Perimeter shrines

<infobox> <title source="name"><default>Perimeter shrines</default></title>

<image source="image"></image> <header>Basic Information</header> <image source="map"></image> <label>Type</label> <label>Location</label> <label>Inhabitants</label> <label>First Appearance</label> </infobox>

Geography/Description

The Kennet shrines are built around the perimeter of Kennet, there are sixteen of them in total.<ref>“That’s four shrines built out of sixteen,” Lucy said.- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.9</ref>

In return for the shrine and it's associated offerings the spirits are obliged to protect Kennet from outsiders and slow the influx of spirits.<ref>“Hey, grumpy spirit,” Avery said.  “We bid you, protect this area from outsiders, slow the influx of spirits, and grant your boons to Kennet as you can, holding back your weapons and tricks for those who’d hurt us.  We give you a castle, a manse, a sanctuary, a home.”

Avery paused.  The words didn’t come.

“This is given freely,” Lucy said, giving Avery a quick double-check glance before picking up where Avery had left off.  “In exchange for your willingness to cooperate, your strength in holding off hostility and deflecting mischief.  Accept our deal and grow with us as we grow, thrive as we thrive.”- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.8</ref>

Visiting the shrines regularly and making offerings of food makes them stronger.<ref>“Other direction for me.  I think if we can get more regular visits to the shrines, that’ll make them stronger,” Verona told K.T.  “Which helps… you, I guess.  Helps all of us.”- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.9</ref> Different spirits like different food, for instance fluttering papers likes coffee and gearhead likes oily food.<ref>Fluttering paper likes coffee flavors,” Verona said, digging in the bag.  She handed K.T. a coffee-flavored chocolate bar.  “Gearhead likes oily foods as tribute.”- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.9</ref>

Residents

• Spirit of Long
• Legs
• Tech head
• Lott
• Dish
• Spirit of wind swept papers
• Pollution spirit
• Shelter spirit
• Grumpy spirit
• Smoulder
• Grabsy
• Foorspur
• Borrador

Points of Interest

The Grumpy Spirit lives in a hole in a log that's framed in stones and made to resemble a house.<ref>The spirit made a grumpy face and then settled back in the hole in the log that was framed with stones, done up in layers and made to resemble a house with rooms.  Small trees in pots framed it.  His lips moved again.- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.8</ref>

Long Legs lives in a hollow surrounded by stones and moss, situated between two trees.<ref>Picking up stones and stacking them into a formation.  The formation had a hollow in the center, and one middle section that jutted out like a shelf.  She leaned it into two trees, then reached down for some moss, and arranged that, to fill gaps.- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.6</ref> Currently trying to make a battery.<ref name=":0" />

The spirit of long's shrine is a spiralling collection of stones cut into a tree.<ref>Verona nodded, checked the groove, then set a stone down so it was half on the base stone while the other end sat anchored in that hole in the tree.

She began to set the stones that way, working their way up the tree to the hollow.  She placed them near each other, made the ascending stones split into forks and then rejoin, anchored them in wood, and followed the flow of the tree as best as she could. - Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.6</ref>

Dish's shrine is a collection of smooth stones arranged in a bowl shape, with decorative bits of glass and porcelain placed between the stones.<ref>A collection of smoother stones were arranged in a loose bowl shape that caught a lot of rainwater into a shallow depression.  Broken glass and bits of porcelain had been arranged in a pretty little pattern, filling up the gaps.  Moss and clover found purchase in between the stones at the base and ‘stem’ of the shrine, but didn’t actually encroach into the basin.- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.6</ref> Dish is currently focused on making her shrine prettier and creating clean water.<ref name=":0" />

Lott's shrine is a collection of dead sticks and sharp rocks in an inverted triangle, encircled by a piece of barbed wire.<ref>His shrine was dead branches and sharp bits of rock, forming a kind of inverted triangle or cone shape, point touching the ground, scraggly and sharp bits pointed up.  They’d used a single loop of barbed wire that hadn’t been quite long enough to encircle the upended pyramid of jagged shapes, so they’d used cord to help secure it.- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.6</ref> He puts much of his energy into gathering up minions.<ref name=":0">“You’re focusing your attention on different things.  Longlegs is making a battery, Dish is prettying up her shrine, and you’re… gathering underlings?”- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.6</ref>

History

Verona learnt about shrines whilst on holiday with her mom.

After Edith was arrested and Kennet was invaded by spirits and echoes Verona offered to build some of them shrines.

K.T. advice Verona that the shrines were responsible for the Immure that invaded Kennet and that because they'd only built them on one side of the town the spiritual flows were coming into Kennet and getting trapped.<ref>“The Immure Lucy, Guilherme, and Gashwad faced down yesterday is a consequence of the shrines.  You’re building all the shrines on the one side of the perimeter so far…”

“We started building opposite those.”

“Yeah.  But it’s unbalanced.  In terms of spiritual flows… it’s like you’re pumping the air out of one end of a room, that creates pressure, which we’re already dealing with, and the air comes in through the window at the other end of the room.”- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.9</ref>

Jessica advised them to stop visiting a quarter of the shrines at a time because it was creating weak points and instead to mix up which shrines they visited. She also recommended pouring salt on the ground as they walked to deal with the echos.<ref>“But doing one quarter at a time leaves you with weak points.  Imagine… imagine you’re filling bowls with water every time you visit the shrines.  At the same time you’re doing that, the other bowls are evaporating.  You’re doing two a day, one quarter at a time, and by the time you get back to one… it’s been getting close to empty for a little while.”

“Not enough water to put out fires,” Zed said.

...

Jessica went on, saying, “The big issue is that by dividing it into quadrants and treating it as quadrants, you’re setting up individual legs, each with four spirits, that can be knocked down.  It would be better to distribute it more.  Help the spirits to get to know each other, by including them together in a night’s routine.  It’s better to do four, then offset.  Introduce some messiness and overlap, and keep tabs on the ones you’re neglecting as a result, maybe make the extra time or make it a once a day or once a week thing to swing by them and give them special attention.  Create weak points and turn them into strong points.”

...

“Introduce some clean salt to the ritual.  You can create a little furrow of salted ground between the shrines as you visit them.  You don’t want to use too much, don’t go killing trees, but… something for the echoes, while you’re looking after the spiritual side.”- Excerpt from Summer Break 13.1</ref>

Trivia

Zach and his family specialise in making shrines like these.<ref>“Shouldn’t,” Verona replied.  “There’s whole disciplines related to what Zachariah from the Blue Heron did, setting up totems and shrines and adjusting spiritual flows.  We can’t make a wall, really, not with shrines, but we can have spirits on the border, all in defensible locations for spirit-against-spirit combat, and-”- Excerpt from Dash to Pieces 11.6</ref>

References

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