August/September 273
As Fall approaches and the decay of winter lurks around the corner, Aina recalls some of the frightful tales from various colonists about the destruction of their “Old World.” She finds herself revisiting a ballad she wrote about some of those events.
In a similar colonist-inspired realm, she had once written a tragic song from the perspective of a Syndar who’d been Hollowed. This theme has, unfortunately, become more relevant with recent rumors about a hollowed Daughter of Gaia.
Here are both songs.
Vandregonian Lament1
Gather round to hear the sound
Of older time and place
A time of valiant warriors
Lost to treach’rous disgrace
When men in hues of desert blues
Begat eternal ire
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
The tale began on May’kar sands
Under a bishop-king
His arms open to any man
With dreams to believe in
In this place, just having faith
Is all that they required
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
They ruled in peace for centuries
In difficult terrain
Engaging kingdoms civilly
With leaders’ cautious reigns
Trav’llers refreshed around Saresh
With arts to be admired
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
There broke free a foul army
Of rotting flesh and bone
These un-men skulked with enmity
Ravaging countless homes
The May’kar did their best to hold
As conditions turned dire
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
Then Vandregon, we came along,
And helped to quell the fears
Armies combined and we held strong
For 35 long years
Faltering when the May’kar King
He tragically expired
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
Without a King, their suffering
Took a turn for the worst
The two armies buffering
Against the undead curse.
Until whispers slid on the winds
Of a Rising that transpired
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
Suddenly Mahsai armies
They turned on Vandregon
And no one could have foreseen
Events going so wrong
Reports came in of a cursèd King
Around whom they’d conspired
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
Countless-men were slayed in bloodied frays
And shocking betrayal
Nations were completely razed
Battle after battle
The only save was to escape
In ships we could acquire
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
Now the lands of bloodied sands
Remain all overrun
Shame eats the hearts of living men
With flags of the White Sun
There are a few who swear they’re true
With innocent desires
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
O Vandregonians’ huge loss
Could never be undone
Our bodies piled in shapeless mass
And burned under the sun
Our countless brave into a grave
We piled and set afire
We’d never known such chillèd bones
As when lighting desert pyres
The Hollowed2
The murky glow of the new moon,
In the sky comes fading in,
Under her gauzy veil I lay out honey and incense
Choking on the memories
of once doing this with kin,
Ere my weaving grew sullied,
And my warp and weft were rent.
Blood of my blood, I call to thee,
Flesh of my flesh, I wait for thee.
They ripped all trace of mana
from my struggling bodymind,
Severed from the stream that courses within all our kind.
I was shorn of my branches,
Shorn of my dignity,
The Reclament unearthed my roots
To toss among the weeds.
Blood of my blood, I call to thee,
Flesh of my flesh, I wait for thee.
My body is a ghostly house, standing hollow and alone
Flesh and sinew hanging on its frame of brittle bone
This house it is the shameful site of my hammer-bludgeoned shrine
I sit and count up all the years since my hearth last held a fire
Blood of my blood, I call to thee,
Flesh of my flesh, I will wait for thee,
Blood of my blood, I call to thee,
Flesh of my flesh, I will wait for thee.
Out of Game Notes
1: Melody is “Jim Jones at Botany Bay,” a folk song. Lyrics original.
2: Melody original; lyrics have snippets & imagery taken from several songs: Ghost House by Beverly Glenn-Copeland; Fallow State, The Hammer, and Come Home You are Missed by Thou.