Short version
From this earth, this grave, this dust
I’ll rise again at ‘mancer’s whim
And so to you I now entrust
My peace; so as you sing your hymn
Sever head and sever limb
That I may sleep, and sleep I must.

Long (full) version
From this earth, this grave, this dust
I’ll rise again at ‘mancer’s whim
And so to you I now entrust
My peace; so as you sing your hymn
Sever head and sever limb
That I may sleep, because I must.
Ne’r look again through undead eyes
And do foul deeds in place of him
That conjured up my bones
From where they lay (I pray) at home.
Instead, don’t flinch at severing;
Attack my body! rendering
It useless to the Necromancer
Who’ll use it, bone and skin
To do his work (but here’s the answer).
He would look out through my eyes
Deny him this. Deny him now his prize.

An old, fatally injured witch hunter speaking to his protégé, requesting that his corpse be ‘broken’, that is dismembered to make it impossible or difficult to resurrect. The Witch Hunter Guild published a suggestion that this is done when burying fallen comrades who died fighting Necromancy, to avoid the necromancer using their bodies to fight on.

The practice typically involves removing one or more limbs, or simply hands and feet, and burying them with the body. The head is less often removed, but it is not unknown.

This can be difficult to perform in the field, making a sanctioned cremation the preferred method where possible. However, many Witch Hunters specify in their will that, if buried, their body be ‘broken’. If done in civilisation this usually involves the removal and separate burial of the feet.

The short version of the above verse is often found on memorials to Witch Hunters who have died fighting necromancy or whose body was buried or burnt while on campaign, and not in consecrated soil.

Witch Hunter poem by Peter Haresnape.