S. P. E. C. T. R. E. and S. H. A. D. O. W. Conference (storyline)/Lecture Notes - Ancient Burial Rites

Lecture

[NOTE: Lecture follows. Please refer to the "Illusions" section at bottom for details on the bolded sections throughout]

Good day.  I am Ermias Dunholme.  I am know to many as an archaeologist.  In truth, I am simply an explorer who documents and explores tradition.  I appreciate the invitation today to join you to speak on ancient burial rites.

In spite of the difficulties ongoing at this conference, and what has apparently happened to one member of the staff, I am committed to continuing on with this discussion.  

I have been invited here because I am considered an expert in funerary traditions.  And I would not miss an opportunity to discuss such topics in a setting such as this, with both the living and the dead.  Because every artifact, every tomb?  They have stories to tell.

Indeed, it is an absolute pleasure to be in attendance.  After today's lecture, I look forward to exploring this... place.

Today, I will offer insight into cultural customs, but more importantly I wish to open a door for you to consider all that surrounds us and which often goes overlooked.   Indeed, I know many of us seek such a goal this weekend.

Because a door is an apt metaphor.  Death, as is poetically noted, is life's preeminent door.  Without exception, it is one all creatures must pass through.  Whether or not it returns from this passage, however, is a different... topic of study.

While others in attendance here would agree that both sides of this balance fascinate, or insist on spending countless hours researching how to hold this door open to ensure passage in either direction, today I will offer instead a moment of reflection: what can we learn about life, time, and ourselves in observing the nature of this passage.

Before we truly begin, a small note: as part of my presentation, I will be employing a most curious technology.  One that allows me to recreate events I have witnessed with my own eyes.  Behold.

My research has taken me across Elanthia, from lonely, foggy vales outside of Wehnimer's Landing to the very heart of fire within Kharam Dzu.  On this device, I have recorded images that I hope will both fascinate and instruct.

Do not be fearful or confused.  The images and scenes you will witness are merely an ILLUSION.  Some are of locales I have studied; I invite you to PEER or GAZE at these.  Others represent objects or scenarios I believe will be instructive for us to consider.  Please LOOK at those to best consider them.

Also, I periodically must infuse essence into this device.  That takes a visible, physical toll on me.  Do not be alarmed.  I am an expert in this device's use and know how to employ it safely.

Now, without further delay, I invite you to ponder death itself.  And, given our short time today, to consider how you might approach the study of death and its rites if you wish to learn more in the future.  Or, in the case of our surroundings, the immediate present.

Death, the final passage of one's spirit, and the associated customs are outwardly a conundrum, simultaneously the most public event of our lives and an intimately private affair that we inexorably cannot ever truly share with another.

Illusion #1 - Lady Gosaena

Behold, Lady Gosaena.  From the gregarious commoner in Wehnimer's Landing to the taciturn, lone elf in Ta'Vaalor and so many cultures, races, and customs in-between, she is the end.  We all face her on our own time, and all cultures and customs have her as a backdrop to everything that has and will happen when it comes to death.

That is not anything novel.  But some would consider Gosaena an ultimate truth, underlying anything else we may yet consider or discuss.

I consider it a useful grounding point, as no matter where one goes in their research of funerary rites and customs, she walks alongside and merits attention.

I also caution one to not stare too long into her serene visage.  Although a constant companion in the research of final death, some find her eyes intoxicatingly impossible to avoid in life once you begin to gaze.  And, thereafter, you're stuck.  Aren't you?  Well, anyway.

Illusion #2 - Lady Gosaena in the Grey Hall

Friends, GAZE upon this illusion with me.  

This is the Grey Hall, in the Elven Nations, a land of greenery.  There, our serene Lady always watches.  Similarly...

Illusion #3 - Lady Gosaena in Kharam Dzu

Whereas, under the mountain, alongside rivers of literal fire in mineral heat that clouds the mind and overwhelms senses, we similarly see our serene Lady.

Death is death, dispassionate to conditions because the call is the same: to receive us as we walk through an inevitable door.

Please, take a moment to GAZE upon these two contrasting locations and then we will proceed.

Illusion #4 - A Ruined Potter's Field

So what we are left with is what we always have had: each other.  The customs shared between strangers and friends, between lovers and those with enmity.  Between like citizens and those living nations apart, and even between contemporaries and those who will never meet because they live at different times.  

As you GAZE upon this landscape, I wish to set a baseline.  A simple marker, uprooted by time and life itself.  While death customs are universal, there is often little outward to distinguish one passing from another.

