Culture/Death

## Isles of Veyhn

The dead are stripped and gently brushed with saltwater and wrapped in either seaweed or sea silk, with their hair kept down and unadorned and unwrapped through a hole on the top of the head. The ankles are bound to a heavy smooth round stone or gem with pearls strung with sea silk or banana fiber. The bodies are left in an underwater graveyard, with not identifiers as their long sleep must not be disturbed. The family will then sing heartrending songs for three days straight, as the head of the family is tasked with writing their life story that will be put to the handful of official funerary songs, and the possessions are distributed naturally. Though they are buried naked as "all are equal in death", the burial materials differ by wealth, thus subverting this ideal.

## Kanne

The bodies are dissected and dried, with the sinew, bones, and skin being used to craft everyday materials. The practice is so common that visitors are often unaware that the book they are buying is bound in human skin. All the items of the person are given to their brother or sister that chose each other as children, the person then takes up their name and items and appearance (wig of their hair) and job and family, replacing them fully. While those that lost the family member buy a slave to be their new son/daughter/mother. The person who absorbed the identity is tasked with enacting justice or taking revenge, and is not free to do anything else until this task is done. The dust of the bones is used to make buildings.

## Sorellicor

There is a hall of the dead, where the corpses are used as homes for displaced spirits and made to guard it, the upper level has busts lining the walls, very accurate to the person's face.

## Isla Antrion

Humble shrines are kept in homes, while the rich have decadent home temples to honor the dead. The rich and important have their heads covered in amber and displayed in either their home shrines, or the ruler's building. Ever the innovators, they purchased a technology from the Ithrynians that allows them to place the spirit or mind of a person into an android. They make hyperrealistic androids, but this is only granted to the very rich, as some poor get duped into living forever in rudimentary service robots.

## Camling

Burial mounds with carved walls depicting the god of death and the souls in the afterlife, a great feast is held in honor of the deceased every year on the anniversary of their death, and loved ones are expected to come to pray to the god of death often, so that they will have mercy on the soul of the deceased and treat them well, the people are buried with possessions they will need in the afterlife.

## Ithryn

Ever ones for ceremonies and grandeur, they build pyres, the taller the pyre, the more important the person, and the richer the person, the more rare and expensive the wood, they are covered in a white sheet, and burned along with fragrant flowers, most commonly roses and lavender, the head of house, or the spouse of the deceased will light the pyre, the remaining ashes are made into elaborate gems and jewelry for the family.

## Yorwyn

The blood of the deceased is drunk by the loved ones in a long ceremony, funerals always happen at night, with full moons being especially auspicious, some blood is kept in vials worn by the loved ones, the corpses are put in elegantly carved coffins (carved with family seal/crest), and placed in a graveyard with a moonstone headstone to be better seen in the dark, before the coffin is closed, a wooden stake is pushed through the chest and into the ground, to ensure they cannot rise again. Others, the more pro-vampire people, bury their dead in large stone crypts that are kept locked under heavy wooden doors, and there are torches kept always lit so as to not leave them in eternal darkness, as these crypts are not so good at preventing vampires, they are only open to be visited during the daylight hours.

## Evesté

The bodies of the deceased are chopped into ten pieces (head, torso, 2 legs, 2 arms, 2 hands, 2 feet), and each is given to the ten most important people in their lives, to be buried under their houses and thus forever with them. The elderly are killed at age 60 by their grandchildren in a solemn ceremony using the family's ancestral dagger, or a cheap dagger for a few coins at a market stall, the children must slit either the throat or the wrists and comfort the dying family member. The children are usually given the hands.

## Nāmen

A tree is planted for every birth, and burned for every death. The burned tree is usually a sick one, and the corpse is enclosed in a type of hollow tree endemic to the country, the tree is tended to by the family, as the tree's life is the person's second life, and thus is treated as the family member.

## Inua:ta

Their is a raucous celebration of their life, and the body is preserved and painted and dressed and kept in their room and treated like they are still living, with food being given to them, and family talking to them, and sometimes, it is said, they will talk back, and even more disturbing, at certain times of the year, they may even move.

## Tör

As wolves are prized companions, one's remains will be fed to their wolf, with the bones powdered and put into the flames of a fire to induce memories of the loved one, or commune with their spirit. As all the people are left-handed, the left hand is removed and used as a hilt for weapons, used by the family's champion, these weapons are said to possess all the strength of the person.

## Pellion

As the ground is hard, corpses are buried with their spouse (the spouse is buried alive if not dead), by way of being placed aboveground and covered in a mound of rocks along the tops of the cliffs, or deep in the caves by the sea. The hair of the deceased is given to the birds to make their nests.

## Azzamar

Bodies are given to the volcanoes, as it is an efficient way to dispose of them, and the corpses are just shells and not worthy of any special treatment, though a portrait or picture is taken of them after being cleaned up, and can be edited to make them look more presentable, one free copy is given to each family, regardless of wealth, while the rich can afford to make more and larger ones to be framed in their halls.

