[The Second Verse] (30 Rating) Tags: True Songs
Second verse
Much like the first
All list’ners should take heed
Some things are done
There’s more to come
The path is long indeed
This is all pretty straightforward. Yo, listen up, some of the things in the last song have happened, more stuff’s on the way.
On sorrowed seas
No balm can ease
A brother twice betrayed
Once more referring to the Thrax civil war, which had just turned hot, but specifically to Dagon Thrax, who kicked it off. There were a lot of really opportunistic NPC assholes egging Dagon on, but his major reasons for doing this were not only genuine, but completely true. The first was Victus challenging him and then taking the position of High Lord, which was not actually how things were meant to be done, but early game Thrax was extremely weird and ran off theme a lot. The second was a PC who had effectively agreed to trade one of his kids to Reveka Tyde (I forget details here), as part of some deal. He found out about it and Was Not Happy.
No puppeteer
Just men to fear
And a price that must be paid
A lot of folks really, really, really thought Dagon was either Donrai or being controlled by him, and a lot of other folks thought he’d been corrupted by the Abyss and that’s why he’d turned against Victus. Neither were true (if anything, the PC side was a lot more involved with the Abyss and Abyssal forces), this was an attempt to put that out there. Dunno how successful it was.
Though home reclaimed
And allies gained
Griffin will find no peace
Basically going into ‘status of X house’ for a few stanzas here. This one’s obvious: House Grayson had just got Bastion back, and made some very tentative agreements with House Blacktree - an Abandoned House that had been occupying it, but which fought alongside Compact forces in the final battle- to stand against the Horned God.
Dragon stand tall
He’ll come for all
Take vengeance piece by piece
Watch out House Valardin. Could have referred to either Malar or the Horned God, if you wanted to you could argue this ended up being Azazel.
Fox murders gold
Yet gains four-fold
Once more between the worlds
House Velenosa ultimately killed Malrico when he decided to make a push for greater power. This was certainly a good thing, and they managed to recover a fair amount of wealth he’d stolen over the centuries, but something that I don’t think really swung into being all that much due to real life was that this returned Velenosa to a previous state of being really in tune with ghosts and things of that nature. I don’t know a lot of details of that, I’m afraid, as it wasn’t a plot I was handling.
And blood drunk doom
Will slumber soon
'Round chain silk fingers curled
That damn House Pravus messing up the animal motif. This is referring to the threat of Kal’kul’raja (I know I’ve completely misspelled this) being ended. Kal’kul’raja was one of the Primal Spirits (Volcano, maybe? I’m not sure), who developed a taste for cannibalizing other First Children, something which made it get so dangerous that it destroyed Dawnhome (the original home of the First Children), and so powerful that it could not be killed, only put to sleep. This is the origin of spirits absolutely hating blood magic, for the record, and if you think this sounds rather familiar, yes, this is also the reason the Maw of the Blizzard was banished from Cardia. Dawnhome was originally in the Saffron Chain, and this stanza is also referring to House Pravus solidifying its grip on the Saffron Chain in general.
Once freedom hath
A sister’s wrath
Her shackles now denied
I’m not sure how clear it was to players, but the sacrifice that freed the Thornweave from Legion also immunized them to being enslaved again. Helena Thornweave was originally on board with the Horned God’s plans, but ended up completely twisted from the experience of being bound to Legion, and discovered, much to her horror and fury, that she could never go back.
She’ll let it burn
And burn in turn
There’s nowhere he can hide
Helena was especially pissed off at her brother Oberion, and did a lot of things just to spite him in specific. This ultimately led to her own destruction, but Oberion didn’t survive it.
The Blizzard’s jaws
Sun’s blood it draws
Elf prince’s deal has swayed
The Horned God made a bargain with the Maw of the Blizzard to go fuck up the Rex’alfar city in the Everwinter to keep them out of his hair (and also because the Maw was happy to do that anyway).
Keep one eye open
Vigil unbroken
Frozen death is but delayed
The Maw of the Blizzard was going to become a major antagonist at some point.
Though long forgot
It’s rested not
A dark and hungry wood
This is referring to the Witchwood again. The Witchwood was the home of Clan Mor’ral, an enchanted forest that would shift and change in order to protect the Mor’ral from outsiders, hiding their settlements and causing invaders to get horribly lost at best. Once the Mor’ral fell to Legion, the Witchwood itself was corrupted into a shardhaven that slowly expanded its borders (and sometimes simply moved altogether), devouring everything. Those emits about vanishing villages and Knights of Solace outposts were because of the Witchwood’s expansion; once the Mor’ral started acting outside of their home, the forest itself started growing.
