The Drowned Rite

The pre-Imperial sea-burial custom of the Narrows folk — the dead interred above the tide in salt so the ocean could find them later, and the shrines sunk into the water on purpose so the gods could hear them better.

Before the Ashen Temple arrived with its sealing orthodoxy, the peoples of the narrows believed the sea was already consecrated — that you put the dead above the tide-mark in salt so they would keep, and put the shrines below it in brine so the prayers would carry. The Kneeling Drowned preserved the shrine half of this; the Saltsung Barrow preserved the burial half. The Temple considers both practices an affront to the Hush. The Hessk, who predate the Temple by some margin, still leave salt at the Tide-Stones and regard the Temple's opinion as the sort of thing you smile at politely.