I'm not looking for any specific help, but I thought it would be interesting to discuss what burial practices the people of Athas might have.
It would seem likely that each city state would have their own or at least have rituals specific to the culture. Slave might be mass buried or cremated. How did the Cleansing War influence things?
What about the larger slave tribes?
I can see the Thri-kreen not being too interested in burials.
Any other thoughts?
I'm making a mausoleum style crawl for my Dark Sun group. In the case of this particular ruin people were buried in open air niches set in the wall or in coffins. The mausoleum was a safe house for the Cleansed races during the war, but was eventually discovered and destroyed. I've been using TotDL a lot (good job on that athas.org) especially the templates. So there will be a lot of surprises for the group, especially when the pixies come flying out at them.
So...yeah, begin with the discussion.
I know that doesn't help with what your looking to do, but thought it was worth mentioning.
I can see the Thri-kreen not being too interested in burials.
Actually, the kreen have quite elaborate funerary practices. Those that know it is an actual location (and not merely a myth of the afterlife) lay their dead to rest in the Circle in the northern Hinterlands. They also use the bodies of the dead laid in that location to incubate their hatchlings. See Dragon's Crown for more details.
Dwarves would almost certainly be burial in the earth, or stone vaults.
Halflings... Hm. The feral Forest Ridge halflings could ahve ancestral cave tombs that they use for their honoured dead.
Somebody somewhere should go for mummification.
Balic, on the Greek/Roman model, might go for open air cremation.
Somebody somewhere should go for mummification.
Perhaps either Nibenay or Gulg could take their dead out to the Salt Flats and allow the salt to dessicate their corpses, mummifying them.
Once one of the most magnificent structures in Raam, the Consecrated Sepulcher was a huge mausoleum that, among other things, contains the last 30 generations of Abalach-Re’s favorite husbands and other devoted followers.
Also Nanda Shatri, leader of the Veiled Alliance in Raam, runs the Crematorium.
Fire=Cremated
Water=Dropped in the Lake of Golden Dreams (or something similar)
Air=Eviscerated and feed to the birds, or Cermated and ashes tosed to the wind.
Earth=Traditional burial, or even turned to stone (Flesh to Stone spell)
Druids would probably plant a tree or bush over the grave of another druid or loved one after burial.
In my games one of the lowest jobs a templar can have is body collector. Just take a couple of servants and a chart and goout collecting dead bodies. Victims of crime, disease, starvation, salves that have been worked to death, etc. The templar needs to be there to cast gentle repose on any corpses that might otherwise spread disease, or possibly to use divinations on the body in the case of crime. I would imagine with those sorts of unclaimed bodies, mass graves or more likely mass cremation would be the norm.
More specifically, you can check out the Gulg thread [see my signature] to see how some of the rituals involved in each People's burials.
There are no real crypts in Gulg, though.
Gulg's burial practice depends on what element a specific People worships. Fire worshippers are burned, Air also but the ashes are sent to the winds and Earth are buried. There are no Water People in Gulg except the young children who die before the Forest Walk; they are buried in mud.
More specifically, you can check out the Gulg thread [see my signature] to see how some of the rituals involved in each People's burials.
There are no real crypts in Gulg, though.
:D don't you love being the official gulg man? No one will question your decree of burial practices... ;)
The only practice I remember off the top of my head is that of elves leaving their dead on the spot where they died.
I know that doesn't help with what your looking to do, but thought it was worth mentioning.
It works. As I said, I'm not looking for help. I just thought that this would be something worth discussing. It seems like we have a lot of fluff topics going on right now so I figured I would throw this into the mix.
Actually, the kreen have quite elaborate funerary practices. Those that know it is an actual location (and not merely a myth of the afterlife) lay their dead to rest in the Circle in the northern Hinterlands. They also use the bodies of the dead laid in that location to incubate their hatchlings. See Dragon's Crown for more details.
I was refering more to actual inhumations, but thanks for the specifics and the source. I'll have to take a look at that.
Thanks to everybody else for participating. Keep it up if you have any more ideas.
How about slaves? Is there a universal underground ritual that they perform while nobody is looking? What would they do? What about cleaning the bones and setting them out in the sun to be bleached and later displayed in their homes?
Actually, the kreen have quite elaborate funerary practices. Those that know it is an actual location (and not merely a myth of the afterlife) lay their dead to rest in the Circle in the northern Hinterlands. They also use the bodies of the dead laid in that location to incubate their hatchlings. See Dragon's Crown for more details.
Also, Thri Kreen of Athas. as for laying eggs, if they are out in the wild they set up a peremeter and lay the eggs and so on, but several packs have places for their eggs, which is also where they lay their dead. They believe that hatching their eggs in a graveyard will help the young to take on characteristics of the strong and wise old thri-kreen. The carapices serve as shelters for the young, and also attract carrior eaters which serve as food for the hatchlings.
In my current game, burial practices have recently been changed to cremation immediately after death (sometimes they don't wait for someone to die, but kill them if they are near and burn them).
The reasoning is that I am running a modified version of City by the Silt Sea, and the artifact that Dregoth is using to create his undead army is spreading in its range of effect. So it started with a few here and there, but the radius has been spreading. So when something dies, it usually rises up again near immediately in some undead form. So people are in a hurry to cremate.
Other than this, I have usually kept it less of a geographic thing, and more of a . . whichever cleric was on hand would determine the method of internment, etc. And also personal tastes for individuals in power.
:D don't you love being the official gulg man? No one will question your decree of burial practices... ;)
Well, that's pretty much the only advantage. It's sort of like being the president of a one-man country.
Well, that's pretty much the only advantage. It's sort of like being the president of a one-man country.
Well, that's pretty much the only advantage. It's sort of like being the president of a one-man country.
hmm, that's not so cool, look...
even Meth's got someone to bow for him, and someone to, uhh, roll around for him
. :DWell, that's pretty much the only advantage. It's sort of like being the president of a one-man country.
Don't fear Celik is my choosen city interest..... I've just never mentioned it
At least your city-state has a SK and a book about it. Mine has a couple paragraphs of description and a poor attempt at a sourcebook written by me at age 13 or something.
Don't fear Celik is my choosen city interest..... I've just never mentioned it
At least your city-state has a SK and a book about it. Mine has a couple paragraphs of description and a poor attempt at a sourcebook written by me at age 13 or something.
Celik is mighty interesting: a place filled with monsters, so long uninhabited by people that you can be sure many of its secrets and riches still lay within its ruins...just on the other side of that security fence.
Not to talk of the mystery of its fall...
Celik is mighty interesting: a place filled with monsters, so long uninhabited by people that you can be sure many of its secrets and riches still lay within its ruins...just on the other side of that security fence.
Not to talk of the mystery of its fall...
Oh yeah and Gulg's not interesting... :P
Oh yeah and Gulg's not interesting... :P
Hey, you're catching fast! :P