@@NakariSpeardane It's really fun! My friend and I also made a play-by-wiki version where after suggestions the active player would just write the scene, instead of playing it out in person. That's what reminded me. Writing scenes and answering questions would be like solving a puzzle with all the pieces that we'd established before. We ended up with an interesting world.
I've generated 3 of these Graves so far. The first was a mummified body of a middle aged woman in a canyon, with red ochre around her eyes and with one notably shorter leg than, buried around bales of wheat and with a Seal Ulna. Given that bone, my assumption was that she died away from her traditional homelands, possibly a member of a trade caravan from a coastal region and going deeper into the mainland, along parts of the land that ancestrally used to be also waterlogged before the advent of time dried it up. Unfortunately however, I refreshed by accident before I could take notice of too many details, so I'm not able to build off it too much beyond this, with the same going for the second grave (a corridor grave with a small entrance that had been under a house, revealed through an earthquake. The walls are decorated with antelopes and circles, and there's many stone statues of jet and sapphire, with the body (an elderly man, now a skeleton) similarly adorned and dressed to look like a goat, and with the head smashed by a boulder), although that one is also compounded with "I'm not too sure what to make of it", aside from assuming the boulder is more a consequence of an earthquake than possibly deliberate burial. The third one (which I copied down before worldbuilding this time, yay!), I'm pretty sure is less a planned burial, and more a time passed crime scene of regicide. While on a hike you stumble upon a burial in a mine. It resembles a pit. There is one person buried here. When they died they were an adult. The body is mummified. There is a spear embedded in the head. The body is wearing a diadem decorated with porcelain. This person died while pregnant. There is a tiny statue made of crystal depicting a fox. So, my first instinct is to visualize this as a kind of post-apocalyptic world, in vein of settings like Nausicaä or IMAGE comics' First Knife, where a much more advanced technological society came and collapsed (along with the known ecosystem) and was able to come haltering back, and that's solely from the fact of "A mummified, regal body, bedecked in porcelain, found dead and stabbed in a mine", just feels anachronistic enough to fit into that kind of framework. I imagine the woman was of some kind of noble stature and subsequently murdered, solely because of the contrast of "spear in her head" and "she's wearing a crown". Although one could make a justification of much broader ritualistic purposes, the way the writing points out the spear suggests to me it's still there, which frankly makes me think of it being a murder tool used to kill someone of nobility (as noted by their fancy crown), as opposed to anything too ceremonial; especially given the fact that this woman was pregnant at the time of their death, which would feel counter-intuitive to any reasonable ritualistic death ceremony that I can easily imagine, at least that would justify having a respectful crown such as that. So what I think happened here is that this woman was some member of nobility, overlooking a mine that fell under her aristocratic influence. A gem mine, with the added bonus of occasionally scrounging up relics of an old world since bygone. One day, this woman came to explore what was effectively her estate, with minimal security. The woman was ill-regarded for whatever reason (could be her own personal behaviour to those beneath her societal status, it could have been her political alignment and influenced by who fathered the child she was pregnant with), and eventually this culminated in a murder-for maximum poetic irony of this being a crime scene, I'll even assume that spear is the opposite of any ceremonial purposes, but was from one of her own guards, who attacked and killed her instantly with a spear. Or maybe it wasn't the guard themself, but a worker of the mine who overpowered and stole the weapon, slaying the fell Queen of the Gemstone Mines. Whatever the case, whoever killed this woman was not someone who wanted to take ownership of the deed, and certainly didn't want to make more of a mess, as easily evident by the fact that only one body is buried here-hastily, I'll imagine, given their body was effectively buried into a ditch. The only sign of ownership they'd grant was a disrespecting calling card, making their grave with a statue of a coy predator that chases and hunts that which lives in burrows. Once she was killed, everyone scattered and abandoned the mine, leaving it there until someone eventually stumbled across the scene, leaving things to go out from there. I'm also just going to chalk up the mummification to just a quirk of the geography, with the environment too devoid of moisture for too much of a rot to set in, with the body just desiccating in the depths of the earth. This has been really fun to tinker around and play with, and your own derived culture from this is fascinating to examine! Thanks for making this!
Thank you so much for trying out the generator! I love how much detail you've developed from it - the story of the queen in the post apocalyptic world is really interesting. I'm imagining the porcelain jewelry as being random porcelain items from the old world, like little shards of teapots, where the new world has no idea what they are other than that they're pretty... I'd love to know more about how their society functions! Also the part about the seal ulna indicating someone far from home is a great spot!
