Khemeti Views on Death

Burial customs: The Khemetiu have a few different burial customs, mummification being the most famous of them. By tradition, only heads of household or those higher in the social ladder are permitted mummification. Though this is not to say every head of household will be mummified, since the process can be expensive. If mummification is not possible or practical, cremation is ideal.
However, depending on one’s means and where they live, the wood required for cremation (64 cubic feet for a grown adult) may be too expensive. There are a few ways one can get around this, like mass cremations, or cremating only parts of the body. In the case of the former, the local temple of Anubis will store numerous bodies (usually preserving them in jars of sand) and then burn them all at once.
However, if the family is uncomfortable with mass cremations, then simple burial is always an option. Burial requires nothing more than a hole in the ground, so there is nothing cheaper.
The main difference between the Khemetiu and the other human cultures is that priests are heavily involved in every part of death in Khemeti culture. Specifically, the priests of Anubis. Anubis is the god of death and mummification, so his priests are considered the only people fit to handle the ritual impurity of death.
When a person dies, it is the duty of the family to inform the temple of Anubis immediately. Depending on who you are (i.e., how rich you are), you may be expected to bring the body to them, or they may go to your home and bring the body there themselves.
Following death, whether it is brought there by family or priests, a body will lie in state in the temple of Anubis for no more than 1 day. After this day, the body will be prepared for mummification or cremation. This involves removing the internal organs to canopic jars after treating them with natron.
There are four canopic jars, traditionally topped with a lid depicting the four sons of Horus: Duamutef, Hapi, Amset, and Qebehsenuef. These gods guard the stomach, intestines, lungs, and liver respectively. The heart is believed to be the seat of the soul and is thus left in the body in the case of mummification or burial, but in the case of cremation is placed in a 5th canopic jar topped with a lid in the image of the deceased.
If the body is buried or mummified, it is buried with a Book of Going Forth by Day ("Ru Niu Pret Em Heru’u"), a scarab heart amulet, shabti figurines, and any other grave goods the family can afford.
The book and amulet are inscribed with spells to ensure the soul’s safe descent to the Du’at, while the shabti are meant to turn into servants for the deceased in the afterlife. If the body is cremated, these items are burned with the body and will be collected with the ashes in the cinerary urn.
Funeral customs: In the case of cremation, customs begin in the morning when the funeral pyre is lit (the body will be burned right next to the temple of Anubis, so there isn’t much of a procession in this part). Traditionally, it is important the pyre be lit with the first light of the sun.
The cremation itself is a quiet and solemn affair. The presiding priest of Anubis will say a few prayers on the deceased’s behalf, and the family will remain there in mourning while the pyre burns down. At sunset, the ashes and grave goods are collected in a cinerary urn (or multiple, if needed).
Then the funeral procession can begin. Men wear black, while the women wear white. The cinerary urn is carried by closest loved one of the deceased, the traditional order of preference for this is: mother > spouse > eldest child > eldest grandchild > father > eldest sibling. Women are preferred for carrying the urn, but men can do the job if no women are available.
Khemeti funeral processions are loud and noisy things, with the party playing music, singing, and dancing in a frenzy. The purpose of all this noise is to mask the sound of the person carrying the urn, who is expected to loudly wail the entire way, while the dancers avert people’s gaze away from the urn-bearer to give them a sense of ritual privacy and solitude.
This procession will go to the nearest body of moving water (which is never far from any Khemeti settlement—in fact, most are deliberately placed near one for this specific reason). The ashes are poured into the water in an emotional ceremony, with the presiding priest of Anubis chanting prayers on behalf of the dead.
Once empty, the cinerary urn is usually also smashed up and thrown into the water, while the canopic jars will be buried by the river at a distance of at least 7 nebiu from the water, and 3 nebiu beneath the surface (a nebiu equals ~60cm, so 7 nebiu is 4.2m, or 14ft, and 3 nebiu is 1.8m, or 3ft). This pseudo-grave is marked by some sort of grave marker, typically a small obelisk or large urn.
