Lore:Death/Bosmer

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Bosmer Beliefs and Customs

Bosmer Afterlife

A sacred burial grove

Although Bosmer venerate both Arkay and Xarxes, the most common death deities among Tamrielic pantheons, their lives and deaths are guided by the covenant their people signed with Y'ffre as the spirit of "the now": the Green Pact. Because of this, their roles in the Bosmeri afterlife are minimal compared to other cultures.

Bosmer give little importance to their ancestors beyond noble ascendancy, mostly because they prefer to live in the Aurbic Now. They follow the ways of Y'ffre, taught by the spinners and enforced by the treethanes, showing relatively little regard for the ways of ages long past. This is why Xarxes is not regarded as an important agent in Bosmer deaths: unlike the High Elves, the Bosmer don't care as much about recording their lineage.

After their deaths, Wood Elves who have not violated the Green Pact during their lives become free from their body-prisons and reunite with the Aedra and their ancestors in Aetherius.^{[citation needed]} The Ooze is a purgatorial state reserved for Bosmer who violate the Green Pact, collectively called Apostates. Their names are scrubbed from Y'ffre's story and replaced with silence. Furthermore, their souls return to the formlessness which remained after Y'ffre spun the story, an act which shaped Nirn itself.

Bosmer Funerary Customs

A Bosmer ossuary

An Apostate ossuary

All deceased Bosmer are buried by their relatives following a peaceful death, or by their enemies, if they were killed by other Wood Elves. Following the cannibalistic "Meat Mandate" of the Pact, Bosmer are required to eat both fallen enemies and deceased relatives before three days pass, never leaving the corpses to rot. They only bury their skeletons. Bosmer architecture is based upon shaping the very trees so they do not build monumental burial sites. In fact, many of the Bosmer burial sites, even the most remarkable ones, are simply groves. So, when the meat is consumed, the bones are collected and buried in ossuaries, places where only the local Bosmer leave their dead; or in common graveyards, most usually built by other races in Valenwood. Even Bosmer who died having broken the rules of the Green Pact, the Apostates, must be buried in secluded ossuaries, separate from Green Pact-abiding Bosmer.

Necromancy is not a particularly common practice in Valenwood, since the bones alone are more difficult to raise than intact bodies. In fact, local Bosmer may seem more amused than offended at the prospect of lazy ancestors being made to get up and do something useful for once.

A particular funerary custom unique to the Bosmer happens when a tribe member is slain. This tradition, known as the "Mourning War" is practiced nearly everywhere outside the cities of Valenwood. The deceased is symbolically replaced via a hostage-taking raid on a neighboring tribe. If the deceased was an especially powerful or prestigious member of the tribe, multiple captives may be taken to replace them. The captive or captives undergo a period of physical torture, supposedly to test their worthiness, and then are joyously welcomed into the clan. Traditionally, the victim was given the deceased tribe member's position, possessions, and family, though this practice may be rarely honored in modern ages. Mourning wars are an ancient tradition; scholarly references to them date back to the First Era.