Death Rituals

A Reference for Writers

An Overview

As we’ve come to learn, life in the Fourth Epoch varies quite drastically from the way we live our lives in the here and now. The rise and fall of civilizations along with congruence and magic have altered the way that folks see things which, in turn, changes many of the rituals in practice. Death as a concept might still be perceived in a way that we might look at it today, but the rituals that take place after someone dies have shifted from our modern day burial practices.

For starters, with the Well of Souls being widely accepted and abundant Necromasters across the continent, it is the soul that people focus on more than the body itself once somebody has passed on. To many, it is believed that when somebody dies, their body isn’t attached to them anymore: The body is empty, and the soul moves on. Due to this belief, burials almost never happen in this time. The most common practice is storing the bodies in a specific location for a necromaster to revive them. If it is a more rural area where a Necromaster’s presence isn’t guaranteed, some communities will sacrifice the bodies of the departed to the monsters that share their area as an unspoken peace offering. (While beasts might not speak Gibblang, they understand food, so it appeases them for long enough.) In the case where there is no chance of a Necromaster coming to revive the body and no beast to sacrifice them to, the final resort would be cremation.

Individual Practices

This is not to say that folks don’t have their own rituals to wish the departed soul well on their journey. Some cultures will place the late soul’s favorite belonging in the body’s hands to bring that love and piece of them wherever their soul wanders next, others will leave the body in the late soul’s favorite location for a day to honor the life they lived. The Well Devoted have a ceremony in which the body is sprinkled with water in hopes that the soul will safely make its way to the well, followed by a {tea ceremony} where they drink a blend of tea inspired by the person they’ve sent off and reminisce on the pleasant memories they’ve shared with their late friend.

The only folks known in the area to bury their dead are members of The Dirt, who are adamantly against revival by a Necromaster due to their belief that their body, once departed, belongs to the earth. While they happen, however, it seems to only occur in folks who are extremely devoted to this faith. The more common practice is cremation of the body and using the ashes in the soil of the next harvest.

When it comes to the Garshalla, many of the routines vary ever so slightly based on which tribe they belong to. Most of them do have a ritual that includes painting the face of the dead body in honor of the warrior that fell and the Divinity they served, along with a prayer that the soul that has left will live to fight another glorious battle some day.

The Alium, more often than not, follow the practices of the region they have settled in, but those in the nation of Kende follow a practice similar to that of ancient Greeks. Rather than coins being placed on the eyes, however, the Alium will place a small object connected to their family line on the forehead of the deceased for an evening. This is in hopes that they will remember who they are, and the life they lived, and will hopefully find their way back home.