The Culture Column
These societies are most often called ghost towns or necropoli but they are only rarely abandoned settlements. Despite everything else there is still a connection, however tenuous, to mortal society and the dead do not usually feel comfortable in such places. More often they "live" in decrepit, rundown buildings, alleys frequented by no-one thanks to their sinister reputations, and other places which rarely if ever see the presence of the living but which are not totally removed from them.
Purpose of Society
The necropoli did not organize themselves for no reason save for habit. Certainly it would not be unexpected for the dead to develop societies of their own simply because they are used to inhabiting societies, but if it were a matter of comfort and habit then there would be many more ghosts who strike out on their own. Why, then, do almost all ghosts organize into communities?
The restless dead stand on a narrow rope above a deep chasm. To fall one way is to lose your sense of identity and humanity (or whatever species you happen to be). To fall the other way is to cling too tightly to the affairs of the living and grow totally obsessed until you can no longer tear yourself away from them. Either is undesirable and being part of a necropolis can give badly-needed balance.
To Be Dead
The mind of a ghost is far from being as plastic as it was before she died. Experiences which she does not pay her full attention to have a tendency to slip into a fog of half-dissolved memories and will eventually disappear entirely. It takes longer to master skills, too. Typically it takes ten thousand hours of work for a human to master a skill; ghosts require a whole four hundred thousand hours to master that same skill. On the bright side, experiences that do get a ghost's full attention (which would of course include something that the ghost had spent more than fifty years at practicing even if he spent every hour of every day at it) will almost certainly remain as fresh in a thousand years as they are today. This lack of plasticity in their mind works for memories from their life too. While they will not become clearer than they are now a ghost's pre-mortem memories will not fade.
Emotions are a tricky thing for ghosts. Hormones and other bodily processes are obviously absent, which goes far to deaden their ability to naturally feel emotions. The mind is determined, however, and while ghosts do not genuinely feel new emotions they are able to substitute the feeling of that emotion from earlier times. There isn't too much of a problem here since the feeling of comfort and satisfaction from laying down in bed after a long day of exhausting labor is not too different from any number of other times that a feeling of comfort and satisfaction is going to pop up. Where trouble does arise is when the pool of existing feelings is not deep enough to properly substitute for a new experience. Someone who has never felt romantic love of any kind beyond a juvenile crush will find it difficult to experience a more mature breed of romantic love.
Emotions are strength. Emotions are power. Emotions are what let ghosts become more than ineffectual shades visible only to each other. With them a ghost can summon up the ability to physically handle objects or let mortals perceive her. They can be used to change a ghost's very appearance once she understands that it is malleable and takes advantage of that knowledge. Emotions fuel the actions of bodythieves, who rely on strength of passion to overwhelm, break, and rule their victims' wills.
Social Structure
The most important distinction in a necropolis is between those who have received proper funerary rites and those who haven't. Ghosts can always tell the difference even though they can't explain how so to the living. It's more than just a social distinction; there's genuine importance in this. A ghost whose remains were given the proper rites is able to keep himself stale mentally and emotionally with less effort. Whatever else a ghost is or does, there is nothing that can surpass this distinction except for bodytheft.
It is the ultimate crime in a necropolis to steal control of a physical body and, too, proof that there really isn't anything for ghosts in mortal society (bodythieves are not connected enough to their victims that they can, through those stolen bodies, feel new emotions). Bodytheft, like every other crime, is punishable by exclusion. It works on two levels. A necropolis is by its nature a tightly-knit thing and most ghosts will suffer from even temporary exile or disfellowship. Necropoli are also necessary to maintain the psychological well-being of a ghost. So long-term exclusion, to say nothing of permanent exclusion (which is the fate of any bodythief), is going to guarantee a slow slide into insanity for as long as it lasts.
These aren't the only categories that ghosts get stuck into. There are those who continue to dabble in the lives of the living. It can be dealt with through a short period of exclusion if it becomes an extreme problem. Normally they're allowed to do as they do but they can't be said to have any respect. Dogs don't have a good reputation either in necropoli. They can see ghosts and smell and hear them, and they don't like them. It takes more than a dog bite to destroy a ghost but getting bitten still hurts more than anything that a ghost could have experienced in life. Dog handlers, called edenae, aren't in possession of a good reputation either. They're necessary if the necropolis wants to hand out corporal punishment or keep out undesirables but nobody can much like somebody who gets along with dogs of all things. Downright eerie it is.
Better off are the ukae or scholars, who spend at least twenty hours in study every day. These ghosts run the risk of growing too attached to their work and it isn't unheard of for a scholar to lose herself in it. Strictly speaking there is no need for the scholars but many necropoli fancy themselves to be keepers of history and it's a rare one which doesn't have at least a single ghost who has taken it upon herself to master as many arts which look to be dying out. Mere age confers status of its own. The votae are those who have remained in the necropolis for at least two thousand years. They've usually been scholars for at least a few of those many centuries- the dedicated to a single craft gives a ghost a sense of purpose that she might have not felt before. Elders are, in necropoli where they are not absent, responsible for governance. Only permanent exclusions require approval from more than the elders because the punishment cannot be undone.
Art
It was the centuries-long work of certain scholars that resulted in the musical style called Ratkuat, which literally means "screaming" but is more accurately defined as "lamentation." It can only be performed by those with enough focus and emotional strength because it requires the use (and creation, for that matter) of a kaeus. The instrument is traditionally a long reed with six finger-holes and a thumb-hole, and proper manipulation of the instrument creates a low, mournful sound. The songs usually relate to death, separation, and pain and were first used to help the newly dead (and a few other ghosts who have problems of other kinds) to deal with these things.
Visual art is stylistic and symbolic. Care is taken to make the landscape three-dimensional but beings (whether living, dead, or animal) are flat and their size is relative to their importance. Physical attributes exist or not to signify things of importance. Ghost stories, so to speak, are usually told to call up emotions and make their audiences feel. It's no surprise that they're typically love or war stories, sometimes both, and nearly always epic in scale.
Next month: Philosopher-dragons more like birds and badgers than big lizards.
