This episode carries content warnings for a corpse, an animal feeding on flesh, claustrophobia, broken bones, death from immobility and implied starvation, fingernails, a body in a sack, animal sacrifice, burning, a severed limb, animal slaughter, dissociation, and mental confusion.
Having found their way through the chapel beneath Blackwick's ruined abbey, the Blackwick Group continue their search for Janek Polyte and the mysterious magistrate who seems to be with him. From the bottom of a pit of salt, the group must find a way up a cliff face and back onto their prey's tail—all while making sense of the strange new place they've found themselves in. In the distance, a bell rings, and a ritual begins.
This week on Sangfielle: The Hymn of the Mother-Beast Pt. 2
The Almanac of the Heartland Rider
Places
Blackwick County: From the mines to the lake, the hills to the flats, the town once called Eastern Folly has felt a little more expansive now that it's out of the hard grip of the old curse. It's people aren't perfect, but they've made it through some dark times, and that's more than most can say.
The Second Canton, aka The Pale Magistratum (ma-juh-strah-tuhm): The Second Canton has ordered itself around its Magistrates—holy marshals given weapons blessed by Fulmina, goddess of immediate justice, and the right to use that power as they see it.
Free Seas of Kay'va, formerly the Fourth Canton (kai-vah): First established after Cecile Cartine's revolution over 300 years ago, today Kay'va is home to a collection of aligned communes who swear that the only way to prosperity is through the defense of equality.
The Residuum: A realm of vibrant color, where the things of the world go when their time in the material world fades away. A plane of death, but rendered in glorious light.
Facts and Figures
Janek Polyte (he/him): A Drakkan member of Blackwick County's youth community, and a member of the group who went beneath the Abbey's ruins a year ago. Quiet in public, and little kept in his humble home.
The Shape: Are the trains that run across the Heartland bound to the Structure, or do they direct it? Is the overlap between the two even real at all, or might two machinic forces be at work here in Sangfielle?
Organizations
The Telluricist Union: Made up by a mix of peoples driven to the hills by Aldomina, this group of knife sharpeners, herbalists, geologists, and all around investigators have made it their job to keep their old wisdom and see it used to help those in need. The best among them are called Keen.
The Shape Knights: It took people with clear minds, great ingenuity, and implacable spirit to face down and defeat one of the living trains of Sangfielle. In the time since, they've crafted armor from their slain foe, and with that have come to be experts of all things train. They herd, they breach, they redirect. But they haven't yet killed a second.
Ephemera
A hymn found in the notes of Janek Polyte
Her love is vast and nourishing.
Her glory does astound.
Thus in sin we're flourishing,
Tis sin to which we're bound.
With words we weave her love and ours,
And with our voices breathe:
A halt to death, a halt to stars,
A halt to what will be.
But listen, Mother-Beast, please know:
Tis love by which we've wrought
A world in which you're split in woe,
Instead of merely nought
Your love is vast and flourishing.
Your glory does astound.
Bless us with tears nourishing.
We'll drink until we're drowned.
Hosted by Austin Walker (@austin_walker)
Featuring Janine Hawkins (@bleatingheart) Sylvi Clare (@sylvibullet), Ali Acampora (@ali_west), Art Martinez-Tebbel (@atebbel), Jack de Quidt (@notquitereal), Keith J Carberry (@keithjcarberry) and Andrew Lee Swan (@swandre3000)
Produced by Ali Acampora and Austin Walker
Music by Jack de Quidt (available on bandcamp)
Text by Austin Walker
Cover Art by Craig Sheldon (@shoddyrobot)
A transcription is available for this episode here.
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