"There is much talk. And I have listened. Through rock and metal and time."
— The Gravemind, Halo 2
The Earth is said to be where everything is born from and returns to, all the while containing resources valuable for progression. However, there is a less commonly used resource that is not normally considered: the memories of all events that transpire.
This trope revolves around the concept of the Earth possessing memories of most if not all historical events and those who have previously existed upon its surface.
There may be several reasons why this can happen. Maybe the earth is alive and you can read its literal memories. Or there's something special in the soil that "records" events in a way that others can read. Or it may stem from the associations between the earth and death, in that when people die and are buried, their memories follow with them as lost knowledge. Perhaps certain events (like particularly bloody battles) can leave a "psychic imprint" on an area that telepaths or those with a suitable power can sense, or, in some cases, even interact with and/or utilize to potentially great effect due to them being otherwise unchanging and infinite in nature. Considering the planet has been around for billions of years, you can expect no shortage of extractable memories. On top of that, the earth itself is seen as something ageless and unchanging, and thus may be the only "witness" of moments that are otherwise lost to time.
May be related to Psychometry and/or Physical Memory, depending on the setting. Overlaps with Gaia's Lament and Gaia's Vengeance, where the Earth not only has memories, she is very upset about them. Not to be confused with Funny Terrain Cross Section where physical historical objects are underground. Compare Akashic Records. See also Time Capsule for a more mundane way to store memories underground, The Underworld, and A Place Holds Memories.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Fullmetal Alchemist: Father theorizes that the planet itself is a single massive living "system" which has memories from throughout its immense history, giving it immense knowledge and power on par with a god. The ritual Father proves him correct as he captures the world's Gate of Knowledge and is able to draw on its power.
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Stone Ocean: Under World, the Stand wielded by Donatello Versus, has the power to read and animate memories in the ground, which can then be made physical and used to deadly effect against targets since there's no way to change what happens. However, it's possible for someone to find loopholes that allow them to survive the events in the form of having knowledge of what exactly happened back then and planning accordingly.
- In the Nasuverse, planet Earth has its own form of intelligence, a "will" known as Gaia, and thus its own memories, which feature in different forms in various entries across the franchise:
- While Servant Summoning is usually defined in the ''Fate'' series as summoning heroes from the Spirit World known as the Throne of Heroes, it is also at times described as involving the world. In Fate/Grand Order, for example, summoning Heroic Spirits is described as taking information recorded and stored on Earth and converting said information into a form that can be controlled.
- In the remake of Tsukihime, -A Piece of Blue Glass Moon-, Shiki Tohno goes on Journey to the Center of the Mind within Arcueid's Giant Woman form to defeat. Doing so shows him the planet's memories of its history up to its birth.
- In Fate/kaleid liner PRISMA☆ILLYA, to save the world after Darius ended it, Illya goes on to Set Right What Once Went Wrong by navigating the Starlog, a place serving as the recorded history of every life on Earth. Important events are represented as stars, connected by lines of light into constellations if one event leads into another. It is also revealed that Pandora's Box was created by the Greek Gods as an intended backup of the Starlog, to ensure the planet's salvage in case it was destroyed.
- In Fate/strange Fake, Enkidu's second Noble Phantasm, Age of Babylon, gives them the ability to draw from the planet's memory and produce various objects and weapons from across human history and civilizations.
- It is eventually explained that every planet with intelligent life produces an Archetype, an Anthropomorphic Personification of the planet born within its soul and taking the form of its dominant species, whose role is to become the planet's Recorder, observing and inheriting the planet's memories. For Earth, this being is Archetype: Earth, a version of Arcueid, which is why Shiki could see the memories of the world within her.
Fan Works
- Oversaturated World: The human counterparts of the Cutie Mark Crusaders act as the setting's answer to the Norns of Norse Mythology, with Apple Bloom acting as Urðr, the Norn of the past. (One short from the Group Precipitation collection is even titled "Urd Pony.") This comes with the power to tap into the memories of the land, or possibly the planet, with "Earth remembers" being a repeated phrase along with "Air knows" and "Magic foresees."
Films — Animation
- Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within: The Leonid Meteor that fell upon Earth is one of the pieces left from a war-shattered world. It contains a core essence (termed a Gaia in-universe) that can generate a fixed number of "phantoms" which retain the shape and behaviors of that world's soldiers and wildlife. Since these phantoms have no physical bodies, they can pass through Earth matter easily; only a specialized energy barrier can protect pockets of humanity from their deadly touch. An extra phenomenon of these phantoms is that when destroyed on Earth, their essence returns to their Gaia, whereupon they are regenerated anew, keeping their headcount consistent. Doctor Ross theorizes that the alien Gaia is learning from these phantoms, which is why they're becoming a steadily increasing threat.
- In Frozen II, water has memory of the past. Upon reaching Ahtohallan, Elsa is able to use her ice magic to manifest the memories held in the waters to create animate ice statues acting out both her past and the past of the forest.
