I was doing a WW1 themed run for this one and tried my hardest to control my dev mode abuse and avoid keeping my colonists alive through it. I wanted to see the kind of story that comes with loss and it resulted in this: A colony that puts great care in honoring those before them. Most were buried in wall tombs and honored appropriately, but not all bodies make it back, so monuments and statues were made. I've kept mementos of each lost colonists: Swords and guns, helms and shields, all untouched in a soon-to-be museum where it will remain until the colony needs them (strong items so I can't help using them). This is actually not the first tomb I made as the old building was too small to accommodate all the bodies.

  
Here you can see the Queen of the Chaos Empire (yes that's the name) taking a photo with her family at the tomb site. All three alive and (partially) healthy thanks to the sacrifices of her workers and soldiers. More will serve and more will die, such is life on the rim, especially in a war waging run full of trenches and bunker forts.



Admittedly, I barely remember those who passed. Not their names, not their contribution, not their deaths, not even their races or genders. I remember some though, valiant heroics like fighting mechanoid thrumbos up close to buy time for others to escape, foolish acts where bringing a flamethrower to an open field was unwise, and a few too sudden that makes you wonder how small rat people could crush your strongest fighters in a flash. It was epic, the stories were epic, and their contribution was evident (400 days is the longest I did for a run). I might forget them in the future though, I could just take more screenshots but that to me kinda ruins the spirit of this whole thing of vividly remembering previous generations. I wanna remember them through subtle means like scars, architecture, and mementos, even if it raises the colony wealth by tons.

  
I would never have experienced this level of sentimentality and invested myself into this run had I just load a save or turn on dev mode to revive dead colonists. I and the nobility of this colony wholeheartedly appreciate what the fallen have given, and eventually, a new generation will make way. There are more stories to be made, and this building isn't big enough or fancy enough to hold them.

400 Days in, each candle represents a colonist who gave their life for the colony.