Petrified Ancestors (Patreon)

Another tribe with the same practices as the Antelope tribe mentioned before.
Not dying of natural causes, including aging, in exchange for some people of the tribe selected to be condemed for eternal suffering.
For this deer tribe, instead of monthly selection, they select 5 people per year at the end of the year, a tradition that has been going on for more than 1210 years. The condemed are tied up and put into a hole dug into the ground and covered up, the same as the antelope tribe. Except that when they are dug up after 3 weeks, their upper limbs & facial features are removed but also petrified into stone. And they must preserve these stone features the best they can. The ones encased are pressumably still alive as the reason for the old god to do this is to feed off of their suffering of not being able to breath, move, feel, smell, hear. If they dont do this, all of the tribe will suffer a much worst fate. But unlike the undying antelope, they do have an end. Due to accident or circumstances, the stone breaking will kill the person inside turning them completely into stone.

The picture shows one of the designated areas for preserving the petrified ancestors and it is open to the whole tribe, the loved ones who have been petrified can be visited by others, being treated like a cemetry even though they are still alive in the stone. To the right of the picture shows a shaman-like figure on her morning routine of spreading incense and bells to "appease" the petrified ancestors.
The shaman-figure when chosen by others who came before her, she will be bound up and gagged from the moment she was chosen, drapped with some white cloth which wouldn't really cover her. Her job is to select the 5 people to be condemned to be turned to stone at the end of each year. But the other times, she does her morning and night routine of incense & bells, which are assisted by other tribe members to be put on her. And she oversees the areas where the ancestors are kept.
But the shaman-figure themselves are not safe from selection, when they are chosen, instead of looking at a condemed person, they will close their eyes before choosing the new figure who will take her place. It is VERY ILLOGICAL for the figure to be choosing herself to be condemned when she can choose who she wants so it is assumed that the figure communicates directly with the old gods and they know everyone and themselves will suffer a lot worst fate if they go against the higher power's orders. There is a sense of twisted fairness in that there is no one who is safe from the random selection. But there is no way to know as the shaman-figure's life is spent bound and gagged, unable to utter any legible words.
The shaman-figure will also stop anyone from entering the areas where the ancestors are kept if a family member tries to enter with the intent of breaking the statue, ending their loved one's suffering. As if the shaman-figure knows their thoughts, she is helpless to stop them physically in her state so there are some guards who watches the entrance to the area.
The shaman-figure's day of selection will someday come, maybe this year or maybe in another 100 years but until then she will keep performing her duties of trying to appease the suffering of her ancestors and following the old god's selection and orders.

Also the red rope around the ancestor's neck indicated if she struggled or not when she was selected. Some get the honor of being decorated with a red rope to signified they didnt defy they were chosen and went willingly while others who fought back are not given this privilege, forever shamed.