# Posthumous Avatar **Domain:** Digital Afterlife / Representation / Virtual Worlds **Doc Type:** Canonical Concept **Maturity:** Developed **Evidence / Concept Status:** Emerging practice and policy concept ## Definition A **Posthumous Avatar** is a persistent visual, interactive, or agentic representation of a deceased person inside a digital environment. ## Continuity Significance Avatars can evolve from memorial objects into interactive representatives, raising authorization, identity, persistence, and retirement questions. ## Existing Architecture / Evidence Posthumous avatars are addressed indirectly through replica, estate, platform, and postmortem-data rules. ## Evidentiary Boundary / Red-Team Note Avatar persistence is platform persistence unless portability and independent custody exist. ## Related Ontology [[wiki/Digital Replica|Digital Replica]] · [[wiki/Deadbot|Deadbot]] · [[wiki/Digital Legacy|Digital Legacy]] · [[wiki/Platform-Dependent Afterlife|Platform-Dependent Afterlife]] · [[wiki/Second Loss|Second Loss]]