un: Black Prince; text

[blackscales]

What funerary rites are you familiar with?

The Kaldorei cleanse a body, perform a final viewing where there is singing then take it to a resting place and grow flowers around it. Goblins have extravagant funerals with mourners and ornate coffins which they are buried or entombed in along with all their accumulated wealth. In Kul Tiras burials at sea are common, while the Tauren peoples burn their dead on funeral pyres so their spirits may return to the Earth mother.

Here, burials appear to be common I have gathered.

Comments

[blackscales]

What are the key differences?

[ He's curious! Knowledge is rarely useless, after all. Even if it might not be immediately something he can find purpose for, it might come up later. ]

[beitangmoran]

Tradition, I suppose?

My people believe the body should be preserved so it can be reborn in another life. But ancestor worship is also not done at the grave, but inside the house, mostly.

[blackscales]

[ Reborn? ]

Another spirit reborn into the same body? Or --

[ What is the logic behind preserving the body here? Do they believe the spirit doesn't leave the body at all, and so are preserving that too until it has a new vessel?

Wrathion is stuck on the detail here. ]

[beitangmoran]

No, we do not expect people to come back in the same body. They are reborn as babies in a new life. But this can take years, and in the meantime, preserving the integrity of the body prevents the soul from wandering.

[blackscales]

[ Prevent the soul from wandering... because it stays in the body until the new baby is born? An interesting take. Not one Azeroth shares, that he knows, but having never personally died he cannot say he knows the exact mechanics for certain. ]

I see. Preserving the body in that case does make sense. Is ancestor worship done at shrines maintained in the house, or is there some other method?

[beitangmoran]

There's the grave, that might be visited once or twice a year, and then we usually have tablets made in the ancestor's name which are kept at the home and given offerings.

[blackscales]

Are there usual types of offering, or does it depending on the ancestor?

[ Is it, say, always a specific category of thing? Like food or drink? Or do you simply offer whatever manner of thing they like? ]

[beitangmoran]

Most of the time, food and incense.

[blackscales]

[ Well, that seems relatively simple? ]

How long are the offerings left out?

[ Since... you know, it is unlikely they will actually be... consumed. ]

[beitangmoran]

Honestly, I do not know. We have servants who clear them out regularly, I assume.

[blackscales]

I see. Thank you for sharing. I find the mix of similarities and differences between us all interesting.