roqueforti

its referencing minecraft

this seems like a good time to bring up my headcanon where the memory lanterns are the entire reason the spirits are able to live on beyond death. but some specific memories of spirits like their relation to others also come from memory lanterns and they may forget close friends and family (and maybe even enemies lol) if that memory lantern is fractured

like an example of this for me is that the passage spirits were adopted by passage guide because they forgot who their parents were so they're basically orphans. if their current clothes are the ones they died with, maybe they were already students of passage guide and the memory lantern(s) connecting them to passage guide wasn't fractured

The memory lantern thing is interesting. It would explain why the Vault of Knowledge is so dedicated to making so many lanterns. Because you'd want one for literally everyone out there‚ in case they desired to return.

The way I assumed it worked was that the people of Sky normally go through the standard rebirth life cycle, but if they lose their light they become a statue whose outer shell can be burned to free their spirit. That spirit is then no longer able to be reborn‚ but is guided back to the stars by an Elder or makes their way there on their own. Either way, once there the spirit can choose to either return to their primordial state in starlight and eventually rejoin the light creature life cycle, or stay a spirit wandering the earth, with a caveat. Spirits do not have their own light and must rely on external sources to keep from returning to a statue where they died. The "relive x spirit's memory" daily quests are basically the result of going without light for too long- that spirit fucked up by accident, and the lack of light caused them to be taken back to their place of death and become a statue once again. You could say that they thus never really "die", and that becoming a statue is more akin to a hibernation or coma state that your body stays in to protect itself until someone can share their light and guide you home. But it's so much of a last-resort thing that you can't really come back from it, ergo Spirits.

See, when Lightmending a lantern, the Spirit the lantern is assigned to pops up and (at the end) seems to recognize the player and their efforts. They're small, but the Spirit is there. And more often than not, the Spirts whose Lanterns we fix are seasonal spirits. Sometimes regular ones, too, but I at least rarely see them.

Why is that important? Well, because I forgot one major part of the Spirit system in my theory: gravestones. Or more accurately, cenotaphs.

In the realms of Sky, there seems to be a cultural practice of leaving a dead person's statue where it lies, and instead building a cenotaph somewhere else in the region they called home. For Regular Spirits, this manifests as the cenotaphs at the Rests of each region, which quite notably summon their spirits once released from the statues. This, along with the occasional presence of cenotaphs without spirits in places like the Golden Wasteland, imply a cultural practice of leaving a statue where it is, building a cenotaph for that person, and then burning the statue to release the spirit inside. The cenotaphs likely serve as an anchor for a Spirit who wishes to stick around, as well as a nifty way for someone who knew them to say hello. I'll bet the cenotaphs we see without Spirits either belong to people who eventually chose to return to the cycle, or people whose statues were destroyed before they could be burnt. Or it's possible you can't summon a spirit without knowing who they are first, and we just never met the spirits they belong to.

But Traveling Spirits don't have cenotaphs. Even ones like the Dreams spirits, who have a literal canon hometown, don't seem to have them (or if we do they're not visible to us). So it's possible that Lanterns are a backup to that system.

In life, a Lantern is made to carry someone's memories. Once that person dies, if a cenotaph cannot be made, is broken, or is destroyed, the lanterns allow the Spirit to return. The lanterns are more fragile, hence the practice of Lightmending, but the process can be done by Spirits or living people, and they're not prone to breaking that easily. Plus, Lanterns can store memories of multiple people (see the lantern for the Last City) and as such can serve as backup backups for several Spirits at once. If a Lantern does break, and its' Spirit is actively remaining in the realms, it's the same result as a Spirit going too long without light (being returned to their statue) except the lantern being mended fixes the problem without needing to relive their memory. Same with cenotaphs.

for some reason i forget the statues exist so often even though they're probably an integral part of sky lore. this fits with the world so well though. it makes sense that they'd use the lanterns as backup to help anchor them to the realms if skykids aren't always gonna be around to help with every little thing that brings back spirits using light. i think that's what lamed wanted them to do

It's the Royal Academy of Art Young Artist's Summer Show. One of my favourite exhibitions of the year. Like. Not only are the older kids insanely talented, the younger ones' artist statements will just punch you right in the face.

Jeffrey is my cat and he feels like my heart

i've made a bunch of outfits... here is a sampling. i do not know how the camera works lol