Songs

Songs, also know as Sirens, Muses, and Succubi, are enchanting creatures made of dance, song, and ink and are the world's great stimulators of artistic output. They are passive creations of Meghzaal and Cadien, and currently inhabit the divine realms of Glossolalia and Meliorem.
== Biology & Anatomy ==
=== Appearance ===
Colourful Songs took on the form of enchanting young maidens with sweeping hair who leapt about laughing and giggling, birds and little faeries flying about them and singing and reciting poetry in adoration of their perfect forms of colourful ink and dance.https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5118429Songs can be born male or female and, due to their shapeshifting capabilities, are able to take on the appearance of any species. However, a female cannot shape-shift into a male or a male into a female. As they are muses, their exact shape and form is largely dictated by the onlooker - for beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thus when Cadien looked upon them, he found them to be nubile and youthful humanoid maidens, though due to being in their realm of ink they maintained a certain inky aesthetic with flowing endless ink hair, chromatic eyes, and variegated skin tones that are ever-shifting and flush certain colours with certain emotions. This became their base form.An inky woman stood by the barrier, covering her shame with her endlessly flowing liquid hair... and [he] found that she had flushed all kinds of red on contact with the manifestation of manly perfection that he was. ...https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5118429Thanks to their limited shape-shifting skills and glamour blessings from Cadien, those who look upon a Song will see them differently; their features are altered (though still unique so that no two are beheld as looking the same) in line with the onlooker's perception of beauty. Thus two people can look at a Song at the same time and see the same person, with the same general characteristics, but altered in subtle ways so as to be more appealing to their sense of what is beautiful. While these alterations are mere illusions, Songs will unconsciously morph into them with exposure to any one particular person.
As they are essentially creatures made out of art - ink, song, poetry, dance and other such things - a wound inflicted on a Song may sigh and gush ink of shifting colours and tones.
=== Voice ===
Like their appearance, the voice of a Song is subject to change depending on their form and the person who beholds them; one who listens to them finds their voice to be the epitome of one's perception of auditory beauty. As with their appearance, their base voice is a melodious, harmonious, and soothing sing-song sound....and he heard the lady-in-waiting say in her sing-song voice that he was the first stranger to ever set eyes upon them, and he the first they ever set eyes on. ...The sudden change drew melodious cries of astonishment and delight from the Songs around the pavilion and across the realm, to Cadien’s satisfaction, and their enticing and lyrical song rose like a great wave about the pavilion and came crashing down to fill the place with a flood of harmonious yet inspirited sound.The Songs circled all about him, asking after him with their harmonious voices, and though they were concerned their very voices soothed him. ...https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5118429
=== Reproduction ===
Songs are necessarily linked to the divine realm of Meghzaal due to the fact that they can only be born directly from the ink of the realm. Despite this, they are not asexual and are fully capable of falling in love and enjoying the carnal and emotional pleasures that life has to offer, as well as bear children (though this only occurs as a result of coupling between a Siren and a member of another species). Siren amalgams generally take on the form of their non-siren parent while also being inherently graceful and alluring.
=== Lifespan ===
Songs are immortal and ever-youthful while they are in the divine realms, but once they depart for Galbar their lifespan will correlate with that of the species whose form they take on; though their youthful appearance will not be influenced by the passage of time (it may, however, adapt to the perception of beauty that an onlooker has).
=== Sustenance ===
While Songs actively eat and drink for pleasure, they do not, in fact, require food and drink for sustenance on Galbar or in the divine realms. The Worldsong itself, being a source of music, song, and poetry, sustains them. Festivities also offer up artistic energy, and they may generally enjoy bathing in ink and feel replenished from doing so. While they will not perish if they are not exposed to art, they will become increasingly sad and tearful and the effects of their inspiration on others will soar the longer they go without art. Witnessing a Song who has not been exposed to art for very long periods of time can cause catatonic ecstasy and a fit of wondrous artistic creation.
== Psychology ==
It is very difficult for anyone to come to truly know a Song as their character and personality shifts unconsciously in response to those they are exposed to for lengthy periods of time, ever-shifting and morphing like their physical forms in line with the onlooker's perception of what is beautiful or alluring. Does a Song have a true personality under all of that? The answer is simply, who knows?
Of course, Songs tend to generally enjoy all manner of artistic production and revelry, and many may be romantics and idealists at heart. They tend to towards conciliation and maintaining friendly relations even with those they perhaps do not particularly like or whose company they do not enjoy or find dull. While they may default to exuberant joyfulness and childishness, all Songs are inherently creative, observant, and insightful, and are generally aware of far more than they let on.
