Death and funerals in Eorzea

[Suibian]

Am doing homework for a religious character who would be curious about all kinds of rites and rituals - have done a read through Sounsyy's lore compilations (thanks Sounsyy), trying to understand how death and funerals work, and still have some questions. Appreciate any help and opinions  

 

1. From lore i understand that in Eorzea, upon death, the soul leaves the body (and heads to the afterlife, or so some believe); meanwhile in the living world, the body breaks down into aether and returns to the lifestream. I am curious about how this process actually happens and what this entails for the people who have to clean up after a death. From the ARR MSQ we have seen and handled some corpses... so it seems the process of breaking down seems to not happen immediately, and Uldahans at least are known to bury their dead. Is the 'breaking down to aether and returning to the lifestream' something like the real world process of decomposition, where the body decomposes / rots into organic particles and the aether quietly releases alongside it - or is it accepted that all corpses dissolve into blue dust and dissapear cleanly into the lifestream? I feel like i've seen this happen, i have to watch the alc questline again...

 

2. There is only one cemetary (the 'lichyard' iirc - near drybone) and one funeral home in all of eorzea (the Ossuary in Uldah). How do Gridanians and Lominsians deal with their dead? I imagine the Lominsians do sea burials... Gridania has the Conjurer's Guild to heal wounded and sick, and the Sanctum of the Twelve for happy occasions, but nothing to deal with the dead (not even a morgue or graveyard for hygiene and disease prevention..) I guess a logical workaround would be 'a sub department of the twin adders / conjurer's guild sees to burials', but i'm curious if there is any explanation for in-game npc death and what happens to corpses, especially in the Shroud with its elementals.

[Sounsyy]

On 1/26/2019 at 1:31 AM, Suibian said:

1. From lore i understand that in Eorzea, upon death, the soul leaves the body (and heads to the afterlife, or so some believe); meanwhile in the living world, the body breaks down into aether and returns to the lifestream. I am curious about how this process actually happens and what this entails for the people who have to clean up after a death. From the ARR MSQ we have seen and handled some corpses... so it seems the process of breaking down seems to not happen immediately, and Uldahans at least are known to bury their dead. Is the 'breaking down to aether and returning to the lifestream' something like the real world process of decomposition, where the body decomposes / rots into organic particles and the aether quietly releases alongside it - or is it accepted that all corpses dissolve into blue dust and dissapear cleanly into the lifestream? I feel like i've seen this happen, i have to watch the alc questline again...

So there's a necessary distinction to make between science and religion as far as death goes:

 

Learned scholars believe that upon a creature's death, the soul leaves the body in an initial burst of aether. The more violent the death, the more burst of aether happens. The body left behind then slowly decomposes over time and "returns to the Lifestream." In those rare instances where we see a person dissolve entirely into aether right before our eyes, it is in cases where a person has consumed all of their aether at the time of their death. Moenbryda is an example of this. Anyroad...

 

As aether filters into the Lifestream, it follows the raging torrent to Silvertear Lake, the fount of all aether in the world, where it passes to the Aetherial Plane or Aetherial Sea. In creationist beliefs, this place is sometimes also referred to as the "Whorl." This Aetherial Plane is a massive swirling blender of aether which slowly filters out of the Sea back into the Lifestream to return as new life. Only so much aether can filter into and out of this exchange at any given time, called the Aetherial threshold. This is why in areas of massive death, like some battlefields, there is a denser aetherial concentration and sometimes crystalization of stagnant aether than in most places. 

 

You can find more info about this here!

 

 

Religious beliefs differ and are varied depending not only on the religion but where that religion is taught. Most Eorzeans believe that upon a person's death, the soul exits the body and enters the Lifestream and, hopefully, is carried into the Halls of the Twelve. "Halls" is sometimes also referred to as "Heavens." There are seven Heavens, and there are seven Hells. Six of these Heavens and Hells correspond to the elements of the deity pair which rules that element, and then the final seventh Heaven and Hell are astrally and umbrally aligned, respectively, and rule over the six lower Heavens and Hells below them. 