Illusion #5 - A cracked stone marker in a Ruined Potter's Field

After a time, little outwardly remains to tell the tale.  A simple marker, unremarkable stone for an unremarkable life.  It is possible that this person was indeed missed, beloved by some enough to remark upon it in permanence.  Although, in fairness, funerary niceties and speaking respectfully of the dead are some of the oldest rites that one may observe.

Consider these two illusions in tandem for a moment, and then we shall proceed.

Illusion #6 - A Wehnimer's Landing crypt

From one grave outside Wehnimer's Landing to another, I merely seek for you to use our short time to consider how you might approach your future interactions with the dead.  GAZE with me, friends.

Money is everything.  Between the ruined pauper and the deceased noble, we are more often than not left with clues that glorify (or potentially vilify) those with the means to record their expired history.  Such as this crypt.

Study them.  Learn from them.  Tell the stories.  But do not assume that the answers you glean are the immutable truth.  Death, for how straightforward it may feel at times, is nothing if not an ever-blossoming mystery.

Illusion #7 - A coffin-lined Landing crypt

As you GAZE at this new illusion of a crypt near Wehnimer's Landing, know also that often this research is perilous.  Indeed, sometimes the dead just won't stay dead, as other attendees at this conference will gleefully point out.

Across human towns, cities, and greater empire, rituals surrounding death, funerals, and burial abound.

Illusion #8 - A linen-wrapped corpse

Indeed, as we LOOK at this latest illusion, we have an example of how generally accepted ideas of human funerals are firmly entrenched with the average populace - rites by clergy of the chosen Arkati, burial in a coffin, and mourning by friends and family, but beyond those pedestrian approaches to perishing lie numerous superstitions that often turn into unique rituals, that can vary town to town or even generation to generation.

For those of you who wish to discuss deeper specifics of human rituals, or of any rituals we go over, please feel free to pull me aside throughout the weekend.  I would gladly share my research and... speculation.

Some cultures and races are easier to study than others.  The dwarves, for example, are experts at many things, death included.  \

Illusion #9 - A dwarf mausoleum

As you GAZE at this beautiful illusion, captured from a mausoleum near the otherwise-ruined Fhorian Village outside Kharam Dzu, tradition is everywhere.  Dwarves are known to culturally entomb their dead atop stone, and this is no exception.  Note the pristine black marble, resistant to the passage of time.  Note the orderly rows.  These pedestals reinforce a story of a society that embraces the togetherness of tradition, in both life and death.

However, we must also consider the dwarves of the Borthuum Company. These dwarves have a ceremonial practice that not only binds them to each other, but to the very fires that run through the heart of their mountain.  

Illusion #10 - A Borthuum Clan funerary pyre

Behold.  LOOK at this illusion we have here, at a fascinating and profound ceremony.  I have been privileged enough to witness ceremonies like this.  They are solemn, but with an inexhaustible joy that underlies all.

The dwarves of the Borthuum Clan honor their legacy and their home with their customs.  Funerary pyres, lit by the very fire that runs through the heart of Kharam Dzu, reunite the physical remains of their loved ones.  To witness this in person, to be one with the ash and heat and their reunification, is a powerful, almost overwhelming feeling for an outsider.

... not to speak of what happens to those Borthuum dwarves who dishonor their clan.

Illusion #11 - A desiccated dwarf corpse

Sometimes, the corpse itself is all the evidence that is either necessary, or all that endures, even if only for a time.  LOOK at what remains.

I will let that sentiment linger for a moment, alongside these images.  Though grisly, they are absolutely essential to consider.

Illusion #12 - An Icemule crypt

Illusion #13 - A sturdy halfling warrior sculpture

Halfings are rich with tradition, but here we have something that indeed transcends local custom.  GAZE upon the illusion of the mausoleum, and then LOOK at that of the warrior.

Note the sculpted regalia.  The extensive ornamentation.  The quality that, in spite of the passage of time, endures.  A beautiful vessel.  Beautiful.

Not that this doesn't say something about halfings specifically, but imagery like this?  It endures, it transcends, and it merits study.  

If you are ever near Icemule Trace, I urge you to visit this monument in person.  The chills you may feel now?  They are nothing compared to the real thing.  But I digress.

Battle, specifically generational struggle, is a common theme in death ritual and imagery.

While the aelotoi are new to Elanthia, their funerary rites offer a poignant reflection into the struggles they have endured.  And, as they say.  New flesh often proves the most illuminating.

I apologize in advance to those aelotoi in attendance.  This may prove difficult.

Illusion #14 - An aelotoi struggle

Witness this struggle.  LOOK at the beauty of this illusion before you.  Then consider the following.

