Wolfsong Funerary Rites

The wolfsong rites are a controversial subject in most regions, generally due to issues of safety. While they are commonly accepted within the Pack of Ferventi as the norm during battle, the vast majority of militaries and organizations highly frown upon them being performed in their traditional fashion due to extreme risk of death to those performing them as well as concerns for safety, infection, and blood loss of those performing them.   Many areas have tried to ban the act of performing a wolfsong funeral during active battle, but in areas that are populace with members of Ferventi's cult, this is often outright ignored and any reprimand, legal or otherwise, is met with extreme resistance from the cult. Resistances to movements to ban the practice often end with the involvement of Shia's cult due to bans being seen as interference with one's funerary rites and framed as denying one a funeral altogether, even if bans are solely for the rites to be performed after a battle has concluded.

Wolfsong funerary rites are not performed for all members of the pack, but strictly those who have fallen in the heat of war as way of honoring their sacrifice. While not solely restricted to the Pack of Ferventi, these particular rites are almost always performed by members of the pack, traditionally led by members who knew the fallen and knew them well. Often, these rites are started while battles are still in full swing.   The dead are first gathered and their ritual items removed, and bodies are wrapped in the pelts of needlecoat wolves (often given by the leaders of their respective sect of the cult) or other hides and cloaks, which are bled over by their compatriots. The highest respect is for those companions to open a new wound, often from the wrist, though blood from already present wounds are accepted and the most common due to when the rites take place. During this time, the bodies are highly guarded, with those yet to or who already have bled for the body forming a shield until the deceased can be moved, banging on shields with their weapons or banging their weapons together to a steady heartbeat until they can be buried on the battlefield. During this process, members of the pack are known to sing war songs, replacing historical and mythological figures with the deceased warriors' names and praising their glory.