This is great, I'll definitely be using that generator! Also I don't think you meant it this way but the phrase "I like the idea of ritual murder of people with power" at 2:39 sent me lmao
This is really cool! I've worldbuilt a few burials (most notably the Mirans', which I made a video about and fashioned a little after mummification, but not quite), but none as cool as the ibex king. Burials for cultures who venerate/worship their ancestors is really cool too and can take you down a looong path haha
ok, my first grave was a person who was buried in a peat bog with a giraffe and a drum made of seashells. I wrote down how the world worked: the rich and the elderly are seen as people with lots of wisdom. Since talking is the main form of communication for people, when they die they become spirits, who then become air. However this must happen in a large enough space otherwise they become a dangerous animal or the space is not enclosed and they become wind which blows down people's houses and the like. The entrances to people's tombs recite their story, and they also have some sort of instrument made of seashells. This is because seashells are seen as a way of talking to the living. The ulna in this person's body is removed to create drumsticks. Meanwhile they have body parts removed to be fed to a sacrificial animal. The animal supposedly eats the body part so it intakes their spirit. However the animal is sacrificed soon after so it can be the person's way of transporting themselves around the world more easily. In this culture it is typically giraffes that do this. The bodies of the dead are mummified to create a physical connection to the spirit, and the animal is placed near them for easy access. The bodies can often have clothes on them to represent their status as a living person. They are buried in a peat bog because when a spirit has had enough of their death they can die definitely, the giraffe's long legs can provide a way to escape this death for longer. Feel free to use whatever part of this in whatever way you please! i just loved creating this tho
The generator is very cool. Using it has provided several ideas to me which I found very inspiring for further world building. I especially like little details like rocks being placed on certain parts of the body, which, if deliberate, would in my mind have a similar effect to the dagger scenario like the one from your video. Reminds me of burials of people thought to be vampires or beings who might return from the dead, with stones being placed in their mouths in some examples, for instance. Thanks for creating this! Stumbling on to your channel was definitely auspicious.
I know I'm commenting a year on from this, but I just had to mention how much this reminded me of the culture of Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls. They were originally split off from the Altmer because they worshiped the 3 good Daedra, two of which, Boethiah and Mephala, really fit with this society. The former is the Prince of upheaval, revolution, and overturning power; and the latter is the Prince of plots, murder, and getting ones way by devious means. It's super clear to see how a society which reveres those gods would act just like the one you describe in the video, and it's really cool to see the similarities!
Watching these videos is always so inspiring. I love the imagery of the ibex king. I’d love to learn more about the civilizations nearby, though I imagine Elush is around somewhere. Also would love to know about the lifeways of women or others in this society
This is really cool! Kinda makes me want to try to make a few of these for different kinds of archaeological finds. I've run it once so far. What I got: An urn which also contains the femur of a fish. A man was buried there who was very elderly when he died, well-fed, and also pregnant. There is a hunting knife embedded in his hands and he's wearing rings made of antlers. From this we can conclude that these people lived among legged fish, perhaps hunting them or keeping them as pets. Perhaps these fish also had antlers. The members of this civilisation probably practised sex reassignment therapy/surgery and had some way to induce fertility at an advanced age. They also appear to have found a way to miniaturise themselves in order to minimise their required food intake, which conveniently allows their entire body to fit inside a regular urn. The hunting knife, firmly pinning the man's hands together behind his back, is curious. That said, curious inscriptions have previously been found in a nearby cave, which depict something not found in cave art in this area: detached hands crawling around on the ground, seemingly engaged in combat with warriors. A theory has been proposed that these people believed some dead people would literally refuse to let go of the living world, latching on to it until they become monstrous hands which try to steal the belongings of the living. Pinning the hands in place would remove this possibility and ensure a successful passage to the afterlife. The burial itself was on a mountain, far out of the way of where this civilisation is likely to have lived. The site has been marked with brown umber. Clearly it was important for the burial site to be recognisable as such and not too close to residential areas, but whether this was out of respect or out of some kind of fear is hard to say. Perhaps this culture believes that people who possessed a lot of wealth and power in life are inherently in danger of refusing to pass away, hence they are entombed in a place that is remote and clearly marked. Well then, that's not half-bad! Despite the fish thighs and the pregnant old man, some nice ideas still came out of that, even if I only half-jokingly began the analysis. Not sure how to synchronise the superstition with the advanced technology. For a bit I was thinking of this person being some kind of alien who crashlanded among some hunter-gatherers and got a unique burial, but I didn't end up pursuing that direction. But yeah, thanks for this, as far as worldbuilding/story generators go this is one of the most unique and useful I've seen. Edit: So I wrote this before actually watching the rest of your video, only to find out after that you had also made a connection between high status and the weapon embedded in the body. I suppose that's just a logical thing to conclude with death6 ("There is a " + (random.choice(weapon)) + " embedded in the " +(random.choice(bodypart)) ). Oh by the way, in case you ever do this sort of thing again, you can write that as: death6 = f"There is a {random.choice(weapon)} embedded in the {random.choice(bodypart)}." (Yes, with the f before the opening quote) You may not even like that though, but I find that syntax really nice, so I thought I'd mention it in case you'd also prefer it.
That syntax looks so much cleaner, I'll have to use it if I add more to this/make anything else! I love the world you've put together, especially the brown umber details! Yeah, some of the results can be kinda weird. Early on, one of the available body parts was "wings", which I was hoping to pop up in phrases like "a person with the wings of a duck", but then I used bodypart more, and kept ending up with humans who had been stabbed in the wings :P
@@NakariSpeardane Heh xP I think you landed on a good balance though, especially considering the huge amount of combinations. I love the possible details like the blindfold, the trepanning and the house-shaped urns. Hmm... Blindfold, trepanning and house-shaped urn... perhaps a young ruler with severe photosensitive epilepsy, where the trepanning was tried to let out evil spirits and the blindfold was eventually found to actually help. The regent who was actually ruling things constantly had people looking into how to cure them, but really only for keeping up appearances. This was also the reason behind the lavish burial with the house-shaped urn, the house being a continuation of the comfy rooms the monarch was stashed away in while the regent pulled all the strings in their name. Aaanyway... Yeah I feel if you had been too rigorous about making it all make sense it would lose a lot of its ability to generate interesting ideas. Though it's good that you removed people being stabbed in the wings at least. I feel you could make that work if you made a category "animal body parts", put stuff like wings, horns and claws in there and then removed the animal name from that line so you don't get bear wings or duck horns.