 

Again, I want to reiterate that this belief can vary. In Ul'dah, for example, it is commonly believed that Nald and Thal are separate entities, brothers, and that one brother (Nald) rules Life whilst in this plane, while his brother (Thal) oversees Death and one's placement in an afterlife called Thal's Realm. Thal's scales weigh your accomplishments in life to determine whether or not you will be admitted into his divine embrace. It is also taught that the dead who aren't buried properly (by the Order of Nald'thal) risk their souls returning to haunt the living for all eternity.

 

Gridanians do not believe in Thal's Realm and such teachings are heresy in Ishgard, whose faith in the Fury eclipses all of the other eleven in the pantheon. Ishgardians believe that the other gods and goddesses exist, but their powers are a shadow of Halone's. They believe that those who spend a lifetime of devotion to Her or die valorously defeating Halone's enemies will be taken unto Halone's Halls in the heavens. 

 

Beliefs in the Far East vary even more greatly, with worship in the kami producing several disparate theories on the fate of a soul, and a belief specific to the Dotharl that Xaela whose souls burn bright at the moment of their death are reborn in their tribe. 

 

I have a number of posts regarding the religion of several of the Twelve in my Lore Index. 

 

 

On 1/26/2019 at 1:31 AM, Suibian said:

2. There is only one cemetary (the 'lichyard' iirc - near drybone) and one funeral home in all of eorzea (the Ossuary in Uldah). How do Gridanians and Lominsians deal with their dead? I imagine the Lominsians do sea burials... Gridania has the Conjurer's Guild to heal wounded and sick, and the Sanctum of the Twelve for happy occasions, but nothing to deal with the dead (not even a morgue or graveyard for hygiene and disease prevention..) I guess a logical workaround would be 'a sub department of the twin adders / conjurer's guild sees to burials', but i'm curious if there is any explanation for in-game npc death and what happens to corpses, especially in the Shroud with its elementals.

Across Eorzea, people bury their dead! The lichyard in Drybone is one of the more obvious ones, but others exist across Eorzea, especially throughout Gyr Abania if you look for them. 

 

You can learn more about the Order of Nald'thal, the Ossuary, Erralig's Burial Chamber, and the Church of Saint Adama Landama in this post that also has a wealth of information on Ul'dahn funeral practices here.

In Gridania, the main burial ground is the Tam-Tara Deepcroft. It is likely that the hearers of the Stillglade Fane take care of last rites of the dead. 

 

Limsa does bury some of their dead on land (see: Founder's Crypt), however, as many Lominsans are/were seafarers until Merlwyb's regime, most of the dead were lost at sea and there was rarely a body to bury. So burials at sea were most common, but burials upon land are also a thing on Vylbrand. 

Overweening Thaumaturge: “Limsa is famous for its distrust of the Order. They claim the special benefits and rites promised with our burials are rarely carried out. And why might that be, you ask? I imagine it is because there are no dead to fill the graves, frankly. It is a city of sailors, and many and more die at sea. Without a corpse, what proper burial can there be?”

 

Ishgardians also bury their dead, as seen in the graveyard in the Coerthas western highlands, assuming you are neither dragon nor heretic, in which case the body is often left out. 

Ala Mhigans also bury their dead, as seen by the plethora of graves scattered across the Gyr Abanian zones, most noticeably in Rhalgr's Reach and the mass graves in the Lochs. Ala Mhigans also have various posthumous rites they carry out to maintain the graves and keep the vengeful spirits of the fallen from rising, which can be found in quests from the aforementioned zones. The Garleans, however, outlawed these practices deeming them too religiously oriented, and that's why we see so many Ashkin across the region twenty years on. 

 

 

Hope this helps!

[Suibian]

Bless you Sounsyy, this is exactly what I was looking for - thank you!!