Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dragongirl" data-source="post: 741730" data-attributes="member: 6178">Here is something I wrote up a few years ago, forgive the style and errors.Cult of the DeadAmongst the native Denniloi mummification of the dead is a common practice no matter what your station in life is.  The dead are prepared in a sitting position with their knees pulled up to their chest and their arms around the legs.  The bodies are then tightly wrapped in a death shroud, upon which is written prayers and a short history of the person and their ancestors.  Placed over this is a death mask.  Depending on the wealth of the individual and their family the materials used will vary.  The poor often having shrouds made of wool with masks of clay, while the rich would use the finest linen and gold.Those mummified are then put in the family crypt for five years.  A family here is often a very extended family, sometimes encompassing several hundred individuals all descended from a common ancestor.  This common ancestor is usually the founding patriarch or more rarely the matriarch of the family.  As families grow or their conditions change a smaller part of it may break off under a new patriarch (or matriarch) and thus forming a new family.  The patriarch has also been mummified and has a permanent place within the family crypt.These mummified bodies serve as homes for the spirits of the dead while they undergo the judgment of the god Mot.  When a family member dies and their body is placed in the crypt the family patriarch will escort the spirit to the realm of the dead.  The patriarch will also help the newly dead spirit to go through the stages of the judgment and is generally their guide.  This judgment will last for five years before Mot decides what is the fate of the dead person's spirit.  Whatever this decision is, the spirit must be freed from the anchor of it's body, which brings us to the Day of Judgment or the Day of the Dead.The Day of the Dead is a yearly day long festival celebrating the lives of those that have passed on.  The families prepare feasts, often the rich will also throw great feasts for the poor.  Dances and parties are common, as is the wearing of gaudy costumes and fake death masks. Offerings of food and sometimes money are made to the mummified bodies within the family crypt.  At dusk a procession starts off from the crypt yard, moving it's way through town to the burial grounds.  In this procession each of the families of the town or city will carry the mummy of their patriarch as well as the mummies of any of their dead that have died over 5 years ago if any.  Those that have died long enough ago are buried in the cemetery and thus freeing their spirit to move on to whatever awaits it.  The mummies of the patriarch are then returned to the crypts to continue their perpetual guardianship of their family.</blockquote>

Verification