i heard the line about gender and i went "huh that's weird what about pelv... OH. gender as in actual gender not sex." i'm not used to this level of accuracy in that aspect so congrats on that as well as the rest of the video, it's very interesting
Really awesome tool! Now I'm thinking about how a conculture would interpret these burials and what sort of conclusions they'd draw vs what I actually interpret to have happened 🤔
I think sometimes this is a good technique when you don’t want to restrict your world-build with hard lines and instead preserve a sense of mystery. It really comes in handy when you yourself are uncertain about the “facts.” One time I couldn’t decide how much looting had taken place of a peripherally inhabited temple-complex and my paragraphs authors (an anthropological historian, an archeological imperialist, and an indigenous preservationist) started arguing with each other until I gave up and moved on. It’s also just a really good framing device. I think it has something to do with how the outsider’s perspective of a semi-reliable narrator starts the reader from a stance of “otherness” for your subject and moves toward a place of empathy. Lastly, it’s a great way to illuminate two cultures at once. I once took the perspective of a galactic civilization in a state of post-war decadence and debating whether or not to invade a planet of diverse Neolithic cultures that had discovered natural electro-magnets.
(minor content warning) I got a good run. It also includes ritualistic sacrifice of people in power. Here's the grave: While on a hike, you stumble upon a burial outside ancient city walls. It resembles a pit. It looks ancient. There is one person buried here. There is a lyre with the image of a crocodile. The burial is sprinkled with brown umber. A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The bones are slightly burnt. There is a arrowhead embedded in the hands. The body is wearing a death mask made of baked clay. The body is inside a sarcophagus decorated with ceramics. Extra info (I made this up to fill in some gaps): The burial is designed to look like a pit. Originally, it was covered in stones, but they have since fallen into the tomb, leaving the top open. The lyre is very simple, with only four strings. Here's my interpretation (this is so good it's going to become canon in my worldbuilding project): In this society, there are many nobles and rulers, and their religion is polytheistic. The god of death is represented by a crocodile, a feared beast that they avoided. The god of war is a bird, representing how, as some birds can go in a crocodile's mouth and not get eaten, warriors can go into dangerous situations and emerge victorious. The burial looks like a pit to represent crocodiles and how they hide in pits, before lunging at their prey, similar to how death comes suddenly and oftentimes swiftly. When a leader gets too old to effectively lead in this society, then it is time for them to get sacrificed to the gods, merging their power back into the gods' power, to be given to the next person in line. They are laid out on a circular caved stone table, much like the Aztec Sun Stone. Amidst the carvings, there are special lines to direct the flow of blood from the person's hands and feet into a bowl at the foot of the table. The hands and feet are pinned down, symbolizing how when death comes for you, there is no escape. [Minute by minute] Before the ritual begins, the former leader puts on a death mask made of soft, moist clay. They proceed to undress before walking to the temple of the god of death. Crowds follow to witness the sacrifice. The former leader slowly lays themself onto the table, and splay their arms and legs out in a starfish-like position. The priest of death the enters the temple to perform the sacrifice. They stab the arrowheads into the leader's hands and feet to hold them still, and then they sprinkle charcoal dust and dead leaves/twigs onto the former leader until they are fully covered. Then they take a torch, and gently rest it on the leader's chest. The then use the lyre of death to sooth the leader and guide their soul to the afterlife. As the body burns, the flesh is consumed by the fire and the clay mask hardens and is no longer moldable, symbolizing the irreversible change from life to death. When only the bones are left, the priest stops playing the lyre and drinks the blood of the dead leader. They are now the new leader, and their apprentice will step up to become the new priest. The bones are carried out of the temple and laid in a sarcophagus, with many ceramics and their custom lyre of death for the deceased to give as gifts to the gods, before proceeding to the afterlife. These were the Pacuag people, the ancestors of the modern Namazietl people, and this practice carries on into present-day Namazietl society.
That's so cool!! I'm playing around with the grave generator right now, specifically trying to get results involving horses (as some inspiration for my favourite culture to worldbuild in), and one of my results had "The hands of a horse..." Not sure how you can have horse hands tbh, but it's really fun! Also, out of curiosity, have you noticed any quirks unique to nomadic pastoralist cultures when it comes to funerary traditions?
An earthquake has exposed a burial overlooking the plains. It resembles a pit. It looks very, very old. There are two people buried here. The burial is sprinkled with black charcoal. A woman is buried here. When she died she was adolescent. The bones are disarticulated. There is a boulder on the body's hands. The body is wearing armour made of jet. The femur is fractured. A person is buried here. When they died they were elderly. The bones are showing signs of childhood malnutrition. There are injuries to the femur that seem not to have fully healed. The body is wearing a death mask. The person ate honey shortly before death. Weird, both of them have injuries to the same bone. Maybe the culture thought the soul was in there and had to be let out? And charcoal could mean they were working-class, the boulder as a symbol of the job (masonry? stonecarving?) a youth never got to have.
