Memory Palaces, Songlines, and the World of Wendmor
The Ancient Art of Remembering
For most of human history, memory was not just a mental function—it was a way of life. Long before books and search engines, cultures around the world developed intricate systems for storing and transmitting knowledge, many of which are only now being fully understood. At the heart of these systems is a powerful technique known as the memory palace.
What Is a Memory Palace?
A memory palace—also known as the method of loci—is a technique where you associate information with specific physical locations in a familiar space, like rooms in a house or landmarks along a journey. By mentally walking through this imagined space, you can recall complex information in order. It's a method rooted in ancient Greek and Roman rhetoric, used by orators to memorize long speeches with incredible precision.
Modern neuroscience supports why this works: our brains are wired to remember places and images far more effectively than abstract facts. The hippocampus, the part of the brain responsible for memory, is also key to spatial navigation. When we attach information to imagined locations, we tap into this powerful system.
Ancient Knowledge, Living Landscapes
This idea of storing knowledge in space isn’t limited to ancient Rome. In fact, as researcher and science writer Lynne Kelly has shown, it's a universal human strategy. In her groundbreaking work, The Memory Code, Kelly explores how Indigenous and prehistoric cultures used ritual, song, story, and physical landmarks to create memory systems in the landscape. One compelling example is the songlines of Aboriginal Australia: oral maps encoded in songs that guide travelers across vast territories. Each verse of a song is tied to a geographic feature, forming a route that is both practical and sacred. These are memory palaces spread across continents, encoded not in architecture but in Country. From Native American memory trails to the Luba people’s Lukasa memory boards in Central Africa, these practices show that knowledge doesn’t need to be written to be preserved—it can be embedded in the land, sung, danced, and remembered through generations.
Memory in the World of The Hundred
We’ve taken inspiration from these deep traditions in The Hundred, which unfolds in the mysterious and myth-rich world of Wendmor. One of the traditions we have created in Wendmor is the concept of place-binding: a system of memory where knowledge is stored in meaningful locations.
Reawakening an Ancient Skill
Memory palaces aren't just a curiosity from the past—they’re a reminder of how deeply intertwined memory, place, and story are in human culture. Whether in classical rhetoric, Aboriginal lore, or fantasy worlds like Wendmor, this ancient technique is still relevant today—not only in games but in education, mental health, and even competitive memory sports.
If you’re intrigued by how ancient people remembered vast amounts of practical and sacred knowledge without writing, we highly recommend checking out Lynne Kelly’s The Memory Code. It’s a fascinating and accessible read that bridges archaeology, anthropology, and cognitive science in a way that changes how you see the world—and your memory.
As The Hundred invites players to explore the mnemonic power of place, we hope it sparks curiosity about the remarkable ways humans have remembered—and continue to remember—the world around them.