Cities of the Dead are, as their names suggest, cities dedicated to the dead. Each family of Thenuwa has a City of the Dead.
Construction[]
Cities of the Dead are created over centuries, where each person who died receives his or her own house, shared with his or her partner. These houses, depending on the wealth of the family, can range from cheap clay, all the way to the most expensive stones or even metals. Whatever material is used, the materials are always non-perishables so that the buildings can stand the test of time.
These houses are often build from the center outwards, where each generation gets its own ring, or when the city grows very big, its own secion of a ring. These rings are surrounded by walls of some sort. Some families have simple, waist high stone walls, while others have walls fit for a fortress. Regardless of how these walls are made, they are always filled with carvings of great events for the family in that generation.
Like the walls between rings, the houses are also carved on the inside with the stories of said person or people. Furthermore, the inside is fully furnished with stone and metal furnishing. The outside of the house is decorated with objects and imagery depicting what specific proffession the person inhabiting the house.
The streets and plazas in the Cities of the Dead are made much like the houses, from non-perishable materials. However, even the trees and plants are made out of non-perishable materials. It is not unusual to see brass flowers or a few copper trees, or even a golden bush, it is not advised to walk on the grass in a city of the dead.
Often, as time goes by, families achieve greater economic prowess, and their newer houses start to look better than the older ones. This is often seen as unacceptable, and thus, when a families wealth has achieved a certain amount of economic prowess, they will often start to renovate the buildings from the center outwards, keeping the stories intact, but putting them on a better canvas.
Creating and maintainging a City of the dead is often a great drain on the resources of a family, however tradition makes it completely worth it according to most people, and when a family member dies, the whole famliy generally pays a part in the construction of their house, making the overall cost managable.
With the recent invention of Mechagics, many families have implemented several forms of mechagics devices into their City of the Dead to make the places seem more like a living city. Most common are things like pumps and lamps to create fountains and street lamps.
The LIving of the Cities of the Dead.[]
To create a City of the Dead, one first needs living people. Since most families arent profficient in constructing buildings, there are several families specifically based around taking care of the Dead, their profficiencies include transporting, storing, preserving the dead, but also construction, maintenance and protection of cities of the dead.
These families often take great pride in their jobs, and are generally well respected by all families of Thenuwa.
Besides the families who take care of the cities, people from the family to whom the city belongs often visit these cities as well, often to respect the dead, but also at times for some peace and quiet, for this reason, many cities have buildings made out of perishable materials for the living to reside in temporarily, the perishable material signifying their temporary stay.
Realm of the Dead[]
For reasons not yet understood, people who have visited the Realm of the Dead tell of how the dead constructed cities on exactly the same location as the Cities of the Dead in the living world, copying the exact architecture, building placement, and living space as the actual Cities of the Dead. This tends to lead to Cities of the Dead being used to enter the Realm of the Dead, not because it is easier to reach here, but because it is easier to find any.
Some scholars have theorised that the people in the Realm of the Dead feel attracted to the emotion and meaning poured into the cities, but these are just theories, and have no proof yet. Whenever the people of the Realm of the Dead are asked why they built the city there, like that, they usually just say that it felt like the right thing to do.