Exalt Pillars

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**Viewer discretion advised, this page lightly touches on funeral traditions and mentions death multiple times.**

In clans with grounded homes, pillars honoring dragons who have left to serve their deities are often maintained with diligence and the utmost respect. It is, after all, the highest honor a dragon could attain. This page seeks to cover traditions regarding these pillars from all eleven flights. As traditions, *not everyone follows them,* so do not feel pressured to add this to your preexisting lore.

Exaltation pillars are often constructed with two key parts: a base, inscribed with a biography of sorts about the exaltee depicted (often left hollow so it may serve as a casket if a body may be recovered), a prayer for their safety, or anything else those dear to them wish to have noted on their pillar as well; and a depiction of the exaltee's likeness. Each flight has a different manner of construction for these pillars and constructed likenesses of exaltees. These styles are often mixed for dragons who had moved between clans or flights before electing to serve a deity, with the pillar constructed in the uniform style of those within the flight whose deity they chose to serve, and their likeness in the manner in which their home flight would depict them. It's not uncommon for a pillar to be updated with further tablets or extra information further down the line as word of their accomplishments reaches their home clans and they become more detailed with time.

Communal pillars are constructed for those who wish to be exalted without a unique pillar, and depict generic monotone likenesses of different breeds of dragon in the traditional manner of their flight of origin atop the pillar. These communal pillars are notable in the sense that they do not often have hollow interiors, and the remains of those who wish to go unnamed are disposed of (or otherwise treated according to the flight's traditions) near the place where the exaltee fell. These communal pillars are often host to a singular prayer for those who go unnamed, and in places where a mass burial or funeral for the nameless exalted took place, usually tucked away in a hard-to-see space, it's common to see a mass tombstone, inscribed with names and dates of death.

### Earth

Earth pillars are carved from stone, and have hollow interiors beneath the lid, as most Earth clans bury their dead. Atop the lid is a carving of the exaltee's likeness, made from the same stone with which their pillar was constructed. On the base of the pillar is a tablet with the traditional prayer, biography, or whatever else the exaltee's family wished to have inscribed there.

### Wind

Wind pillars are distinct, often arranged on a hill, cliff, or other high place, and constructed with bamboo, made to grow around a porcelain tablet as a sort of frame. Attached is a kite depicting the exaltee's likeness, kept tied to the pillar. Should the kite become damaged at all, they are burned, and a replacement is made to be displayed in its place. Wind inscriptions (paintings in this case) are often prayers, though biographies tend to be delivered in poem form. Subsequent plates can be added as necessary.

### Plague

Plague pillars are often simple and crude in their base construction, adorned all around with heartfelt messages from the exaltee's family and friends, rather than a singular tablet like most other flights. The communal pillars here are often the most detailed, with a number of prayers to those exalted. The dead are traditionally sank in the Wyrmwound, or "having soup with Mama," as hatchlings are often told, so these pillars are often left solid, unless an exaltee specifically wishes to be buried. These pillars are adorned with a number of scrimshaws carved from severed bones of the ground below to depict the exaltee's likeness, and added to fervently with visual scrimshaws instead of additional tablets in the tradition of other flights regarding their biographical documentation of the exalted's accomplishments.

### Arcane

Pillars from the Arcane flight are constructed entirely out of pink chalcedony, as the mineral is very common in their territory. The exalted are often depicted as chalcedony golems, circumventing the need of most exalt couriers, as they can deliver announcements regarding further accomplishments, or the exaltee's death and whether or not they'd need to prepare for a funeral. These golems are of remarkable construction, and have a stunning amount of motion freedom, capable of moving their wings, forelimbs, part of their tail, bust and head. They can hold conversation, and are able to transmit speech from the exaltee they depict. The golems can relay messages to family and friends.

### Lightning

Lightning flight pillars are made from spare parts, wires and machinery. Each pillar and statue is unique because of this. While there are dedicated artisans in most clans, it's not uncommon for an exalted manager's employees to construct the likeness of their manager before they go off to serve their new boss - or *the* Bossdad - as a final gift to their overseer. While there's a noticeable dip in quality, most consider the action touching. Many add their personal coffee blend to the inscription, as well.