The Undertakers Society

Preface

Among the branches of the Medical Council none hold a duty so somber as the Undertaker’s Society. Though technically a sub-group within the greater order its charge is distinct and grave: they do not tend to the living or the injured, instead they see that the dead are laid to rest, and that their rest is not disturbed.

In these lands, death is rarely simple. Corpses may rise again, curses may linger in blood, and plagues are known to outlast the life that carried them. For this reason, the undertakers are far more than gravediggers. They are keepers of rites, guardians of the boundary between flesh and spirit, and watchmen against corruption.

Duties of the Society

  • Corpse Handling: The first and most practical duty: the proper burial or cremation of the dead, preventing both the spread of disease and the chance of reanimation.

  • Rites & Rituals: Funerary rites vary by caste and creed, but salt, silver, and rune-work are common tools. The undertakers are trained to provide ceremonies acceptable to both mortal and supernatural kin.

  • Plague Watch: Every death is examined for signs of lingering curse, hollow-taint, or unnatural plague. In this, undertakers often serve as the first line of defense against outbreaks.

  • Record-Keeping: Death rolls, burial registries, and family lines are maintained by the Society. In unsettled regions, their records are often the only proof of ancestry or claim.

  • Conflict Arbitration: Disputes over gravesites, burial rights, or the treatment of cursed remains fall under the undertakers’ hand, their judgment backed by the Council.

Structure

Though subject to the oversight and taxation of the Medical Council, the Society maintains its own ranks:

  • Master Undertaker: head of the Society, representing it before the Chief Physician-General.

  • Regional Mortuary Officers: supervisors of local undertakers, granting licenses for burial grounds and maintaining order in towns and villages.

  • Undertakers: trained morticians, embalmers, and gravediggers who carry out the rites of burial.

  • Apprentices: movies in training, learning both ritual and craft.

  • Pallbearers: auxiliaries called upon in times of war, plague, or disaster, when mass burials demand many hands.

Ties to Other Orders

The Undertaker’s Society rarely works alone. Clinics provide causes of death and permits for burial. Covens are sometimes summoned to banish spirits or bind the dangerous dead. When graves are disturbed or the departed fail to rest, the Oathkeepers and Wardens are called to stand beside them.

Purpose

The Undertaker’s Society lends stability where fear might otherwise take root. Their presence ensures that the treatment of the dead is not left to chance or superstition, but handled with order, ritual, and respect. Yet their work also opens dark paths for rumour and suspicion; tales of stolen corpses, cursed burials, or undertakers accused of necromancy linger like shadows over their name.

For all that, the Society remains essential. In a world where death is seldom final, they are the last defense between the living and what waits beyond the grave.