Kingdoms stripped bare
None enter there
And the wise say no one should
Something I really didn’t have time to expand upon when I eventually ran the scene involving the Witchwood was that the reason no current maps had the location of the barony Clan Mor’ral constantly feuded with marked on them was because the Witchwood eventually grew over it.
Anyone entering the Witchwood would have the forest itself turn on them, with the exception of people with Mor’ral blood and/or souls.
On each side found
Both free and bound
Wolves giants and unsworn
Though be a cost
Much more is lost
If a pact is met with scorn
Basically just a suggestion for folks to make a lot of alliances in order to face the Horned God, and a note that potential allies existed.
An alliance birthed
Sleeps 'neath the earth
And soars across the sky
The slumbering Sylv’alfar and Dragons, respectively
The time’s upon us
Rebuild the promise
Or alone each one will die
This refers to the Promise of Oakhaven, basically bringing a bunch of allies together again in order to fight the Horned God and other threats.
The Spider’s bane
Destruction plain
Red Queen claimed Gray Queen’s crown
We’re back to Monica Thrax taking Alarice’s crown for her own. Spider’s bane refers to the weapon the Horned God took from the sack of Bastion, something meant to invoke the sun and destroy the Nox’alfar.
What whisper found below
So very long ago
Must now be swiftly hunted down
Caithness was the one who found and then figured out how to use this weapon. There were control gems or something that PCs needed to find in order to disable it so it couldn’t be used by the Horned God. I’m not sure how far this plot went before real life did more face kicking.
One stone fall
Heard not at all
In winter’s endless grasp
But none can hide
The mountain slide
Seeking crimson tears at last
Easily the vaguest one of these I did. Originally, there was going to be a massive invasion of the Northlands by shav’arvani from the Everwinter, with some very bare hints that something was happening up there.
A weapon masked
Unsheathed at last
Her fury flares and flashes
Petraea Livy was - knowingly - meant to be a weapon against Malar by her dragon, Cynara. She was effectively a nuclear bomb waiting to go off, a very powerful pyromancer with a deep well of anger that could be drawn on. When Helena Thornweave marched on Arx (and the Castle of Yesterday), Petraea chose to use this against her forces instead, with Cynara’s blessing.
With plans long laid
A game long played
Burn an empire down to ashes
Cynara’s ultimate goal was to make a power play against Malar to overthrow the Talons and install the Scales (and thus herself) as being the rulers of Cardia. She herself wanted revenge for the deaths of her siblings and her father Corusadin, though ultimately Corusadin was secretly alive and hiding under the name of Relavor. While this ended up being largely offscreened, it was successful, and Petraea’s sacrifice played a part; the sudden destabilization of Cardia due to writs being broken provided the opening she needed, even though she didn’t know that was what was going to happen.
Rogue king’s blood sleeps
Rouses fears kept deep
The hottest fires can still be drowned
This is still plot related to Cardia. Alaric and Brianna’s illegitimate son, Alarion, was someone who had the power to influence people through dreams, and this included dragons. There was a prophecy about how he was going to be the one to destroy Cardia, and the dragons took pre-emptive measures to remove him from the board. Yes, this is a prophecy about a prophecy.
Sent smiling knives
But he still survives
The dreamer has been found
The Smiling Shadows were hired to kidnap Alarion, at which point everything bounced off the rails as far as Cardia was concerned. The Talons eventually got him, but he was subsequently rescued by PCs that were being helped by…Cynara, who saw Alarion as a means with which to overthrow Malar.
Hope’s sacrifice
Can’t happen twice
In fire are heroes tempered
Copper’s death (or ‘death’, it’s complicated) happened in the process of turning time back to keep Azazel from getting free and ending the world. As Copper was the only one who could or would ever wield time magic, this is basically just saying ‘no more second chances’, the PCs will have to be the heroes who end the threat. Azazel getting loose was always intended to be the event that preceded magic returning to Arvum, so I really like how things ended up shaking out here.
Events equivalent
Make this time different
In the end all things remembered
Copper’s actions only delayed the Second Reckoning, with all the pieces still in place for it to happen if Azazel got loose. With Azazel dead, the Despite would break, and people would remember all the stuff he’d hidden away/eaten. This would not have necessarily been entirely a good thing; remembering magic also includes remembering all the horrors that come with magic, and Azazel did a lot of absolutely horrifying shit that people would then have knowledge of. There was a hint of this some years back when a group of PCs went out to kill a bunch of Azazel!crows, where the Despite broke in several places causing an emit where a lot of NPCs in Arx remembered past clearly magical events.