The Greaya Mawoid, or Mawoiden people, are a sect of nomads that were lost to the great jungle of Ecith. Rather than perish they adapted becoming something entirely different from what they had already been.
Their culture had already deified the preservation of the skeletons of their kin to decorate and use for storytelling and recounting their oral history. The hard times forced upon them made cannibalism an easy leap for them, allowing them to make further use of their deceased. Thus in both flesh and bone the family stayed together, so too do the Mawoid people believe that they are keeping the souls of their family with them.
The greatest celebration to the Mawoiden is a funeral for family. Where a banquet is prepared all manner of dishes are then prepared using the deceased remains, sometimes into dishes they’d requested prior to their passing. All save the heart the liver, brain, and nerves.
The skeleton is presented at the end of the meal freshly bleached and prepared for decoration, then those who were closest in life to the now deceased recount their story and the week long process of decorating the skeleton and repairing it to be one of the puppets of the Greaya Mawoid. Their story is then written and stored with them so that they will never be forgotten and can continue to tell their story well into eternity.
The heart, liver, brain and nerves are then given to their artifact which distills the aether from them and refines what’s left into strange pseudo dragon shards.
The most powerful spirits make shards capable of creating some of the finest artificing cores for constructs. To be born again as a construct with ones soul intact is the goal of many members of the Greaya Mawoid.
In essence the Mawoid believe that if you eat something that had a soul, a part of that soul stays with you. To this end they believe in consuming their loved ones to keep their strength with them and to give each soul in the family to reincarnate until their spirit becomes strong enough to become a puppet after death.
The Mawoid do not eat strangers or outsiders.
The Mawoid do make and sell wooden and animal bone puppets but will never willingly part with one made from the remains of another Mawoiden. The Mawoiden corpse puppets are well cared for and are treated as family to disrespect them is an affront to all Mawoiden.
