Arokei's Death Ritual

In Aroke teachings, phantoms are the trapped souls of those who have died but have not yet joined the stars. A dead one's soul becomes trapped if their skull has not been destroyed, as the skull harbours the soul.
When someone dies, they are skinned of everything but their skull, which is placed in the family death room for a moon. Whenever their fellow villagers find animal skulls around on their travels, they will bring them back and place them around the dead person's home, bringing animal phantoms to the person's home to keep them company and protect them from dark sprites. For a moon, the skulls stay outside of that house while people say their final goodbyes to the phantom, then all of the skulls are burnt, releasing the trapped souls into the star realm.