League Judgement: The Wandering Caretaker, Bard
It is twilight, the time between day and night where it is both and neither. The wind moves through the trees outside the Institute of War, the branches dancing like waves on the beach. Now there is no wind, but still the branches move. There is a gong in the distance, and the branches are still.
It is later now, the sun is setting, the last of it's rays dying on the horizon. As the stars come out lights appear in the trees, nature spirits are gathering. The branches move again as the spirits dance and shuffle about, gathering, watching, waiting. There is a gong in the distance, and the spirits look up to the stars.
Three stars shine in the night, with the strike of a bell there is a light in clearing. The spirits sing, their voices coming forth like wind chimes in a gale. The spirits grow to a crescendo and the gong sounds nearby in the clearing, this time reverberating, growing till the spirits match it's sound and suddenly, there is light. The spirits are silent and still.
Three lights blink from the darkness, spinning slowly, they stop, brighten, and there is a mask, golden, circular, featureless. With a trumpet's cry white hair bursts from behind the mask, waves growing outward. A horn grows out from the top of the whiteness, reaching far back behind the creature, it shakes it's head, and chimes appear. It is happening fast now, sound and light taking form, a body and two arms appear in a pomp of sound, two legs in two drum beats. As the sound begins to reverberate through the woods you see the fingers are moving, playing an instrument that slowly appears between them. The final note fading as the creature removes the instrument from it's mask, creating itself as it is created.
The spirits begin to float down from the trees, settling upon the creature and around it. The being looks up and the massive stone works of the Institute and steps forward, moving as one does in a dream, half flying, half walking. It rises up the stone steps and the doors open before it. The creature and a few of the spirits enter inside, and the doors grind close. The remaining spirits look up at the doors for a moment, their expressionless features blank, before they fade, returning the clearing to blackness.
The being stands in blackness, itself casting off a soft glow. A spirit on it's shoulder as two move frolic behind it. There is silence in the Hall of Judgement, save for the chimes adoring the being and the meeps of the spirits. The darkness is endless, and indeed the being is no longer touching the floor of the Hall. It floats in the void, and then a sound is heard. The spirits rise, moving forward, their light binding together to the tuneless tune of the sound. There is land, sea, and sky, or the idea them, the shapes they may have taken before creation.
The mask rotates, and another sound comes forth, lighter, and moving, a heartbeat of life, the lights of the spirits spiral and reform, the scene is set again, life has entered. The sound grows faster and more complex, twisting and turning as the spirits dance, plants, fish, beast, growing and forming until finally, with a fanfare, man enters. We see the spirit men spread through the land growing and multiplying. Until with a shriek, the mask rotates again.
The sound is slower, darker, the spirits close in, man is at war. Nation against nation, brother against brother, the song sours until all that is left is a thrumming beat of blood. The spirits spiral again, the song is weak, a single note whimpers out, a scorched land of the dead and dying until the note ends and all is silent. The spirits fade and the three lights of the beings mask sit in the blackness until they too vanish.
But out of the darkness a melody begins, and the spirit's lights reappear, on the scene man is in the world, at peace with itself. The old differences aside man enters a golden age, great works appearing in the spirit's lights as the song bursts forth in joyful exultation and an explosion of celestial radiance!
The great doors of the far end of the Hall of Judgement open. The spirit lights dim and become sprites again, dancing around the being. With a jingle of chimes the being hops forward to the far end of the Hall. It steps forward and the announcement is made,
"WELCOME, BARD, TO THE FIELDS OF JUSTICE
Hey all! I wanted to try my hand at one of these, I really am enjoying Bard and his lore, I was trying to picture what his League Judgement would look like and for an unknowable being of cosmic power I think this is pretty close to the ballpark.
Feedback would be great! I did this in one sitting so I may return to it and fine tune it as time goes on. Thanks!
