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[Some random thoughts]
In the days of the God-Kings, the priesthood of Pharasma attended to all funerary matters, which were ritualized to a degree never seen before, or since. The deceased was brought by their family to a temple-run mortuary, where the body would be prepared according to the family’s preferences (and willingness to spend coin for greater levels of service), and then returned to them, so that they might bury it in accordance with the dictates of their own faith. The most extravagant preparations included the mummification process, originally only used for the God-Kings themselves, but soon offered as a service for other lesser nobles, wealthy merchants or prominent clergymen.
As the body was being prepared, the family also had rites to perform, with each member of the family being asked to think of a word or short phrase that embodied their loved one, or recalled their connection to the deceased. An older brother who had chased his sibling through crowded marketplaces when they were boys might recall how his younger brother always eluded him and choose the phrase, ‘slippery runner,’ which would have meaning only to himself and his brother, and be represented in the ancient language by a pair of glyphs, a diagonal wavy line representing an eel, flanked by a pair of water droplets, and a diagram resembling a pair of legs, bent in the motion of running. These glyphs, often numbering in the dozens as relatives, friends and loved ones contribute their memories, would be impressed into clay and baked into amulets that would be strung onto a cord and wrapped around the body. The very first amulet would represent the god or goddess who presided over the season of his demise, while the very last amulet would represent the diety in whose season he perished. For this reason, it was considered the height of ill-auspice for someone to not know the season of their birth, and if a body was discovered with it’s time of death uncertain, in the deep desert, perhaps, the church of Pharasma would Speak with Dead to determine the season of that person’s death before burying them (and traditionally there would be no charge for this service, although any additional queries would require the standard remuneration). The temple would produce copies of this memorial wrapping for a small fee, and any family of long-standing would have many of these strands hanging on a wall in some corner of the house, each one representing a family member long-dead. Widows or widowers, or grieving parents, would sometimes be known to wear these strands for a time, perhaps even years, to represent a time of mourning, and also out of the belief that these many names helped to connect them to the spirit of their loved one. In the case of the God-Kings, and later anyone with the gold to spend, these amulets would be fashioned of metal, or even precious metals, and perhaps the most heinous crime would be for a tomb-robber to steal the original strand of amulets from an interred body, as this was believed to rob the deceased of these names bequeathed upon him by his loved ones, and make his spirit unreachable and deaf to their cries!
In later years, it was often the tradition to send missives to one’s departed kin, to ask for favors or advice, or simply to ask their blessing for an upcoming choice, such as a marriage or long journey. To do this, the family member would take one of the strands of amulets and bring it to the mortuary again, and from them purchase a special gray-feathered pigeon, which would be ritually killed and mummified (via a very abbreviated version of the ritual), and then enwrapped with a strand of amulets bearing the same glyphs as those that adorned the body of their loved one. (Usually one of the original strands of amulets would not be used for this, and a new one made for the occasion. In the case of those too poor to afford a new strand to be made, or in too great a hurry to wait, one of the original family member’s ‘copies’ might have to be used.) Any message or entreaty is penned, traditionally on parchment and with inks provided right there in the temple (for a fee, of course), and then placed upon the mummified pigeon, and the bundle wrapped in the appropriate amulets and buried. The presence of the identical series of glyphs was said to lead the bird’s spirit directly to the exact soul desired, and convey the message to the underworld, where, it was hoped, the departed might have some ability to aid his mortal family.
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Nice. I'm already digging the message angles, reinforcing the Osirions' reverence of the dead and whatnot.
(should "demise" be "birth" though?)
Uh, yeah. My bad, had 'death' on the brain, I guess. :)
I like the notion because it makes for possible plot hooks.
The party is hired to retrieve the bodies of some missing caravan guards, by their families, who wish to bury them.
The party is hired to sneak into someone's home and copy down the glyphs on a strand representing a particular individual. Their client could be a relative who was disowned, but wishes to honor her father, an illegitimate or unrecognized child, be in ill favor with the widow(er), be a secret lover, or be a bitter rival who wants to send taunting messages to thier hated enemy, continuing their feud beyond the grave! If the latter is successful, the taunted spirit may be sufficiently incensed to appear as a ghost and attempt to drag her tormentor into the afterlife ahead of schedule!
The party is hired to *destroy* a strand, believed to be the only one left representing a particular ancestor of a powerful and successful family, by a competitor who believes that this ancestor's blessings from beyond are the linchpin behind the family's successes, and that severing their only means of contact with their patriarch will end their 'lucky streak.'
A noble family or wealthy merchant group hires the party to seek out a particularly rare desert falcon, as they don't send messages to their great patron with mere pigeons.
Having hit upon hard times, a family sold off several of the gold coins that made up a strand passed down for generations. Times have improved and they wish to re-acquire the missing coins, or, at the least, travel to cities around Osirian to find the missing glyphs from elderly relatives who originally formed them, so that new amulets can be crafted to repair the strand. The party will have to do a combination of locating specific golden amulets, getting them from their current owners and travelling around Osirian to locate any surviving family members or friends who attended the funeral to find out what glyphs they assigned to the departed. And, as if that wasn't complicated enough, *someone* is trying to stop them, and if initial attempts fail, it's possible that some of the aged contacts they seek may be murdered before they arrive!