Films — Live-Action
- The Stone Tape is based on the parapsychological "Stone Tape" theory (see Real Life, below). Scientific researchers are looking for a new form of data storage and start investigating the "recordings" (i.e., ghosts) on the titular Stone Tape. It goes very badly for them, much as it did when scientists released "race memories" in Quatermass and the Pit, also by Nigel Kneale.
Literature
- Foundation and Earth: The planetary Hive Mind of Gaia spans not just the humans and animals of the planet, but also the plants and even the inanimate matter of the planet's crust. The majority of Gaia's memories are stored within its rocks, though it is noted that memories stored in inanimate matter take slightly longer to access than those stored in a living brain.
- The Lord of the Rings: As the Fellowship passes through the now-barren land of Hollin, Legolas notes that the trees and the grass do not remember the Noldor Elves who once lived there. Only the stones remember them and lament their absence: "Deep they delved us, fair they wrought us, high they builded us; but they are gone."
- The Neverending Story: The Picture Mine is a place where Yor, the blind miner, goes deep below the surface of Fantastica to unearth the forgotten dreams of mankind that have become buried deep in the earth.
- The Stormlight Archive: Stone has a deep spiritual connection to the Singers. This means that a Singer Willshaper can use stone can call up visions of the past in the form of animated statues.
- Xanth: Dor's magical ability is that he can talk to inanimate objects. When he queries rocks, rivers, boulders, a ridge of stone, a hill or mountain, etc., they remember everything that has ever occurred around them and provide him with the information he needs. However, his ability is limited because he can't make an inquiry of the entire land of Xanth, as it is so huge and encompasses so many things that he would not be able to get its individual attention.
Grundy the Golem: [helping Dor look for a lost ogre child] Can you just ask the ground where he is?
Dor: Wouldn't work. The ground is part of all of Xanth. I wouldn't be able to get its individual attention.
Grundy: There's a ridge of stone running along the path. Try that?
Dor: That would work.
Live-Action TV
- Kamen Rider W: The central plot device is the Earth's Memory, the planet's memories of everything that existed upon it. Philip has an innate connection to it, making him a walking Omniscient Database. Other characters use Gaia Memories, specific aspects within the Earth's Memory rendered into a physical form, as Transformation Trinkets to turn into the embodiment of that aspect, like the Tyrannosaurus rex, terror, or acceleration.
Tabletop Games
- Dungeons & Dragons: The deity Skoraeus Stonebones from the Giant's pantheon embodies this concept. One of his epithets is The Living Rock, and he is said to dwell in deep, dark caves, never surfacing for any reason. He's also considered the wisest and most knowledgeable of the pantheon, serving as an impartial observer to events above the surface and a trusted counselor and confidant to the other Giant gods. After all, his dominion covers all things buried — including secrets.
Video Games
- Dragon Age: Origins – Awakening: In the abandoned thaig of Kal'Hirol, the violence that accompanied the fall of the thaig was such that it impressed memories into the stone itself. When the Warden-Commander and their party pass through the thaig, they can witness the ghosts of the thaig re-enacting the events that preceded the downfall.
- Genshin Impact:
- The Ley Lines are a network of elemental energy that runs across Teyvat deep underground, and are said to be capable of retaining memories of everything and everyone in existence. This aspect is highlighted in several Archon and Story Quests, where the Traveler, Paimon, and various other characters bear witness to historical events from centuries ago via connections with the Ley Lines or anomalies causing them to manifest from there.
- Version 5.2 introduces Tenebrous Mimifloras, plant-like Abyssal monsters that have the ability to shapeshift into the forms of other enemies by extracting memories from the earth. Version 5.3 introduces a boss variant known as the Tenebrous Papilla, who takes it a step further by being able to dig even deeper and extract more ancient memories to turn into previously introduced World Bosses.
- Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy: Samos Hagai, the green eco sage, says in the opening narration that he tried to seek knowledge about the vanished Precursors from the earth itself, only to find nothing:
Samos: I have asked the plants, but they do not remember. The plants have asked the rocks, but the rocks do not recall. Even the rocks do not recall.
- Suguri: In Acceleration of SUGURI II, Sumika uses the planet's memories to recreate the deceased characters from sora.
Websites
- SCP Foundation: SCP-888
("Memory Stone") is a red mineral with trace amounts of an unidentified organic compound most closely resembling a Russian deposit of quarzite. If a person handles a pink "empty" chunk of SCP-888, it will turn solid red and become imbued with a memory either at random or deliberately focused upon. The memory will be removed from the original source (causing cell death of the involved neurons) and can be relived on loop by whoever is holding the "full" stone.
Real Life
- The Stone Tape Hypothesis is a proposed explanation for ghosts and hauntings that speculates that the earth and stone can record traumatic events and play them back under certain circumstances. Like most parapsychological hypotheses, it has not been scientifically verified, and even its acceptance among the paranormal community is limited.
