Of Dwarves: Death

Death in dwarven culture is handled differently then in other cultures.  Being a practical race, dwarves find the rites and rituals of other cultures odd, and vice-versa.  In most other cultures, the custom is that the deceased is buried with some belongings that will aid him in the afterlife.  A period of mourning is expected for the deceased’s friends and family, and it’s generally considered a sad affair.

A dwarven funeral is completely different.  Dwarves generally do not hold funerals.  They hold celebrations.  Dwarves do not see death as a time to mourn, but as a time to celebrate the life of the deceased.  It’s a time to celebrate the accomplishments, the honor, the glory, and the exploits of the dead.  To be sure, no dwarf wants to die, but they do not see death as an end.  Merely, it’s the stage in which a dwarf leaves the material world to join Moradin in the great Mountain beneath the world.  This is the place dwarven dreams go.  The Anvil of the Earth, the Fires of Moradin, the Mines under the Mountain – these are all part of the dwarven afterlife.  But most important of all is the Hall of Dwarves.  A giant hall with ale and food always ready and waiting, and with dwarves always ready and willing to greet you.  It’s the reward for a lifetime of duty and honor.

So it’s a shock for outsiders who are unaware to see the celebration of a dwarves death.  Dwarves understand this, and take great pains to explain their actions, though rarely with success.

This of course affects the beliefs of dwarves in general.  For the most part, this creates a rather odd division in beliefs when a dwarf is accused of “grave robbing.”  In dwarven culture, grave robbing does not exist.  Rather, desecration of a grave is a crime, but robbing a grave is counter-intuitive to a dwarf.  The idea that a corpse would need material wealth in death is crazy talk to the bearded folk.  Indeed, for many of them, it’s an insult to the gods.  If the person being buried was indeed blessed by his god and was rewarded on death, what makes the mortals of the world feel that anything they could provide would be in any way needed by the dead.  Moreso, no dwarf worth his beard would want to be buried with a tool or item that could be used by others.

This is not the say dwarves are buried naked without armor or weapons.  But there are really only two reason for this to happen.  The first, and far more common is the ceremonial armors, weapons, and tools.  These items represent the tools of their trade, but in practical use, they are not useable.  They are made purely for look, and in many cases, cannot function as the represented item.  The other reason a dwarf would be buried with his tools is if the dwarf died far from home and bringing armor and weapons would be unwieldly and unwise.  Dwarves are practical folk, and while burying a dwarf with weapons and armor isn’t needed, neither is removing it for no reason.  It’s also useful because now dwarves have an easy way of retrieving said weapon or armor at a later date if the need arises.  And by Moradin’s beard, no dwarf would want his tools to go unused after his death.  It would be an insult to some to see that their tools were not wanted.

Dwarves understand that this belief is not shared by other races, but they frankly don’t understand why.  Dwarves won’t go digging up graves looking for treasures, but they have no qualm in taking a quick peak to see if something could be useful in their current situation or following a map to buried treasure in a tomb of some old dead guy.

This is not to say dwarves do not understand the importance of the body.  They won’t destroy a body for the sake of hoping to find treasures.  They’ll do their best to restore the tomb, minus treasures, to it’s original condition.

The practical dwarf – confusing and infuriating priests and religous folk of other races for centuries!