sritims

Sritims are small ceremonial tokens central to memory culture in the fictional societies of the Arcana Islands. They function as tangible records of personal and communal memory, linking past events to present actions.

The term sritim is a constructed one within the lore, drawing on roots that evoke the idea of memory. The earliest references appear in the in-universe chronicle The Ledger of Echoes, which describes sritims as objects created to preserve and honor remembered events, people, and promises.

Sritims are typically carved from wood, bone, or stone, and inscribed with a brief memory line or a symbolic cluster of marks. They are produced by guilds of apprentices working under a master scribe, and many editions receive a short blessing at completion to honor the memory they carry.

In practice, sritims are used in remembrance rites where families or clans place them before altars and recite the memories they encode. They are exchanged at life milestones, such as marriages and rites of passage, and are sometimes interred with the deceased to preserve lineage. The distribution of inscriptions and materials reflects local custom and social status, making each sritim a marker of community identity as well as memory.

Modern variations include ceramic or metal variants and longer inscriptions, sometimes accompanied by digital records in urban settings. Across regions, traditional sritims remain valued as tangible links to the past, while newer forms adapt the idea to contemporary life.