miamaroo:

Inspiration tells the listener what they need to hear exactly when they need to hear it. The voidfish’s song is, in part, bardic magic. Therefore, I propose this:

Not everyone got the full story on the day of story and song. Maybe someone relates more strongly to other dwarves, or maybe the mothers of the world needed to hear about other motherly figures

But depending on who you are, you got a different version of the stolen century. Everything from the perspective of Magnus, the story portrayed as an epic romance, emphasis being placed on the scientific perspective

Bards start popping up, making it their mission to get as complete of a version of the story as they can. Scholarly circles debate the validity of each one since, well, everyone remembers it differently. The song becomes a subject to study all on its own

People start jokingly saying that the bird whose perspective you saw the most of is a personality type. Magazines give you desserts you might like based on what bird you are. If you’re a Lup, you’re known for your tenaciousness and caring nature. Future generations who didn’t see the song can take quizzes to determine which bird they are, or even base it on their star signs. If you’re edgy, you say you’re John. Nobody is named John anymore. Comedians make John jokes and pretend to not understand why everyone is offended.

The birds become folkloric figures. The birds themselves become folkloric types. Purchase a book of fairytales, and the human heroes are all named Lucretia and Magnus. All the clerics are Merle’s, the leader-types Davenport. Lup and Taako went up the hill to get a pail of water.

In some places more remote than others, it’s spiritual. You invoke the name of the Lover to guide you in your love, the Peacemaker when you stand on the break of war. Widows place lavenders on the graves of their lost loves and ask Magnus how he coped when he lost it all

(If you look on TV, there’s a three stooges comedy of an elf, a human, and a dwarf bumbling their way to saving the world. It’s a phenomenon. Goofy lines they never said in real life get attributed to them. In a few years, someone makes a dark, serious version of their story and calls it subversive)

In many years, you can read feminist, Freudian, or even post-modern interpretations of the song like it is any other story studied in schools. Every eight grade class has to read an anthology of various tales from the song. It becomes a chore the way reading the Odyssey is today, but there’s always those moments when you hear a certain tale and you think, yeah, this one’s mine.

No one gets the same version of the story. They hear what inspires them at that moment to pick up their weapons and fight back the encroaching darkness. From its conception, the titular song is like all other epics, all other legends that influence our culture to this day— ambiguous, malleable, and adaptable

youhearstatic:

umbraastaff:

sturdydenimblue:

Let me paint you a word picture. (And feel free to join in)

It’s somewhere during those twelve long years of dying/reviving/forgetting/raging and Barry’s back in a fleshbody again. But he’s not alone, he’s in a good old fashioned adventuring party, playing fighter.

They’re exploring an old crypt and it’s turned out to be just plain lousy with illusory traps and tricks. So their caster puts on true seeing. Smart move, she’s getting the lay of the land now, which is great.

Things are less great when their caster turns back to their party to relay this information and instead of the older, nervous, very-human fighter she’s been traveling with for weeks now…there’s something else there entirely. Red ghost without a face, empty cowl turned towards her expectantly and the words die right in her throat.

The next time Barry gets distracted poking at a monster’s corpse (a habit that had once seemed harmlessly weird), the caster takes the rest of the party aside and whispers the news. Barry is by far the newest addition to this group, so they trust her over him any day, regardless of how kind he’s been during his time.

So they turn on him, and he isn’t hard to beat. He’s got good reflexes, sure (the sort of reflexes you get from combat practice, not instinct, so it’s weird when he claims he has no formal training), but his skills aren’t terribly advanced. So he’s defeated and tied up within a few minutes.

The caster questions him about what she saw–what she still sees, with the Truesight spell still in effect. Her voice wavers because it really is deeply terrifying. But Barry has no idea what she’s talking about, and it eventually takes a Zone of Truth to prove it. (But how the hell can he be some kind of monster and not know?)

Meanwhile, they’ve paused their progression in the dungeon, and their voices are increasingly loud during this interrogation. They’re all too distracted to notice that they’re slowly becoming surrounded by what monsters remain in the dungeon (and as everyone knows, the stronger ones are always the ones further in–the last ones you’d face).

He’s still tied up.

Barry’s tied up, and it’s all the others can do to defend themselves, let alone defend him. It’s horrible when he gets killed, right then on the spot, and then–

So the bad news is, he is in fact a lich.

And the other bad news is that he’s screaming, and he just seems stressed in general. Angry? Panicked? Nobody knows, but neither adventurer nor monster wants to be struck by any of those goddamn lightning bolts shooting out of him as his horrid ghostly figure sheds the mortal body.

Barry is furious but as soon as he gets himself under control he aims his fury at the attacking monsters. They are wiped out in one well cast and extremely high level spell. 

He turns to his recent party and his voice is sad when he says, “I understand why you didn’t trust me. But I wasn’t lying. I couldn’t remember. I just… I’m just trying to find my family again.”

He summons his chest from the demiplane where he keeps it hidden and mage hands the important objects from his corpse. Glasses, for one, that saves him a lot of work later if he can save them. A note he spent a lot of time looking at but didn’t understand. He should probably stop letting his body carry that around before something happens to it. He just hates to let himself walk around with nothing tangible for what he’s lost.

His former friends watch in silence, still afraid. He’s disappointed but unsurprised. How can he blame them? He looks like the villain right now. 

Leaving them, he scouts ahead through the cave and takes care of the remaining monsters for them. It was nice being part of a group again and he’ll miss it. But it wasn’t part of his goal so it’s probably for the best. 

Back to the drawing board.