== Culture & Society ==
=== Art ===
todo song, dance, music, theatre, poetry, painting, sculpting, drawing, tattoos.
=== Food ===
Lithe, wide-eyed Songs brought bowls of fruit and sweatmeets and honeyed nuts before him, and he heard the lady-in-waiting say in her sing-song voice that he was the first stranger to ever set eyes upon them, and he the first they ever set eyes on. Many of these Songs, as the lady-in-waiting called them, gathered about the pavilion and strained to catch a glimpse of Cadien... and all about Cadien fair maidens threw themselves and sat and lay adoring every aspect of his form.https://www.roleplayerguild.com/posts/5118429While Songs do not require food or drink to survive, they partake of it aplenty out of pleasure and, perhaps due to their naturally creative dispositions, tend to be rather skilled culinarians. Being gourmets, they eat much good food, and being artists, they enjoy making that good food.
While this may be the case, their current culinary knowledge is quite limited due to the dearth of ingredients in their immediate environments, and so much of their cuisine consists of fruit, basic sweetmeats, and an assortments of salted and honeyed nuts. They also appear to have a good knowledge of wines. Their culinary repertoire will no doubt grow with exposure to more gods and cultures.
=== Clothing ===
Until their encounter with Cadien, the Songs appear to have gone unclothed; as part of the agreement to allowed Cadien entry into Glossolalia he promised to clothe the Sirens. With a snap of his the god's fingers, each Song was clad in a low-cut, form-fitting, colourful dress. The colours tend to perfectly complement the hues of their skin, and long silken sashes are draped about their shoulders and tied about their waists.
=== Romantic Relationships ===
A female Song is true to one man, but her absence may cause pain and torture him to a premature death. While sight of them can simply inspire just about anyone at any time, the relationship she has with her one man shapes not only the poem or piece of art at hand, but the artist's life. Unlike females, male Songs are polygynous by nature, and while female Songs generally have no problem with this, those Galbar-dwellers who find themselves attached to a male Song, and for whom polygyny is uncustomary, may be struck by maddening envy should they discover their Song has been with another; and envy, as we know, is an inspiration for many great works of art.
== Summoning ==
There are two manners in which songs may be summoned to Galbar: either passively or actively. The active manner involves a magically proficient person carrying out a magical ritual to bring them forth into the world - these songs are referred to as Succubi and are generally masterful singers and entertainers. These rituals vary across time, place, and culture. However, all who summon them in this manner should beware for they are flighty things and will not be kept for long; the words of a lovestruck poet or the zealous singing of a bardic lover may see her eloping in the night.
The passive manner of summoning songs occurs when a person - artist or not - wishes to create something beautiful and is in desperate need of inspiration. This level cannot be any normal or fleeting desperation, but must be born in pain and repeated failings and tears so that it becomes a constant companion and weight. When any person reaches such a frightful state, a song is brought forth from the divine realms to be their inspiration and their muse.
While most songs summoned to Galbar will live in communities, it is entirely possible for one to get lost. Such lost songs can be found living wild in lakes and rivers and woodlands, and may also hide in perfectly rotund mounds. As this implies, songs cannot be de-summoned and do not automatically return to the divine realms, but remain and live out the remainder of their now-mortal lives on Galbar.
== History ==
Whether the Songs existed before Cadien came knocking at the door cannot be known, but they most certainly existed when the Lady-in-Waiting opened it for him. The Sirens were given their base form during this interaction, with Cadien's influence and that of the realm around them coming together to make them inky humanoids of great beauty and melodious sound.
The Songs were clothed by Cadien, and they then entertained him for long and appear to have come to adore him greatly, so that when he offered to bring them into his realm they were very quick to accept. However, Cadien wished to ask for permission from the entity he thought held power over the Songs, a mysterious figure known simply as 'the Lady'. The encounter with this Lady, who seemed trapped in a wakeless sleep, caused the realm of Glossolalia to react aggressively. 
Cadien attempted to stabilise the realm, giving the Lady-in-Waiting time to gather up the Songs and escape the collapsing realm through a portal to Cadien's realm of Meliorem. There, Cadien offered them permanent stay and built a town for them on a newly raised island, also creating male Songs.
== References ==
Category:Species
Category:Mortals
Category:Life