Funeral

A funeral is a ceremony to celebrate, pay respect and remember the life of a person who has recently died. Funerary customs vary throughout the known world and are closely tied to religious beliefs and practices.

In the Seven Kingdoms
In the Seven Kingdoms, the bodies of the dead are tended and prepared by the Silent Sisters, a religious order within the Faith of the Seven devoted to this task.

The body of the deceased is usually displayed atop an altar, fully clothed. Two death stones painted to resemble open eyes on the closed eyes of the deceased. Canopic jars are also placed at the feet of the deceased.

In King's Landing
As the royal family of the Seven Kingdoms, the remains of the members of House Targaryen, usually their ashes, were interred at the Great Sept of Baelor. Following the fall of the Targaryen dynasty, the new royal family was expected to follow in their footsteps, but King Robert Baratheon demanded his remains to be sent to his family's ancestral seat, Storm's End, to be interred.

House Tully
The deceased members of House Tully are placed atop a wooden boat in the typical Seven Kingdoms fashion, including the death stones above the eyes and the canopic jars. The boat is also covered with straw and wood and then set down the waters of the Trident and set on fire with a flaming arrow.

In a mockery of House Tully's funeral customs, the body of Catelyn Stark is unceremoniously thrown into the waters of the Green Fork.

House Stark
The members of House Stark are traditionally interred in the catacombs of Winterfell, with a stone sculpture in the likeness of the deceased placed above the tomb.

Beyond the Wall
In the lands beyond the Wall the most common practice is to burn the bodies of the dead in funeral pyres. It is also practiced by the Free Folk as a form of protection, as burning a body prevents it from being raised as a wight by the White Walkers.

The Dothraki
Similarly to the Free Folk, the Dothraki also burn the dead members of their own khalasars to ensure the entry of the spirit of the newly dead into the Night Lands to ride with his or her ancestors. Thus it is a major insult to leave a body unburned and mutilated, tantamount to "killing" the spirit of the recently deceased.