Singers In Silence
Myst%20-%20Singers%20in%20Silence.gif
Remember me as you pass by
As you are now, so once was I
As I am now, you soon will be
Prepare for death, to follow me
-Traditional Epitaph

Concept: "Professional mourners", helping others to cope when someone dies, both those who lived as well as the people who died.
Parent Path: Moros
Parent Order: Mysterium
Nicknames: Banshees
Primary: Death
Secondary: Fate
Prerequisites: Empathy 2, Fate 1
Soundtrack:
Lament for Théodred - Miranda Otto
Into the West - Annie Lennox

“My grief lies all within,
And these external manners of lament
Are merely shadows to the unseen grief
That swells with silence in the tortured soul”
William Shakespeare
Suggested Oblations: Singing, creating laments (songs, poems or stories), attending a funeral, playing a harp or hand-drum, preparing a body for burial, ritualistic prayers for the departed, performing euthanasia.

Example Concepts: Matriarch who has outlived her family, hospice worker, emergency room nurse, anthropologist, funeral director, nursing home attendant, vigilante, nihilist.

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Description

Originated in the ancient tradition of ''keening'' for someone who's died, mourning them with loud moans, sobbing and wails, as well as telling stories of the departed's virtues and accomplishments, sharing songs and in general making an effort to express the harsh grief of losing someone. In several cultures around the world there would be those who specialized in this service, either as part of their role in the community or as an actual profession with paid salary, who would attend funerals and wakes in order to provide 'enough' mourning. This not only helped those left behind by showing people that they weren't alone in their grief, that others felt the same pain, but it also helped those who otherwise wouldn't or couldn't grieve in public, by having someone there already making a loud spectacle, so it wouldn't be so shameful and/or embarrasing to let yourself get emotional, by simply joining in.

The Singers in Silence grew out of this, but instead of just helping the living to overcome great tragedy they also try to bring comfort and closure to those who died, making them come to terms with their own death more easily, and often assisting them with resolving their unfinished business so they can 'move on'. They have always sought to bring closure, to prevent the madness and pain which can result if a person or a ghost simply can't get over their loss, something which more than once has resulted in catastrophe (examples range from revenge-fueled genocide to frankenstein-esque ressurection attempts to pacts with summoned abyssals to malevolent hauntings).

They learn to sense approaching doom, and through this find out where they will soon be needed, though many members also use it to prevent tragedies and catastrophes they see coming, and almost all of them warn those people they can 'hear' are fated to die soon, as a matter of tradition. Their 'songs of mourning', whether it's a loud wail or intricate elegy, can not only instill the sadness of loss in others, but can also be used to summon forth ghosts, a call so powerful that restless shades can't ever resist it. The most proficient of the banshees can even use their ''keening'' to ensure that a listener lingers after death as a ghost, or to coax a recently death person into staying in the living world for a while, becoming a ghost, or even wield grief so harshly that it literally harms their victims.

Membership is a hard burden to bear, however, for the banshees cannot ever 'deactivate' their ability to see death and doom, nor their power to always hear the dead. For the rest of their lives they will always be aware of how much death people have dealt with, will always see the entropy continually moving people towards their end, and their acute empathy means they often suffer ever-growing pain due to what they know will eventually happen to people they care about. As if this inherent risk of isolation wasn't bad enough, the fact that the legacy has often been misunderstood, sometimes to the point of being suspected of being left-handed, doesn't help the situation. As a result the Singers in Silence almost always retain close bond with their tutors and pupils, seeking support with those few who truly understand them (and who also happen to be specialists in grief counseling, fortunately).

Come! let the burial rite be read — the funeral song be sung!
An anthem for the queenliest dead that ever died so young
A dirge for her the doubly dead in that she died so young.
–"Lenore", by Edgar Allan Poe

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Attainments

1.The Knowing:
●Constant Mage Sight of Death - Can scrutinize, and see amount of death person/place/item has known
●Can always hear and speak with ghosts. Overcomes any ghost-concealing powers of potency ≤ Death
●Automatically senses when a living being in their presence is cursed or fated to die within the next day (24 hours)
●Can be distracting: If nr of ghosts + doomed people in area exceed Composure +Gnosis, they get -2 on focusing.

2.The Calling:
●Summon ghosts within hearing range through their song, can't be resisted, lasts scene.
●Song makes the living feel dread. Listeners get penalty on all non-reflexive actions equal to -1 per dot in Death. Roll Com + Gnosis to resist, reducing penalty by 1 per success, to minimum of -2.
Fate 3: Sense of omens & doom gives armor = Fate dots. Can turn on/off as instant action.

3.The Keening:
●Cry/lament to sleeper, who then becomes ghost if they die within 1day/Death, with 1 anchor: most pressing issue left unresolved
●Sing at site of sleeper's death or burial within 1day/Death of their demise, to make them return as a Ghost. Death 5: Usable on mages.
Fate 4: Sing out, sleepers get 1B/instant action, unless Com>Fate. Also, forces listeners to think of greatest regret.

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Known Members

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To list of Legacies

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