How careful should be any civilisation in fantasy when it comes to the disposal of their dead to guard themselves...

well, it depends on if vampires and necromancers actually exist in that setting, user, and then if they do what they're actually like.
:D

Hire necromancers more interested in pacifying ghosts and tending to the rest of the dead than they are in raising skeletal legions, let them hang in your graveyards and give them snacks in exchange for keeping death where it belongs.

>tfw read barely any good fiction of humans surviving either among vampires and their undead hordes

I'd love to read about a world where the sky is darkened, bats fly freely from the sun being blocked out, and a general quiet, eerie disposition to the setting at first. Hooded strangers walking about in taverns, never knowing who they are, a just man, someone just wanting to pass by without drawing attention, or an evil vampire looking for their next meal.

Kinda like a Geralt in Velen setting, but even more hardcore. Where you can't simply take on contracts to clear out evil without being snuffed out easily by horrifically powerful vampire lords. Paladins would exist, but be scarce due to the extreme caution needed to mobilize and get anything done.

A slow, arduous progression of cleansing the land of vampiric filth.

Pretty much this

this.
Law-sanctioned necromancers who can shit around in mass burial locations. Offer proper services to people when their loved one dies so they don't get raised.

Then of course you can have an undead legion summoned for king and country, or a good plot point for a BBG. Sanctioned necromancer gone rogue.

Just burn the dead

Bury them deeper.

>ash wraiths intensifies

If we go by the IRL route, proper burial with burial rites sang by a priest are all you need.
Not even Necromancers can rise the properly buried dead. The venerable dead ancestors might rise up on their own and defend the living from foreign foes.

It takes an extremely evil person to come back from the dead as a vampire or worse.

Necromancers can raise people from mass graves though, and that's why the victor must burn the defeated army's corpses and why civilian massacres are outlawed.

Pour concrete into every grave.

Thoroughly grind up the bodies, then bury them in a sack tied with a reasonably difficult knot

I'd imagine the local clergy would bless the corpse before burying it, giving a piece of holy artifact or just soaking it in Holy Water.

Funny how every human civilization did that at one time, from pulling out nails, mummification to eye coins.

What it instead of hiring one, we just make it a hereditary state sanctioned position, where this one good necromancer goes all over the country putting down the restless dead

As a species, we're pretty fucking terrified of death. So when someone tells us that there somewhere we go after, we become highly motivated to make damn sure we get there

so why they bothered with the catacombs in the first place instead of just cremating the bodies?

The rich people mummify their dead similar to the Ancient Egyptians IRL. Can't come back as a vampire if both your heart and your brain were removed and cremated, along with the rest of your internal organs. After that, the empty spaces inside of the skull and the body are packed full of strips of yarn or cloth that have been soaked in oils consecrated by a local priest to prevent the corpse from rising as a ghoul or zombie. Then they are laid to rest in the family tomb.

The poor people do the same thing, only they dry out the corpse with smoke, the same way you smoke fish. Once the corpse is a nice and dry piece of jerky they wrap it up in wooden sticks, branches, dried grass, and more yarn/cloth soaked in consecrated oils. Then cremate the entire corpse.

Ironically, this actually happened in Legend of the Five Rings.

After Rokugan got attacked by a Necromancer and his super army of all their ancestors, the Emperor made it law after that the dead had to be CREMATED and the ashes scattered.

Sylvania. You're describing Sylvania. Warhammer Fantasy.

OR Barovia in Ravenloft.

Dwarves make carefully sealed tombs so nothing can get in or out, not even air. So even if you did get past the Runic Wards, and raised the dead - they're all trapped in stone and iron vaults you need a goddamn siege engine to break through

What if you cut them into tiny pieces before burying them?

Because the human body is 70% water. Which means to cremate them you would have to have a full blown funeral pyre for each individual corpse. That's a shit ton of wood. Cremating the dead of an average city would deforest the land for miles around. This isn't a problem at first, because all that land will simply be turned into farmland. But eventually as the forests shrink further and further back, transporting all that wood into the city is going to become expensive as fuck.

So, only the rich and elite get funeral pyres, the poor and the peasants get buried.

Funny enough that was one of the recipe's for getting rid of vampires.

Cut to pieces, behead, stuff garlic in the ears and neck hole, holy wafers in the mouth.