I got one that someone more creative than me could turn into a neat story, or perhaps a tomb from a precourser of the Ibex King's civilization? During an excavation in a cliff, you discover a burial. It resembles a chamber tomb. There is a natural formation resembling a ibex nearby. It was probably made in the Iron Age. The entrance is unmarked. The walls are decorated with broken lines. There are two people buried here. There is a harp with the image of a mammoth. There is a board game made of porcelain. The burial is sprinkled with blue ultramarine. A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The body is mummified. There is obvious blunt force trauma to the clavicle. The body is wearing a blindfold and a diadem. The body is holding a jar made of porcelain decorated with crosshatched lines. A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The body is lying on its side. There is a halberd embedded in the arms. The body is wearing armour made of antler. The body is holding a hunting knife made of iron decorated with broken lines
Hey I know this video is well over a year old now, but I just noticed that the link to the grave generator might not be working anymore? I suppose it could be something on my end (I did move countries before last trying the generator - though I don't think it's blocked here I guess I can't say that for certain). Just commenting to see if anyone else (including yourself nekari!) might have the same problem
Thanks for letting me know! I tested and it seems to be broken for me too. I've tried republishing but it doesn't seem to have updated that yet so I'll see soon if anything more is needed or if (hopefully) it'll fix itself.
@@NakariSpeardane no problem! Glad and sad both to know that it's not just a problem on my end - hopefully it can get resolved and we don't have to come up with an elaborate burial text for the burial text generator itself! :)
hey, Nakari, I'm not sure you were aware, but the Replit doesn't seem to work anymore? This was one of my favorite things to mess around with, do you know if there's anyway you could reupload it? Or host it on another site? Thanks!
"You follow ancient text mentioning a burial behind a waterfall there is an undisturbed cist grave there is a painting of a person with the head of a donkey there is one person buried here there is a sword made of jade the burial is sprinkled with saffron strands a man is buried here, when he died he was an adult, the body is curled up there are injuries to the spine that seem not to have fully healed the body is wearing a tunic made of hide the person ate barley shortly before death" *So* , let's start from the top, the grave in question is a small stone grave made with big flat rocks, placed behind a waterfall, the painting makes me think of trade, as donkeys are primarily used to transport goods, the hide tunic also conjures images of travel to me, the jade sword and saffron feel off, being buried with honours, seeing as jade is really tough to work and saffron is very expensive, but still doesn't seem like there's a lot of his own stuff then there's the spine injuries, which, along with his age, tell me he was taken care of for some time but ultimately died *My conclusion* There was a nomadic tribe of traders that travelled across the zone around that waterfall, they honour service to others and loyalty, seeing those values as a religious duty to their gods, the deceased was part of that tribe. During one of those journeys they get attacked, probably a rival tribe Regardless, our character rescues the leader and everyone in the tribe, but is gravely injured in the process, they are barely able to continue on for some time, until one evening he passes away In consideration of his act of selfless heroism he is given the ultimate honour of staying posted under that waterfall with the jade sword, to guard their yearly pilgrimage through trading towns though the end of time for all future generations
You follow ancient texts mentioning a burial by the sea. There is an undisturbed ship burial. It seems to have been made in a period of rich trade. It was probably made 10,000 years a go. The entrance is underwater. There are patterns of lines which resemble constellations. There are five people buried here. There is a sceptre decorated with seashells. There is a hunting knife with the image of a fish. There are five elephant skeletons here. A woman is buried here. When she died she was a child. The bones are healthy. There is a dagger embedded in the head. The body is wearing armour made of silver. Several teeth are missing. A woman is buried here. When she died she was a young adult.The bones are showing signs of unhealed injuries worn down by hard labor. There is a dagger embedded in the head. The body is wearing armour made of bronze. This person died while pregnant. A man is buried here. When he died he was a child. The bones are healthy. There are signs of disease. The body is wearing a dress and an anklet. The teeth show evidence of toothpick use. A woman is buried here. When she died she was adolescent. The bones are showing signs of healed injuries. There is a dagger embedded in the head.The body is wearing armour made of bronze. This person died while pregnant. A woman is buried here. When she died she was a child. The bones are showing signs of unhealed injuries. There is a dagger embedded in the head.The body is wearing armour made of bronze.The teeth are very decayed.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
Im so happy to be represented in this video
"I like the idea of ritual murder of people with power,"
lmao
based
Really cool! I like this way of making a world-setting up questions and then trying to answer them. Reminds me of playing Microscope RPG.
Ooh, I looked up Microscope and now I really want to play it, thanks for the recommendation :P
@@NakariSpeardane It's really fun! My friend and I also made a play-by-wiki version where after suggestions the active player would just write the scene, instead of playing it out in person. That's what reminded me. Writing scenes and answering questions would be like solving a puzzle with all the pieces that we'd established before. We ended up with an interesting world.
i wanna play microscope so badly
I've generated 3 of these Graves so far. The first was a mummified body of a middle aged woman in a canyon, with red ochre around her eyes and with one notably shorter leg than, buried around bales of wheat and with a Seal Ulna. Given that bone, my assumption was that she died away from her traditional homelands, possibly a member of a trade caravan from a coastal region and going deeper into the mainland, along parts of the land that ancestrally used to be also waterlogged before the advent of time dried it up.
