Chapter 63: Chapter 61: A traditional welcome

Do we bury the dead? Or do we burn them?

It is a question often asked by not only the religious scholars of the world, but also by the more mundane folk who operate the civil infrastructure of the city.

In the distant past, burning the dead was considered to be a proper form of burial, given the prevalence of undead monsters such as zombies and reanimated ghouls. Nobody wants to see their close friends and family turn into such things.

However, the caveat is that the lack of a body is not enough to stop the powerful magics of the world’s ambient DARK currents.

If a soul, a body, or a gestalt, has been predestined to become an undead, then burning the body will only alter the type of undead it may become. A corpse that was chosen to become a zombie would then instead simply become a wisp, a ghost, or some other form of haunting spectre that would perhaps be even worse.

A zombie can be easily caught and destroyed by HOLY magic or by FIRE. It is no great trouble to return these unfortunate people to their rest. A ghost, however, is far trickier to catch, and that is if you even ever realize that it is there instead of sleeping the deep-sleep.

Now, we simply bury them.

But graveyards are growing larger and larger, and make attractive targets for necromancers and graverobbers.

An alternative solution has been presented, and that is to simply discard all of our corpses by simply throwing them into the dungeons.

While pragmatic, this does not seem likely to become socially acceptable any time soon.