--Flame Capital--
[Fungal Wastes]
The second day after the end of the First Void War.
This place bustled with activity it had not seen in a long time.
Despite their grief, life had to go on, but this bustle was not just about orders for medicinal herbs or treating the wounded.
More than anything, it was for one bug, an old friend who had passed away.
The legendary first Mantis Lord, master hunter, the warmaster's dearest friend, the first hunter, and master of the Fungal Wastes, Mortas had fallen in the final battle just before dawn.
There was not a single mantis who did not respect him. They gathered of their own accord, and for the first time in ages, the entire clan was present.
The other clans within the Flame Capital had their own grief to process, so only mantises were present today.
As for his funeral, he had asked for everything to be kept simple while he was alive, but the stubborn mantises predictably refused to comply.
His coffin was burned to ashes, which were then scattered over the homeland he had always loved, to nourish its soil.
His weapons received one final round of maintenance before being placed in the display room.
His name was recorded, copied out, and placed in the ancestral shrine in the deepest part of Mantis Village.
But unlike all the Mantis Lords of the past, Mortas was still considered the first because he represented a new beginning.
He had made the right choice, joining that Flame rather than resisting it, allowing the clan to come this far.
But what were they to do in the future? He was gone, and past experience could no longer help the clan of today.
And so, when the funeral ended, silence followed.
All the hunters, every