Unfortunately however, I refreshed by accident before I could take notice of too many details, so I'm not able to build off it too much beyond this, with the same going for the second grave (a corridor grave with a small entrance that had been under a house, revealed through an earthquake. The walls are decorated with antelopes and circles, and there's many stone statues of jet and sapphire, with the body (an elderly man, now a skeleton) similarly adorned and dressed to look like a goat, and with the head smashed by a boulder), although that one is also compounded with "I'm not too sure what to make of it", aside from assuming the boulder is more a consequence of an earthquake than possibly deliberate burial.
The third one (which I copied down before worldbuilding this time, yay!), I'm pretty sure is less a planned burial, and more a time passed crime scene of regicide.
While on a hike you stumble upon a burial in a mine. It resembles a pit. There is one person buried here. When they died they were an adult. The body is mummified. There is a spear embedded in the head. The body is wearing a diadem decorated with porcelain. This person died while pregnant. There is a tiny statue made of crystal depicting a fox.
So, my first instinct is to visualize this as a kind of post-apocalyptic world, in vein of settings like Nausicaä or IMAGE comics' First Knife, where a much more advanced technological society came and collapsed (along with the known ecosystem) and was able to come haltering back, and that's solely from the fact of "A mummified, regal body, bedecked in porcelain, found dead and stabbed in a mine", just feels anachronistic enough to fit into that kind of framework.
I imagine the woman was of some kind of noble stature and subsequently murdered, solely because of the contrast of "spear in her head" and "she's wearing a crown". Although one could make a justification of much broader ritualistic purposes, the way the writing points out the spear suggests to me it's still there, which frankly makes me think of it being a murder tool used to kill someone of nobility (as noted by their fancy crown), as opposed to anything too ceremonial; especially given the fact that this woman was pregnant at the time of their death, which would feel counter-intuitive to any reasonable ritualistic death ceremony that I can easily imagine, at least that would justify having a respectful crown such as that.
So what I think happened here is that this woman was some member of nobility, overlooking a mine that fell under her aristocratic influence. A gem mine, with the added bonus of occasionally scrounging up relics of an old world since bygone. One day, this woman came to explore what was effectively her estate, with minimal security. The woman was ill-regarded for whatever reason (could be her own personal behaviour to those beneath her societal status, it could have been her political alignment and influenced by who fathered the child she was pregnant with), and eventually this culminated in a murder-for maximum poetic irony of this being a crime scene, I'll even assume that spear is the opposite of any ceremonial purposes, but was from one of her own guards, who attacked and killed her instantly with a spear.
Or maybe it wasn't the guard themself, but a worker of the mine who overpowered and stole the weapon, slaying the fell Queen of the Gemstone Mines.
Whatever the case, whoever killed this woman was not someone who wanted to take ownership of the deed, and certainly didn't want to make more of a mess, as easily evident by the fact that only one body is buried here-hastily, I'll imagine, given their body was effectively buried into a ditch. The only sign of ownership they'd grant was a disrespecting calling card, making their grave with a statue of a coy predator that chases and hunts that which lives in burrows. Once she was killed, everyone scattered and abandoned the mine, leaving it there until someone eventually stumbled across the scene, leaving things to go out from there.
I'm also just going to chalk up the mummification to just a quirk of the geography, with the environment too devoid of moisture for too much of a rot to set in, with the body just desiccating in the depths of the earth.
This has been really fun to tinker around and play with, and your own derived culture from this is fascinating to examine! Thanks for making this!
Thank you so much for trying out the generator! I love how much detail you've developed from it - the story of the queen in the post apocalyptic world is really interesting. I'm imagining the porcelain jewelry as being random porcelain items from the old world, like little shards of teapots, where the new world has no idea what they are other than that they're pretty... I'd love to know more about how their society functions!
Also the part about the seal ulna indicating someone far from home is a great spot!
This is great, I'll definitely be using that generator! Also I don't think you meant it this way but the phrase "I like the idea of ritual murder of people with power" at 2:39 sent me lmao
I didn't /not/ mean it that way. :P
This is really cool! I've worldbuilt a few burials (most notably the Mirans', which I made a video about and fashioned a little after mummification, but not quite), but none as cool as the ibex king. Burials for cultures who venerate/worship their ancestors is really cool too and can take you down a looong path haha
Very nice video, and the generator is really cool!
ok, my first grave was a person who was buried in a peat bog with a giraffe and a drum made of seashells. I wrote down how the world worked: the rich and the elderly are seen as people with lots of wisdom. Since talking is the main form of communication for people, when they die they become spirits, who then become air. However this must happen in a large enough space otherwise they become a dangerous animal or the space is not enclosed and they become wind which blows down people's houses and the like. The entrances to people's tombs recite their story, and they also have some sort of instrument made of seashells. This is because seashells are seen as a way of talking to the living. The ulna in this person's body is removed to create drumsticks. Meanwhile they have body parts removed to be fed to a sacrificial animal. The animal supposedly eats the body part so it intakes their spirit. However the animal is sacrificed soon after so it can be the person's way of transporting themselves around the world more easily. In this culture it is typically giraffes that do this. The bodies of the dead are mummified to create a physical connection to the spirit, and the animal is placed near them for easy access. The bodies can often have clothes on them to represent their status as a living person. They are buried in a peat bog because when a spirit has had enough of their death they can die definitely, the giraffe's long legs can provide a way to escape this death for longer.
