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Final Announcement!
Sep. 20th, 2021 02:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dm_screenGood afternoon, Starfallen! Your DMs here.
After some consideration, we've decided to simply close Bardsong, rather than have things play out into November. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, however, we will leave the communities open to allow current players to finish their existing threads. Otherwise, the DMs will not be adding any further content. The discord will continue to run until the end of September.
So what was the metaplot? Why did the world break?
The Black Lady and the White Liege are, as everyone surmised, lovers. They balanced each other. It was their love that brought the world into being and sustained it, with all races and kingdoms living in relative harmony.
But no relationship isn't without its hiccups. Though the Dyad balanced each other, they are both also flawed beings, which lends to a possibility that the Black and White may have once been mortal. With the creation of the world crafted by their love, another being emerged... a 'child' of sorts, built by their insecurities, their flaws. Though the child has no name, Aurora would dub this entity as Doubt.
The Black and the White fought to suppress 'Doubt', to promote harmony. In response, Doubt continually grew and "lashed out", causing the odd calamity (the wasteland, for example, where the Starfallen found the bones of a lost civilization inhabited by oozes) until the world began to crack and fray. Helpless to continue to suppress their doubts, their power dwindling as the world began to break, the Black and the White drifted apart.
Thus the calamity a year ago reached its fruition, sending the shards of the world drifting through the endless sea of stars. The people that survived on the floating shards spent that long century fighting to live, wondering and hoping that their devotion would be enough to restore their world. Their devotion, in kind, was to the Black and White.
Desperate, one force reached out and plucked the Starfallen from their respective worlds. One force wanted the world to be whole again, wanted everything back the way it was. One force wanted to atone for the damage it caused, but not be suppressed anymore... yes, Doubt was the one who called down the Starfallen.
Doubt is without malice. All it wanted was to be accepted, acknowledged. With that, the remaining shards will over time drift back together as the Black and White's influence is slowly restored, and Starfallen are welcome to stay or be sent back home where they belong.
The lingering manifestation of words and thoughts left unspoken between the Dyad- of those rifts and differences between them that could never fully be bridged, yet were willfully ignored for the sake and peace of the world they had created- 'Doubt' was without malice, but its existence was nonetheless anathema to the love that served as the fabric of the world; fearing and failing to comprehend what they had given rise to, the Black and the White fought to suppress 'Doubt' from their world. But their problem child would not be denied. Some of the early people of the world even came to know, worship, or fear this terrible child of the Dyad, but as its name became synonymous with disaster and catastrophe- as it would hear the prayers and curses of those who suffered, as that which had come to embody loss and longing- it only grew further, and more fearful of its own terrible influence. The Starfallen might have even seen the outcome of one such catastrophe: the last remnants of an entire culture, doomed and trapped by grievous misfortune, cursing the supposed harbinger of their desolation in their dying breaths and strengthening a cruel gift it had never asked for.
Its worship became taboo, its name hushed, until both became forgotten to the ages, but years of damage had already been done. It was only a matter of time before the world frayed at the seams, no longer able to hold down the blight that was never meant to be seen. Thus the calamity reached its fruition, sending the shards of the world drifting through the endless sea of stars. The people that survived on the floating shards spent were fighting to contend with their fate, wondering and hoping that their devotion would be enough to restore their world. Their devotion, in kind, was to the Black and White.
But 'Doubt' had two gifts the Black and White did not: first, while blind to the radiance of love, it could see the dim lights that lay beyond the world. And second, unlike its progenitors, it had no power of creation to draw upon... but it was for this reason that it arrived at a solution the others could not. And so a strange force reached out and plucked the Starfallen from the distant heavenly spheres-- a cry for help it could not express and they could not understand. A force forever an outsider, that sought its fellow outsiders in hopes that they could see what the Dyad never could.
In plainer terms, the Starfallen were not children of the Gods; 'Doubt' was the one who called down the Starfallen.
And these Starfallen- these strange, otherworldly, base beings, who walked upon the world and indulged in its bounties, yet were never truly bound in full to its rules- never had so much as a pretense of a perfect nature. And somehow, when they came together, even in all their strangeness and differences, their flaws-- of which there were many-- were not simply swept aside. They were acknowledged. Explored. Accepted. Their differences became points of curiosity and attraction rather than words unspoken.
And slowly, the world started drifting and knitting back together.
Eventually, the shard of Galiaos, the Seat of the White and home of Austral, would come to join the landmass. The Starfallen would be able to indulge in new adventures for a couple months, but with the Garden of the Black and the Seat of the White once more in close proximity, it would only be a matter of time before old sorrows and secrets once more began to stir. Somehow or another, 'Doubt' would make its terrible presence known, perhaps through those who had deigned to turn their heart to it despite the pain its existence inflicted, and the Starfallen would have their chance to do what it had only ever longed for and what the Black and White never could: to stare unflinching at the ugly nature of a world and, with the combined strength of their bonds, suffer its presence and temper its nature.
So, there you have it! With all that said, we all greatly appreciate you sticking with us and Bardsong for as long as you all have. We hope you look fondly on memories made in the short time this game has lived, and bid you well. Stay healthy, seek even the smallest of happinesses in your lives, and remember to spare some love for your own selves. Take care.