In the case of a mummification or burial, the body is prepared for burial and the procession begins with the first light of the sun. The procession itself is the same as for a cremation, aside from the fact that a single person obviously cannot carry an entire body/coffin/sarcophagus.
Instead, the person who would carry the cinerary urn instead leads the men carrying the deceased. In the case of elite funerals, these processions can reach immense proportions.
Post-funeral traditions: Unusually, the Khemetiu have no traditions immediately following a funeral. The funeral party disperses, and the family of the deceased will adjourn to their home and typically have a small meal in their memory but that is all there is. However, the Khemetiu do have two important traditions regarding the dead: the Wag Festival, and the Wadi Festival.
The Wag Festival is a day dedicated to commemoration of the dead. It begins at sunrise with a sacrifice to Osiris, and all worship while the sun is up is dedicated to Osiris. Once the sun sets, a sacrifice is made to Anubis, and all worship thereafter until sunrise of the next day is dedicated to him.
During the day, it is common for families to build little boats made of reeds, sticks, or paper. The day will end in a procession led by a host of children, who will carry their boats to a body of water (lake, river, or sea) accompanied by singing priests. These boats are meant to symbolize the journey of the dead to the Underworld.
The Wadi Festival is not so much dedicated to the dead as it is concerned with them. On this day, it is believed that the border between our world and the parallel world inhabited by the ka of the dead and other spirits (including fey creatures) weakens, allowing the spirits of the dead to temporarily cross over and influence the world of the living in tangible ways.
They can either be kindly, helping their old family and friends, or they may be malicious or mischievous. During the festival, it is traditional to leave food and drink out to invite/thank kind spirits, while appeasing the bad ones, and attending huge parties somewhere other than your own home while wearing a costume (typically an animal mask) to confuse bad spirits so they can't find you.
Beliefs of the afterlife: The Khemetiu believe a person’s existence, their akh, can be broken down into 7 parts: the khet, the sah, the ren, the ba, the ka, the ib, and the shut.
Khet: The khet is the physical body of the deceased. It is essential for the khet to exist even after death for the rest of the soul to have intelligence and the chance to be judged. This is what makes mummification so popular—it is the most complete and perfect way to preserve the khet in its entirety. This is also why the vital organs are preserved in canopic jars even in the case of cremation.
Sah: The sah is the spiritual body of the deceased and is what will cross into the Du’at if it is judged worthy. As part of the larger construct of the akh (the 8 parts of the soul in their entirety), the sah can also return from the Du’at to seek revenge on those who wronged them in life.
Ib: The ib is the heart. As the seat of the soul, the ib is the key to the afterlife, and is essential to avoiding destruction during the trip to the gates of Aaru. The sah of the deceased must carry their ib and protect it during the journey (this is what the heart amulet is for, one can trick various monsters encountered along the journey into eating it instead of the deceased’s actual ib). During the weighing of the heart in front of the judges of the Underworld, the ib also gives testimony in favour of, or against, the deceased.
Ka: The ka is the vital essence of a person and distinguishes the living from the dead or otherwise inanimate (with the exception that all food and drink is believed to also have a ka, since one must consume such things to maintain their own vitality), with death occurring the moment the ka leaves the body.
However, unlike a soul or the sah, the ka remains in our world (or, more accurately, a world parallel to ours) and must be sustained through food and drink—though it is the ka of the food and drink that is consumed, rather than its physical form.
With some clever magic, it is possible for a soul house to be constructed (a clay model of a house decorated with images of food and drink) and then blessed by a priest to sustain the ka of the dead indefinitely.
Ba: The ba is the personality, everything that makes the person unique as an individual. Their charm, wit, warmth, humour—in short, their character. It can also be used to refer to the enduring legacy of a person, or the power of a deity. In this sense, even inanimate objects will have a ba. For a person, their ba flies off every morning to watch over their remains, returning to them at sunset. The ba lives in a parallel world like the ka but is not incorporeal.
