Death and Dying
Like
all groups, the people of Hapsburg have their own special customs and
beliefs, fostered by the temple of the shrines. While each racial
and cultural group might have slightly different interpretations of
death and the afterlife, the core beliefs are they same. Everyone knows
that when someone dies their spirit has to travel along the ‘Paths of
the Dead’ on the way to their after life. Everyone knows
there are risks associated with the ‘Paths of the Dead’, it is part of
the domain of Wee Jas, Goddess of Death and Magic and is populated by
spirits who have, for some reason, not been able to reach the place on
the outer planes that their spirit has earned.
The
disturbed spirits along the 'Paths of the Dead' will try to steal energy
from newly departed spirits, and will often congregate in groups and attack
on sight. However, disturbed spirits are cowardly, and often the
very threat of a weapon can drive them away. Not only that but the ‘Paths of the
Dead’ are tiring and the longer a spirit spends in the paths the weaker
it grows until it becomes one of those Disturbed Spirits that live
here, however a good meal can help the spirit restore its morale and
energy as it struggles along the Paths to its afterlife. Then
finally, at the end of the path there is an un-fordable river which the
spirit must cross. There is a Boat Man, but he will only take the
spirit across if he can pay for the journey with a coin. If he
can’t pay, the spirit is doomed to stay in the paths of the dead for rvrt, and
will eventually degrade into a Disturbed Spirit with little or no
memory of its past, just an overbearing obsession to take energy from
those who pass by.
It
is common practice that the dead are
laid to rest with artifacts that help them in this journey. A coin for
the boatman is placed under their tongue, and a weapon to defend
themselves is placed in their hand while food to help them on their way
is placed on their chest or at the corpse’s feet. Some racial and
cultural groups like to send a symbol of the dead person's occupation
along as well, and might include a token , such as
a hammer for a blacksmith, in the corpse’s other hand. Some
groups prefer burial, others prefer cremation and it is rumoured that
some cultural groups expose their dead until the bones are picked
clean, however the basic ceremony is the same.
Some examples
A
farmer might be cremated with a silver piece under his tongue, a stalk
of corn in one hand and a sickle in the other. On his chest lies
a loaf of bread and a roast chicken.
A noble, on the other hand,
might be buried in full plate mail with a platinum piece under his
tongue. In one hand he carries a long sword while the other hand
has a shield to represent his role in defending the community – around
about lies a full banquet.
At the lowest end of the spectrum, an
itinerant beggar might be left for the birds, but have a copper
piece, a branch cut down to make a walking staff and a few berries
securered about his body.