Feel free to use whatever part of this in whatever way you please! i just loved creating this tho
The generator is very cool. Using it has provided several ideas to me which I found very inspiring for further world building. I especially like little details like rocks being placed on certain parts of the body, which, if deliberate, would in my mind have a similar effect to the dagger scenario like the one from your video. Reminds me of burials of people thought to be vampires or beings who might return from the dead, with stones being placed in their mouths in some examples, for instance.
Thanks for creating this! Stumbling on to your channel was definitely auspicious.
this is so cool! writing a story knowing only the ending is a really cool concept
"All hail the Ibex King! ...and he just made a stupid decision. Who wants to stab him?"
I feel like you'd love Dwarf Fortress
...And it menaces with spikes of ibex horn and spikes of ibex horn
I know I'm commenting a year on from this, but I just had to mention how much this reminded me of the culture of Morrowind in The Elder Scrolls.
They were originally split off from the Altmer because they worshiped the 3 good Daedra, two of which, Boethiah and Mephala, really fit with this society.
The former is the Prince of upheaval, revolution, and overturning power; and the latter is the Prince of plots, murder, and getting ones way by devious means.
It's super clear to see how a society which reveres those gods would act just like the one you describe in the video, and it's really cool to see the similarities!
God, I'm so in love with your channel!
Watching these videos is always so inspiring. I love the imagery of the ibex king. I’d love to learn more about the civilizations nearby, though I imagine Elush is around somewhere. Also would love to know about the lifeways of women or others in this society
Also the burial generator was super fun and instantly inspiring!
That's completely crazy and it is why I love it
my god I love your videos! I'm so glad you're making content and your channel is growing! You deserve it so much!
Wow! This is so awesome, I wish I had the skills and time to do this! Also, your art is beautiful.
This is super cool. Thank you for sharing!!
ooooh this is *so cool* i'll def. come back and write one later today
cool generator
It makes me see the Pyrria inheritance tradition from a different angle.
This is really cool! Kinda makes me want to try to make a few of these for different kinds of archaeological finds.
I've run it once so far. What I got:
An urn which also contains the femur of a fish.
A man was buried there who was very elderly when he died, well-fed, and also pregnant.
There is a hunting knife embedded in his hands and he's wearing rings made of antlers.
From this we can conclude that these people lived among legged fish, perhaps hunting them or keeping them as pets. Perhaps these fish also had antlers.
The members of this civilisation probably practised sex reassignment therapy/surgery and had some way to induce fertility at an advanced age. They also appear to have found a way to miniaturise themselves in order to minimise their required food intake, which conveniently allows their entire body to fit inside a regular urn.
The hunting knife, firmly pinning the man's hands together behind his back, is curious. That said, curious inscriptions have previously been found in a nearby cave, which depict something not found in cave art in this area: detached hands crawling around on the ground, seemingly engaged in combat with warriors. A theory has been proposed that these people believed some dead people would literally refuse to let go of the living world, latching on to it until they become monstrous hands which try to steal the belongings of the living. Pinning the hands in place would remove this possibility and ensure a successful passage to the afterlife.
The burial itself was on a mountain, far out of the way of where this civilisation is likely to have lived. The site has been marked with brown umber. Clearly it was important for the burial site to be recognisable as such and not too close to residential areas, but whether this was out of respect or out of some kind of fear is hard to say. Perhaps this culture believes that people who possessed a lot of wealth and power in life are inherently in danger of refusing to pass away, hence they are entombed in a place that is remote and clearly marked.
Well then, that's not half-bad! Despite the fish thighs and the pregnant old man, some nice ideas still came out of that, even if I only half-jokingly began the analysis. Not sure how to synchronise the superstition with the advanced technology. For a bit I was thinking of this person being some kind of alien who crashlanded among some hunter-gatherers and got a unique burial, but I didn't end up pursuing that direction.
But yeah, thanks for this, as far as worldbuilding/story generators go this is one of the most unique and useful I've seen.
Edit: So I wrote this before actually watching the rest of your video, only to find out after that you had also made a connection between high status and the weapon embedded in the body. I suppose that's just a logical thing to conclude with death6 ("There is a " + (random.choice(weapon)) + " embedded in the " +(random.choice(bodypart)) ).
Oh by the way, in case you ever do this sort of thing again, you can write that as:
death6 = f"There is a {random.choice(weapon)} embedded in the {random.choice(bodypart)}." (Yes, with the f before the opening quote)
You may not even like that though, but I find that syntax really nice, so I thought I'd mention it in case you'd also prefer it.
That syntax looks so much cleaner, I'll have to use it if I add more to this/make anything else!
I love the world you've put together, especially the brown umber details! Yeah, some of the results can be kinda weird. Early on, one of the available body parts was "wings", which I was hoping to pop up in phrases like "a person with the wings of a duck", but then I used bodypart more, and kept ending up with humans who had been stabbed in the wings :P
@@NakariSpeardane Heh xP I think you landed on a good balance though, especially considering the huge amount of combinations. I love the possible details like the blindfold, the trepanning and the house-shaped urns.
