#The fact that cremation is the default and expected funerary practice and also used in most sacrificial offerings heavily | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

serpentface · 5 months ago

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Tigran: launching into a story about a time when he was 7 and watched a guy get eaten alive by dogs, completely unprompted and unnervingly blasé about the whole thing.

Etsushir: not listening, warming his hands over the nightly allotment of yams, smoking.

Palo: this is the tenth time he's heard this story, not listening, wondering whether Etsushir is smoking tobacco and where the hell he got it and can he have some?

#Lore:#Tigran has kind of a psychological fixation on people being eaten by dogs. Which is rooted in childhood trauma but it's hard #to tell because he loves dogs and always seems weirdly enthused by the whole concept.#More lore:#They're cooking on a dry dung fire which is very common in the region in general- largely grassland and savannah. Most of the #formerly wooded areas are deforested both on a long scale due to the drying climate and on a short scale of human use.#Wood is a valuable commodity and grown in agricultural regions and harvested with coppicing or otherwise imported by sea.#The northeast has an intact forest that hasn't been widely exploited due to distance from urban centers and impracticality of #transport over land and that's pretty much it.#The Highlands also retain woodlands within the interior but the formerly surrounding forests have been heavily exploited #(due to proximity to major rivers) and were fully wiped out within the past century.#The fact that cremation is the default and expected funerary practice and also used in most sacrificial offerings heavily #contributes (cattle and khait dung is allowable for these purposes due to the animals' sacred status but not considered preferable).#(associated with lower class funerals)#Anyway bottom line dry dung is going to be what the majority of people use for everyday fuel needs and also what pretty #much everyone on the pilgrimage is using (which the wealthier members are unaccommodated to but these guys are)#etsushir #tigran otto #palo apolynnon #the white calf

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