes are stored in elaborate urns, often made out of red, black, or gold glass. It is thought that the cremation tradition started in the early human era, due to some regional human beliefs that vampires and 'witches' had to be burned to prevent harm to humankind, and this later became a tradition in vampiric circles. Ground burial is seen as a massive disrespect to vampires, stemming from later human belief of entombing vampires, staking them, and burying them in the ground with rocks or bricks in their mouths. Differences in burial traditions has caused numerous cultural conflicts with angels and werewolves in the past.
One burial tradition common among vampires is the mixing of remains when a mausoleum becomes too crowded to store any more remains. The remains of the oldest branches of the family tree will be combined and distributed to other mausoleums in order to still fit in the same urn, and allow members of the family who may live too far to come to the traditional mausoleum to still have their remains with that of their family. This greatly saves space, particularly in large families with many branches and many children in each generation.
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