Hmm... Blindfold, trepanning and house-shaped urn... perhaps a young ruler with severe photosensitive epilepsy, where the trepanning was tried to let out evil spirits and the blindfold was eventually found to actually help. The regent who was actually ruling things constantly had people looking into how to cure them, but really only for keeping up appearances. This was also the reason behind the lavish burial with the house-shaped urn, the house being a continuation of the comfy rooms the monarch was stashed away in while the regent pulled all the strings in their name.
Aaanyway... Yeah I feel if you had been too rigorous about making it all make sense it would lose a lot of its ability to generate interesting ideas. Though it's good that you removed people being stabbed in the wings at least. I feel you could make that work if you made a category "animal body parts", put stuff like wings, horns and claws in there and then removed the animal name from that line so you don't get bear wings or duck horns.
I really like this!
i like this exercise. seems fun. im gonna do it :)
i heard the line about gender and i went "huh that's weird what about pelv... OH. gender as in actual gender not sex." i'm not used to this level of accuracy in that aspect so congrats on that as well as the rest of the video, it's very interesting
okayy... now i am making a culture in which there is a mother goddes with a zebu's head and large horns
Really awesome tool! Now I'm thinking about how a conculture would interpret these burials and what sort of conclusions they'd draw vs what I actually interpret to have happened 🤔
I think sometimes this is a good technique when you don’t want to restrict your world-build with hard lines and instead preserve a sense of mystery. It really comes in handy when you yourself are uncertain about the “facts.” One time I couldn’t decide how much looting had taken place of a peripherally inhabited temple-complex and my paragraphs authors (an anthropological historian, an archeological imperialist, and an indigenous preservationist) started arguing with each other until I gave up and moved on.
It’s also just a really good framing device. I think it has something to do with how the outsider’s perspective of a semi-reliable narrator starts the reader from a stance of “otherness” for your subject and moves toward a place of empathy.
Lastly, it’s a great way to illuminate two cultures at once. I once took the perspective of a galactic civilization in a state of post-war decadence and debating whether or not to invade a planet of diverse Neolithic cultures that had discovered natural electro-magnets.
(minor content warning) I got a good run. It also includes ritualistic sacrifice of people in power. Here's the grave:
While on a hike, you stumble upon a burial outside ancient city walls.
It resembles a pit.
It looks ancient.
There is one person buried here.
There is a lyre with the image of a crocodile.
The burial is sprinkled with brown umber.
A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The bones are slightly burnt.
There is a arrowhead embedded in the hands.
The body is wearing a death mask made of baked clay.
The body is inside a sarcophagus decorated with ceramics.
Extra info (I made this up to fill in some gaps):
The burial is designed to look like a pit. Originally, it was covered in stones, but they have since fallen into the tomb, leaving the top open. The lyre is very simple, with only four strings.
Here's my interpretation (this is so good it's going to become canon in my worldbuilding project):
In this society, there are many nobles and rulers, and their religion is polytheistic. The god of death is represented by a crocodile, a feared beast that they avoided. The god of war is a bird, representing how, as some birds can go in a crocodile's mouth and not get eaten, warriors can go into dangerous situations and emerge victorious. The burial looks like a pit to represent crocodiles and how they hide in pits, before lunging at their prey, similar to how death comes suddenly and oftentimes swiftly.
When a leader gets too old to effectively lead in this society, then it is time for them to get sacrificed to the gods, merging their power back into the gods' power, to be given to the next person in line. They are laid out on a circular caved stone table, much like the Aztec Sun Stone. Amidst the carvings, there are special lines to direct the flow of blood from the person's hands and feet into a bowl at the foot of the table. The hands and feet are pinned down, symbolizing how when death comes for you, there is no escape.
[Minute by minute] Before the ritual begins, the former leader puts on a death mask made of soft, moist clay. They proceed to undress before walking to the temple of the god of death. Crowds follow to witness the sacrifice. The former leader slowly lays themself onto the table, and splay their arms and legs out in a starfish-like position. The priest of death the enters the temple to perform the sacrifice. They stab the arrowheads into the leader's hands and feet to hold them still, and then they sprinkle charcoal dust and dead leaves/twigs onto the former leader until they are fully covered. Then they take a torch, and gently rest it on the leader's chest. The then use the lyre of death to sooth the leader and guide their soul to the afterlife. As the body burns, the flesh is consumed by the fire and the clay mask hardens and is no longer moldable, symbolizing the irreversible change from life to death. When only the bones are left, the priest stops playing the lyre and drinks the blood of the dead leader. They are now the new leader, and their apprentice will step up to become the new priest. The bones are carried out of the temple and laid in a sarcophagus, with many ceramics and their custom lyre of death for the deceased to give as gifts to the gods, before proceeding to the afterlife.
These were the Pacuag people, the ancestors of the modern Namazietl people, and this practice carries on into present-day Namazietl society.
That's so cool!! I'm playing around with the grave generator right now, specifically trying to get results involving horses (as some inspiration for my favourite culture to worldbuild in), and one of my results had "The hands of a horse..." Not sure how you can have horse hands tbh, but it's really fun! Also, out of curiosity, have you noticed any quirks unique to nomadic pastoralist cultures when it comes to funerary traditions?
