what happens in a darsai funeral? aside from getting drunk off your a$$.

Darsai bury their dead at night, by torch light.
The most important thing in the funeral is to celebrate the deeds and accomplishments of the dead person, giving it at atmosphere rather closer to a wake then a funeral.
Darsai consider drinking alcohol to be essential to any sort of celebration.
It is not necessary to get blind stinking drunk, but to not drink at all would be considered rude and anti social, and in the case of a funeral a great insult to the dead person that you refuse to drink to their memory.
Singing of songs that the dead person liked (or in the case of rich or famous people, singing songs specially written about them) and also telling stories, either heroic or humerous about the deceased is greatly encouraged, with the well wishers joining in with stories and comments.
In the case of a large number of people being buried at once (such as after a battle) or where the identity of the deceased is not know, then the songs and stories will be ones about Thane and Hevalla or great Darsai heroes of the past (stories of the Penisula War are quite common for this).
The ceremony tends to be focused on Thane rather then Hevalla (as the dead are no longer in need of a healing goddess.)
As noted in the comic, Darsai bury their dead in consecrated ground, marking the graves with head stones when possible. If the dead cant be taken to a church or temple, a blessing can be performed by a religious official or pious knight to make the ground acceptable for burying the dead in.
Burning the dead is considered a weird foreign idea.
In the Darsai navy burial at sea is sometimes performed, but the crews would rather return their ships to port so the dead can receive proper graves if it is possible.

Anything else you want to know?

I have a question regarding other races funeral beliefs. Do any races hold wakes over the bodies?

How might the Darsai react to the idea of, say, cremation, or worse, necromancy?
Is there any race that might react favourably towards these options?

Uh oh, we've starting to hit the limits of what even a psycho like me has considered! I have not planned all the details of all the burial rites of all races (I know, I've just ruined the magic!)

Let me give as much as I can…

In terms of who would have a wake, the Darsai do something similar but do it more during the funeral. I can see the Junlocks and Brorg-Dao engaging in that sort of thing.

For who does have cremation, if you look at Chen-Chen's reaction, she treated burning the dead as normal but burying them as weird, showing that Tsung-Dao do in fact cremate their dead. I imagine the Tsung-Dao having tombs full of metal jars of the deads remains. Possibly, due to their communal society they might have one jar for a whole family, with many generations remains stored in it. I rather like that idea.

The Nymus also do cremation (burying in the ground would be making the body earth bound for enternity, a fate fitting only for lowly scrabbers). The dead's ashes can then be scattered to the wind, a much more fitting fate!

The Brorg-Dao put the dead in a special burning boat that they send out to sea.

Burning a dead Darsai would (to the Darsai) mean you were showing great disrespect to the dead by trying to deny him/her a proper burial. Cremation is not considered a form of burial in their culture at all, it is just just destroying the body. It is no more a burial then taking an axe to the corpse!

Necromancy is not widely practiced in Harkovast and any sort of walking corpse would be considered a demon and destroyed (and quite right too!)

The Ano-Chee do raise the dead when the universe is correctly aligned, but they restore them fully alive (sometimes younger or older then they were when they died.)

Of course there are the Komus…but I'm getting ahead of myself..

I hope thats helpful! I'll give it some more thought and get back to you with any additional thoughts or ideas I have.

Sounds logical. Though if a half-caste of some repute passed away that would cause quite a bit of confusion, I imagine.

Well assuming he had been accepted by the culture of his mother I imagine they would deal with his body in the style of that culture.
Generally, most races would simply treat the dead of other cultures as they would treat their own, unless they are especially knowledgeable on other cultures.
For example, Chen-Chen was a bit bewildered at the idea of burying dead people. If that Darsai had been found by a group of Tsung-Dao, no doubt they would have burned his body, believing this to be respectful (probably misguidedly collecting his ashes to give to his widow!)

That would be LOL in a bad way I guess…

Hey, m'am! We found your husband lying half buried in a ditch so we dug him up and burned him! Oh, and we collected his ashes in this conveniently sized jar for you!

Its jsut as bad the other way round-

“Hello Mrs Tsung-Dao. I and my fellow darsai found your husbands body”

“Did you bring his ashes back?”

“Well, no. We put him in a hole in the ground and filled it in.”

“WHAT?”

“But dont worry, we sang songs and drank beer afterwards!”

hey, though you may not have planned it out, are there any races who use ritualistic cannibalism as a part of burial? though it sounds sick, i did read/hear/watched something about a group of people (cant remember where) who did eat the dead person. it isnt, barbeque o joe, but more like communion, where the meat is eaten in reverence. i dont remember why either, it was a while ago, but burning the dead or giving their bodies to the worms or crows would probably be as bad to them as taking an axe to the corpse. it would probably a far more romanticised burial than it would be, seeing the person giving up the last thing he/she can really give unto their families and friends as they leave them.

morbidity aside, what are the burial rights of the enemies of any race you have given the thought of this upon.

The Knarl eat their dead sometimes, but it isn't a religious thing (since Knarl have no religion.) Knarl wont kill another Knarl for food but if one is dead they have no qualms about eating them (or indeed the dead of any other race!) They dont seem to consider a dead Knarl to really be a Knarl anymore, just another lump of dead meat.
They have no ceremony relating to the dead, they are simply cast asside by the living.


The Wah-Daq do engage in ritual cannibalism of both their own dead and of intruders into their domain who defile the sacred areas of their swamps and jungle.
Unfortunately, Wah-Daq do not accept “I didn't know there was a sacred area of swamp!” as an excuse.
The cannibalism involves only eating a small part of the dead body or sacrificial victim. It is a symbolic gesture to appease the river spirits, rather than required for sustenance. Wah-Daq have little difficulty acquiring plenty of food from their homeland, so cannibalism is only done for religious reasons.

and the standard practice of burying the dead enemies relevant to the victors culture or is it just pile em up or leave em to rot?

Different cultures have different attitudes to dealing with dead enemies.
Darsai are generally pretty respectful, burying the enemy dead and saying a prayer to Thane over them (they are respectful of the dead, not culturally sensitive!)

The Nameless ignore both their own dead and those of their enemies, as you might imagine!