Honoring the Dead

Cit’tilgul Ceremonies

Since the original subjects chose to self-terminate in 2084, Recycle Centers have offered ‘termination solutions’ for elderly citizens unwilling to taint their residences with their own cit’tilgul. Ceremonial suicide by the aged is sacred, and Recycle Centers offer a peaceful ritual that resembles the first burials performed by the original subjects.

The Ceremony involves members of the immediate pod in their natural state (naked) surrounding their loved one as she receives an injection mixture of coltanol and saline. When dead, her pod collects a handful of white glacial sand (snow in the days of the originals) and puts it on her corpse; the pod is dismissed to allow the Recycle Center attendants to carry out her recycling.

Ziko’litovx

The concept of ziko’lit (a life to remember) involves pods choosing one day of the year to gather with others and remember those deceased. Ramaxia began setting aside space for those dead whose pods could not afford a Ziko’lit Hub (private mausoleum) or didn’t have a relatives shish-sphere sit in a Ramaxian-sponsored Ziko’lit Monument. Called Ziko’litovx (a life to remember yard), these mazes are made up of walls with niches that house the name of the deceased, and an indentation for the placement of a shish-sphere. Ziko’litovx exist throughout the domes and are open every day of the year, for citizens to come and sit quietly among their ancestors.

Ziko’lit Hubs rose in the era of the Second Ramaxian Gen, and were built by citizens of wealth and status, to hold the shish-spheres of their extended pod. Some mausoleums like the House Kul Ziko’lit, are open to the citizenry as museums. House Kul’s feature shishitav and spheres of past Primaries, their sibox, and their donations. The largest and most beautiful Ziko’lit Hub is also located in Utama and belongs to Line Jyr. It is historically significant because it is one of the few mausoleums that contain the remains of its males.

Ziko’lit Monuments are enourmous communal shishitav commissioned by the citizenry to honor those that have died in service to Ramaxia. Each sculpture contains the bones, or a portion of a shish-sphere, from those whose deaths attributed to the advancement of the femmar. Most notable is the Turkol-Fist Remembrance Monument in Pikalit, erected by the Ramaxian Tharspaxi Consortium and the League of Dirtoxian Mines. Another is the privately commissioned shishitav depicting original subject Jyrulix in the ice-pond outside the Zaxiri College. Controversial at its inception, it commemorates those Zaxiri that took their lives in Toks Square during the Sister Suicides. Zaxiri of various generations provided the credit needed to collect and process the remains of those Zaxiri (barred from recycling by the Committee) listed as unlawful suicides. Prime Citizen winner Ilo Cux (10th), actress Ruz Ikat (9th), femvelaki Kir Tegal (10th) and socialites Ryx Jyr (9th), Tiz Ukel (9th), and Uliza Das (9th) were the largest contributors.