Death by Water

Along the shores of the Niben river and its tributaries, one occasionally comes across unusual stone edifices: catacombs dedicated to Arkay featuring docks, canal access, or tiered step-wells, all adorned with the silks and bright pigments so favored by the Nibenese. These are considered some of the oldest remaining funerary edifices of the Nibenay, key to their ancient custom of water- or river-burial.

The presumed original version of this ritual, as practiced by the early Nedic tribes, took place after the deceased was subjected to embalmement by moths. The shrouded body would then be placed in a  small hako skiff, accompanied by grave goods and personal belongings, and be cast off down the Niben river (or whatever tributary of that mighty stream the departed lived near). By chance and river-fortune, the skiff was then top find its way to Topal Bay and the open ocean, in an echo of the soul's long voyage towards the Divine.

Of course, modern versions of the practice are less haphazard, which is where both the Nibenese catacombs and the Order of the Psychopompoi come in. The Psychopomps, a charismatic sub-cult of Arkay, specialize in transporting the dead across the water. Affluent families hire a skiffman to pilot their dead anywhere they might need to go: between the Isles of the Imperial City, on a last pilgrimage circuit, or to visit temples and shrines favored by the deceased. Most often, they sail the skiffs towards the ancient Niben catacombs, whose curious architecture is built specifically to allow a skiff to enter the building (either by a direct canal gate or, where geography does not allow this, through cranes and pulley systems). Being a skiffman of the Psychopomps is a prestigious, but precarious position: if he were to accidentally sink the skiff, condemning the deceased to a life as a wreck-haunt, the skiffman would be deemed untouchable, an outcast of Nibenese society.

The catacombs have a curious reputation among the Nibenese. Some traditionalists consider them a perversion of the original rite, which allowed the Niben river itself to separate the virtuous from the wicked. While most catacombs are maintained by the Great Faith of Arkay or sub-cults of that deity, persistent rumors paint them as the homes of moth-eaters, vampires, deviant cults, and wreck-haunts, the ghosts of miscreants marooned on the Path of the Spheres. Furthermore, the soft soil of the Niben basin is ill-suited to these deep constructions, and many catacombs are known to flood periodically.

As can be surmised, river-burial is closely interrelated to moth-burial, and both rituals are often combined in some way. Usually, the body of the deceased rests a while in the withering-crypts of a nearby silk-school, where the carnivorous ancestor moths shroud the corpse in a cocoon of raw silk. If a silk-school is unavailable, the body is sometimes brought to the catacombs in its original state: most such places are choked with moths anyway, and they will make quick work of any fresh or only partially devoured cadavers.

Water-burial was a popular method of interment when the Nibenese communities were few and far apart, but in an age where the Niben River is one of the busiest trade arteries in Tamriel, it has become an inconvenience. The Elder Council has instated a harsh tax on the practice, in essence restricting it to the more affluent castes. Others have turned to internment in tombs and graves combined with the practice of pure moth-burial, still the most prestigious method of internment in the east.