Manor Lords Players Spotted Gruesome Detail in Village Church. It May Be Referring to Commonly Unknown Custom
At first glance it looks ghoulish, but as if you think longer, it makes sense.
Manor Lords, a strategic game by a Polish developer, has become extremely popular in recent weeks, taking players to an unspecified land from the Middle Ages. Selecting a particular era requires us to explore the surrounding area, where we may frequently encounter elements of ancient culture, even those that we don't fully understand.
Terrifying church collection
One of such details was recently noticed by a Reddit user, who immediately shared the find with other Manor Lords fans. The discovery concerns a cluster of human bones located at the back of the village church.
There is no doubt that we are dealing with a pile of skulls and other remains left by the deceased inhabitants. Despite the eerie impression it gives at first sight, it is believed by commentators to have a historical basis. The element of the church presented in the entry is called an ossuary.
Place of eternal rest
An ossuary is a vessel or object used to store the bones and ashes of the dead, commonly practiced in the Middle Ages. In ancient times, they served as a communal burial ground for the remains of both battles and disasters that reduced the population of villages.
However, this isn't the only application of this kind of object. They often included remains from graves that were no longer visited, and the bodies buried in them had been resting long enough for only bones to be left.
Some ossuaries have survived to this day, growing into tourist attractions. Commenters under the forum post mention, among other things, the Sedlec Ossuary, whose decor was largely created from buried bones. The Catacombs of Paris, established at the beginning of the 19th century, are similarly popular.
What is most interesting, ossuaries still function to this day. According to the expert, they are currently used primarily to store remains from liquidated graves for which the required lease fees haven't been paid.
