So here's a sort of a macabre question about the culture of Zion, for all you armchair cultural anthropologists out there. I was thinking about the death of a character in MxO, and what our faction might do to honor him in the Real - and I realized that I don't really know how people in Zion memorialize the dead.
For example, where do Zionites physically go to pay respects to their fallen comrades? I don't know if corpses in Zion are buried in some big graveyard somewhere, or warehoused in a mausoleum, or cremated. Are photographs readily available to make little memorials in people's homes or in public spaces? Is there a wall of remembrance somewhere in the temple? For that matter, what do people in Zion do to pay respects? For instance, I'm imagining a scene where a hovercraft crew returns to a site in the tunnels where there was a battle and another hovercraft was destroyed, killing everyone on board. What would the returning hovercraft crew do when they returned? Laying flowers is out of the question because there's no plant life. Can you think of an alternative gesture of respect and remembrance? A 21 EMP salute?
Do you suppose there are prayers and religious rituals for the dead? If so, would they reference Neo?
I realize that there have been a few memorial services in the Matrix lately (sadly), but those involve symbols and rituals of a human culture that don't really translate into Zion - plus those are just inaccessible to all the free-born Zionites. I'm more curious about what folks imagine the culture of Zion does to commemorate and pay respects to the dead in the Real, given Zion's constrained resources in terms of space and material goods, as well as the practical and psychological limitations of living in essentially a gigantic refugee camp.
I don't think there's any right or wrong answer, I'm basically just looking for help with some brainstorming to help flesh out the culture of Zion - although if anyone knows of any guidance in the Matrix universe, that'd be helpful too.