## Sa'hasa

The bodies are placed vertically into a hole in the ground, feet first, facing west if a good person, and east if a criminal not worthy of looking upon the home of the gods. Any citizen who died abroad must be collected by the Ashkas and buried in the land they were born on, while foreigners who were not citizens are exported to be buried in their homeland. The teeth are made into a necklace that hangs on a tall wooden pole or tall stack of rocks. The symbol of resting peace is carved into the foreheads of criminals, while it is painted on the forehead of the good people using the blood of their closest kin. Each loved one is tasked with putting a handful of dirt on the body to cover the hole, and it is done until the body is fully covered.

## Rani Heriven

The dead are encased in ice as soon as possible, and are kept posed and well-dressed to be looked upon by their family in giant glowing blue caves. When room is needed for more corpses, they attempt to revive the cryogenic corpses, and some of the time they succeed.

## Soa

The Soans are lovers of beauty and lovers of nature, so they strip and gently wash the body, and arrange it in a fetal position and place it into a pod of woven twigs and if old, bury the pod under the roots of their chosen tree, or if young, plant a tree over the pod, so that the roots will grow to embrace them. For the young, a temporary carved stone will say their name, and the coming roots will be guided to form their name, whereas the adults will already have their name formed from the roots since they became adults, in preparation for their death, they will also have planted the tree itself in their chosen location, though families generally keep to one nearby forest, some choose to be buried in a forest of their childhood, even if far away. The type of tree is chosen by their parents, as their name is, and should match their essential character. The loved ones will craft items from the dead branches, and give those to the deceased friends' as tokens of appreciation. If one sleeps under the tree, it is said they will be visited in their dreams by the loved one.

## Manasoa

They waste nothing, and feel they must give themselves to nature as they have taken all their lives, they are thus devoured by large black flesh-eating beetles that are poured over their body in masses. Their bones are thus collected and, depending on the tribe, the skull will be painted and displayed, the whole skeleton will be made a statue standing guard outside the home, or the bones will be made into jewelry, with certain bones going to certain family members, such as the ribs going to the mother or wife, the hands to the children, the jaw to the husband or father, et cetera.

## Loron

The dead are placed in boats on a bed of flowers, dressed in red, with their weapon placed upon them, the boats then go into the ocean, where a flaming arrow ignites them. The women cut their hair and the men shave their heads. The deceased is never to have their name mentioned again, and is rarely spoken of, only when the moon turns to blood are the dead allowed to walk again, and be remembered, as the spirits all rise from the sea, and loved ones rejoice. The past is the past, and what does not exists should not exist, and thus what is dead should not remain in words or thoughts.

## Solmera

The deceased are made into statues, they are covered in clay which is then heated until hardened, these people populate a town of the dead, having specific poses and given clothing. It is taboo to visit this town and awaken the dead, as it is meant to trick the gods that they are alive, so that their souls stay in their bodies and live out a normal life, rather than being eaten by the hungry gods. Those travelers who dare to enter the town never leave, as it always has guardians that paint themselves daily in clay, and are capable of standing very still, and never talk, they have a chemical that petrifies the flesh, and they will use it to inter visitors, who will now be forever part of the town. This method only works on the living, and is excruciatingly painful, and done with no joy, but with righteous anger at those who do not show respect to the dead.

## Chovran Islands

The brain, eyes, heart, and tongue are eaten in a lavish ceremony, by the parents and the children, as the spouse is not blood-related. The rest of the remains are placed on the only mountain in the isles, on the plateau on top to be taken by the birds and the elements. Those that eat the flesh take on some of their characteristics, and thus they live on.

## Koros

The body has the flesh burned away by acid, and the bones are burned and the ashes sent into space to join the dust of stars, each star in the sky is said to be formed by the ashes of a person, and thus they live on, constantly looking down on those they left behind. Those who spend most of their time in space simply hold a short funeral, and eject the body directly into the heat of a star, and are said to now be a part of it.

## Greywind's Rest

The bodies of the deceased are placed inside the hollow walls of buildings, with family houses containing many ancestors in the walls. Criminals are put into the wall of their cell, with their head exposed, they are thus starved to death for the death sentence, or if they died a natural death, their heads are still exposed to be looked upon in shame.

## Katha

This small nation was given as a reluctant gift to the android hosts of dead people that rose against the corrupt corporations of Antrion. They made more robots that slowly developed their own humanity. When the robotic body deteriorates it is repaired, when the host is sick of living, as many are, their bodies are recycled to create new ones. Once given their own nation, they send agents to capture every basic robot that houses a soul, to be given a more appropriate vessel. As other nations began to create artificial life, Katha became a haven for those escaping slavery after having realized their own consciousness. The defensive might of the Katha has managed to repel any who would come to reclaim their stolen or lost property.