There is no kill like over kill
>wood

If we're assuming necromantic magic exists, some nigga can magic me up a goddamn bonfire and I can throw the body into a specially made kiln oven

In my setting it's a fucking arms race.
>Bury corpses
>Necromancers make pseudo-excavators out of skeletons.

>Burn corpses
>Ash skeletons

>Feed corpses to animals
>Poop Skeletons

we dont take special measures to defend against tigers or elephants

we dont need to dedicate tons of resources to defend against a one in a million chance that the dead walk the earth

most settings are not dwarf fortress where you are always within marching distance of a tower

>by the IRL

user...

Second. Having it take place before the PCs eyes, this new shift in disposal of the deceased, could also lead to some fun stories like the PCs being tasked with convincing a religious faction vehemently opposed to cremation to fall in line.

Properly buried dead in the tradition of any major religion are very difficult to reanimate. This is why most serious necromancers make fresh corpses.

It's OP's pic for gods sake. Look up Sylvania and the Midnight Aristocracy from Warhammer Fantasy.

first of all, they should give the corpses to certified necromancers so they can study and raise undead to help with armies and work that is too dangerous and disgusting for humans

second of all, if they don't want to let that happen, they should just burn the bodies after giving them the propper after-death rites so that their soul may rest and there's no matter to be consumed by necromancers, necrophages and vampires

Fairly careful.

Clerics of the death god are going to be in charge of the cemeteries, which are going to be rather fortified things. To prevent unauthorized people from getting in, and to keep the risen dead from getting out. Blessings that prevent reanimation are going to be in heavy use. Spontaneous undead can be an issue when lots of corpses are gathered together.
I love the lore of PFs psychopomps, and how they protect and guide the souls of the recently deceased. They even have one which guards cemeteries and places of the dead so that necromancers have a much harder time getting their materials.

All of these measures are in some way general so that it can be used in many of the varied funeral practices the many races would come up with.

Personally I think they should check the body, no bite marks? Probably not a vampire and your average rotting corpse probably can't break a nailed down wooden or stone coffin covered in 6 feet of dirt

The D&D solution is usually walling the graveyards off and having people guard the walls around it extensively.

Salt and Burn. Scatter the ashes, preferably into the ocean or large river. Something to make getting the pieces together again impossible.

Then of course, you need a way to handle spirit type undead. That I'm not sure on.

Dual classed cleric/necromancers.
Followers of the god(dess) of death, their role is to help the dead rest peacefully.
However, their deity grants them permission to raise the dead in defence of their faith and to prevent desecration of the graveyard that they are responsible for...

Back in 2007, vampire hunters staked Slobodan Milosovic's corpse after he died. Gotta make sure, you know?

In a universe where in corporeal undead exist, no.

This guy gets it.

What do you guys think about a modern day necromancer who casts a spell that fucks with the organs of all the people with transplants from dead people.

Transplants were not dead before transfer. Usually from brain dead donors. Skin and cornea, yes. Also that face transplant guy.

yea bud I know. The term "brain dead" was actually created so they could harvest more organs from people in comas with people thinking they are "dead". But the donors are dead NOW lol

How do you take precautions against the spirits of the dead rising as ghosts, apparitions and whatnot? I ask partially because the party almost wiped to some ghosts before the DM pulled his punches super hard, and partially because I'm just curious.

That reminds me, Mr Vampire was an excellent movie.

>Ironically, this actually happened in Legend of the Five Rings.

How is that ironic?

...

>kill it with fire.jpeg
yeah good answer I guess

all you can do is consecrate the ground and keep an eye on it
whatever you do, don't cremate
good lord don't cremate

I'd imagine there'd be a clause in the contracts of anyone joining the military, that states their body would remain property of the Empire after they died for a while.

Eat souls. Then burn bodies.

Dammit Elric, Stormbringer is not the solution to all your problems!

B-but it howls like hell...

Hire necromancers to turn the dead into soldiers and manual laborers. When the Necromancer Lobby inevitably rebels and crushes the king's armies under a tide of bone and ectoplasm, you can safely and confidently be ordered by your necromancer thrallmasters to say that it's a substantially better system than feudalism.

It depends on how easy necromancy is. But it should be something that is handled carefully. Burial has to be something that is well regulated, and bodies need to be buried on hallowed ground so the dead can't stir.

>poop skeleton
At that point I say fuck it. Let the necromancer run shit. Hell maybe a police force of the undead might not be so bad.