The Ancestors
“The death rites are not culture. They are a schedule.”
Taria's ancestor worship, maintained in catacombs older than the nation itself. To the priests, the death rites that look like culture are closer to feeding schedules.
Taria buried its capital on top of catacombs older than its own history and worships its ancestors there. To outsiders the death rites look like culture. To the priests who maintain them, they are closer to feeding schedules.
Eight hundred years ago something here ate the records — an entire nation forgetting in waves: names, then skills, then languages, then faces. The catacombs were sealed. Deep below, the old stone is warm, and the warm zone is growing. The priests enforce one rule with absolute seriousness and no explanation: nothing comes up from below level four.
