Funeral Practices of The Woodworkers
Funeral Effigies
The term “Woodworker” stems from the cult's tradition of carving wooden figures of their dead, as well as their proclivity towards recruiting carpenters, carvers and other craftsmen for this purpose. Ideally, all Woodworkers receive an Effigy when they die, but this is reliant on two things: Someone who can provide an accurate likeness, and payment of some kind. An offering of money or items of value like jewelry or precious metals (usually belonging to the deceased) were often used to fund an Effigy. Donations of material can also help lower the price; Effigies were often made of mismatched and recycled portions of wood. All Effigy types have painted-on eyes, with some featuring glass or coin inset irises, but aside from the eyes, a full paint job is rare. The figures are varnished and treated if resources permit.
Full body painted figures are expensive to source and time consuming to produce. In order to cut down on cost, time and materials, and to keep up with the rate at which Woodworkers perished, the Prophet christened two smaller, more affordable types of Effigy: Busts and masks. The majority of Woodworkers chose the cheaper options, but there were usually enough able to afford the full figures that a perimeter of Effigies often stood shoulder-to-shoulder “guarding” Woodworker settlements.
The spiritual purpose of an Effigy is somewhat vague. Rather than two-way communication, the Effigies are mainly a tool for the dead to commune with the living world for the short time until Earthly Heaven is revealed. The idea was that the invisible person, in the Layer of Heaven, would stand in the exact place of the effigy and choose to inhabit the wooden figure. The deceased person the Effigy represents could supposedly see from the eyes, hear from the ears and retain light, painless physical sensation in any wooden appendages they might have. The spirit is not always present inside the Effigy, and must be coaxed to inhabit the wooden body by a living friend or relative. This can be done by calling or singing to the Effigy, stroking the face, positioning the limbs or offering the Effigy a former object of the deceased.
Woodworker belief states an Effigy that is inaccurate in likeness, made before the person dies, made too late, or neglected by friends and family of the deceased can become inhabited by wayward spirits or malicious entities. These entities could conjure termites to eat the Effigy or mold to rot the wood. They may loosen joints and glue so that it falls apart or cause the heavy wooden object to tip over and crush anyone nearby. Possessed, rotten or infested Effigies must be ritualistically reduced to sawdust or kindling, obliterated by fire and remade at the expense of living friends and family. Even though an inhabited Effigy cannot feel pain, attacking or damaging a ‘healthy’ Effigy was considered and punished as genuine assault.
Full Figure Effigies
A Woodworker woman marries her late fiance's Funeral Effigy
Full Figure Effigies vary wildly in stature, articulation, detail and material across different Woodworker communities and across development in time. Some featured clothes carved onto the figure while others wore the real clothes of the deceased. Articulation of the limbs was more common than one would think; Woodworkers were fond of collecting broken furniture, and thus had a lot of hinges and pegs laying around. It was most common to articulate the arms and shoulders and not the legs, so the figure could still reliably stand.
Full Figures not participating in the protective perimeter often stood or sat at the entrances to tents, wagons, cabins or other living quarters. It was customary to verbally greet Effigies and include them in conversation when one is near, as well as bringing them inside during poor weather or excessive temperatures. Sexual activity with Effigies, given the pairing was as appropriate and lawful as it would be in life, was perfectly allowed, if not considered a little strange. Effigies did not often feature any kind of detailed genitalia.