WHAT IF: jarring shaman was Japanese?

TLDR: The Hornsent rode the jarred shaman into Heaven.

Buddhism generally believes that a person can attain enlightenment and the option to ascend from the endless cycle of rebirth by generating positive karma, avoiding the generation of negative karma and gaining greater insight on the nature of existence through meditation.

In some sects, it is believed that a person's quest for enlightenment is successful and they have departed the cycle if, on death, their corpse does not decay ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokushinbutsu and cf. the concept of incorruptibility for saints in Catholic and Orthodox Christianity).

Some Japanese sects of Buddhism goes even further to ensure that their monks attain enlightenment, creating mummified monks by a "purification" process involving severe starvation and dehydration, the consumption of highly astringent and moderately toxic teas and living entombment so that the resulting corpse is stripped of fat and water and so filled with preservative tannins and other substances that the body does not rot.

How does this apply to the Elden Ring DLC?

The Hornsent in Shadow of the Erdtree also appears to believe that leaving in an incorruptible corpse is definitive proof that a person has reached enlightenment (or the "higher spheres"). They worship the bodies of those of their kind that leaves behind an incorruptible corpse, seeing them as "tutelary deities".

The tutelary deities appear to be seated in a meditation and appear to be extremely emaciated, suggesting that they have undergone a similar process to the mummified monks, although mummified monks in real life are always stored in a sheltered, dry place that is sheltered from the weather, while the hornsent tutelary deities are sometimes stored outside.

This suggests that, rather than being regular mummified corpses, the Hornsent tutelary deities HAVE TURNED TO STONE. Thus, to the Hornsent, it appears that leaving behind a corpse that turns to stone is definitive PROOF that a person has reached "heaven". The reason why they are called "tutelary" deities is because their bodies serve as a reminder or guidepost to the Hornsent of the "correct" path to enlightenment. The reason why I believe that the monuments of the tutelary deities are corpses an not statues is because the monuments clearly do SOMETHING which causes revered spirit ashes to pool into the palm of their hand.

From what we can see from the body of Marika/Radagon, the body of the shaman grandmother, the demigods, the jar innards and Godrick, it appears that shaman (and those descended from shaman) tend to have the following characteristics:

1. they appear to be particularly attuned or receptive to kami;

2. their bodies turn to stone (or, possibly, stone-like wood) when they die; and

3. they make FANTASTIC grafting material.

Put yourself in the position of a Hornsent that believed that getting to "heaven" involves extremely hardship and deprivation, was very rare, and other people would only know that you've succeeded if your body turns to stone. From THAT perspective, a race of people that ALWAYS turns to stone when they die must be very, very special.

Now imagine what would happen once the Hornsent discover that THEY can also ensure that their bodies are turn into stone (i.e., reach "heaven") if their bodies are grafted onto a shaman who dies shortly afterwards. That's right: EVERYONE that isn't actively trying to become a tutelary deity would want to be grafted to a shaman.

THIS is how we get situations like Bonnie village, where torturing/prepping innocent shaman for grafting is done on an industrial scale.

Now imagine that you have jails (gaols) full of Hornsent criminals and undesirables, taking up valuable resources. If you believed in avoiding negative karmic debt it would be both cruel and harmful to your soul to just execute them all. On the other hand, grafting your prisoners onto shaman and "helping" them reach "heaven" would be an extremely GOOD and KIND thing to do, while ensuring that sinners do not taint the cycle of reincarnation again.

THIS is how we get situations like Ballurat Gaol: an industrialised process for sending bus-loads of sinners to "heaven" by grafting as many of them as you can fit onto an innocent shaman.

Here are some answers to questions you might have:

Question 1: If jarring shaman works, why are the jar innards walking around in agony? Answer: In order for the jarring process to work, THE SHAMAN HAS TO DIE. Since Marika removed the rune of death from the Elden Ring, the poor shaman (and the Hornsent that have been grafted to them) can no longer die and the process cannot be completed.

Question 2: What happened to all that stone? Answer: There's probably a lot of uses for spiritually-attuned stone that just happens to be very good at housing kami from higher spheres, especially if you could sculpt it.