Kioku no Jinja
On the island of Kojima, in the Empire of Wamato, there is a small shrine known as 'Kioku no Jinja', or the Shrine of Memory. In this place, people can commune with the memories of people and places lost to them, connecting directly to their echoes in The Dream.
The shrine itself is unassuming. It is a small white building set on a cliff overlooking the Nichibotsu Sea, on the west coast of the island. It is surrounded by a garden ten times larger than the shrine itself. The constant wind fills the air with the scents of sea and flowers. The garden and shrine are tended to be a solitary monk of the Yuralin Tabadhik order, who has guarded the shrine for as long as anyone can remember. His name is not well known, and most people refer to him as the 'Kokoro no Omoide no Kami' or the Kami of Heart's Remembrance.
The primary purpose of the shrine is to enable people to communicate with the past. The shrine is a Wild Place that is particularly attuned to memories within the Dream, and people who visit can use their bonds of association to conjure the echoes of people and places they wish to remember. They can then speak with those who have passed on, sharing their lives with them and even learn new things about the places and people they interact with. However, like all things primarily of The Dream, it is important to keep in mind that the spirits conjured here are an amalgamation of what is believed about them by all participants in The Dream - while it holds the memories that this person had in life, it can also have false memories implanted via the Egregoric Force. For those seeking to connect with their loved ones, this is not usually a problem - but for those who seek to glean information from the memories of the long dead, it is an important caveat.
Connecting to a particular place or person from the shrine depends on the bonds of association. The seeker must have something or someone who bears deep significance to the spirit they wish to conjure. Most often, this is the seeker themselves, but they can also bring another person or an object to help make the connection. When the spirit manifests, they seem as they did in life, and some may not realize they have passed on. They will be influenced by the expectations and desires of the seeker, which can influence aspects of their physical appearance and emotional state. It is not wise to seek the manifestation of someone you fear - if the spirit is angry or violent, they are quite capable of inflicting harm on the seeker in this place.
Places long lost can also be conjured into the shrine, but it is best to be cautious when doing so. The manifestation of the place will bring with the echoes of people also associated with it, and this can be unpredictable. Also, it can be dangerous to wander about the manifestation of a place - those who leave the confines of the shrine can find themselves lost in The Dream when the manifestation ends.
People outside the shrine cannot perceive the manifestations within, only the people interacting with them. If they enter the shrine, they will then enter the manifestation as well - in the case of places, this can be very disorienting. The Kokoro no Omoide no Kami will gently bar someone from entering the shrine while another is communing with memory.
One of the lesser-known uses of the Kioku no Jinja becomes apparent when someone attempts to commune with someone not yet dead. The manifestation does appear as normal - the living also have echoes of themselves in The Dream that are intimately linked to the living person. The manifestation will appear in all ways like the living person, and know what that person knows at the time that they appear in the shrine. Additionally, when the manifestation ends, the living person will find that they remember their time in the shrine - the experience becomes a part of their own memories. This can be unsettling, as a new memory suddenly appears without any corresponding physical experience, but it has proven useful as a means of long-distance communication in the past. This ability of the shrine is generally kept quiet, and the Emperor of Wamato has even given instructions not to speak of it, as he considers it better kept as a secret of the Empire. Even so, those familiar with the ways of The Dream have deduced this function more than once, and it is known to be possible by many scholars and spies outside the Empire.
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