The Beta Age was a time of transition, experimentation, and adaptation for ExoHuman society. Unlike the highly regulated funeral practices of the later Gamma Age, the Beta Age had no universal standard for honoring the dead. Each settlement developed its own traditions, leading to diverse and, at times, conflicting burial practices across the Habitual Belt and the Dark Side.

The first ExoHuman deaths on VOI 700 D occurred on Day Zero, the day of the crash landing of the Last Frontier, which resulted in the single largest loss of life in ExoHuman history — 1,500 settlers perished in the disaster. Their bodies were consumed by fire, reduced to ash in the wreckage. While their remains could not be recovered, the settlers of the Free State of Settlers organized a Day Zero Remembrance Ritual, burying a symbolic vessel of ashes into the soil of their new home world.

Following this tragedy, funeral rites diverged in two primary directions:

• In the Habitual Belt, settlers attempted to revive Earth-like cemeteries, marking graves and personalizing burials.
• On the Dark Side, settlers turned to fire burials, developing an early version of the Ralar Ritual, where bodies were cremated in volcanic heat.

Without centralized governance or established religious institutions, funeral traditions varied widely, influenced by geography, settlement culture, and personal beliefs.