Yar Funerary Rites

[Catarrh 720]

As the Wargoth Malog’Yar has governed his clan and travelled the lands, he’s come to a realization. After all these countless years, the Yars have no burial traditions. Their dead have just been dropped into holes with fancy stones over their plots, like pink-skins. Malog thinks back the the rocky burial mounds of the Braduks in Anthos. He thinks back to the ancient cremation traditions seen hardly anywhere outside of story and legend. Finally, he comes to a conclusion, “Et ez nub fittin’ dat mi Yarz bi burey’d akkurdin’ tu pink-zkin tradizhunz.” So it was that he decided what would be the funerary rites of his clan.

 

In the times of the Ancients, orcs were cremated, and a tomb was constructed to house their ashes. Entombed with said ashes would usually be the deceased's favorite thing.

 

Passage from the Tale of Gorkil describing the cremation of Krug’s favorite mate, Grahla:

 

 

 

The cremation preparations took place over three days. Dom, wearing a ceremonial red robe with a headdress of feathers and skulls, performed rites over the body, making sure that the spirit would find its way safely into the afterlife. She prepared the body for cremation, scrubbing it with scented oils and wrapping it in linen. The stone carvers of the village cut a sandstone coffin for Grahla. Though the bodies were burned, honorable orcs still had tombs. Instead of a body, the tomb would be filled with what the orc loved best. Dom filled the coffin with yellow cactus blossoms, her mother’s favorite flower. When Grahla was laid to rest in the tomb, she was sealed up with hundreds of the fragrant blossoms she used to love, all hand picked by her favorite daughter. Each of Grahla’s children (by the time of her death, she had scores of them) came to pay their respects when the body was burned on a pyre in the center of the village. Grahla had died an old feorc, mother and guide to many. She’d killed hundreds of enemies and brought much glory to the orcs. She was an orc to be honored and admired.

https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/110217-tale-of-gorkil-repost/
 

 

 

The Yars didn’t burn the bones of honorable clan-orcs though. That was an insult they reserved for de-boning rituals intended for the worst of offenders. The Yars also, however, were typically protectors of ancient traditions. Perhaps they could combine this old way with their own traditions, rather than just throw out the old for the new. Malog considered the traditions describe in tales of their ancestors. He considered the ways of his own clan, and their ritualistic nature. Finally, decisions were made.

 

Yar Clan Funerary Rites:

(An Orcish depiction of a Yar funeral)

A Yar funeral is a shockingly noisy affair. No tears are shed, of course. Tears have no home on the face of a Yar. There is, however, dreadful, loud, horrible wailing. The Yar Death Wail is a cacophonous dirge consisting primarily of wails, howls, roars, and chanting. The Yars make as much noise as possible to make sure both the living and the dead can hear them and take notice of their prayers. Typically among the various and admittedly horrid sounds will be Old Tongue chants directed towards the spirit of the deceased and the ancestors with whom he now resides. There are no specific words required for the chant. Each orc merely shouts out whatever he wants to say. It could be a call for a blessed afterlife, an honored memory, a lasting legacy, or any number of honorable requests.

 

The whole ritual centers around a funeral pyre doubling as a temporary altar on which the body rests prominently. Before the burning of the remains, though, various offerings are left all around the base of the pyre by the wailing Yars. Common offerings include animal sacrifices, bundles of grain, cactus green, and, of course, bowls of smoldering herbs harvested from Dwarven lands in honor of the death of Yar himself. Before the body can be cremated, however, there is still one more crucial step.

 

As mentioned previously, the burning of bones is an insult among the Yars. Bones are a sacred symbol in their clan, representing uprightness and integrity. To burn them is to imply the deceased lacked these things. The bones, therefore, must be removed before the cremation can take place. This is not to be confused, though, with the Yar Clan practice of de-boning. De-boning is an agonizing method of execution performed on a still-living offender of a particularly heinous nature. The flesh of a de-boned criminal may then be fed to pigs or dogs, or simply discarded as trash.

 

The removal of bones in a Yar funeral is a careful and reverent process. The Wargoth, painted in the clan colors of black and white, carefully opens the flesh with great precision using a ceremonial knife. The skeleton is then removed with the ultimate goal of being kept intact. Once the bones have been respectfully set aside in a box of carved dark oak, the flesh is stitched back up, and the pyre, with all its offerings, is lit and the remains are cremated.

 

In accordance with ancient orc tradition, a tomb is constructed, and a sandstone sarcophagus is carved with an added touch on the part of the Yars of carving the deceased’s likeness into the lid. As in the days of the Ancestors, the sarcophagus is filled with what the orc in question most loved. The ashes would be interred in the tomb with the sarcophagus and the orc’s favorite weapon.

 

The Bone Box, on the other hand, is kept with the clan. It is to be carried and honored wherever the Yars may go. Some Yars may even choose to enshrine the bones, that the spirit of the deceased clan-brother may be revered by the living. Enshrined or not, the Bone Box is always treated with the highest regard possible. It is to be considered sacred, and protected at all costs. Thus will the Yar Clan honor their dead from this day, until the day Ramakhet scours the land of life at the end of time.

[Smaw 2376]

When asked if I like this clan, I say: "Yar".

[HedgeHug 2049]

I love the fact you're implementing your own art in these

 

Great Idea

 

Yar!

[Daisy 9735]

Moved to The Great Library. It shall be sorted into the appropriate category shortly.

 

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