Kristen is wandering the mysterious realms of the internet to promote her new release, A Flight of Marewings.  She agreed to stop by the Worthless Blog and offer a Worthy Post (a nice change of pace around here from my less-than-worthy commentary).  Take a moment to check it out!  Then, take a moment to pick up her book, here!  --- Greg
Honoring the DeadOne of the major components of any human society is how we handle the milestones of our lives, mainly birth, coming of age, marriage, and death. Every culture has their own ways of celebrating these events. But often, they follow a similar form: people from the same family and community gather together, familiar words and gestures are acted out, and then often there is a lot of food while people relax and talk.

While most milestones are happy, death is often sad. Even when death was expected after a long and full life, there are people left behind who feel the loss of their loved one. Funeral rites are designed to honor the life that has ended and give some comfort to the bereaved. In many cultures, there is also a spiritual or religious component, tied in to their beliefs about the soul and what happens to it after death. A priest or another religious officiant may be involved to prepare the departed soul for their journey.

In A Flight of Marewings, death plays a role in the story because the main character Korinna loses her estranged father, the duke. One of her driving motivations is to please her dead father’s spirit. The culture is revealed through how Korinna and her community honor the death of Duke Basileos.

Deyonist Belief in the AfterlifeIn Seirenia, the majority religion follows Deyos, the Allfather. Deyonists have two different beliefs about the soul after death. The land of the dead is called the Dry Lands, because in their hot climate, the lack of water means death. The soul must navigate through these lands to find a resting place or to return to the world for rebirth, depending on their desire. People invoke the goddess of death, Meyrissa, to act as a guide for the dead through the Dry Lands. Legend tells that Meyrissa was the first soul to successfully cross over the eight streams in the Dry Lands and come back to the living.

However, many people also believe that their lost relatives stay behind to watch over their families. Most households keep a shrine to their ancestors’ spirits, pay their respects, and pray to them for guidance. A soul who is not paid their dues may become angry, sad, or restless, and haunt their descendants. However, when the ancestor spirits are appeased, they may help out their families in subtle ways or use signs to communicate with them.

Korinna sees her father’s ghost as a warning of his passing and because he is angry. Duke Basileos died of a mysterious illness, and his legacy is not secure. He continues to appear to Korinna and other characters for as long as he is unhappy with the state of the city that he once ruled. But he can’t speak directly to Korinna and tell her how he died or how she can take his title for herself, so she has to find a way to interpret his vague clues and figure out what he wants.

Funereal RitesEarly on in the book, Korinna hopes that her father’s funeral might send his spirit to rest. In Deyonist belief, the body is cremated and the ashes scattered over the fields or a body of water to return to the earth. For Duke Basileos, the ritual is huge, involving a procession of many politicians and other people who knew him as their ruler. The crowd winds through the city and then outside the gates, because laws say that bodies must be burned outside human habitation.

Mourners often wail loudly to show their grief, and if the family is small, then professional mourners can be hired to make sure that there is a large amount of noise at the funeral. Korinna is the last surviving member of her father’s family, but the details of the funeral are taken out of her hands, so she’s only a minor participant. Musicians also play at funerals, but not any recognizable songs: there is a cacophony as each player randomly plays without rhythm or key. Between the wailing and out-of-tune instruments, a funeral can be quite loud and obnoxious, but it’s beyond rude to complain about another family’s funeral.

A Personal Note
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into Seirenian culture. When I wrote the story, I researched different kinds of funeral rites from many different real cultures to help me invent my own. At the time, it was mostly abstract for me. However, the day after I released the book, I lost my uncle to a short but difficult battle with cancer. Now, honoring the dead has become very real to me and my family. I may regret my decision to make Seirenian musicians play random notes at funerals, because songs were the biggest part of the celebration for my uncle, who was one of the best musicians in a very musical family. I often feel like emotions that cannot be put into words are expressed better through music. Most of my family members had a difficult time speaking at my uncle’s memorial service, but they were able to play beautifully. I’m sad that my characters can’t share the same kind of musical celebration.




About A Flight of Marewings
Korinna's life gets turned upside down when the ghost of her father suddenly appears. Her father was duke of Kyratia City and he wanted Korinna to marry his warlord, the foreign mercenary Galenos, and inherit his title--but the city's Council has other plans. When the Council denies Korinna's right to rule, she decides to join Galenos's mercenary company and tame a wild marewing in order to take the city by force. But people whisper that the late duke's untimely death was murder, an induced madness that forced him to dance himself to death--and now that madness is spreading. Can Korinna become a marewing rider and conquer Kyratia in time to save everyone?




About the AuthorFantasy author Kristen S. Walker dreams of being a princess with a flying horse, but she settles for writing stories for teens and adults. Her new epic fantasy novel, A Flight of Marewings, tells the adventure of a duke's illegitimate daughter who must stop her father's murderers--by taming a dangerous monster. A Flight of Marewings is now available in print from Amazon and digitally from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords and other ebook retailers.


To read a sample chapter or check out Kristen’s world-building references, please visit kristenwalker.net. You can talk Sherlock, horses, and crochet with Kristen any time on Twitter (@KristenSWalker) or Facebook.