Mourning

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From: Jane Williams (janewill@mail.nildram.co.uk)
Date: Sun 02 Nov 1997 - 00:42:07 EET

Thanks for all the information, but most of you seem to have been
answering a different quesion from the one I asked. I already know as
much as I need to about funeral arrangements. I was interested in the
period of *mourning* - the funeral was last week, it's time to get on
with life, but how does a stranger wandering into your stead know someone
died recently? Are you all wearing black clothes? Black armbands? All cut
your hair? I did like the idea of smearing the face with ashes: thanks,
David.

Let me introduce you to an idea I've had since I asked the question: the
Korabloom. This is a flower that grows on graves. ("Graves", for this
purpose, inlcudes not only burials within the earth, but also the sites
of funeral pyres, and the ground underneath the tree where a body was
hung for the winds to take). It flowers at any time of the year, as long
as the person whose grave this is is still remembered. (Yep: magic.) The
colour varies, but flowers on the grave of a person who died violently
are often red. It has two large fragile-looking petals on a long slender
stem. Any resemblance to the Flanders Poppy is strictly intentional.

People who have recently lost a friend or relative often wear a Korabloom
from their grave. The flower will stay fresh as long as genuine grief is
felt by the wearer: picking Korablooms every day is a sign of hypocrisy.
The Lunars have actually introduced artifical, silk Korablooms as a
fashion accessory (they say they're "remembering those who died for the
Empire" or some such rubbish): this is seen as the height of bad taste
by others!

Not all choose to wear Korablooms, of course: there are other signs of
grief that can be more appropriate. (If you ever see a Humakti wearing a
Korabloom wreath, especially if it's red: stay away!)

Magical powers, game-usefulness etc: absolutely none whatsoever. It's
sacred to the Ty Kora Tek cult, obviously, and apparently they use the
flowers for *something*, but no-one outside the cult knows what.

Jane Williams jane@williams.nildram.co.uk
http://homepages.nildram.co.uk/~janewill/gloranth/index.shtml

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