Funerary Rites and Rituals

Across Terra, there is a hard rule given by the God of Death that all must be buried or had funerary rites in order to pass on to Limbo. Only after the deceased has been buried can their ghost manifest, and begin its journey to pass on and one day, hopefully rejoin the cycle of life and death. Despite this, the actual customs of funerary rituals and how bodies are handled varies wildly depending on one's race and culture.

Angels

Among angels, the only 'correct' form of burial is for an individual to be buried in the ground with an individual tomb constructed above the grave, with the most complex belonging to those of higher class. No matter one's social status, ranking, or wealth, those who do not receive such a burial are seen as lowly or even criminal. This way of thinking is most prevalent in upper class angelic society, and heavily pressured in regions high in angelic population that no matter the cultural, religious, or racial differences, this practice must apply to everyone. Angels are often very particular with the rules and traditions surrounding their graveyards, in that remains must never be allowed to be moved once they have been buried; moving a body once it has been buried considered disrespectful not only to the dead, but their surviving family as well and taken as a personal insult. Angelic graveyards are often extremely crowded, and given the rules that bodies cannot be moved even if a graveyard is full, graveyards often are covered over with more soil, stacking remains and creating hills. In large cities and urban areas, graveyards may be constructed where in individual tombs are made to be stacked, so that space can be conserved. Graveyards are often found at the center of cities and towns, surrounded by walls to keep the soil within them.
Outcasts of angelic society, such as criminals, the poor, or those angels commonly discriminate against such as vampires, werewolves, and demons, are often given quick burials in shallow graves marked only with stones. This is a point of contention between these groups due to their differing cultures and ideals surrounding death and burial. For vampires in particular, this form of burial is considered one of the highest forms of disrespect.
When an individual dies, their body is washed in scented oils and perfumes, wrapped in white linen, and buried among idols and statues of their patron gods. Within angelic families a common conflict is which divine idols their family member should be buried with, often with the individual's wishes overlooked for the ideals of the surviving family. The body, once wrapped, is dressed in elaborate chains often made out of gold, silver, or copper and decorated with scripture and semi-precious gems. The body will be laid to rest nearby the graves of other family members, but never allowed to actually touch their grave or tombstone. Tombstones are most often made out of marble, granite, or for lower class and less wealthy families, concrete, carved with elaborate depictions of the gods.

Arachne

Arachne burial traditions dictate that the deceased's bodies be heavily treated with herbs, oils, and perfumes prior to being wrapped in elaborate shrouds, forming a casing around the body that prevents predation, but allows access to the air. Arachne burial shrouds are most often made of moth silks, linen, and silk produced by arachne themselves, generally being the work of dedicated artisans. Such shrouds are extremely thin and meant to be applied in several layers, crisscrossing woven openings in the fabric over one another to contain a body in a fetal position so that no part of the body is exposed, but the body can be naturally dried. Oftentimes, shrouds are decorated with personal affects belonging to the deceased, loved ones, and funerary objects such as jewelry, favorite clothing items interwoven into the fabric, and cosmetics. Once fully prepared, the body is hung in a dedicated location, most often being forests, woodland, or dedicated funerary parks, where it is protected from the rain and allowed to naturally dry.
Most often, arachne bodies buried in such a way will become natural mummies through exposure to the elements. Over time, the burial bags will shrink as the body dehydrates, and is maintained by tying the bag tighter around the corpse to prevent it from being torn open by branches or debris. Once a body has become fully dehydrated and mummified, it is considered a common practice to take down the deceased's remains and cremate them, returning any personal affects and grave goods to the families. In regions where it is too wet or humid for bodies to naturally mummify via the wind, arachne will more commonly bury bodies into natural swamps, wetlands, and peat bogs, for a similar practice. Commonly, these bodies are not exhumed at a later date for cremation, but instead will remain buried.
Families and loved ones of the deceased are expected as per tradition to make regular visits to the deceased's grave site to make offerings to Shia, the God of Death, as well as offer patronage to the cult for a period of time, generally between 6 months to 1 year, or when the body has become mummified. What qualifies as patronage to the cult heavily varies depending on the individual region, proximity to worship centers, and population. Generally, patronage is taken to mean supporting the cult's operations via a small taz, assisting in burial rites, and preparing food for cult members and funerals.

Centauri

Centauri funerals closely follow many traditions within Shia's Cult. Funerals are celebrations of the life lived that has now been lost, and all their achievement, and meant to be a merry affair as their essence rejoins the world to perpetuate the cycle of life and death. How an individual body is handled itself varies depending on the region, culture, and patron god of the deceased, oftentimes following family wishes and culture. As a result, there is a strong divide between Centauri who are cremated and those buried, with smaller but equally dedicated groups to green burials.

Demons

Dragons

See Funerary Cannibalism in Dragons.

