Editing Sigil:Seylandri (section)

== Memory ==

Memory occupies an unusual place in Seylandri life because so much of their history remains personally accessible.

They preserve songs and records, but they also preserve witnesses.

This can be a blessing.

It can also be oppressive.

A Rhone feud may eventually become something known only from a chronicle. Among the Seylandri, someone who remembers the original insult may still attend the council.

A mistake can survive for centuries in the mind of the person who made it.

So can love.

So can shame.

So can gratitude.

The loss of Tar Aerchel gives such memory a particular weight. For younger peoples, the elder realm is something reconstructed from ruins and stories. For the Seylandri, it also survives in family memory, ancient songs, inherited grief, and places remembered by name even when those places no longer exist.

Memory is therefore neither an unqualified virtue nor mere knowledge.

It creates obligations.

It can preserve wisdom.

It can also preserve hatred long after hatred has ceased to serve anyone.

The Great Wrath demonstrated both possibilities.