Death & Grieving in Mandoral

For the wealthy, grieving can be a public and lengthy affair. The body is laid out for viewing and friends and family come to offer condolences and sympathy to the surviving relations. In the spring or summer, flowers are offered upon the body, covering it in blooms; this has the additional benefit of obscuring the start of rot for both sight and scent. In the autumn, colorful leaves are brought for the same purpose, and in the winter, bare branches. Growers cultivate fragrant flowers and trees of exceptional fall color and trained branches to sell for this purpose.
(The retail to support the ritual use of flowers and other natural objects in landmark life events is key to the Rideis merchant class. See also the Rideis Laying-In Ceremonies.)
After the body has been viewed, usually one or two days, it is removed to the family burial ground. For the wealthy, graves are marked individually.
For the common folk, the rituals are similar but less extravagant. The flowers, leaves, and branches may be common things collected in the wild rather than purchased. Cremation is common, and the burial of remains will be at a common graveyard shared by the community, where individual graves are rarely marked.