Fairies

Just as in life, in death a fairy's role revolves entirely on the cycle of sustaining the fungus farms that allow their hives to survive. No matter their caste, when a fairy dies, their body is taken back to the hive if the death occurred outside it, and buried under sections of fungus that need additional nutrients. Bodies may be broken up if they are too large, such as with drones or queens, and spread to different areas of the fungus chambers. This is not seen as a grim act or as butchery by fairies, but rather as one of the most important acts a fairy can do to further their hive and better all of its population. By being buried in the fungus farm, the fungus receives nutrients from the bodies to grow and later be fed to larva and pupae, ensuring the next generation has food.
Although the exact rituals themselves can vary depending on each hive, it is near universal among fairies that to not have their bodies buried within the hive is seen as a great shame- Not one of the individual, but that they cannot be honored in such a way. Wars, conflicts, and disasters often result in fairy bodies being unrecoverable and unable to be transported, as well as predation by wild animals or dragons. Soldier casts in some hives will occasionally try and seek out what caused the death of their comrades, and view killing it to be buried in the hive as a suitable replacement that can restore any lost honor to the individual who has died.

Harpies

The vast majority of harpies take part in green burial traditions and composting of bodies. Deceased remains are interned in specialized crypt gardens that allow a body to decompose and provide nutrients to surrounding gardens grown in grave sites, which are routinely harvested. While the vast majority of crops grown in these gardens go back to the community, a small portion are typically reserved for use in feasts, holidays, and meals for mourning families. Dried herbs and mushrooms oftentimes will be reserved during particularly bountiful harvests for the Festival of Death at the end of the year, commonly being used to make broths for soups and stews.
Amongst harpies, due to a strong split between the majority of their population between the Life and Death cults, there is strong debate on whether funerals themselves should be conducted in according to one cult's traditions or the other.

Mages

Mermidae

When mermidae die, their bodies will float for a time on the surface of the water. Most mermidae societies will deliberately sink bodies in order to prevent it from floating as way of preventing disease, scavengers, and predators from lurking near their homes and hunting grounds- This is most often done by piercing through the throat, swim bladder, and stomach to release gasses, and the body cavity may be filled with rocks or shells. Sinking bodies is almost always done in open water or near the drop offs of reefs and other underwater formations, where they are feasted upon by fish, sharks, and other scavengers.

Naga

Similar to the Arachne, Naga burial tradition dictates that bodies must be wrapped in shrouds prior to burial. Burial shrouds among naga are interwoven with the deceased's shed skin, typically a shed saved from either young adulthood or childhood if they are available alongside their last shed prior to death. Different knot and weave styles for shrouds are passed down through the family, most typically from matriarchs of a household, and may be joined with techniques of those who have married into the family. Depending on the region and traditions of the family producing the shroud, it may depict significant events in the deceased's life such as their accomplishments and failings, personal pantheon, or depictions of how they died.
Shrouds are meant to be produced by surviving family of the deceased, however there is little stigma against an individual planning their burial shrouds prior to death, and as such, producing their own shroud or purchasing it from a dedicated artisan in the craft. Oftentimes these shrouds are kept with an individual's Death Mask in anticipation of their death.
Naga funerals are generally a somber affair, where attendance of the family is crucial. To not attend the funeral of a family member is a disgrace for both the deceased and family meant to attend that is strongly shunned in all but the most extreme of circumstances. It has been known that to not attend family funerals has resulted in individuals being shunned for up to a decade, after which the individuals are meant to host all attendees in honor of the deceased to be welcomed back into the family. Friends and loved ones who have not joined the family themselves, such as by marrying in, are in most cases strictly forbidden from attending family burials amongst naga traditionalists, and are expected to have their own ceremonies, rituals, and mourning periods following the burial itself. This tradition remains controversial to this day, as it has been known to be used in order to shun partners and loved ones of the deceased for various reasons, even if strictly by the rules of the tradition itself, they should be allowed in attendance.

Werewolves

Werewolf society favors natural burials in unmarked graves far outside of living spaces. Bodies are disposed of quickly, generally at most two to three days after death, before major decomposition can occur. Among werewolves, more importance is placed on the personal remembrance of an individual than physical tombs, graves, or markers, which are often viewed as excessive, wasteful, and as worshipping a person's corpse. It is important in werewolf culture that bodies are not treated with chemicals or altered after death and should be allowed to return to nature- if a body is dug up by scavenging animals, then it should be allowed to remain as such.

Vampires

Among vampiric society, there is a long lasting tradition where their dead are cremated and remains stored in family mausoleums. These mausoleums are typically massive, holding multiple generations worth of ashes and bone fragments in partitioned chambers, organizing the remains based on which branch of the family tree a person belongs to. Ashes are stored in elaborate urns, often made out of red, black, or gold glass. It is thought that the cremation tradition started in the early human era, due to some regional human beliefs that vampires and 'witches' had to be burned to prevent harm to humankind, and this later became a tradition in vampiric circles. Ground burial is seen as a massive disrespect to vampires, stemming from later human belief of entombing vampires, staking them, and burying them in the ground with rocks or bricks in their mouths. Differences in burial traditions has caused numerous cultural conflicts with angels and werewolves in the past.
One burial tradition common among vampires is the mixing of remains when a mausoleum becomes too crowded to store any more remains. The remains of the oldest branches of the family tree will be combined and distributed to other mausoleums in order to still fit in the same urn, and allow members of the family who may live too far to come to the traditional mausoleum to still have their remains with that of their family. This greatly saves space, particularly in large families with many branches and many children in each generation.