Sembaran Funerary Traditions

The funerary traditions in Sembara are heavily derived from the ancient Drankorian Funeral Traditions, but also inspired in part by the kestavo religion that has been present in the Semb river valley for eons.

The Sembaran tradition, like the Drankorian tradition, is much more concerned with the journey of the soul through the Land of the Dead. The divines of Mos Numena are seen as granted the miracle of the Gathering of the Soul to all, as a birthright of the human condition, and the counterpart to the miracle of the Gifting of the Soul, at birth.

Thus human prayer and ritual is not seen as important to ensure the soul makes it to the Land of the Dead. However, in the Sembaran tradition, the divines are not the wayfarers and guides of each individual soul, as the kestavo are in the Zimka tradition. It is up to the soul itself, and the strength granted to it by human prayers, and the attention of the divines brought about by human remembrance, that ensures the soul will cross the dangerous pathways of the Land of the Dead and arrive in the mysterious outer realms of the divines.

Each divine is clearly imagined to have its own outer realm, but Sembaran tradition shies away from describing what the realm of the Wildling, or the Wanderer, or any other specific divine would be like, and these realms are held to be a sacred mystery, blasphemous to explore in detail. It is common to say “She is with the Wanderer” or “He is with the Mother”, but little is said about what that would actually mean.

The Sembaran tradition is thus focused on the preparation of the body, and most importantly, the watching over of the body for the ten days of the journey through the Land of the Dead. During this ceremonial period the family of the deceased mourns, and often retreats from society for private reflection and grief. It is customary to visit the mourners during this time, usually bringing food or other small tokens, although the kestavan cultural taboo over public remembrances of the dead still holds sway. It is also customary for public prayers, often quite elaborate, for the wealthy, to be held, usually stylized and ritualized, praying for the intercession of the divine to guide the soul’s journey to the afterlife.

Once this ceremonial period has completed, the body is usually buried with a ceremony of homecoming, where the life of the deceased is celebrated and their reunion with the divine is proclaimed. After the ceremony of homecoming, the body is usually buried in a sacred space, as a physical symbol of the reunion of the soul with the divine. However, this does not always take the form of interment, and especially in cities and the eastern parts of the Sembara, where the ancient Drankorian influence was strongest, cremation is popular. The ashes are usually interned in a temple. Less often, the bodies are interned in individual or communal crypts. Only in the small villages are graveyards of the kestavan style, in the temple yard, often seen. Burial outside of holy ground is rare and largely seen as dangerous (although, of course, it is not always possible to bury everyone who dies).

Attitudes Towards Bodies

In the Sembaran tradition the body itself is a element of the ritual mourning during the journey through the Land of the Dead but it is not seen as critical to the meta-physical activities of the soul. A sailor drowned at sea, for example, would be mourned on board with a token of hers standing in for the body. The Gathering of the Soul does not depend on the prayers of the devout, and the Eight can find a soul wherever it is, in the depths of the sea or the bottom of a rockfall.

Similarly, the attachment to burial is largely cultural, a legacy of the kestavan traditional where burial is seen as critical. What is important in the Sembaran view is the unification of the body with divine, at the temple, as a symbolic reenactment, and confirmation of, the unification of the soul with the divine in the outer realms. But ashes, a death mask, a beloved holy symbol, a portrait, many things, can stand in for the body.

Undeath

In the Sembaran tradition, the locus of burial - the temple - is certainly seen as protective against necromancy. But also, cremation is popular in denser settlements where not all bodies can be buried in the temple grounds. Unlike the kestavan tradition, there is no taboo about physical destruction of the body, and the prevention of ghosts - souls adrift on the Material Plane - is the responsibility of the Eight Divines. When this fails, it is usually seen as a sign of the failing or ill luck or curse on the soul itself, not a failing of the community.

The greatest concerns are around the soul losing its way and being ensnared on its journey through the Land of the Dead.