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Death & Burial

“Honoring the Departed”

Death and Burial Rituals Death and Burial Rituals

Death Rituals

Immediate (Within Hours)

Confirmation: Check for Rot-infection (critical) Clergy Notification: If available (priest attends) Body Preparation: Washing, wrapping, prayers Family Gathering: Immediate kin notified

If Rot-Infected

Immediate Cremation: No ceremony (safety priority) Ashes Disposed: Not kept (corruption risk) Minimal Mourning: Public health over ritual Tragedy: Denied proper burial

Funeral Ceremonies

Standard Service (1-2 Days After Death)

Location: Chapel, home, or outdoor space Officiant: Clergy (if available), elder (if not) Attendees: Family, friends, community

Structure: 1. Constellation prayers (deceased’s patron) 2. Life stories (remembrance) 3. Constellation of Memory invocation 4. Final farewell

Duration: 1-3 hours (wealth/status dependent)

Cremation

Universal Practice: All bodies burned Reasons: - Rot prevention (primary) - Practical (limited burial space on islands) - Spiritual (fire purifies) - Safety (corruption doesn’t spread)

Pyre: Wood (expensive), attended, prayers during

Ashes Disposal

Sky Release (Most Common)

Method: Ashes scattered from ship/platform edge Symbolism: Return to Aether, join sky, freedom Prayer: “Sky gave you breath, sky reclaims you, sky remembers always” Timing: Dawn or dusk (symbolic transitions)

Kept Ashes (Wealthy/Sentimental)

Urns: Small portion kept (family altar) Risk: Rot contamination concern (minimal but feared) Status: Wealth symbol (can afford urn) Controversy: Some clergy discourage (Rot paranoia)

Mourning Customs

Immediate Family

Duration: 30 days formal mourning Clothing: Dark colors, simple Behavior: Subdued, avoid celebrations Support: Community provides meals, labor, presence

Extended

Duration: No formal period (grief varies) Memorial: Annual remembrance (Remembrance Day) Continuation: Life continues (survival demands it)

Constellation-Specific Variations

Constellation of Memory: Emphasis on stories, preservation The Abyss: Acceptance focus, peaceful endings Light: Hope for departed, belief in transcendence Serpent (forbidden): Transformation view, not true death

Special Cases

Lost at Sea (Air)

No Body: Memorial service only Symbolic: Object representing deceased burned Grief: Harder (no closure, no ashes) Frequency: Common (pilots, accidents)

Mass Casualties

Efficiency: Multiple cremations simultaneously Communal: Shared grief, combined ceremony Trauma: Overwhelming (plague, Rot outbreak, disaster)

Rot-Beast Victims

Horror: Bodies often irrecoverable Service: Symbolic (assume death) Stigma: Transformation shame (families traumatized) Support: The Remembrance specializes in helping

Children’s Deaths

Heartbreak: Too common (high mortality) Special Care: Extra gentleness, community support Small Urns: Often kept (parents can’t let go) Grief: Prolonged, profound

Cultural Variations

Ironhold (Military)

Honors: Medals, formal ceremony, military presence Efficiency: Less sentiment, more procedure Hierarchy: Rank determines ceremony scale

Murky Chasm (Pragmatic)

Minimal: Quick cremation, brief mourning Survival: Can’t afford extended grief Community: Still present (shared struggle bonds)

Storm-Sailors (Traditional)

Sky Burial: Body wrapped, released from altitude (falls to depths) Clan Songs: Ancient funeral chants Integration: Deceased joins sky permanently

The Remembrance Support

Organization: Grief support group Services: - Counseling (shared experience) - Practical help (funeral arrangements) - Memorial maintenance (annual ceremonies) - Advocacy (better Rot research = fewer deaths)

Growing: Unfortunately necessary (more deaths yearly)

Philosophy

Orthodox View

Soul: Departs to constellation realm (vague theology) Body: Mortal shell (discarded) Memory: Lives in living (preservation duty) Hope: Reunion (someday, somehow)

Serpent View (Heretical)

Transformation: Death is change, not end Continuation: Consciousness persists (different form) Integration: Join greater whole Orthodox Horror: This is nightmare, not comfort

Costs of Death

Financial

Cremation: 10-50 coins (wood, labor) Clergy: 5-20 coins (donation) Feast: 20-100 coins (if held) Urn: 50-200 coins (if kept) Total: 35-370 coins (significant burden)

Charity: Poor families receive community support

Emotional

Grief: Universal, profound Trauma: Especially violent deaths Guilt: Survivors question (could I have prevented?) Exhaustion: Mourning is work

Social

Obligations: Attending funerals (community duty) Support: Providing meals, labor, presence Remembrance: Speaking names annually Burden: Shared (everyone mourns together)

In-World Documents

Funeral Prayer (Common)

Memory Eternal, hear their name.
[Name spoken]

They lived. They loved. They mattered.
Do not let them fade into the void.

We commit their body to fire.
We commit their ashes to sky.
We commit their memory to our hearts.

Until we join them,
Until the stars themselves forget to shine,
Memory eternal.

Mourner’s Journal

Attended three funerals this month. Three.

Mara (Rot), Darius (fell), Old Kellan (age—rare).

I’m tired of burning people I love.

But what choice do we have? The Rot won’t let us bury them. The Aether is all we have.

So we burn. We scatter. We remember.

And we keep living.

Because they would want us to.

I hope.

“Death in the Aetherium is common, constant, and unavoidable. We burn our dead because the Rot won’t let us bury them. We scatter their ashes because the Aether is all we have. We remember them because forgetting would be second death. And we keep living because that’s what the dead would want. Every funeral is reminder: life is brief, death is certain, and all we can do is honor those who came before and try to be worth remembering when our time comes.”
—From Cultural Practices of the Aetherium by Scholar Evian