Grave Keeper

You have spent your life tending the dead and helping the living celebrate memories of the departed. Whether you have spent time conducting the funerary rites of one culture or many, you intuitively understand loss and the many ways mortal creatures cope with death.

You are familiar with all aspects of laying the dead to rest, including preparing corpses, performing burials, conducting memorial services, and maintaining grave sites. If you come from a small or remote community, you may have been the sole conductor of all those services.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from among History, Insight, Medicine, or Religion

Languages: Two of your choice

Equipment: 2 blocks of incense, a set of traveler’s clothes, a shovel, a tinderbox, a trinket that once belonged to someone close to you that died, vestments, and a pouch containing 25 gp

Feature: No Stranger to Death

As a grave keeper, you are afforded great respect and reverence by people with religious or cultural practices that honor the dead. When asked to do so, you can perform secular funeral rites in exchange for money, access to lodging, gratitude, or other compensation deemed appropriate by the GM.

Additionally, when you view a tombstone, tomb, monument, or any other kind of grave marker, you can correctly ascertain its makers’ religious beliefs and cultural traditions. In addition, you can determine key information about the deceased’s life, including their socioeconomic status, whether they were well-loved, and whether they were disgraced or cursed upon their death.

Suggested Characteristics

Grave keepers are among the rare people willing to confront the mysteries of death daily. It takes a deep commitment to transform the ugly realities of decay and loss into something that comforts the living.

Whether your commitment comes from religious faith, compassion for those left behind, or something else, your convictions carry you through even the darkest moments.

d8	Personality Trait
1	I memorize the names of every person I bury.
2	If I see someone suffering, I have to get involved.
3	I enjoy attending religious events to learn about beliefs different from my own.
4	I’m not fazed by the sights or smells that bother most people.
5	I always have a few jokes or anecdotes rehearsed if I need to lighten the mood.
6	I love hearing stories about people’s friends and family.
7	I refuse to let people walk away angry.
8	I always offer an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry on, regardless of my own emotional state.

d6	Ideal
1	Memory. It’s our duty to honor the memory of those we have lost. (Lawful)
2	Ardor. Live life to the fullest, because it can be over in an instant. (Chaotic)
3	Knowledge. Learning how people treat the dead is the best way to understand how they live. (Any)
4	Empathy. Though I bury the dead, it is the pain of the living that I lay to rest. (Good)
5	Responsibility. I must do what I do to ensure the souls of the dead rest in peace. (Any)
6	Compassion. No one deserves to die alone and forgotten. (Any)

d6	Bond
1	I have seen too much suffering at the hands of the restless dead, and I refuse to let it happen again.
2	I am one in a long line of family members who have been grave keepers.
3	After serving the same community for many years, I’m taking a sabbatical to learn more about my craft.
4	I am part of a religious or humanitarian organization whose members travel the world helping those in need.
5	A few years ago, I died for a short time before I was resuscitated. While I was dead, I had a vision that set me on this path.
6	Lost souls speak to me in dreams and visions. I must do what I can to lay these spirits to rest.

d6	Flaw
1	I struggle to relate to the living and have anguish that people won’t like me because of what I do.
2	I have a dark sense of humor that often upsets other people.
3	My compulsion to sanitize and organize often makes daily life difficult.
4	Every once in a while, I can’t help but shut down under the weight of everyone else’s burdens.
5	I am drowning my own grief by helping others process theirs.
6	I resent people that never question their faith or religious beliefs.