Illusion #15 - An aelotoi flower ceremony, the pala'tara

Among the rituals the aelotoi carry forward, we have here the pala'tara, otherwise known as the ceremony of remembrance.  Shaped by kiramon oppression against their people, here we witness a modern adaptation of a lingering tradition: where clan elders, having hidden away petals for safety, gather them in a fleeting moment and cast them into a cooking fire.

Living aelotoi now allow outsiders to participate in this beautiful ceremony.  I was honored to join them recently.  For a bookworm and tomb rat like myself, who spends his life considering the dead in cold, lone halls, it was a humbling honor to share a moment with the living.

I will not hold it against anyone who is moved to tears by such poignant imagery.  Please, take a moment if you need.

Illusion #16 - A Ta'Vaalor Cemetery Glade

We now approach the end of my presentation.  As such, I wish to leave you with a few parting images to consider as you move forward from today.

The study of death is nothing if not a confluence of contradiction.  Like the obelisk seen here as you GAZE upon Glaise Gnoc, outside of Ta'Vaalor, we each face it alone.  And alone we are remembered above all else.

Illusion #17 - An elvish obelisk

Consider this obelisk, and note its admonition as you LOOK upon it.  Pause stranger, it says, when you pass me by.  As you are, so once was I.  And as I am now, so will you be.  

The study of death and its trappings and rituals is both universal and utterly singular.  In it, we not only learn about what once was, but what might yet be.  

There are numerous, winding paths of study.  Innumerable permutations and caveats, cultural notes and customs specific to smaller towns and clans.  Truth is rarely immutable.  Neither is death itself.

And, in examining all of this, we unlock a world of deep possibilities to occupy a lifetime of beautiful contemplation and utility.

This concludes my presentation.  Thank you for your time, and the opportunity to join you here today.  I will be available throughout the weekend to discuss any aspect of this in further detail for those of you who are interested, or to swap stories.

Illusions

Illusion #1 - Lady Gosaena

Before you rises the flickering image of a tall, robed woman carved as a massive stone statue.  Beautiful and ethereal, she stares ahead with serene impartiality.  Peeking out beneath her full cloak are a pair of sturdy wings.  Held carelessly in her hand is a lethal-looking sickle.  The curve of her sickle mirrors the curve of her lip.  Although a robed Gosaena illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #2 - Lady Gosaena in the Grey Hall

You gaze with interest at a serene winged woman illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Cleric Guild, Grey Hall]

Two statues gaze down from the eastern wall, each separated by a fluted marble column.  One is a robed figure whose head is hidden in the folds of her robes with feathered wings folded at her sides, while the other is a depiction of pure madness, her hair flowing wildly about her crazed face.  Arcing patterns of moonstone and silver wind their way across the smooth white floor, interwoven with one another in a tranquil dance in the center, and a more frenzied fashion toward the edges.

Illusion #3 - Lady Gosaena in Kharam Dzu

You gaze with interest at a pale winged woman illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Cleric Guild, Lava Room]

The room is filled with bubbling magma.  A small island sits in the center of the pool, connected to the outside by a thin stone bridge.  On the island stands a tall statue of a woman, her wings stretching high into the cavern.  Pieces of skeletons ring both shores of the lava lake, some trying to crawl away, others towards the beautiful statue.  A pedestal of stone rests at her feet.  It reads: 'Death is the ultimate journey.'

Illusion #4 - A Ruined Potter's Field

You gaze with interest at a ruined Potter's Field illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Ruined Potter's Field]

A particularly large oak intrudes upon the path with its enormous roots reaching out as if to grasp the pathway and pull it right out of the ground.  A small stone marker has been uprooted next to the oak, pushed aside by the gnarled wooden growth.

Illusion #5 - A cracked stone marker in a Ruined Potter's Field

This flickering illusion is of a small stone marker.  Its face is slicked, rubbed mostly smooth from weather and the passage of time.  Beneath the marker, a series of illusory roots flicker out of the ground, simulating how the stone has been displaced by nature.  The marker's surface has a single, prominent crack across its face that cuts through the sole word remaining visible: BELOVED.  Although a cracked stone marker illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #6 - A Wehnimer's Landing crypt

You gaze with interest at a Landing crypt illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Graveyard, Crypt]

The entry foyer to this enormous granite crypt is stark, adorned only with grisly friezes sculpted in low relief into the walls.  Bands of bluish-green ahnver are inlaid into the stone in thin strips just below the ceiling throughout the entire structure, bathing the rooms in a subtle light.  A shadowy arch curves overhead and leads deeper into the inner sanctum of the sepulcher.

