Under the Burning Sun, Under the Burning Sand

"Kez" said the scribe. "Grazneh el-Kez Thaur sinkar len."
Snooks shrugged, it had been worth a shot. The Thaurissian scribe didn't know anything about a coffin. Apparently they didn't bury people in that way. A hole was dug in the sand, and the body was placed inside, wrapped in cloth. The location was chosen specially; burial mounds were only dug in places where the sand would not shift until after the body had rotted away to dust. Apparently a kind of beetle lived in the sand that hastened the decay of bodies, stripping them down to bone in less than a day. The only thing the beetles would not eat were metal, bone and cloth. During his time in the desert, Snooks had seen long streams of cloth blowing in the wind.
The dead weren't forgotten however. Each unit carried a long strip of cloth, onto which the callsigns of the dead were embroidered. It seemed odd to Snooks to record the nicknames of soldiers in such a way, rather than their actual names, but he later found out that this was just another relic of the culture: Monikers and ranks were earned in battle, and soldiers tended to leave their names at home, where-ever "home" was.
Snooks had a bad time trying to get much information out of the Thaurissian troops. They treated him as an outsider, and while they had little access to divine magic, those divinations they did possess showed Snooks to be something that did not belong, something out of place, and so he was largely shunned. He had learned much however. The language was strange, and while he could not speak it, he could listen to it and read it well enough. The sunburned Dwarves and dark-skinned Elves came from different backgrounds, and Thaurissia was probably only one such homeland, although it would seem to be the larger, judging by how dominant the language was. Another language was sometimes spoken by the Elves, which sounded like when Shades spoke Tien to mock the Shens; squawky yet rhythmic. 
The Scribe had taken pity on "Bashswen", and tried to at least act friendly towards Snooks. Snooks had been called "Bashswen" since his early days among the Thaurissians, but had only recently worked out that a Bashswen was a mythical creature that lived far out among the dunes,that was said to scream awfully through the night, hoping to lure hunters and sentries into its waiting maw.
The Thaurissians were a strange people, to be sure. They had very little access to divine magic, and miracles like raise dead or summon monster were unheard of. Those with access to divine magic were treated with reverence and respect. When he asked about this, it was clear that divine magic had once been common here, but as the Scribe said "The gods went wrong", although he refused to elaborate.
Arcane Magic was a tool of the dragons, and a "Wyrm-fenya" was someone who'd studied the dragons tools, and learned to make use of them. Snooks easily recognised the "tools" as simple wands and wondrous items, but in comparison to the divine casters, a wyrm-fenya was treated with suspicion. The Thaurissians seemed to fear that a wrym-fenya may go mad at any moment, and wreak havok among their ranks. Snooks had no way to tell if this was true, or just superstition.
The lack of divine magic, along with constant skirmishes with the dragons had taken a toll on the unit. Yokai, Snook's first friend among the Thaurissians, had died a few months previously. He'd learned that Yokai simply meant "Captain", but on the unit's banner, her name had been recorded as "Sar-Rar", which Snooks fancied was some kind of corruption of "Sarah". Her death was even more unfortunate, as mere days later the Thaurissian army had managed a number of stunning victories against the dragon, and morale was at an all time high. He wasn't sure what had brought about this sudden wave of good fortune, and no one was interested in telling him.
When the casket had been retrieved by The Great Downwards, Tabitha had pinged Snooks to let him know. Snooks was not surprised at the secretive attitude of the Thaurissians, but he'd learned a little in his short journey at least: The Thaurissians did not build caskets, except to transport sick people, who'd stay cool inside the confines of the stone, and stop them from getting sand in their wounds. The "redenz" were essentially just stretchers to carry the wounded. Who'd build one out of living stone?
Time, thought Snooks, to head down into Rappan Athuk and see for himself.