It is also not understood to be merely a part of the person, but rather is the person themselves (as are all parts of the akh, in a way). The concept of a purely immaterial existence, such as the Achaian eidolon, is completely and utterly foreign to the Khemetiu. All exist in this dual state, both one and the other simultaneously.
Shut: The shut is a person’s shadow or silhouette. Since a person’s shadow is always with them, it is believed to contain something of the person it represents. Statues of people and deities are often referred to as their shut. Since even a corpse casts a shadow, the shut stays with the person after death. It emerges from their tomb or grave by day in a shadowy form, a thin, black, featureless silhouette of the person
Ren: The ren is a person’s name, given to them at birth. The ren is the identity of the person, containing all their memories and experiences, and it will survive so long as the name is spoken.
The Khemeti afterlife can be divided down into three parts: the living world, the journey through the du’at, and Aaru (“the Field of Reeds”). Though, strictly speaking, the du'at encompasses all parts of the underworld including Aaru. Parts of a person’s akh, notably the ka, the ba, and the shut all remain in a world parallel to our own after death. This is the first part of afterlife, but probably the least famous.
When a person dies, their sah travels with their ib through the du’at. On their path, they face countless dangers that will seek to destroy them and/or their ib: lakes and rivers of fire, monstrous beetles, gates and walls of iron, crocodiles, snakes, fishing net traps, even Apep himself. A Book of Going Forth by Day is a list of spells meant to help them navigate these dangers (as well as the Weighing of the Heart ceremony).
If they make it through all the dangers of the du’at, with their ib intact, they will arrive in a great golden courthouse in the palace of Osiris, king of the dead. This is the entryway to Aaru, the Field of Reeds. The deceased is escorted inside by Anubis, and brought before the 9 Divine Judges, and the 42 Assessors of Ma’at.
The 9 Divine Judges are all gods from the main Kemetic pantheon: Ra, god of the sun and king of the gods; Shu, god of peace; Tefnut, goddess of moisture and morning dew; Geb, god of the earth; Nut, goddess of the sky; Isis, goddess of magic; Nephthys, goddess of childbirth, beer, and medicine; Horus, god of kingship and the sky; and Hathor, goddess of marriage and fertility.
Before the 42 Assessors of Ma’at, the deceased must attest that they never in life committed 42 specific sins (e.g., lying, stealing, killing, adultery, etc.). These sins are quite conceptually broad, and include behaving in a socially useful fashion (such as being overly sullen, or too loud and over verbose, etc.).
Some of the spells in the Book of Going Forth by Day are for compelling your ib to lie on your behalf, or asking Thoth to lie on your behalf, in both cases to assure the 42 Assessors of your innocence.
Once you have finished defending yourself, your ib is weighed against the Feather of Ma’at (“Truth”) on the great scales of justice. Beneath the scales sits the terrifying creature Ammit (or Am-mut), devourer of the dead.
She has the forequarters of a lion, the hindquarters of a hippopotamus, and the head and tail of a crocodile (the 3 largest man-eating animals). In some accounts, Ammit lives in a lake of fire, is the size of a mountain and has steaming blood dripping from her waiting jaws.
If your ib is heavier than the feather—indicating you have lied and are evil—then your ib will be thrown to Ammit who will devour it, annihilating every part of your existence. This is called “dying a second time,” and it is not uncommon in Khemeti culture to curse someone by saying you hope they “die twice.”
Ironically, due to the intensity of it, it is also used ironically in less intense scenarios, such as if your friends embarrass you in front of a girl you like. It is similar to telling someone to go "fuck themselves," or "eat shit."
If your ib weighs the same as the Feather of Ma’at, then you have earned immortality. Anubis will escort you before Osiris, to whom you will swear fealty as king of the dead. With this, you shall be ushered into the paradisaical Field of Reeds, known as Aaru.
Aaru is an ideal version of the mortal world. A place where it is always comfortable and warm, where the sun always shines, where the crops are manifold and always abundant. Here, they will live in peace and pleasure for all eternity.