Illusion #7 - A coffin-lined Landing crypt

You gaze with interest at a coffin-lined crypt illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Graveyard, Crypt]

You enter the close, stuffy room that houses the sarcophagus of the once-illustrious inhabitant of this imposing crypt.  The coffin stands upright against one wall, almost touching the low ceiling, its painted lid stuck open on sagging hinges.  You shudder as you notice that there are long, fresh tracks on the dust-covered stone floor.  You also see a shadowy arch.

Illusion #8 - A linen-wrapped corpse

Dried out from exposure and time, this flickering illusion depicts a corpse that once belonged to a long-forgotten individual of means.  Wrapped in stained linens that have long-since yellowed, bits of faded, leathery skin are visible under the wrapping.  The wrapped corpse lies in a glossy black sarcophagus of roughly human shape, the paint of which has greatly chipped and faded.  Although a shroud-wrapped corpse illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #9 - A dwarf mausoleum

You gaze with interest at a squat mausoleum illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Mausoleum, Tomb]

This room was spared the destruction so evident in the other chambers, possibly because it was in the process of renovation.  Row after row of gleaming black marble pedestals await stone coffins that will never be placed.  Snaking up from small fissures in the stone floor, thorned vines spiral up tall pewter candlesticks and threaten to crush the heavy ceramic urns that line the walls.

Illusion #10 - A Borthuum Clan funerary pyre

In the flickering image, several dwarves encircle a dark stone funerary slab lined with oil-drenched wood.  On this slab, a pale, lifeless figure has been placed.  This figure is wrapped in linens, its arms folded around a dark blue mithril axe.  One of the standing dwarves holds a stone receptacle filled with bright lava, which they are beginning to empty onto the wood.  Although a luminous funerary pyre illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #11 - A desiccated dwarf corpse

Before you, low to the ground, lies the flickering image of a deceased dwarf on a wispy plain of ethereal sand.  The remains are desiccated by prolonged exposure, stripped bare and left to rot.  As you observe, a small lizard crawls from the caracass's dried-out beard before crawling back into a hollowed eye socket.  Although a desiccated dwarf corpse illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #12 - An Icemule crypt

You gaze with interest at an Icemule mausoleum illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Mausoleum, Grand Chamber]

The chamber is large, but quite simple, evidently designed to hold the large tomb resting upon the darkened soil of the floor.  Great care was evidently put into the craftsmanship of the tomb, its form elegant and worthy of a hero.

Illusion #13 - A sturdy halfling warrior sculpture

A flickering illusion of a sturdy halfling warrior in death's repose rises before you.  The figure lies recumbent, atop a funerary slab and below several tiers of finely carved open-work arches, lending to the scene's majesty.  The although the figure's finer details have weathered slightly over time, it nonetheless represents a great warrior in their full battle regalia.  Although a sturdy halfling warrior illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #14 - An aelotoi struggle

Before you is the flickering illusion of a pitched struggle, depicting an elf and a kiramon grasping each other's arms, their faces set in grimaced exertion.  Behind them, a shimmering cloud-shaped portal looms.  Out of this portal, bronze-winged aelotoi are emerging and scattering away from the struggle.  Although a fierce struggle illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #15 - An aelotoi flower ceremony, the pala'tara

Several copper-winged aelotoi rise before you in this flickering image.  Each holds a handful of pastel-hued flowers, with several also wearing ringed floral crowns.  They stand evenly-spaced around a small cooking fire.  As you observe, one of the aelotoi opens their hands, releasing their held blossoms, which flutter gently down toward the fire.  As they do, the others lips begin to move, whispering unheard names.  Although a flower-bearing aelotoi illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.

Illusion #16 - A Ta'Vaalor Cemetery glade

You gaze with interest at a lone elf glade illusion.  The tiny picturesque details hang in the air and your senses reveal...

[Glaise Gnoc, Cemetery]

A tall granite obelisk serves as a grave marker atop a low hillock.  Framed against the sky, it appears to touch the clouds, a lone sentinel casting its shadow over the grave it guards.

Illusion #17 - An elvish obelisk

The flickering image of a tall granite obelisk rises before you.  It is smooth, void of any markings, as if both immune to both impermanent imprint and the passage of time.  A prominent bronze plaque has been placed at the obelisk's base.  In the common language, it reads: 'Pause, stranger, when you pass me by, for as you are, so once was I.  As I am now, so will you be.  Then prepare unto death, and follow me.'  Although a tall granite obelisk illusion does well to replicate its source imagery, it wavers occasionally, somewhat ruining the effect.