Funerary Rites [Worldbuilding] [Pitch]

The TTV Channel Brickonicle
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So this was just an idea I had started kicking around in my head for a while. How do you think Arthakans would go about funerary rites? There have been references to deaths of major political figures such as King Matoro in the Brickonicle series bible. Here are a couple ideas I have in mind

Mangai:

The people of Mangai favor cremation of the body, namely for soldiers who have died in the line of duty. A eulogy is read by the Primo Solae, once a major social class of Mangai in days of yore, now little more than a cultural figurehead who attends functions such as these. The Primo Solae names the immediate relatives, and says a prayer for them allowing the spirit of the deceased to bestow upon them strength to continue towards the future. The body is set alight, while a bundle containing the deceased’s weapons and Kanohi is given to the family, along with an urn containing the ashes. The surviving family members will customarily place it in a family shrine,

Tiro:

Though the Tiroans are an intellectual people, they also hold great respect for the traditions of the past. Their funerary rites are perhaps the most conventional, usually consisting of a simple burial of the body with a gravestone carved to mark the site, though other materials may be used if a stone is not readily available. Among Tiroan’s farming communities, some plant fruit-bearing trees on the plot of land where the body is buried. The trees are tended to by the family members, and some believe the fruits are blessed by the spirits of the deceased and are harvested for a great cultural festival where families celebrate the spirits of the deceased for laying a solid foundation for them and giving them a bountiful harvest for the season.

Naho:

The people of the Naho region favor funerary rites similar to that of a Viking funeral. A canoe is paddled out to sea with a small sail boat carrying the coffin of the deceased. Once the Arbiters sailing the canoe have travelled far enough beyond Naho’s waters, they let the wind against the sails guide the boat away, and paddle back to shore on a kayak.

Motara

The Motarans do not have any set funerary rites. In times of old, the ruling class would have tombs built containing all of their greatest treasures before the Great Bank was established. It was not unusual for other rulers, including the Merchant Kings, or even nomadic tribes to loot these tombs, usually employing Dark Hunters to do the work. The Shadowed One isn’t one to complain, as long as he gets his cut of the reward. It hasn’t been unusual for him to send Dark Hunters after other robbers, even if they are fellow Dark Hunters themselves. If a nomad is found lying in the desert, someone else will usually just give the body a once over to see if there are any valuables on them worth stealing, then simply leave the rest for the Rahi buzzards.

Ihu

As was the case with Tiro, the Ihuans favor conventional burial rites, but with less emphasis on the harvest aspect, being a frigid, mountainous region. In the case of the Royal family, a statue is erected of the deceased to act as a grave marker.

And that’s about all I’ve got…Kanae is a bit of a toss up…maybe it’s like George Carlin where you fly the body out to a certain place, drop it, and just leave it wherever :stuck_out_tongue: I’m open to suggestions.

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When you want to bring Brickonicle back by coming up with a cool idea to talk about, but you can’t think of one until someone else comes up with a really good one before you

These are some really good ideas!

I’d hate to be the fisherman who sails out too far and just sees a dozen boats with skeletons inside. Wait, do Matoran decompose? I’m surprised I don’t think anyone’s asked that yet.

I think, judging by how little Kanae cares about life, perhaps there’s just a flying hearse, with a rider crying “Bring out yer dead!”, and then takes them back to a morgue, usually ending up throwing the bodies into a large hole.

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But count to 3 first, not 2 unless proceeding to 3, 5 is right out.

I’d say Kanae probably cremates as well but has a ceremony where the ashes of the deceased is blown out into the winds.

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I’m glad you said Motara wouldn’t have one. It wouldn’t seem right for a lawless land to have it.

I agree with Kardax for Kanae, though honestly, I could see them just flat out dumping the bodies off the side and letting it plummet. Either into the water off the island’s edge, or into the forest of Tiro. It’s big enough that I could see a “graveyard” section forming, unknown to most Tironians.

For Ihu, I could see an icy version of Egyptian tombs, carved out of a massive glacier.

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This kind of draws into another idea I had been tossing around a while back. It’s implied in the podcasts that few if any, have ventured outside the waters of Arthaka and lived to tell the tale. Building off this, there are probably dangerous sea monsters that dwell in the waters preventing anyone from leaving. So the arbiters can probably only take the canoe so far beyond the borders of Naho, and it’s not like they see what happens to the body. For all we know, one of these sea monsters could’ve eaten it or it sunk beneath the waves in a storm. In any case, those who knew the deceased know they are with Akida now. How they end up connecting is inconsequential in the eyes of the arbiters.

Motara excepted, most of the tribes perform burial rituals believed to bring them closer to their elements. Earth is burial, fire is cremation, water is a viking style funeral, etc. In a way, Motara does end up letting the desert creatures and the land itself reclaim the bodies, but here it’s more out of apathy than actual reverence towards the deceased.

Kanae might’ve had a myth in the past when they were a more spiritual people involving cremation and scattering the ashes of one’s earthly form, thus allowing them to ascend to the heavens with Uxar. Perhaps they might also blow flower petals or leaves onto the winds to guide the spirits somehow?

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Old question in the initial podcasts. Te answer can be found here. Basically, it was a question whether Rahi are mechanical or organic. The answer was they are “synthetic”, part mechanical part organic. They grow with their armor. So my guess is they do decompose.

Kanae, that place could suffer from severe lack of space. Specially with how irresponsible they are with their kids and how often they die. Important rich families might bury their kids or perform a ceremony, but I see them dealing with the dead the same way unbaptized dead babies where dealt with in middle ages. Mass funeral cremations, where at the end they are just left to scatter on the winds.

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Perhaps building off your ideas about Kanae, I’m thinking the rich would probably scatter ashes onto the wind like everyone else, but do so in an elaborate fashion with lavish parties and all of that.

I like the idea of Kanae having once been a very spiritual people in the Kanohi Era, but following the abandonment of their worship of Uxar and by extension Lewa, gave themselves over to hedonism. The elites, who were once the most spiritual class of religious leaders began amassing more material wealth and the poor, originally just rank and file acolytes who were otherwise on the same material level simply became apathetic and fell into squalor.

The Tiroan harvest festivals may have originally had more to do with Terak and Onua, but now more emphasis is placed on celebrating the ancestors ala Dia De Los Muertos

Naho are probably the only ones who uphold the old traditions but more importantly believe in them, at least to the extent that they still revere Akida if not her avatar, Gali.

On the other hand, Mangai is more to do with the deceased and their family, any deeds of the deceased if they were particularly great soldiers, the religious aspects are more formality than anything else. Though I don’t think a Fire people would object to cremation as opposed to conventional burial.

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