After some consideration, we've decided to simply close Bardsong, rather than have things play out into November. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, however, we will leave the communities open to allow current players to finish their existing threads. Otherwise, the DMs will not be adding any further content. The discord will continue to run until the end of September.
So what was the metaplot? Why did the world break?
The Black Lady and the White Liege are, as everyone surmised, lovers. They balanced each other. It was their love that brought the world into being and sustained it, with all races and kingdoms living in relative harmony.
But no relationship isn't without its hiccups. Though the Dyad balanced each other, they are both also flawed beings, which lends to a possibility that the Black and White may have once been mortal. With the creation of the world crafted by their love, another being emerged... a 'child' of sorts, built by their insecurities, their flaws. Though the child has no name, Aurora would dub this entity as Doubt.
The Black and the White fought to suppress 'Doubt', to promote harmony. In response, Doubt continually grew and "lashed out", causing the odd calamity (the wasteland, for example, where the Starfallen found the bones of a lost civilization inhabited by oozes) until the world began to crack and fray. Helpless to continue to suppress their doubts, their power dwindling as the world began to break, the Black and the White drifted apart.
Thus the calamity a year ago reached its fruition, sending the shards of the world drifting through the endless sea of stars. The people that survived on the floating shards spent that long century fighting to live, wondering and hoping that their devotion would be enough to restore their world. Their devotion, in kind, was to the Black and White.
Desperate, one force reached out and plucked the Starfallen from their respective worlds. One force wanted the world to be whole again, wanted everything back the way it was. One force wanted to atone for the damage it caused, but not be suppressed anymore... yes, Doubt was the one who called down the Starfallen.
Doubt is without malice. All it wanted was to be accepted, acknowledged. With that, the remaining shards will over time drift back together as the Black and White's influence is slowly restored, and Starfallen are welcome to stay or be sent back home where they belong.
The lingering manifestation of words and thoughts left unspoken between the Dyad- of those rifts and differences between them that could never fully be bridged, yet were willfully ignored for the sake and peace of the world they had created- 'Doubt' was without malice, but its existence was nonetheless anathema to the love that served as the fabric of the world; fearing and failing to comprehend what they had given rise to, the Black and the White fought to suppress 'Doubt' from their world. But their problem child would not be denied. Some of the early people of the world even came to know, worship, or fear this terrible child of the Dyad, but as its name became synonymous with disaster and catastrophe- as it would hear the prayers and curses of those who suffered, as that which had come to embody loss and longing- it only grew further, and more fearful of its own terrible influence. The Starfallen might have even seen the outcome of one such catastrophe: the last remnants of an entire culture, doomed and trapped by grievous misfortune, cursing the supposed harbinger of their desolation in their dying breaths and strengthening a cruel gift it had never asked for.
Its worship became taboo, its name hushed, until both became forgotten to the ages, but years of damage had already been done. It was only a matter of time before the world frayed at the seams, no longer able to hold down the blight that was never meant to be seen. Thus the calamity reached its fruition, sending the shards of the world drifting through the endless sea of stars. The people that survived on the floating shards spent were fighting to contend with their fate, wondering and hoping that their devotion would be enough to restore their world. Their devotion, in kind, was to the Black and White.
But 'Doubt' had two gifts the Black and White did not: first, while blind to the radiance of love, it could see the dim lights that lay beyond the world. And second, unlike its progenitors, it had no power of creation to draw upon... but it was for this reason that it arrived at a solution the others could not. And so a strange force reached out and plucked the Starfallen from the distant heavenly spheres-- a cry for help it could not express and they could not understand. A force forever an outsider, that sought its fellow outsiders in hopes that they could see what the Dyad never could.
In plainer terms, the Starfallen were not children of the Gods; 'Doubt' was the one who called down the Starfallen.
And these Starfallen- these strange, otherworldly, base beings, who walked upon the world and indulged in its bounties, yet were never truly bound in full to its rules- never had so much as a pretense of a perfect nature. And somehow, when they came together, even in all their strangeness and differences, their flaws-- of which there were many-- were not simply swept aside. They were acknowledged. Explored. Accepted. Their differences became points of curiosity and attraction rather than words unspoken.
And slowly, the world started drifting and knitting back together.
Eventually, the shard of Galiaos, the Seat of the White and home of Austral, would come to join the landmass. The Starfallen would be able to indulge in new adventures for a couple months, but with the Garden of the Black and the Seat of the White once more in close proximity, it would only be a matter of time before old sorrows and secrets once more began to stir. Somehow or another, 'Doubt' would make its terrible presence known, perhaps through those who had deigned to turn their heart to it despite the pain its existence inflicted, and the Starfallen would have their chance to do what it had only ever longed for and what the Black and White never could: to stare unflinching at the ugly nature of a world and, with the combined strength of their bonds, suffer its presence and temper its nature.
So, there you have it! With all that said, we all greatly appreciate you sticking with us and Bardsong for as long as you all have. We hope you look fondly on memories made in the short time this game has lived, and bid you well. Stay healthy, seek even the smallest of happinesses in your lives, and remember to spare some love for your own selves. Take care.
