Funerary Rites of Saumai

Funerary rites as observed by Eulogist Allarah

Written by Ademal

Funerary Rites and Methods of Saumai

Due to the presence of the Ghost Static on Saumai, a force which prevents the dead from moving on to the afterlife, most traditional interment funerary rites and methods don't work.

Saumani peoples have devised alternative methods for disposing of their deceased as a result. Warning: some of these methods are grotesque.

— Euologist Allarah

Incorrect Methods

Interment

Burying the body is wasted energy and time. The soil of Saumai comes primarily in two states, muddy or rocky, which makes it difficult to dig a grave and inter a body before the soul detaches and becomes a Poltergeist.

Cremation

Burning the body instantly releases the Poltergeist, and while the energy in the fire may instantly destroy the geist, the nature of the Ghost Static ensures that the geist won't move onto the afterlife, and will continue to resurrect elsewhere in Saumai. This method works in a pinch, but is no long-term solution.

Wooden Casket

The concept is understandable—lock the geist away so that it cannot come out and terrorize the living—but the energy-sapping and Selschaeus-producing nature of the geist ensures that the casket will not survive for long.

Embalming

For similar reasons to cremation, embalming is ill advised. Even if the geist doesn't escape during the process (an event which typically occurs within a few minutes to an hour of death, they will do so at some point and it is unlikely that the embalming process vanquished the geist.

Correct Methods

Sealed and Enchanted Stone Casket

Though expensive to produce, this ensures the geist will remain ostensibly trapped for all eternity, feeding the tickle of meta absorbed into the casket by Meta-Convey nodes embedded into the lip of the coffin. Given a few hundred years, ambient meta may drop to a point that this becomes infeasible.

This method is used mostly in communities which have a Solid-Proficient Psiolic or which had a Mason, such as Gorshi or Voshurr.

An alternative to this is a mausoleum or a Bade Well, though those are more likely to reach meta-deficiency. Constant meta is required to prevent the Ghosts from expiring and being caught in the cycle of Ghost Static.

Kyzanry

Bind the dead to their body, either as a Kyzanic servant or as a Grimoire, so that the continued form of demi-life within the safe confines of corpse and covering of clothing prolongs how long their soul stays pure. This is seen as the most humane method.

This method is used in communities where a Kyzanist lives or where one has left behind a tool to bind the soul to its body after death.

Gorshi, with its King of Limbs, is an example of a Kyzanist actively protecting their community.

Kilnrest, which has its Soul Kiln is an example of a Kyzanist leaving behind a tool for their community.

Navigate

These notes are paraphrased from the journal of Eulogist Allarah, one of the members of the Free Planet Federation Envoy to Saumai.

Primary Related Location

Saumai

Components and Tools

Soul Binders

Thick ribbons of leather, embedded with spell gems and metal banding enchanted to help keep a geist bound to its body for some time after death. It's not a 100% solution on its own, but will work as a holdover until a more permanent method of interment can be arranged.

These binders are expensive to produce and repair for the Saumani, especially given a conspicuous lack of Psiolic so are reused frequently. Over the years these have become less frequent.

Observance

Initial Rites, such as the application of Binders, must be observed within hours of death to prevent the geist from escaping.
More permanent solutions are typically carried out within a day to prevent the geist from wearing out the Soul Binders and for the sanitary concerns of having a decaying body laying around.

Additional Reading