Burial Rites

[aceofgames]

Another solution would be far more simple; certain temples or priesthoods are dedicated to protecting tombs from robbers or would-be necromancers. Such priesthoods simply maintain guards and certain wards (such as hallow, consecrate, etc.).

 

[tetsujin28]

Wouldn't most religions in a world where undead are a posibility (if not an eventuality) practice cremation as a burial standard??

Discuss?

Unless the dead are raised as honoured protectors.

 

[mythusmage]

As a variant (used in BtVS, but Joss got it from folklore), undead are corpses inhabited by demonic spirits. The spirits have the memories of the deceased, and may believe themselves to be the deceased, but are really someone else entirely.

Part of a cleric's job is to protect the bodies under his care from possession, until they have rotted away. In such a setting any measure that preserves the corpse would be discouraged at least, or under an outright ban. But cremation is not an option since it is an unnatural way to destroy a body.

For an additional complication, demons and demonic spirits are not beyond redemption, and time embodied in a corpse prior to being born as a mortal might be a probationary period. The spirit's task in this case to learn how to deal with the hungers its undead state arouses. How to sate the hungers in a safe way. Safe for itself and for others. Tons of possibilities there.

Paladin: Why are you dwelling here, in such a crowded neighborhood?

Wight: Because if I dwelt away from people, all by myself, the hunger would grow so great as to drive me insane. So long as I reside here the life around me keeps the hunger at bay. Without these souls to provide me sustenance I would be a ravening beast. I take a little from the many so I don't take it all from one.

 

[Silveras]

Or, you could take one of these tacks:

1) The existence of Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection might lead a culture to have a belief in the eventual resurrection of all. A more limited version would be "the worthy". Wealthy people would spend a great deal of time and money to constuct elaborate tombs in which to preserve their bodies for their eventual resurrection. Destruction of the body could/would be sacrilege in such a religion. This would also be why animating the dead is considered Evil - it denies the departed their chance to come back.

2) The plane where the departed wind up is a sort-of mirror of the material. What happens on the material affects what happens in the afterlife. Destroying the body of the deceased ends the afterlife. Thus, again, an incentive to preserve the body, and a reason to consider necromancy Evil (it causes agony to the departed).

In my homebrew, cultures with a religion with Clerics (or other priestly types who have access to Raise Dead, Resurrection, and True Resurrection {note: such access is scaled back to 'miraculous' in my world}) adopt a viewpoint similar to those. Druidic faiths, which have Reincarnate instead, do not place as much emphasis on the body, and do practice cremation. Less savory races, which generally have less respect for the dead, make use of the deceased in various ways.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

Wouldn't most religions in a world where undead are a posibility (if not an eventuality) practice cremation as a burial standard??

Depends on the frequency of corpses getting back up again, help or no help. If it happens *every* *single* *time*, heck, yeah. Burn'em up.

If it happens, but not frequently, then cremation won't necessarily be the standard. It might be strongly encouraged, because, hey, one vampire rising is going to take a lot of people with it before it goes down.

Also, consider the economic costs of the burial rite. In some areas, fuel is rare, and enough to destroy a human corpse is quite expensive. Piling enough stones on top of the body (i.e. building a tomb) so it can't get up without serious help is also a pain.

Brad

 

[carpedavid]

That would make warfare really, really dangerous. Do both sides have time outs so they can burn bodies?

Massive amounts of undead running around are one of the accepted horrors of war in my campaign. Armies will try to take care of their own dead with massive bonfires, but it gets a wee bit dicey at times.

 

[sword-dancer]

That would make warfare really, really dangerous. Do both sides have time outs so they can burn bodies?

In the antique it was on the duties of the Commander to give every soldier a proper burial, which means by the greeks and romans a proper burning.

 

[cmanos]

I had a developing idea of a world where all those that died rose as undead one month after dying unless they were properly and ceremonially buried. The only ones who knew the proper ceremonies of all the cultures in the world were the Priests of Necropolis, City of the Dead. Necropolis was a sprawling mausoleum. Everyone needed to take their dead there or they would rise as undead.

As for cremation...if it was done by someone other than the Priests, you got a really nasty flaming undead like the Forgewraith.

 

[mythusmage]

That would make warfare really, really dangerous. Do both sides have time outs so they can burn bodies?

It would put a premium on capturing enemies rather than killing them. Better to take them home, feed them, and put them to work than to have to kill them a second time.

Now note that in D&D undead can be 'killed' a second time by inflicting massive damage on them. Apparently the body must be reasonably intact to be animated as undead. If sufficiently damaged the false animation ends. which raises the possibility of the tradition of dismembering the dead, or otherwise rendering them too damaged to be made undead.

Undertaker: Mrs. Grumvald, we'll be burying your husband's torso in the north, his head in the south, and the limbs in random locations around the cemetary.

Or a body might be disposed of through digestion. Scavengers of various types from carrion beetles to vultures and crows when available. Though in an emergency, or as normal practice in some cultures, through the ingestion of the deceased by the survivors.

Hobgoblin chief: Normally we'd happily kill you, but we have so much human, elf, and gnome meat stocked up we're getting sick of it. A gold piece in ransom from each of you and we'll call it good. And could you take our dead along with you for proper disposal? We've had so much hobgolin in the last couple of weeks the mere thought of having to eat more makes us physically ill. We can provide recipes if that'll help.

 

[VirgilCaine]

Here's a question:

Given the information in the Core books, (the various types of undead that can come back, Raise Dead being horribly expensive, etc.) and the deities (Wee Jas being the funereal deity for example) what would the usual burial rites be for dwarves, gnomes, humans, etc.?