Editing WS:Humans Culture (section)

===On Birth and Death===

Women who follow the druidic faith know that if they want to become pregnant, they should sleep on the bare earth in a hollow.

The spouse who goes to sleep first on the wedding day will be the first to die.

In Daria, people leave offerings of food at crossroads in order to placate the unquiet dead and to ensure safe journeys. They also believe that mirrors frighten ghosts away, and so to break one is to bring bad luck.

The soul of a person who breaks a mirror will wander the world in the afterlife.

Never set two mirrors directly opposite each other. Similarly, do not ever get between two mirrors or other highly reflective surfaces, nor see a reflection of a reflection of yourself. To do so practically invites some "thing" to come and possess you.

Mirrors in a house with a corpse should be covered or the person who sees himself will die next.

If a mirror in the house falls and breaks by itself, someone in the house will die soon.

If a bird (not just a magpie, but any bird) flies into your house, someone living there will die soon.

Dried basil hung over windows keeps the spirits of the dead at bay.

Do not whistle in the presence of a corpse. The ghost will haunt you.

The folk of the Horse Wilds, demand burial in earth so that the souls can be carried into the afterlife by the wild horse herds.

The Darian and Ambrian cultures are very similar in most respects, but one area in which they are diametrically opposed is in how they pay respect to the dead at gravesites. The Darians place an emphasis on the living moving on with their lives and not letting onesself be "haunted" by the dead, therefore after a funeral or visiting a grave, you turn around and walk away. The Ambrians place greater emphasis on remembering and honoring the dead, and would consider this rude and arrogant - it invites hostile spirits to sneak up and attack you from behind. They say that when leaving a grave side, you should back up several steps, depending on the "rank" or honor that you wish to give the dead, before turning. In some cases, an Ambrian might back up all the way to the edge or gate of the cemetary. The Darians consider this foolish. To back away from a grave is to imply that you're afraid of the dead, and you invite evil or mischievous spirits to pursue you and continue to haunt you and torment you with further fear.


Do not spit into an empty grave; you will soon die.

Don't make a headstone out of red (or even slighty-pinkish) stone; the person will rise as a blood-hungry undead.

If you pass a graveyard at night, whistle if you wish (e.g., if it keeps up your courage), but do NOT sing!! Demons will join you in song, and then take you away.

Don't count the number of headstones out loud. Some say it's alright, if you skip 13 and all its multiples.

If you find a (live) lily growing on a grave, do not uproot it. Cutting it off flush with the ground is OK, so is covering it so it dies off. Just don't uproot it, or the body in that grave will come up too, the next full moon.