Scenes of music: Your Bones

Song: Your Bones

In all my travels across the realm I have never met people with such a strange custom regarding funerals as the Viirani. Their funerals are less funerals in the sense we know them from other people and more akin to dissections. They have a way to repurpose almost all parts of the bodies of the deceased. The bones of their ancestors form the columns of their culture, often quite literally. They believe that everything you do must contribute to the community. I find it fascinating to see that such a culture could develop from individuals not connected by a hive-mind like you’d find in ants, for example.

I look at the bloody and gruesome business. Everyone here is calm, even the young ones are used to seeing this. Theirs is a culture of warriors and hunters; bones will be parts of their weapons, their armor. The strength of their ancestors is with them, always. Other necessities and sometimes decorations are made from the less solid remains. Put your mind at ease, friend, they are not a cannibalistic culture. I know it is a thought that comes up when you imagine these rites I speak of.

The simple fact is that all of their society is organized heavily towards reuse of things. There is little they despite as much as wastefulness. Visiting them for even a few days is fraught with danger for me even though I try my best to leave my habits of our civilization in the cities far away. You don’t realize how much you take for granted until you’ve seen people living the other extreme.

---

When writing this piece I didn’t listen too closely to the lyrics at first. I let the melody guide me, then dove into the lyrics later. I want to interpret as a moment of loss, but not a moment of sadness. In addition, a story I’ve seen recently inspired me in regard of the reuse/recycle mentality. There is an arc in That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Slime spanning several episodes about a people eating their dead and their fallen foes to become stronger that gave me an idea to try something a little less offensive. I wanted the people to be admired, not despised.

Requested by Stephen Voss.