Mordannath

The Eldar are a people known for calm aloofness and subtle emotions. Yet when plunged into a deep enough crisis of spirit, they may reach depths of sorrow unknown to even the most melancholic of mortals.
A murderer, a defeated general, a failed statesmen - those in Lumeric society with an unredeemable stain on their honour may take extreme measures to restore their good name. For the most dishonoured among them, those whose failures are too great to live with, there is the ritual of Mordannath: the Death Poem. Mordannath is a term spoken of in hushed tones among the Eldar, a term that invokes respect, sorrow, and fear.
To perform Mordannath is to end ones own life in a spectacular manner that evokes awe, heartwrenching emotions, or even artistic appreciation, in the hopes of earning some sort of twisted repentance or appreciation for the act. All features of Eldari society are taken to extremes of artistic perfectionism, and ritual suicide is no different. The most ancient style of Mordannath is ritual disembowelment in a garden of red cherry blossoms, accompanied by the libation of red wine and the reading of a death poem (the reading of which must be completed after striking the fatal blow but before death), but in contemporary times this is seen as "uninspired". The most famous act of Mordannath, considered unequal even to this day, occurred in the early years of the 4th cycle. King Consort Ilbarin, a skilled painter, was caught arranging the assassination of the High Queen. Over the following three months, he painted an elaborate, wall-sized painting, all in red, with his own blood, slowly exsanguinating himself until he pierced his own aorta to paint the final brush stroke.