The Mist

The mists that cover the land were strange in those days. It can make anyone forget something that took place an hour before as easily as something that happened years ago.

The memory loss experienced by most people is not a total inability to recall memories or to create new ones. Rather is an inability to recall detail, specific events, or if they can be recalled only with great difficulty and only at the risk of the memory slipping away again. Basic relationships are usually easy to recall. Spouses will usually recognize each other, particularly if they live together, but they may be unable to recall where they met, or specific events from their pasts. But they will remember that they are married. People are unlikely to remember their children, they will remember that they have children, but if they do not live with their children they are unlikely to remember their children's names, what their children looked like, or even in some cases how many children they had.

People usually retain their skills that they acquire. A man who learns to swing a sword or shoot a bow with accuracy is unlikely to forget how to do the thing. But they will be unlikely to remember the person who taught them the skill, or how. Some details may stand out, but will be mired in uncertainty. "I think the first thing I shot was a bird, a sparrow perhaps? Or maybe it was a fox." Or "I don't remember who taught me to swing a blade, but I remember it was in a dark fort. Perhaps I was a soldier once. I wonder why I left, I am still a young man, plenty of strength in my arm..."

For some people facts are more easily remembered. A Saxon healer may remember a great deal about medicines, how to make a salve to put on a troll bite, or how to ease the pain of the dying, and may recognize which herbs are good and valuable and which can cause harm. In special cases, such as learned people in monasteries, can remember a large amount of useful information, and may be able to site the religious stories from memory, but they may be unable to remember with certainty where they once lived.

Time and memories are muted and flat. So the way things are now can often seem like this is way things have always been. Indeed, most people never realize that anything is truly missing. They may think it is normal. Some however feel the sense of loss at knowing their memories are missing, or to be able to feel them sometimes with a great deal of effort and concentration only to feel the memory slip away, like silver fish glinting in the sunlight before disappearing into the current.

The Mists and the Forgetful God
It is worth noting that no one knows the cause of the memory loss. Theories abound among the speculative and more curious.

One of the most popular and horrifying theories is that everyone is forgetting because God himself is forgetting. If something is not in god's mind, how can it hope to be in anyone elses?