Risevan Shrine to the Unknown Soldier
The Risevan Shrine to the Unknown Soldier (Mirselec Enobote Saura ta Nergami) is a monument in Victory Square, Isana, dedicated to Risevan soldiers who fell in war and whose remains were not identified. The tomb in Isana contains not one but three soldiers; while their names and the battles where they fell remains unknown, one of them is known to have perished during the Third Global War, while the other two fell in the Fourth Global War.
Site and Situation
The Shrine to the Unknown Soldier is part of the Risevan War Memorial complex, a group of gardens and buildings at the southern end of Victory Road in Awenkara remis. Within these gardens that insulate the war memorial from the bustle of the surrounding city, the Shrine is one of the most isolated buildings, accessible only by a path through a grove of Tanabina trees. Within the complex the Shrine to the Unknown Soldier is one of two shrines, the other being the Shrine to the Valorous of Risevne.
History
Description
The building is made of white granite quarried in Risevne itself, in a manner resembling a classical Risevan shrine, and facing northwest (the normal direction for a shrine dedicated to the dead) on a 3.5 metre stone platform faced with black granite. Within the main building of the shrine the three soldiers are interred in sarcophagi of the same white granite, also facing northwest; the wall where they are facing holds a bronze sculpture by Tarsen Akarzei, dedicated in 1952, which depicts a broken sword leaning against a flowering Musora tree (a traditional representation of valorous death in battle and youth, respectively). A marble plaque at the foot of the sarcophagi is inscribed with these words:
Here lies he of whom little is known:
Nor name, nor rank, nor the field where he fell;
But that he fought with valour
And fell at his post.
Though he is unknown, he is not forgotten:
This shrine remembers him
Who gave his utmost unto death
In the service of his King, his Nation,
His loved ones, and the cause of the just,
And all like him, in life and death.
Remember them too, with due honour;
And commit yourself likewise to peace and freedom,
As befits the memory of this fine soldier.
