About Rei's Memories
More important info about Rei that I've neglected to post!
Rei has amnesia, and is unable to remember about 4 1/2 years of his life, from around age 15ish to age 19ish. His memory was actually erased by the Guardians, because he screwed some stuff up pretty bad when he was 19. Another Guardian-in-training, Puck, went a bit off the rails and tried to take over the world. Rei and Kanika, the other two time travelers, assassinated him to keep him from manipulating the world too much with his detailed knowledge of the past and future. However, this opened up the doors for a worse dictator to take over. Rei decided that killing Puck was a mistake, and crossed his own time line to stop the death. This caused too many problems with that section of time, and the time line started to collapse. Rei was able to save Puck, but the Guardians had to intervene and fix things. They didn't want something like this to happen again, so they sent Puck to a different universe where he would be monitored until he'd sorted himself out and was mentally stable enough to come back and be a Guardian. Rei had his memory erased, partly so he wouldn't be raked with guilt over what he'd done, and partly to keep him from being able to cause a collapse again.
So, why did they take away four years worth of memories when he'd only had this experience when he was 19? Because of the nature of the Guardian's minds.
There have been about one hundred Guardians over the course of time, always existing in groups of 3. As one group begins to grow old and die, they pluck three new mortals (not all human) from the time line, and for about one hundred years guide them and train them to become the new Guardians. The Guardians all share memories in a kind of hive-mind, which the new Guardians get access to over those hundred years of training. This is how they learn about the nature of time travel, and understand the universe.
When Rei's memory was erased, he lost all of the shared memories he'd gained up until that point, forgetting about a lot of the mechanics of time travel and how to control his powers better. He's gained a few back, but not nearly enough to match his level of education on time travel prior to that. This amnesia is not permanent - the Guardians planned on "unlocking" the memories when Rei was older and less impulsive. If he can get back his memories of those 4 1/2 years, he'll gain more knowledge on the nature of time travel and the universe.
I haven't decided if he'll get his memories back over the course of his time in-game, but it may happen.
Edit: I should also add a bit more on the nature of the hive mind, as I'm preparing for him to regain access to it. It's not quite as sinister as most hive minds - there is no one person in control, though it isn't voluntary. The mind works a bit like a giant mental library. The former members of the Guardians are basically dead, so they can't tell a new member what to do - the new member has to go into these memories to find advice or answers left by the old Guardians before they died. When they do so, they take on a bit of the old Guardian's mind, so that it appears to an outsider that that Guardian is using the new one as a mouthpiece, speaking through them, when this is not the case. The new Guardian is the one in control, using the memories and mind of the old one for guidance, essentially stealing their voice for a short time, which gives them a very old air about them. There are no active "voices" speaking to a Guardian.
However, if a Guardian is not aware that they've tapped into the hive mind, this can have an effect of feeling like there are voices speaking to them, as they are finding memories at random without any control over the process. Once a Guardian gets control over the way the mind works, they can filter out those memories, only hearing the ones they are looking for. As Rei has no memory of the mind, as he reconnects to it, he has no control and thinks he is just going crazy.
The hive mind is not directly linked with his memory. He can regain access to the mind without gaining his memories back, and has started to go through this process due to stress/fear/other things that got his mind to understand that it needs the help from the past Guardians.
It is not like a split personality - he will not have another person living in him or talking through him. He will only have some memories that aren't his buzzing around in his head for a while, and then access to a huge memory bank. It will not effect him very much except for an initial shock of having the memories, and then access to more knowledge on the history of the Guardians and the nature of time in his 'verse. The information will not instantly be in his head, though - he'll have to figure out how to get to it, and may not even go looking for it. This is just to provide him the option if need be, though I don't expect to be using it very much.
Rei has amnesia, and is unable to remember about 4 1/2 years of his life, from around age 15ish to age 19ish. His memory was actually erased by the Guardians, because he screwed some stuff up pretty bad when he was 19. Another Guardian-in-training, Puck, went a bit off the rails and tried to take over the world. Rei and Kanika, the other two time travelers, assassinated him to keep him from manipulating the world too much with his detailed knowledge of the past and future. However, this opened up the doors for a worse dictator to take over. Rei decided that killing Puck was a mistake, and crossed his own time line to stop the death. This caused too many problems with that section of time, and the time line started to collapse. Rei was able to save Puck, but the Guardians had to intervene and fix things. They didn't want something like this to happen again, so they sent Puck to a different universe where he would be monitored until he'd sorted himself out and was mentally stable enough to come back and be a Guardian. Rei had his memory erased, partly so he wouldn't be raked with guilt over what he'd done, and partly to keep him from being able to cause a collapse again.
So, why did they take away four years worth of memories when he'd only had this experience when he was 19? Because of the nature of the Guardian's minds.
There have been about one hundred Guardians over the course of time, always existing in groups of 3. As one group begins to grow old and die, they pluck three new mortals (not all human) from the time line, and for about one hundred years guide them and train them to become the new Guardians. The Guardians all share memories in a kind of hive-mind, which the new Guardians get access to over those hundred years of training. This is how they learn about the nature of time travel, and understand the universe.
When Rei's memory was erased, he lost all of the shared memories he'd gained up until that point, forgetting about a lot of the mechanics of time travel and how to control his powers better. He's gained a few back, but not nearly enough to match his level of education on time travel prior to that. This amnesia is not permanent - the Guardians planned on "unlocking" the memories when Rei was older and less impulsive. If he can get back his memories of those 4 1/2 years, he'll gain more knowledge on the nature of time travel and the universe.
I haven't decided if he'll get his memories back over the course of his time in-game, but it may happen.
Edit: I should also add a bit more on the nature of the hive mind, as I'm preparing for him to regain access to it. It's not quite as sinister as most hive minds - there is no one person in control, though it isn't voluntary. The mind works a bit like a giant mental library. The former members of the Guardians are basically dead, so they can't tell a new member what to do - the new member has to go into these memories to find advice or answers left by the old Guardians before they died. When they do so, they take on a bit of the old Guardian's mind, so that it appears to an outsider that that Guardian is using the new one as a mouthpiece, speaking through them, when this is not the case. The new Guardian is the one in control, using the memories and mind of the old one for guidance, essentially stealing their voice for a short time, which gives them a very old air about them. There are no active "voices" speaking to a Guardian.
However, if a Guardian is not aware that they've tapped into the hive mind, this can have an effect of feeling like there are voices speaking to them, as they are finding memories at random without any control over the process. Once a Guardian gets control over the way the mind works, they can filter out those memories, only hearing the ones they are looking for. As Rei has no memory of the mind, as he reconnects to it, he has no control and thinks he is just going crazy.
The hive mind is not directly linked with his memory. He can regain access to the mind without gaining his memories back, and has started to go through this process due to stress/fear/other things that got his mind to understand that it needs the help from the past Guardians.
It is not like a split personality - he will not have another person living in him or talking through him. He will only have some memories that aren't his buzzing around in his head for a while, and then access to a huge memory bank. It will not effect him very much except for an initial shock of having the memories, and then access to more knowledge on the history of the Guardians and the nature of time in his 'verse. The information will not instantly be in his head, though - he'll have to figure out how to get to it, and may not even go looking for it. This is just to provide him the option if need be, though I don't expect to be using it very much.