For the Fallen

Question: Hi J&A, you guys know lots of stuff. Thanks for everything you do for us! Ready for a question asking for a general summation and oversimplification of things that are stupid complicated? What are the general death rites for each playable pantheon?

Jeez, you weren't kidding.

I started to write this post, and instead realized that it was going to be too long - like, insanely long, as in nobody was going to want to read it and it would take me days to write. This is a huge question, as you obviously know; funeral customs and rites are one of the most important and elaborate things that most cultures have built up, because death is a very large and very frightening unknown and funerary customs and beliefs help give it some order and familiarity.

So instead of killing myself (and your computer screens) by writing an 80,000 word book that still didn't cover everything, I'm going to link to some online resources that provide overviews of each culture's death and burial rites. They won't cover everything (because you could write multiple books about a single culture's death rites, really) and I'd still strongly suggest doing some further reading on the subject if you plan to run a death- or funeral-heavy story, but they'll give you a solid basis and interesting details for all your death-y Scion needs.

Anglo-Saxon Funerals: An excellent look at funerals in Norse and Anglo-Saxon myth, intended for use by modern Asatru practitioners but well-researched and organized.

Shinto Funeral Practices: A quick look at traditional Japanese Shinto burial rites from the ancient descriptions in the Kojiki up to the modern day.

Aztec Mortuary Practices: I never do Mesoamerica halfway, so this links to a PDF of an excellent article examining Aztec and Maya perceptions of death and funeral rites, including plenty of textual support and imagery from the codices and examination of archaeological burial sites.

Sumerian Royal Burials: This resource focuses mainly on the burials of royal or noble people in ancient Mesopotamia, with a particular emphasis on sacrificial victims that accompanied the deceased to the afterlife. For a more thorough examination of later Babylonian burial beliefs and practices, try Babylonian Death and Burial, which has a lot of good material regarding how Babylonian mythology paints death.

Chinese Burial Beliefs: Though not overly in-depth, this site hits the high notes of what death meant to the ancient Chinese (in both Taoist and Buddhist terms) and how burial rites were used to ensure the passage of the dead to their afterlife.

Hindu Funeral Rites: It's difficult to separate ancient Vedic practice from the modern funeral rituals that have evolved from it, but this site does a good job of taking you through all the nitty gritty details, including death preparation, funeral rites, mourning periods and differences between various regions and castes.

Ancient Greek Death, Burial and Afterlife: There are literally tons of books on ancient Greek and Roman burial practices, and I encourage you to go seek some out if you want a really thorough treatment of the subject, but this quick snippet page hits most of the high notes, including the stages of a Greek burial process, the religious theory behind it and the similarities and differences in later Roman practice.

Yoruba Burial Ceremonies: Since there's no record of the truly ancient Yoruba customs as they were pre-literate and nobody literate was around to write it down for them, the closest we have are accounts like this one from colonists who encountered the Yoruba practices of a few centuries ago. It still gives us a good idea of the importance of elaborate burial rituals in ancient African societies. For more modern perspectives, you can also check out funeral customs in Haitian vodun.

Ancient Egyptian Funerary Practices: This site does a great job of a quick and dirty but very informative look at Egyptian burial rites, including tombs, mummification, funeral processions and religious implications.

Ancient Celtic Burial Rites: Though outdated, this is a good look at Celtic burial practices and views of the dead, from Ireland to Britain to the mainland Gauls. There's some Christian bias, but also some good information on Celtic ideas about what dead people were and how they should be treated.

Zoroastrian Funeral Ceremonies: This site gives you a very in-depth, blow-by-blow explanation of the funeral rites set out in the Avestas and followed by the ancient Persian worshipers; it also discusses how and which practices have survived to continue in modern-day Zoroastrianism. For a more archaeological and less Zoroastrian-heavy look at ancient Persian funerals, you can also take a look at Ancient Achaemenian Funerary Practices.

These sites are mostly legit as far as I can tell - they cite sources and are reasonably unbiased - but, as always, doing further research in libraries or journals is usually a better way to get to the really good stuff. For Storytellers that don't feel like an eight-week crash course in funeral iconography, however, this should be a good starting point to get an idea of each culture's unique flavor and requirements for use in games.