The matter of death across the Broken Worlds

The belief in an afterlife and what it details vary wildly from fragment to fragment. Just as the general religion of the populace varies across the broken worlds so do the preparations and rituals that accompany the death of a loved one. Below are general outlines of some of the belief groups that cross fragments. Feel free however to come up with your own clan’s beliefs on matters of death and the afterlife. (Just don't expect other players to like them).

Believe that Life comes from the mists, that the calm of the mists and the calm of death are related. That when one dies you can now pass through the mists, and that where a living man would stumble blindly, a dead man would find a paradise shielded from the view of the living by the mists. No two groups seem to agree on the nature of this paradise. From Beautiful Beaches to Grand Celestial Cities, all offer some escape from the disorder and problems which face people living on floating rocks. Because of this they drop their dead off the edge of Fragments, hoping to deliver them to paradise. Rituals that go before change from fragment to fragment.

Many believe in the cycle of life; man is made from the clay of the fragments, made sentient by the Gods, he farms the land to make it fertile and useful, and pays back the gift of life by returning to the fragment at the end of it. They bury their dead, so that the physical form of the person involved may return to the Fragment.

These individuals admire the power of the storms and the energy. It is this energy which drives man to develop intelligence and strive to better themselves. On death this energy need to be released back to the storms, to leave the soul in peace. To do this they burn their dead, believing that the heat released is the energy from the storms. Once the smoke has risen, the ashes which contain the soul within them can be dealt with however the family sees fit, whether that be sprinkled across the fragment, tossed to the winds or put on the mantelpiece.

Believe that the dead still have an impact on the living world and so they need to be kept close. Worship and connection to the ancestors normally takes the form of tombs, or other houses of the dead. May be done by burying bodies close to settlement, by having a shrine within which you keep a relic of a body, or by having a clan tomb. Remember that if the clan still have the body of great-granddad, they will probably have had to move it due to travelling from fragment to fragment. Again preparations vary between fragments.