Death, Dying and Burial: Fantasy Cremation

[ssampier]

I was considering the impact of death and burial in a standard D&D campaign. Obviously the threat of death is lessen greatly by availability of spells like Raise Dead or Resurrection. Also, mass graveyards are a target for nefarious necromancer that have a habit of animating dead relatives and having them march against the local town.

The alternative, cremation, leaves only small earthly remains that cannot be raised or resurrected and without a corpse necromancers cannot raise armies. Because of this threat, I was thinking that fantasy cremation may be more common.

In campaign, the pantheon is Egyptian inspired. The god of death vaguely resembles Osiris, being killed by his brother Set and resurrected to the Underworld. In real-world Egyptian pantheon, bodies would be embalmed and then mummified or buried in the sands for a natural preservation.

I thought it would be interesting to have a variation on a theme. After death, bodies would be ritually bathed in water and salts. The priest would intone the necessary death ritual incantations. Then, after this ritual, the organs would be removed, including the heart, liver, and kidneys and placed in blessed jars. The brain would be removed, as well, but then discarded. After the organ removal process, the priests would perform the final death ritual and set fire to the corpse.

How would such cremation take place? For flavor purposes, I do not want the priests to set some sticks under the corpse and light it on fire. I was considering "magic ovens" where the magic spells destroy the body. But that reminds me too much of the horror of the Nazi Holocaust, so I'd like to avoid that scenario.

What other cremations techniques can you envision?

 

[Turhan]

You might consider a holy spell like flame strike. As an alternative, a shaped- Wall of Fire to make it a pillar or column of flame that burns for an extended period.

Sounds like you want a relatively common or inexpensive method, so all folks can use it. However, in any wolrd you can have a cheap process, like burning, turn into a huge ceremony with enormous expenses: like a royal funeral.

Since you've changed the Egyptian notion of needing a body to enjoy the after life, you've amde your job simpler. An altar or holy site with a permanent pillar of flame might be godd for your campaign.

 

[Turjan]

Personally, I'd think the body would be put in a coffin or wrapped in some cheap cloth before cremation. You might also introduce the ritual of applying "holy" stone oil to the whole (wrapped) corpse in order to facilitate burning.

You could also use the rituals that are used in what is told about Phoenician rites, where the body was put on the arms of the statue of a god, which then (by some mechanism) could release the body into the flame pit or on the altar. Then there are the pictures from some old movies, where the bodies are thrown into an oven within a large statue of a god, the door with the flames behind being the statue's open mouth.

 

[jdrakeh]

How would such cremation take place? For flavor purposes, I do not want the priests to set some sticks under the corpse and light it on fire.

Well, that sticks and fire bit is how it (cremation) usually happened in real life, but I've seen some movies and read some novels where the sticks were stacked on a small boat, the body loaded on after, and then the whole thing set aflame as the boat was left to float down a river and/or across the sea.

 

[ssampier]

Personally, I'd think the body would be put in a coffin or wrapped in some cheap cloth before cremation. You might also introduce the ritual of applying "holy" stone oil to the whole (wrapped) corpse in order to facilitate burning.

An interesting idea; definitely worth consideration. As Turhan notes, the cloth will probably be representative of the person’s social class. The rich would luxurious cloth such as silks and the poor would probably use whatever cloth is available (wool or cheap cottons).

You could also use the rituals that are used in what is told about Phoenician rites, where the body was put on the arms of the statue of a god, which then (by some mechanism) could release the body into the flame pit or on the altar. Then there are the pictures from some old movies, where the bodies are thrown into an oven within a large statue of a god, the door with the flames behind being the statue's open mouth.

I like this idea. Ideally the cremation area would be separate from the temple itself. Basically the god of the dead has to maintain strict records regarding births and deaths, including time and date of the death, as well as the manner of death. These records and ka urns (organ jars) are stored in the Temple.

You might consider a holy spell like flame strike. As an alternative, a shaped- Wall of Fire to make it a pillar or column of flame that burns for an extended period.

Sounds like you want a relatively common or inexpensive method, so all folks can use it. However, in any wolrd you can have a cheap process, like burning, turn into a huge ceremony with enormous expenses: like a royal funeral.

Since you've changed the Egyptian notion of needing a body to enjoy the after life, you've amde your job simpler. An altar or holy site with a permanent pillar of flame might be godd for your campaign.

I really like the divine spell idea. Flame strike is probably closest to what I’m looking for.

As for royalty, the actual campaign world is Roman/Egyptian inspired with emperor worshipped as a living god. I envision the actual cremation process to be a private process, with three or four spectators maximum. Other important senators, regents, and magistrates may be given a more elaborate, public ceremony.

I just thought it would be interesting to combine with the religious tradition of funeral pyre with the Egyptian notion of resurrection. In this case, the belief is that the spirit is transported to the plane of their god upon pyre. In the absence of the death ritual and proper burning, the soul will be transported to the Outlands.

 

[frankthedm]

permanenced wall of fire is a good by-the-book choice.

