What might nomadic halfling funerary practices be like?

[MonkeySage]

My party is currently in a former dwarven city, now basically a giant tomb for our team monk's entire clan.

While considering the ethics of looting this city, I'm trying to get into my own character's head. He's a chaotic good halfling merchant, but comes from a clan of nomads. My thought is that assuming his people had tombs to begin with, he wouldn't want a bunch of adventurers to disturb the bones of his ancestors. He's also a devoted follower of Desna- his apprentice is even a Cleric of Desna.

I figure there are a few possibilities- GM suggested that his clan use cairns, there's also sky burial, burial mounds, etc.

[Concrete]

Dunno about the burial itself, but having no tomb to visit, a culture of bringing some part of the deceased with them (either physically or as a story, work of art, personal belonging) could be a nice, if somewhat macabre touch.

[Rusvul]

My favorite fantasy burial tradition is "clean the skeleton and raise them to aid their family in death." That doesn't fit in most settings, though. Sky burial is also really cool and not something you see in our Eurocentric fantasy very much. Cairns are also a good bet.

[NRSASD]

Cairns, Sky Burials, or Funeral Pyres are all solid options.

[Honest Tiefling]

Dunno about the burial itself, but having no tomb to visit, a culture of bringing some part of the deceased with them (either physically or as a story, work of art, personal belonging) could be a nice, if somewhat macabre touch.

Or putting bits of the dead (or a token of the dead) into a spot that is visited again and again. Like a shrine by the side of a road or a sacred rock.

I don't know much of Desna, but isn't a butterfly her sacred symbol? Perhaps your character believes that people become (or hang around) butterflies after death. I mean, Desna is all about exploration, right? Who the crap wants to be stuck in a boring ol' tomb when you got stuff to explore? So maybe leaving or seeding flowers for butterflies could be an act of remembrance.

There is also the idea that nomads might be more focused on a rite without the body. The body might just be a vessel, but perhaps once a year on a certain day, the spirits of the departed can visit.

[Nifft]

Bake the fallen into pies, and feed them to foreigners.

In this way, the souls of the fallen may live on in the bodies of other peoples, and those other peoples shall be improved by this inclusion.

If a foreigner has ever eaten a halfling pie, that person can always be detected by halflings as a friend of the tribe.

[Darth Ultron]

Halfling Funerary Practices would be Short.

Halflings would not bury their dead or make tombs, they go right for the funeral pyre. Leave nothing behind.

The decreased would have their items sold at the funeral:some times symbolic where a person just pays a copper or such; other times selling things for their real worth.

Most of all the funeral would be more of a party to remember the fallen.

And most of all of most of all, would be all the FOOD.

[Beneath]

That really depends on the rest of your halfling culture.

Traditionally, halflings are very earthy (since they come from LotR's hobbits), so I can see burial, either in single graves or larger barrows, being preferred. If they do barrows then their barrows would probably be very homelike; houses of the dead more than anything else. Possibly with familial/clan barrows where the front part is a shrine that's appointed like a halfling home.

Nomadic people tend to have a fairly set range for their group, they just vary where they go depending on various cycles (a summer town and a winter town, for instance, or maybe they leave a place fallow a year or three and travel elsewhere), so they could nonetheless still do that, with their barrows being near one of their towns.

Though a common interpretation is to put halflings as nomads within tall-folk societies, carving out the little niches the tall-folk find too small to control, which makes things a little more complicated. They might adopt tall-folk burial practices then, or something less obtrusive (hidden graves with secret markings, perhaps, or cremation).

Water-nomad halflings who live on boats would probably sink their dead, or do the viking thing.

[Corneel]

Halfling Funerary Practices would be Short.

[comk59]

I always like to make use of the Dust to Dust spell for things like that. (Although I make it a first level ritual)

[Berenger]

I figure there are a few possibilities- GM suggested that his clan use cairns, there's also sky burial, burial mounds, etc.

One giant city of the dead - lots of tumuli that stretch the land in the shadow of the holy mountain. All the clans come there for one special month in the year to bury their new dead (mummified or cremated or magically preserved when transported for more that a few days, this may be for practical purposes or part of the proper ritual). There is also a day of the dead that lasts for a whole week. It is of high importance that the body of every dead clan member rests within the tumulus of his or her clan (or familiy). If a corpse is lost in foreign lands, it is a matter of honor to retrieve it, ransom it from the enemy or send a party of adventurers to carry it home. Each year, another nomadic clan provides a honor guard of priests and warriors to protect the city of the dead.

[Kaptin Keen]

Maybe the dead of the tribe buy protection - they are left outside camp, and the next morning, only the bones remain. The reason being a tribe of ghouls that travels along with the halfling tribe, keeping watch over them at night. It's a classic symbiotic relationship. Maybe the tribes symbol is some sort of yin-yang analog, that hints at the dual nature of things.

[RedMage125]

Halfling Funerary Practices would be Short.

Halflings would not bury their dead or make tombs, they go right for the funeral pyre. Leave nothing behind.

The decreased would have their items sold at the funeral:some times symbolic where a person just pays a copper or such; other times selling things for their real worth.

Most of all the funeral would be more of a party to remember the fallen.

And most of all of most of all, would be all the FOOD.

I love the pun, and also the ideas.

In my campaign world, Lightfoot halflings are the nomadic gypsy type, either in caravans or riverboats. Stout Halflings live more like Hobbits.

I think everything you've got here makes great sense for the Lightfoots of my world. The Stouts, I think, would have burial cairns.

Both would -like the Irish*- follow a funerary procession with a sort of party to remember the fallen, replete with a feast.

*I'm speaking from experience here. Every family funeral then turns into an impromptu party, as the family is gathered. Everyone goes to the K of C Dining Hall for a banquet and all the adults get SUPER drunk...some stereotypes are there for a reason.

[Spore]

I'd go for a cremation/pyre. I think with magical fire you can reach temperatures high enough to turn them into dust. Here is where the Desna belief comes in. By becoming (star)dust again, you can travel to her world and be free. Maybe a part of the dust is pressed into a small black stone to represent the halfling going over into Desna's dreams. Richer halflings could decorate these with onyx and other semi-precious gems to symbolize cosmic forces helping you to the other side.