Construct sanctums or construct archives are comprehensive memorial databases from the Thunderhead's backbrain.
Description[]
Construct sanctums are shrines open twenty-four hours a day, 365 days a year. Even though they are available to everyone they are intentionally difficult to access. The Thunderhead had decided that "communion with the memories of loved ones should require pilgrimage".
Construct sanctums were deep in dark forests or on top of treacherous mountains. They were at the bottoms of lakes or the end of underground mazes. There was an entire industry devoted to building increasingly inaccessible, and creatively dangerous, sanctums.
It isn't speaking to the dead. Since nanites were introduced into the human bloodstream, the Thunderhead was able to upload and store all experiences and memories of just about every individual on the planet. In this way, it could better comprehend the human condition and prevent the tragic loss of a lifetime of memories — a fate that fell on everyone back in the mortal age. A comprehensive memorial database also allowed for full memory restoration in instances of revival after brain damage — as would occur during splatting or any other violent method of deadishness.
Scythes rarely visited construct sanctums. Not because they were forbidden to, but because it was considered beneath them. As if to do so somehow sullied the purity of their profession. Besides, it required skill at digging through the backbrain because, while ordinary citizens could find their loved ones through a user-friendly interface, scythes had to search manually.
Meeting a Construct[]
Constructs appear ghostly and transparent. They won't speak until spoken to as they aren't alive. It's only detailed recreation of a mind that no longer exists. A construct does not make new memories and ignores the fact they are dead and a construct.
Talking to a construct can be repetitive. Constructs cannot be creative. They can only access what is already there. The same question will always bring forth the same response, word for word.
Known Construct Sanctums[]
Antarctic Construct Sanctum[]
Scythe Rand visited an Antarctic construct sanctum. To get there she crossed the face of a glacier. She had to weave back and forth around treacherous crevasses and cross narrow ice bridges. Many had gone deadish attempting to visit this particular construct sanctum.
The sanctum was a neoclassical structure, with a high roof supported by Doric columns. It looked like something one might have found in ancient Rome, except that it was made entirely of ice.
Claiming the ice steps entrance. Inside were about a dozen niches with holographic welcome screens and a simple interface.
References[]
- The Toll, Chapter 15