Yep, IMC NPCs tend to burn bodies if they can. Raising is quite uncommon & animation is a little too common. Temples of the Pheonix offer 100% free creation.

 

[Nyeshet]

The legend of the Phoenix arose in Egypt. In the original legend, the phoenix would make a 'nest' of various scented / valuable woods, herbs, etc and - at its appointed time - carry the whole of it to the temple of the sun. There, upon its main alter, it would place the nest, sit upon it, and self-combust. Perhaps something like this - various valuable woods and herbs - such as cinnamon, frankensense, cedar, etc - would be the material component, and the effect would be a sudden powerful blaze that reduced a single non-living body of medium size (or smaller) into blest / consecrated ashes.

I'd probably make this a second level spell - too high for the initiate, reserved for more experienced priests, but common enough to have a priest capable of such in even a small village. In fact, I'd probably rule that if the ashes and other (mummified) parts were ritually placed on an alter dedicated to the deity of the dead by a priest of said deity, and if the deceased was also a worshipper of said deity, then Raise Dead would not need the whole body. Of course, if any of the parts are lost, if the priest is not of the diety of death, or if the worshipper was not a follower of the deity, then Raise Dead would fail (as the body was not present in whole). I would probably also require a quest of the individual returned in this manner - due to the fact that deity of death is releasing of its souls back into mortal life.

All of this presumes, of course, that the soul was judged to be lighter than the Feather of Ma'at. A heavier soul would no longer be available to allow for Raise Dead.

 

[Kesh]

We had a thread similar to this a couple months ago... something about burial practices in fantasy settings.

Anyone got a link? I might have to dig through my subscriptions and see if it's still listed.

 

[ssampier]

The legend of the Phoenix arose in Egypt. In the original legend, the phoenix would make a 'nest' of various scented / valuable woods, herbs, etc and - at its appointed time - carry the whole of it to the temple of the sun. There, upon its main alter, it would place the nest, sit upon it, and self-combust. Perhaps something like this - various valuable woods and herbs - such as cinnamon, frankensense, cedar, etc - would be the material component, and the effect would be a sudden powerful blaze that reduced a single non-living body of medium size (or smaller) into blest / consecrated ashes.

An excellent idea. I always thought Phoenix's were neat, now I know why. As far as the Phoenix goes, isn't it able to reanimate itself from the ashes?

I'd probably make this a second level spell - too high for the initiate, reserved for more experienced priests, but common enough to have a priest capable of such in even a small village. In fact, I'd probably rule that if the ashes and other (mummified) parts were ritually placed on an alter dedicated to the deity of the dead by a priest of said deity, and if the deceased was also a worshipper of said deity, then Raise Dead would not need the whole body.

Of course, if any of the parts are lost, if the priest is not of the diety of death, or if the worshipper was not a follower of the deity, then Raise Dead would fail (as the body was not present in whole). I would probably also require a quest of the individual returned in this manner - due to the fact that deity of death is releasing of its souls back into mortal life.

Excellent, definately make use of that. As for the Raise Dead I was reading the SRD description, in my mind, you need the fully body (or close to 90% of it). Now Resurrection is different that you only need part of the body (such as the ka organs IMC). True Resurrection you don't need any parts; only need to identify the dead very specifically.

Raise Dead (d20 srd)
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/raiseDead.htm

Resurrection (d20 srd)
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/resurrection.htm

True Resurrection
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/trueResurrection.htm

Of course, if any of the parts are lost, if the priest is not of the diety of death, or if the worshipper was not a follower of the deity, then Raise Dead would fail (as the body was not present in whole). I would probably also require a quest of the individual returned in this manner - due to the fact that deity of death is releasing of its souls back into mortal life.

All of this presumes, of course, that the soul was judged to be lighter than the Feather of Ma'at. A heavier soul would no longer be available to allow for Raise Dead.

This campaign is Roman in flavor as well, so the pantheon is open, meaning clerics worship all gods (although not equally), thus there is no real conflict of sending all worshippers to the priests of the Dead God for proper cremation.

As for Ma'at, that sounds interesting. I haven't quite figured how to integrate that IMC yet. In my understanding it's similar to fate or wyrds in Norse theology. I'll consider how to integrate that in my Roman inspired culture and Egyptian style theology.

 

[Andor]

Boat symbology factors heavily into Egyptian afterworld myths don't they? So a variant on the viking funeral as was suggested above. The rich float to the other world on boats of cedar and ebony while the poor go on bundles of reeds. The bodies are then consumed over the water by holy fire of some sort. Or sucked physically to the underworld in a maelstrom.

Another idea might be a varient on the 'air burial' where the bodies are consumed by sacred animals of some kind. Anything from temple jackals to temple dragons (which would allow all sorts of nasty plots, are temple dragons bribeable? What's it like talking to a sentient, good, holy creature who knows he's going to eat you someday?)

In Lois McMaster Bujolds 5 gods universe (Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, Hallowed Hunt) the funary miracle is the one miracle the gods grant to everybody.