How do people honor and grieve their dead in your world?
The dead are burned. To not be burned after death is an
extreme disrespect. Royals and very occasionally others held in extremely high regard are burned with phoenix fire. For instance, though never married into a royal family, Marchioness Suraya [Zudi] I was burned with phoenix fire. Ashes are taken and intombed inside family shrines. Phoenixes frequently do passes over the prye, letting their wings brush it. However, in the rare event there is a fire-breathing phoenix, they light the prye with their breath, and sometimes great lengths will be reached to make sure such a phoenix is present at a prye if possible.
Even in small villages, commoner are burned. Every six days, bodies are collected and burned, though some more influentional families may be able to get their family's bodies and hold private cremation ceremonies for them. Commoners are allowed to take ashes from these mass cremations to intomb in very small house shrines, though this doesn't happen overly frequently.
It is considered good luck to reach out to spirits of the deaceased, to pray or appeal to them, on nights of the full moon, and bad luck to do so on nights of the new moon.
In times past, at the site of great battles, phoenixes were used to burn the battlefields, clearing the dead, and cleansing the battlefield where so much death had taken place. Some monarchs or people of high status choosing to not do this have been very contraversal. On one hand, phoenix fire is considered rather sacred and apart from that type of rite, it is only used to burn members of the royal families in death, or other people of
extreme regard. In less deadly battles, there have been many times where the land has been cleansed of bodies and bad vibes with regular fire. On the other hand, however, for particularly calamatous battles, to not use phoenix fire is seen to invite the dark plague and thus wish further deveistation on those who have already suffered in the area. It can be a fine line to walk.
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