The Great Sea Shanty

The Great Sea Shanty is a famous incident that occurred in the central Inland Sea in 483BGE, in which wider Centrelands became aware of the use and potential power of sea shanties being used by pirate clans across the Inland Sea.

While shanties had been used by sailors for generations by the time of the incident, many of whom were aware of the ability of the technique to alter reality and improve the physical abilities of crewmen, applications were limited. Furthermore, the cause of the effect was not properly understood, with many sailors assuming that the superhuman qualities provided by the shanties were largely down to shanties' motivational effects.

In addition, shanties were viewed by the ruling classes of Pem, Raqqos and other maritime nations as merely a vulgar musical tradition prior to the incident. Reports following the occurrence of the Great Sea Shanty ultimately led to a sea change in societal attitudes and public policy.

Consequently, the governments of Pem and Raqqos came to view the destructive potential of these new Great Shanties as an existential threat, as well as the likely cause of a rising number of pirate raids across the Inland Sea, leading to heavy investment into research into the phenomenon with a view to countering the threat. This new field, dubbed Cantology, became foundational to modern scientific understanding of the principle of Resonance.

The fears of the Pemblish and Raqqosian governments was well founded, with the creation of the Great Shanties ultimately leading to the ascension of the Pirate King Meldrew in 448BGE.

## The incident

Following the opening of trade between Raqqos and Rubellium, the severity and suddenness of storms along the Sunshine Coast was still not fully appreciated. Furthermore, not all boats had yet been sufficiently equipped to deal with the bad weather.

A number of vessels in the busy Raqqos-Rubellium trading route along the Sunshine Coast in the central Inland Sea became caught in a sudden and severe storm. First-hand accounts tell that, through an otherwise deafening and impenetrable storm, the sound of a sea shanty was heard from a distance. **Upon turning towards the source, a**

The ship involved was identified as the Queen Nose, flagship of the Shanty Pirates, by a number of Raqqosian sources familiar with the vessel.

"One moment it was a blue, calm day. I turned my head for but a moment yet the clouds rolled in and the sea boiled. Never before or since have I seen the day turn so dark, like night, nor have I seen the sea swell and writhe like that.

The winds rose and the sails begun to twist and tear in the maelstrom, the hull creaked and the rain lashed my face as I gripped the wheel of our ship. The storm did not let, it only tightened its embrace on our vessel, and all seemed lost as we prepared our prayers to the deep.

That is, until we heard it. Out of the searing rain and deafening winds, against all odds we heard a chant, a song. I turned the helm towards it, sirens or nay we had little other chance of survival. Then, a light became clear ahead of the ship, not daylight, but a grand ship lit by a thousand torches, untouched and defiant against the smothering wind and rain. From her bellowed a sea shanty of unrivalled boisterousness and behind her trailed a great convoy of ships, each ravaged by the storm yet now safe in the wake of this baffling vessel.

Thus we followed, each of drawn by the song and driven by desperation, now enthralled in the shanty. As we went, the seas begun to calm and the winds begun to drop, until we sailed free of the Many forsaken storm. Our sails dropped and the damage to this unlikely fleet of ships became clear. We could now make out our escort, our navigator, our saviour ship in its full form, a majestic ship adorned with black and lime green sails. We could now make out its jolly crew, milling around the deck singing their shanty song as they went. As our sails fell limp in the now becalmed and glassy sea, the sails of this mysterious ship billowed and it begun to pull away from us at great speed, until it disappeared off into the distance.

Ne'er will the crews of those ships forget the sea shanty that saved our lives that day. Ne'r shall we forget the captain and crew who lead us out of that storm, nor will we forget the miracle of it all."