Jean Rabe: Goblin Nation

Mudwort said not all clans practice that, as she said some of them fear fire. But no clans leave the corpses intact if it can be helped. If a body is left intact for more than a day or two, the spirit can return to it, where the spirit will be trapped for eternity. It is tantamount to damnation to exist in such a shell.

Some clans of hobgoblins stake the corpses in fields, allowing small animals and insects to feast on the dead flesh. The bones are separated, when little flesh remains, broken, and scattered so the spirit must look elsewhere for a new shell.

One goblin clan of the plains uses the corpses to lure animals that can be caught and eaten. It is the dead serving the living, taking life from death, they say. The remaining goblin bones are not wasted, rather they are used as tools, the ribs often tied together with twine to make breastplates and shields.

The Marsh clan sinks the bodies, letting the fish and the water tug away the flesh and the water push the bones apart.

The Clan of the Dark Sunset hacks the corpses into pieces and feeds the bits to the livestock it keeps.

Some of the free Nerakan clans were known to toss the bodies of the dead into volcanoes.

At first I considered it all barbaric, but there is a practical side to the rituals … the dead do not take up space on the earth.

The goblins take care to bury the bodies of their most hated enemies-whether those be Dark Knights or ogres or minotaurs. They want the spirits to return to the rotting shells, to be forever trapped and miserable for an eternity. I learned they were quite pleased that the Dark Knights in Steel Town buried their dead; the goblins felt it proper that their hated foes condemned their own brothers’ spirits.

If I die in the company of these goblins and hobgoblins I travel with, will they bury me? Or will they care enough for the healing and scant fellowship I offered to toss my corpse onto their pyre?

Will I be remembered too? I wonder.