An earthquake has exposed a burial overlooking the plains. It resembles a pit. It looks very, very old.
There are two people buried here. The burial is sprinkled with black charcoal.
A woman is buried here. When she died she was adolescent. The bones are disarticulated. There is a boulder on the body's hands. The body is wearing armour made of jet. The femur is fractured.
A person is buried here. When they died they were elderly. The bones are showing signs of childhood malnutrition. There are injuries to the femur that seem not to have fully healed. The body is wearing a death mask. The person ate honey shortly before death.
Weird, both of them have injuries to the same bone. Maybe the culture thought the soul was in there and had to be let out? And charcoal could mean they were working-class, the boulder as a symbol of the job (masonry? stonecarving?) a youth never got to have.
I got one that someone more creative than me could turn into a neat story, or perhaps a tomb from a precourser of the Ibex King's civilization?
During an excavation in a cliff, you discover a burial.
It resembles a chamber tomb. There is a natural formation resembling a ibex nearby.
It was probably made in the Iron Age.
The entrance is unmarked.
The walls are decorated with broken lines.
There are two people buried here.
There is a harp with the image of a mammoth.
There is a board game made of porcelain.
The burial is sprinkled with blue ultramarine.
A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The body is mummified.
There is obvious blunt force trauma to the clavicle.
The body is wearing a blindfold and a diadem.
The body is holding a jar made of porcelain decorated with crosshatched lines.
A person is buried here. When they died they were very elderly. The body is lying on its side.
There is a halberd embedded in the arms.
The body is wearing armour made of antler.
The body is holding a hunting knife made of iron decorated with broken lines
Thank you! I'll sure make smth with that
Hey I know this video is well over a year old now, but I just noticed that the link to the grave generator might not be working anymore? I suppose it could be something on my end (I did move countries before last trying the generator - though I don't think it's blocked here I guess I can't say that for certain). Just commenting to see if anyone else (including yourself nekari!) might have the same problem
Thanks for letting me know! I tested and it seems to be broken for me too. I've tried republishing but it doesn't seem to have updated that yet so I'll see soon if anything more is needed or if (hopefully) it'll fix itself.
@@NakariSpeardane no problem! Glad and sad both to know that it's not just a problem on my end - hopefully it can get resolved and we don't have to come up with an elaborate burial text for the burial text generator itself! :)
Looks like it's back up! :D
hey, Nakari, I'm not sure you were aware, but the Replit doesn't seem to work anymore? This was one of my favorite things to mess around with, do you know if there's anyway you could reupload it? Or host it on another site? Thanks!
"You follow ancient text mentioning a burial behind a waterfall
there is an undisturbed cist grave
there is a painting of a person with the head of a donkey
there is one person buried here
there is a sword made of jade
the burial is sprinkled with saffron strands
a man is buried here, when he died he was an adult, the body is curled up
there are injuries to the spine that seem not to have fully healed
the body is wearing a tunic made of hide
the person ate barley shortly before death"
*So* , let's start from the top, the grave in question is a small stone grave made with big flat rocks, placed behind a waterfall, the painting makes me think of trade, as donkeys are primarily used to transport goods, the hide tunic also conjures images of travel to me, the jade sword and saffron feel off, being buried with honours, seeing as jade is really tough to work and saffron is very expensive, but still doesn't seem like there's a lot of his own stuff
then there's the spine injuries, which, along with his age, tell me he was taken care of for some time but ultimately died
*My conclusion*
There was a nomadic tribe of traders that travelled across the zone around that waterfall, they honour service to others and loyalty, seeing those values as a religious duty to their gods, the deceased was part of that tribe.
During one of those journeys they get attacked, probably a rival tribe
Regardless, our character rescues the leader and everyone in the tribe, but is gravely injured in the process, they are barely able to continue on for some time, until one evening he passes away
In consideration of his act of selfless heroism he is given the ultimate honour of staying posted under that waterfall with the jade sword, to guard their yearly pilgrimage through trading towns though the end of time for all future generations
What books are you reading?
What do you study?
It’s jschlatt!
You follow ancient texts mentioning a burial by the sea. There is an undisturbed ship burial. It seems to have been made in a period of rich trade. It was probably made 10,000 years a go. The entrance is underwater. There are patterns of lines which resemble constellations.
There are five people buried here. There is a sceptre decorated with seashells. There is a hunting knife with the image of a fish. There are five elephant skeletons here.
A woman is buried here. When she died she was a child. The bones are healthy. There is a dagger embedded in the head. The body is wearing armour made of silver. Several teeth are missing.
A woman is buried here. When she died she was a young adult.The bones are showing signs of unhealed injuries worn down by hard labor. There is a dagger embedded in the head. The body is wearing armour made of bronze. This person died while pregnant.
A man is buried here. When he died he was a child. The bones are healthy. There are signs of disease. The body is wearing a dress and an anklet. The teeth show evidence of toothpick use.
A woman is buried here. When she died she was adolescent. The bones are showing signs of healed injuries. There is a dagger embedded in the head.The body is wearing armour made of bronze. This person died while pregnant.
A woman is buried here. When she died she was a child. The bones are showing signs of unhealed injuries. There is a dagger embedded in the head.The body is wearing armour made of bronze.The teeth are very decayed.