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Tomyru Thujemen/Ruko Joli- Forest Tribute/Walk of Death

This ritual is basically the funeral rite of the people called the Kalicrysonth. When an individual of their kind dies, they tend to have a time for people to pay them respects, and then they carefully wrap them up and have one person take the body to the forest, where they leave it for their predators, the Agyrwin, to consume.   It was actually something insisted of them by the Agyrwin, so that no Kalicrysonth would go to waste or be left to rot. Agyrwin are very drawn anyways by the smells of dead Kalicrysonth, so it seemed logical in order not to draw their predators into their towns and such to take the bodies out anyways, and go ahead and give them to the Agyrwin willingly to cut out the middle man.   It is both a start to the grieving process and a celebration of the individual's life, and generally the Agyrwin give them the respect to complete the ritual without interruption.   While much of their home is forested, there are some Kalicrysonth that live in other areas that do not have forests nearby, such as in the plains or mountainous areas. In these areas, they simply take them to whatever wild area the Agyrwin are known to roam, which can sometimes be a ways from their civilization. For these reasons, in much of the land it is called Tomyru Thujemen, the Forest Tribute, while in others it is called Ruko Joli, the Walk of Death.

History

This funeral rite has been part of the culture of the Kalicrysonth for as long as they can remember. From the start of their society they were instructed to remove the dead from their cities and take them to the Agyrwin, and it developed into a ritual out of the emotional needs of the KCS themselves. It has changed slightly and developed as they grew as a culture, with slightly different patterns being followed depending on where exactly they were from or what place the deceased individual hailed from in society, but the basic concept has remained the same.

Execution

When it is found that a Kalicrysonth has died, their body is brought out to a public area, usually shaded, to be viewed. They are placed on a large cloth like a tarp or blanket, and will remain there for usually about a day or so to allow others to come by and give their respects, by either talking about their life, giving condolences to the family members, or placing things like flowers or other offerings on the body. After about a day, the tarp will be wrapped up with the body and many of the offerings inside it, bound so it will not open, and then at the next sunset a local with the duty of an undertaker (called Rokujeno, dead carrier) will take the body out of the settlement and deliver it to the edge of the area where the Agyrwin are found, place the body in the tarp gently on the ground, and then return to civilization. As they perform a very important service, the intelligent Agyrwin almost always let the undertaker come and go unharmed, and generally will not approach until they have left the area. Then, though no Kalicrysonth has actually witnessed it, the Agyrwin take the body and consume it. Some settlements if they are large enough might have a designated place for the ritual to take place, either to put the bodies for remembrance or a specific spot to put them at the edge of the forest. For an extremely important person like royalty, a hero, or someone who brought great advancement during their lifetimes, the time that their body rests may be extended to give more time for people to come and see the body, but it generally does not last any longer than 3 days, as after that the Agyrwin may start to grow impatient and venture toward the settlement in an effort to remind them to deliver it or else they may come and claim the body themselves. After the delivery has been finished, if the KCS still want to show remembrance or respect to the deceased they may make a memorial in some way to them, either writing their name on something and tying it to a post or tree as a designated place that people can come and place further offerings for them, or carving their name into stones or planting a patch of flowers in honor of them. Some palaces or other places that were home to many great leaders and their families have been known to create huge gardens nearby where they plant and maintain flowers and carve the names of their fallen into cut stones to place in a section dedicated to their honor, not unlike headstones, but marking their places of remembrance rather than places of rest.

Components and tools

Mostly the only things needed for this are the cloth to wrap them in and the offerings. Cloths may vary in style depending on who they are for, with ones for those higher in society known to be more lavish than those of common folk, and may be bound in anything from simple rope to pressed leather straps as well. Offerings commonly include all types of flowers, simple decorative crafts, dyed and decorated pieces of cloth, and other trinkets made out of stone, wood, leather, glass, or metal that may include the individual's name, initials, crest, or pictures or forms or other things that they enjoyed, like their favorite animal, or things pertaining to their curiosity. For children, it is common for things like their favorite toy to be offerings, but it is also more likely for them to be put at a place of remembrance rather than sent with the body.

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