Sedonians generally believe that just as the soul must return to the spiritual world after death, so must the body return to the material world after death. They are also concerned about the possibility of necromancers using the link between a dead body and the soul once housed inside it for evil purposes. In rural farming districts, the standard practice is to bury the body as soon as possible after death, unembalmed, wrapped in a simple shroud, and in a simple pine coffin. Farmers often choose to be buried by the edge of their fields where their bodies will enrich the earth. In areas where the weather gets cold enough that the ground freezes in winter, the encoffined bodies are stored in a temporary tomb through the winter until the ground thaws. These temporary tombs are guarded by the Order of Coron, and often are the most secure building in a village. In the cities, burial is a temporary thing. After a body has been in the ground for 10 to 25 years, depending on how long a lease was bought for the plot, it is dug up and the bones transferred to an ossuary or catacomb. Certain bones, such as the skull, mandible, and femur, are marked or mutilated to render them unsuitable for necromantic use. However, most city-dwellers elect to be cremated rather than buried. The great advantages of cremation are that cremains lose their magical link to the soul they once housed, and cremains cannot be reanimated like a corpse or skeleton can be. Most cities maintain public crematoria for the use of the poor. The rich and nobles often prefer to be burned on a pyre rather than in a crematory oven. The disposal the cremains is up to the wishes of the deceased or their survivors--typically, the split is 50/50 between keeping & scattering the cremains. In Thalsedon, however, the University medical school sometimes makes arrangements with the poor to buy their corpses for dissection. Dissection is also the fate of unclaimed bodies & paupers. When soldiers die in battle or far from home, the Sedonian practice is to remove the heart, strip the flesh off the bones, and send the bones & preserved heart back to the legionary's home, while the flesh is burnt and scattered on the battlefield. The belief behind this is that by burying a legionary's heart & bones in his home town, he will defend spiritually what he once defended physically. Due to the smells involved in the burning, most veteran legionaries are unable to stomach pork. Members of the Orders of the Elemental Gods elect methods of 'final disposal' consistent with their faith. Earth priests are buried. Fire priests are cremated and the ashes stored in the monastery until enough urns have accumulated to fill a wagon. At that point, the collected cremains are sent as part of a pilgrimage to be dumped into a volcano. Sea priests are, naturally, buried at sea. And the dead bodies of air priests are placed on top of large stone towers and are exposed to wind, rain, and vultures. It should be noted that in cases of foul play or suspicious death, the priests of the Order of Coron will maintain a dead body for determination of cause & manner of death, and will preserve it until the end of any associated legal proceedings. Finally, executed criminals in Sedonia are either sent to the medical school for dissection (in Thalsedon), or they are chopped up and the pieces fed to pigs (inland) or fish (coast). Andrew ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send mail to celandra-off@phoenyx.net.
