Dragonblooded after Death

Immaculate View of Death Rites

The Immaculate doctrines regarding death and what comes after are quite specific: and, of all the Order's teachings, probably the most often disregarded.

The most strictly Immaculate view of the afterlife is that it does not exist as such: one is born into a position in the Perfected Hierarchy based on one's actions in a past life, one lives as one wishes, and how one has lived determines whether one will advance or fall on the Perfected Hierarchy when one dies and reincarnates. In this view, the corpse is meaningless after death (the soul has left it to reincarnate): the best way to be rid of it is cremation. Ghosts are also meaningless... they are souless illusions which are not connected to the deceased in any true way, emotional 'flare-ups' that ought be beaten down in manner even more severe than that taken for rebellious spirits. Some even say that ghosts have REJECTED reincarnation and are thus truly heretical souls even more in need of punishment.

[OKUBO: "My place in the Perfected Hierarchy will be subjective to each individual: in childhood, I was, if I may say so, a leader and a true friend, aiding those who required 
it and guiding my fellows in a manner which could be considered exemplary for a Prince of the Earth. My final years may not be as clear, but it seems apparent that I took little
effort to preserve contact with my former friends or family, rejected the wishes of my mother and House, and 'wasted' skills suited for a key role amongst the Realm's defenders to
pitter about the Imperial City doing nothing of importance. 

Murdering Mnemon Kora won't have been good for my place in the Hierarchy, either... I sure hope I'm not coming back as a hamster."]

Dynastic View of Death Rites

A more common belief in the Dynasty is that there is an 'afterlife'. This is not an evolved belief, as discussion of that afterlife would be heresy to Immaculate doctrine... therefore Dynasts tend to harbour less a metaphysical concept and more a leaning that has given rise to certain rituals. The dead rest easier the more satisfied they are: this comes from having lived complete lives, being buried in proper style and ceremony, and being placated with small offerings. Restless ghosts are those who died and who feel forgotten, wronged, or unavenged... they return to punish the living for the slights they perceive. Most Dynasts outside the Order believe this sort of thing on some level, if not particularly deeply; for those who believe this most strongly (usually those furthest from the Order, such as the hedonists of House Cynis), funerals where stories are told praising the dead are seen as important to satisfy the spirit: smaller ceremonies where paper cutouts of treasures and luxuries are burned for the dead frequently occur, and the need to recover the body of a fallen comrade is quite pronounced. Some Dragonblooded lines, particularly those with links to Shogunate gens, maintain memorial tombs or pillars to the dead.

[OKUBO: "My funeral was a no-show, it seems... quick, without ceremony, in a half-complete coffin and with my big-ass dailaive grabbed from my cold hands by Mommy. And you guys
couldn’t be bothered even sending any gifts or swearing mystic oaths to avenge me. No wonder someone plunked a coral 'no-ghost' hedge charm on me... I'd be pretty angry
spirit, if you believe in that sort of thing."]

Most Dynastic funerals are a balance between these two ideas. Many will wear violet, the colour of death and funerals. The body is disposed of, with some favouring simple cremation and others a method appropriate to aspect. Friends and family gather to share stories of the deceased’s accomplishments, everyone weeps that she has departed and expresses hope their next incarnation will be even further enlightened. Then, everyone departs and does not return to the site.

Funerary Traditions by Elemental Aspect

Aspect-based funeral rites have a long history amongst the Dragonblooded, practiced widely during the Shogunate Era and still persisting amongst members of the Scarlet Dynasty as well as (and perhaps most systematically) in Lookshy and amongst established Outcasete communities.

Water: Water Aspected Dragonblooded are traditionally returned to the sea, bodies being slid from the decks of ships into the ocean.

Fire: Cremation is sometimes considered a funerary tradition of the Fire aspect, but such efficient burning of bodies falls far short of the traditional rite, which involves a large funeral pyre atop which the body is placed and burned.

Earth: The traditional funerary rites of the Earth Aspect involve entombment, the construction of chambers deep underground in which the dead can be interred. The tradition of burial tombs is an ancient one indeed, with even the Anathema having tombs to house their bodies... much as cremation is today both a proper Immaculate approach and a traditional funeral aspected to Fire, during the Shogunate tomb burials and monuments were common in a general sense not just amongst those aspected to Earth.

Wood: Wood Aspected Dragonblooded are returned to the soil, where they might decompose and their bodies be taken up by the roots of plants so that they birth a new generation. Traditionally the body is buried in a shallow grave, amongst the roots of a tree or large plant, without any device such as a coffin to separate the corpse from the surrounding soil.

Air: Air Aspected Dragonblooded are traditionally subject to the funerary rite of Sky Burial, where the corpse is left on a raised platform open to the sky, and birds such as Vultures and raptors descend to devour the body and take flight once more, unifying the dead Dragonblood with her element.