WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

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Bricu
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WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Bricu » Mon Nov 24, 2008 12:45 am

Dear Northfolk:

Given the number of Deaders with Armor, I have decided that the following makes a lot of sense:

Pre-Arthas Northern Funeral Traditions Dictate: Warriors shall be buried in their arms and armor, polished and ready for battle in the next life. From their graves, they would watch and keep over their descendants.

I believe Uther aws buried in this fashion. Even Arathi Travelers, an ethnic minority with peculiar beliefs odd interpretations of the Light follow this practice. They claim that the sacred burial sites, along their roads, keep their fellow travelers safe from bandits, trolls and other no-good-nicks.

Post-Arthas, only the incorruptible would be buried in such a fashion.

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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Beltar » Mon Nov 24, 2008 6:39 am

Seems reasonable enough--enough societies throughout history have done it. Sometimes the arms and armor were real, sometimes reproductions.

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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Aelflaed » Mon Nov 24, 2008 9:58 am

This was a practice both in early Norse/Viking tradition and in the early Scottish tradition as well, though both cultures then lit the dead and everything they owned... and sometimes everyone dear to them as well... on fire before actually interring them in mounds. By the poetry, that was usually the choice of the family - there's a fair amount of recorded poetry that suggests loved ones would willingly throw themselves into the fire in order to join the dead in the afterlife. 'course, it's still poetry, so who knows.

For our purposes, it certainly makes sense, and we can adapt that pyre thing as a new bit of tradition to ensure that the dead stay dead and don't turn into ghouls nomming for our brains.
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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Threnn » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:10 am

Please to not light Threnn on fire, kthx.

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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Bricu » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:15 am

Aelflaed wrote:This was a practice both in early Norse/Viking tradition and in the early Scottish tradition as well, though both cultures then lit the dead and everything they owned... and sometimes everyone dear to them as well... on fire before actually interring them in mounds. By the poetry, that was usually the choice of the family - there's a fair amount of recorded poetry that suggests loved ones would willingly throw themselves into the fire in order to join the dead in the afterlife. 'course, it's still poetry, so who knows.

For our purposes, it certainly makes sense, and we can adapt that pyre thing as a new bit of tradition to ensure that the dead stay dead and don't turn into ghouls nomming for our brains.


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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Aelflaed » Mon Nov 24, 2008 11:33 am

The idea was that they'd be joining their ancestors and Gods in the afterlife, so anything they needed in life would go with them into death. Pots and pans, food, clothing, sometimes furniture, obviously arms and armor, horses, cattle, slaves - anything they'd need to be able to have a successful life with the Gods, fighting the (ultimately doomed, for Norsemen) battle against Evil.
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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Jolstraer » Mon Nov 24, 2008 1:03 pm

A more Scottish approach might work for Northerners, since they have common apostrophical ancestry.
"I left my home where the dead never rose
But the streets of gold i've yet to find
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Without hope well you might as well be blind, yeah be blind
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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Alonora » Mon Nov 24, 2008 5:41 pm

I don't know enough about the subject, but it is a curious one. Ael's information is absolutely right (thanks Ael for the info! :D) about them taking almost everything with them into the grave. I say almost everything, becuase they tended not to bring things that weren't fancy enough! Wanted to show themselves off before the gods, I am certain. The every-day stuff wasn't good enough. ;) And as often as not, the daughter or wife who went with the dead one did so because of pride and tradition, of their own will. Should be said though, that they often were "helped" through it with alcohol and what have you. The slaves... not so much.

There is also the burial in mounds vs the burning of ships matter, when it comes to the "norse", scandinavians, vikings - call them what you want, and their ancestors.
In Sweden the "Uppsala Mounds" ( http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uppsala_h%C3%B6gar - sorry, didn't find a translated page that was very good or accurate, but, uh, that one has pretty pictures. >.>) are dated to around 475 and 550. There are an estimated 3000 graves there, with the three "kings" mounds being the most prominent ones.

If we look back to the nordic bronze age (1000 - 500 BC )though, it was common to burn bodies on ships - and interestingly enough, on "stone ships" as well. ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_ship ) Given that not everyone in a village was given this royal treatment.

It's a very interesting subject. :)

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Aelflaed
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Re: WoW Anthro Class: Northern Funeral Rituals

Postby Aelflaed » Mon Nov 24, 2008 8:29 pm

No it's an interesting subject - and made more so by the fact that a lot of those customs (well, except for the boat part) are similar to what's going on in the British Isles, at least until the influence of Roman Christianity took hold.

I'm trying to find some more concrete stuff about Scots/Irish medieval funeral traditions, but so far I've come up dry of anything that has concrete evidence (except the fact that at some point they banned the keeping of mausoleums underneath churches, because it got to be a pain in the arse to keep digging up the floor)
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