Chained Memory

Introduction

A set of armour can often be more valuable than the soldier wearing it, at least to the one in command of an army. Creating a good set of chain is time consuming work so if a set can be repaired and passed on to the next soldier then that is quite a saving comapred to having a new set made. The new owner may wear it for minutes or years, but how much of each wearer remains with the armour.
There are plenty of stories of the spirits of the mighty and valiant infusing their armour on death, but what about those less exalted. What if they've worn the armour for years and died in it? Their spirit may not possess the force of a mighty hero but is that to say nothing remains behind?
You may think this nothing more than idle speculation, but today we are going to discuss a very real example of this. A set of chainmail known as the Chain of Memories.

Early history

This armour was nothing special to start with, just a set of interlinked metal rings worn over a padded jerkin. It certainly displayed no great powers of protection as it was used in the wards between Trem and Caresnas. Many wore it and many died wearing it, and each time it was recovered (not always by the forces of the same country) and repaired. This was far from unique for sets of armour at the time with broken sets used to make the stock for fresh rings to repair the salvagable armour.
The metal rings of the armour darkened in colour, much to the dismay of anyone tasked with maintaining it as they would be accused of letting the armour rust, but the truth was that no amount of sanding or oiling could stop the metal from darkening. Blood had soaked into the metal, and not just the substance, but also the very concept of blood.

If anything the armour seemed to be getting stronger with each repair.

Repairs to the armour showed clearly with the new clean metal standing out, and some thought was given to disposing of it. But when there is never enough armour to go around, and the metal seems sturdy enough, why would you get rid of it. Besides the repairs usually stopped being so obvious after a few weeks.

The armour survived in this way for centuries, though it is doubtful any of the original remained. Untold numbers lived and ,perhaps more importantly, died wearing it. Bathed in the blood of hundreds if not thousands the armour became capable of holding faint traces of a departing spirit. Yhese traces took the form of memories and as they accumulated the memories began leaking out into the mind of the wearer of the armour.

Memory Leaks

It started with faint voices, just on the edge of hearing. Fragments of conversation from someone who wasn't there. Easy enough to ignore, apart from when you can ill-afford a distraction in the middle of battle. Then there was confusion, a few brief moments when the faces of comrades became those of strangers and a feeling that you are fighting the wrong people. A few brief moments but that can be enough to lose your life.

— Darren Cesselhorn - a wearer of the armour

Every further death increased the amount of memory leakage, but most of those wearing the armour wouldn't admit to the things they were hearing or feeling. Strange behaviour was generally overlooked as who wasn't a bit on edge after battle. None of them realised that sudden bouts of anger, insubordination, or shifts in personality were caused by the armour.
It was only when Olin of Northarden tried to desert to visit his wife that people started to think something was wrong. Olin didn't have a wife, and the person he described was unfamiliar to anyone else from Northarden, and yet he honestly believed he was married. Over the objections of the company's healer, who wanted to find the cause of Olin's confused memory, Olin was executed for desertion and his armour was passed on to another soldier.

Further incidents followed, all affecting new recruits, some of whom hadn't even seen their first battle. The commander of the force finally ordered an investigation after one new soldier stabbed him during an inspection. No common link could be found between all those acting oddly aside from the fact that they were all new and all had the same symptoms. In every case they had memories that didn't seem to be their own, and in some cases seemed to come from decades ago.

At first it was suspected that this was caused by some manner of psychic attack with a considerable amount of time wasted on trying to find the attackers.

Source of trouble found

The source of the strange behaviour was finally identified when a veteran soldier began complaining of the same symptoms. He was remembering walking through a bustling town that he also knew was the century old ruins he had just passed through. The only thing that had changed was the replacement armour he had been issued.
The company's commander was only to glad to send the armour away when an Acceptor asked that it be entrusted to the Church of Merial for study. After the Acceptors had studied it and found it did not contain a trapped soul, they were left with the problem of what to do with it. They were relieved of that problem by this college and it was kept in this very building for many years.

Where is it now

Unfortunately the armour was stolen by a former student. We beleive he had become influenced by the memories in the armour after sneaking in to study it unsupervised. While the college did manage to track the thief down he had been killed and the armour taken before we could arrive. Scrying has proved ineffective at locating the armour so we are not sure if it still exists or where it is now.

This lecture was delivered at the College of Divination with the armour used as an example of how objects can absorb memories and then be used to extract information.
It was also used to demonstrate how some of the more complex scrying magic could be used to look back in time to gather information that might otherwise not be available, introducing students to Recent Echoes, Window to the past and a spell to see the Ancient Past.