Since you asked...

From: Beyke, Maurice A <mabeyke_at_ingr.com>
Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 08:32:09 -0500


Hello, all. Boris here.

In gdv5n55 Jane Williams quotes Nick:
NB> Mind you, I'm influenced by Boris Mikey's "The Day the Fire Died," NB> where Hofstaring Treeleaper gets all the sympathetic lines (and Kallyr
NB> runs off)

JW>Nice! (Well, it's a viewpoint).

JW>Where do we find the rest of it? And what's it based on, if anything?

Since I have reworked it a bit, tightening up the scansion, and you asked, I'm resending it. Sorry if it bores anyone.

And it's based directly on KoS, plus details from when I ran my game through Starbrow's Rebellion. In that, I had Kallyr mainly as a figurehead of an alliance politically led by Kallai Rockbuster and militarily led by Hofstaring Treeleaper. In the beginning, Hof was just the most experience combat leader, but after he critted two battle rolls in the Battle of Orlanth Victorious (I was using PenDragon battle rules), I decided he was really a tactical Genius. It was only the Lunars using the Temertain's sudden appearance to break the unity of the alliance (such as it was) that let Fazzur end it as neatly as he did.

BTW, I really liked "The Wolfrunners Song". Bravo.

Anyway, here is the updated "The Day the Fire Died", sung to the tune of Don McLean's "American Pie".

A long, long time ago
I can still remember how
The free winds always used to blow.
And I knew if just left alone
That we would then cause harm to none
Except perhaps a cattle raid or so.
But that there red moon makes me shudder With each Orlanthi stave I utter.
Tyrants in the valleys
Wrongs done past all tallies
As I recall it took my breath
When I heard how fared the House of Death And it divided kin and kith
The day the Fire died.
So

ch:
Bye, bye! Time to fight now or die.
Tell my Pappy I'll die happy,
Tell my Mamma don't cry.
Us Sartari boys will grab our weapons and try To pull that red chaos moon from the sky! We'll pull the Red Moon from the sky!

Well have you heard the Princes' Tale,
And do you recall how Boldhome fell,
As the godar tell it true?
And do you believe in Sartar's Flame?
Can you name every prince by name?
And can you paint the runes in woad so blue? Well you know that you are Orlanth's son 'Cause you feel the storms in your blood run! It's time to take your spear,
And fight for all you hold dear!
We are all Sartari fighting thanes,
>From the Far Point gors to the Swenstown plains,
Recall now all our wounds and pains
Borne since the Fire died!
Let's go singing
ch:

Now for nineteen years we've lived as slaves, And the Storm Priests all forget their staves, But that's not how it used to be,
When the Princes fought here for you and me, When they fought to keep Orlanthi free,
And the Flame burned bright for all to see. But when Terasarin scaled the height
A moonbeam came and stole his sight.
He fell down to his doom!
No corpse in royal tomb!
And while godar sang his shade to rest,
Slain by the moon we all detest,
The seers foretold we'd fail the test
The Day the Fire died
We'd be singing
ch:

Flying, dying, Red Moon defying,
The ram fought off the Granite Lion
Sent to stop Prince from taking crown.
The heirs then took Humakt's vow
The Household of Death refused to bow
To the Empire, which was sworn to cast them down. Now the Boldhome siege was sorely pressed, And the Red Moon Hags flew o'er the crest. The Bat filled all with dread,
But a dragon killed it dead.
Dread Halsalter faced the Moonson's ire, Gave mortal wound, and from geas expired And Dragonewts then quenched the Fire
The Day the Fire died
We fought singing
ch:

And there they came all at one time
To break the Storm Victorious shrine
And we just had to stop them then.
We called Starbrow to lead us, Starbrow Queen! Starbrow, Kallai, and Hofstaring!
We kicked out the Lunars once again!
Then Wideread came through Furthest Gap, He wiped Duck Point right off the map!
Treeleaper dragged to Hell;
A foul chaotic spell!
And then he offered peace, "Lay down your arms! "Swear to this Prince, go to your farms!" The ducks got blamed, took all the harms Because the Fire had died!
We stopped singing
ch:

I met a bard who sang of wind
And I asked if they'd blow free again,
But she just wept and turned away.
I went up to the sacred hill
To feel the free winds blowing still,
But the godi couldn't call the sylphs to play. And in the fields the stagnant air
Just steals my breath when I'm out there. No skalds are now heard singing,
The wind chimes hang unringing.
And the three kings then that led our host, Kallai, Kalyyr, Treeleaper most,
They're dead, or fled, or damned, poor ghost. Since when the Fire died.
And they'd been singing
ch:

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