#kymal

rambles bellow cut:

It’s such a good idea!

This is my chance to ramble about the funerary traditions I’ve developed in various spots around Exandria. I’ll break it up with headings by area because this may get long.

Whitestone:

Whitestone has perhaps the most complex funeral practices because of just how much had to change thanks to the Briarwoods. If your loved one died in the Briarwood era, their body almost certainly wasn’t recovered, or wasn’t identified in their undead form.

So after the liberation, caskets became a rarity and so did the idea of a “viewing”. Instead, any remaining belongings of the individual, especially those of personal or religious significance set into mausoleum style buildings, a way to lessen the sting of so many empty graves and still have places to remember.

There’s a large public one near each of Whitestone’s major temples, as well as one for Grey Hunters and their family in the courtyard of the Manor.

Funerals happen at dawn, with death rites being read at the first glimpse of the sun as they have for many years, but families visit the memorials at dusk now as well, to send regards to the Champion and hope that the Matron has brought their loved one rest. At the memorials, it is customary to leave perennials, a dedication to replenish them and regrow them with the seasons, to not let the memory and love for the deceased stagnate.

Shortly after Whitestone was liberated, it was not at all uncommon to see Lady Cassandra at a funeral of a commoner and a stranger, guilt keeping her in attendance as often as she could. Few people said anything, but some gave her the perennials they were leaving. No one ever forgot she was grieving too.

The Ashari:

Though not universal, cremation is practiced by Zephrah, Pyrah and Vesrah, with part of funeral practices being scattering the ashes to “return them to the element they lived among”. Sometimes the ashes can also be combined with tattoo ink, which is most common among partners or siblings of those who died relatively young.

During the ceremony, it’s not uncommon for Druidic spells to be used to create a sort of “keening”, where it sounds like the wind, water, earth or fire itself is weeping for the lost.

In Zephrah specifically, it’s considered a great comfort to see a Raven during or shortly after the ceremony. It’s also common for Druids helping with the ceremony to produce snowdrops for the front of the home of the deceased and their family, a flower now associated with remembrance.

If an Ashari Druid is the one who has died, it’s common to keep an eye out for their most common or favored animal to wildshape into in the weeks after their passing. If one takes interest in someone who loved the Druid, it’s seen as a reminder that their connection to the Wildmother is still strong. That they are safe.

Terrah’s rocky soil means that burial is sometimes not really feasible, so a procession down the mountain to a burial ground still abundant with nature and close to the earth they connect with is a days long memorial event, usually only made of family and close friends. When they reach the ground, some of their Druids grow a tree at the spot, a concrete marker for family to visit.

Kymal:

Since so few people in Kymal have family or any significant money to their name, the most anyone outside of higher ups in gangs can hope for is a passing street artist to make a mark where the body lay, sometimes a feather, sometimes something noteworthy about the appearance of the deceased before they were either carted off or taken by animals.

It’s something so little, but it’s an act of kindness the city is so seldom capable of.

Syngorn:

After an elf in Syngorn dies, some form of artwork major enough to display in a garden or a home is commissioned. Usually it is reflective of the person’s nature in some way, with a stalwart soldier being given a statue and a free spirit who enjoyed visiting the feywild in life may receive an abstract painting full of colors they once loved.

The dedication ceremony is the closest thing they have to a funeral, with stories being shared and the beauty of their life being poured out in memoriam in front of the beautiful work that symbolizes their life.

Some families or couples elect to have memorial works that are cohesive in some way, parts of the same painting or statues with poses that form a complete picture. Others elect to show their individuality, neither of which is considered below the other.

I have more for Wildemount but this post is already really fucking long so here

Nicodranas, Wildemount: Nicodranas is a bustling port city on the Menagerie Coast. It is the hometown of The Mighty Nein's Jester Lavorre, and the party visited multiple times.

image is official art by adragonswinging, from explorer's guide to wildemount

Kymal, Tal'Dorei: Kymal is a small city near Westruun, in the Republic of Tal'Dorei, notorious for gambling. Vox Machina and the Crown Keepers have both visited, and it is the hometown of C1 NPC Kaylie.

"Nope, she said it. We're living in this now."