#zoreyar

krajans beliefs are such: if one kills a snake during the snake festival, or in its sleep, or while the snakes are making love; or if one takes from the earth what they do not need during winter; or otherwise performs a harmful act to the land without giving anything in return; such people in their death become zemjeci.

while on their duty, zemjeci are denied entering the otherworld properly. they are one of many kinds of what nebokrajans call restless dead, or unclean dead — ones who after their death keep the ability to visit the living.

zemjeci are believed to care deeply for their still-living relatives, even trying to help them with husbandry and fieldwork. but such attempts often result in harm and mischief, for zemjeci, no longer being human, do not remember how to act human. their state is unnatural, and so the nature can not accept them. when a zemja tries to herd the cows, the herd, striken with madness, runs away, causing harm to themselves and others. when a zemja tries to weave, they do it backwards, spoiling the fabric. a zemja mother may try to lull her infant child, suffocating it in the process.