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Eroica

by Everyl

"Eroica? She's a nice one, if a little strange. If you ask, she'll tell you all about what this city was like before the Great Contagion. She doesn't seem to know much about what it's like now, but she's a pleasant enough conversationalist. Did I ever tell you about chromatic squid? They were to be beautiful creatures ...." (and so on)

- Kelyom, God of the Chromatic Squid, in response to a simple question

"Whatever ya do, don't ask 'er to sing, unless ya got a couple hours ta kill. But if ya got tha time, it's tha prettiest song you won't understand you'll ever hear."

- Flittering Shroud, serial worshipper

Among the menagerie of entities that calls Drunken Wind Street home, few can honestly claim to be Nexus natives. Most gods who fall far enough to wind up there are either outcasts from Yu Shan or refugees from collapsed spirit courts in the Threshold. Eroica is one of the rare exceptions, a very local god. Eroica is the god of the Anthem of Hollow.

Back in the pre-Contagion days, the city of Hollow was the capital of the River Province and the shining jewel of the Threshold. It was a beautiful city, well-loved by mortal and Exalt alike for its wondrous architecture and comfortable lifestyle. At some point before the Usurpation, one of the Anathema who lived in the city composed an extremely long, beautiful ode to the beauty and splendor of the city of Hollow. The song, written in one of the oldest dialects of Old Realm, was nearly three hours long in its entirety - a concert performance in and of itself when sung by a person with the necessary talent and endurance. A considerably shorter version was adopted as a sort of patriotic anthem by by mortal residents of Hollow, and even that was considered beautiful enough that it became common knowledge throughout the River Province, and few in Creation went their entire lives without hearing it at least once. Even those who did not fully understand the dialect appreciated the song for its beauty and memorized it (at least the short version) by sound. Eroica became perhaps the most powerful god of a single song in history.

In those days, she walked the streets of Hollow in the form of a beautiful young human woman with a translucent body and gauzy, slightly reflective robes; to look upon her was to see the beauty of the city around her, as described in the song. She was quite a powerful deity in those days, as every time even the shortened version of her song was sung, she gained the benefits of a prayer; the full version was a particular treat. She became quite vain, basking in the power she had received through sheer chance, without even needing any of the usual political maneuvering associated with divine advancement. She became the consort of the City Father of Hollow, as their fates as deities were intertwined - the glory of the city made her song famous, while her song's fame made the city more popular. Life was as good as any moderately ambitious small god could hope for.

The Usurpation was the beginning of her troubles, as her song was written and mostly performed by Solar Anathema. Fortunately for her, the Dragon-Blooded did nothing to suppress the shortened version of the song, as they loved it as much as anyone else. It did start to lose its widespread fame, though, as long-distance travel broke down under the rule of the Shogunate. The true trouble began when the Great Contagion and the ensuing Fair Folk invasion exterminated the population of Hollow and left the survivors in the rest of Creation in no mood to memorize an sing an ode to a dead city. In barely a year's time, she went from slowly waning power to almost no power at all.

As the city crumbled, so did Eroica. Her appearance degenerated from that of a beautiful young woman to that of a haggard, sickly crone, and she lost much of her power. At one time, she received enough prayer to remain material as long as she wanted, and she got used to that luxury; she still manages to scrounge up enough Essence to spend most of her time materialized and wandering around Drunken Wind Street, covered from head to toe in a ragged cloak to conceal her ugliness.

Eroica yearns for a return to her former glory, and is willing to go to great lengths to achieve it. She will eagerly talk to anyone who will listen about the wonders and glories of old Hollow, desperately hoping to stir up some of the passion and love for the city that inspired people to sing her song. If anyone asks, she will not hesitate to sing the full version of the song - and her voice is still as beautiful as ever. Unfortunately for her, the song only exists in Old Realm, so very few people even understand it if she sings it; nonetheless, those who have taken the time to listen agree that it is surpassingly beautiful, and would probably be even better if they could understand a word of it. She always sings the full version of the song, knowing it to be more beautiful than the shorter one, but this intimidates most people out of ever trying to learn it for themselves.

Most of those who know her consider Eroica to be at least a little bit insane. She almost never speaks of the current condition of the city of Nexus, instead remaining fixated on the First Age wonders of Hollow. This leads most people to believe that she is unaware of the city's current state, buried in denial and memories of a greater time. Some scholars have had a good deal of luck reconstructing a map of Hollow based on her descriptions, but nobody has gotten good directions to anywhere in modern Nexus from her. She is often seen near the edges of the Firewander Wyld storm, only encouraging those who believe she's crazy.

Rumors

• She's nuts! Completely disconnected from reality, she thinks she's still living in Hollow and can't tell that anything's changed since then.
• There's a method to her madness. She's trying to find a composer who knows Old Realm and can translate her song into modern Riverspeak without losing any of its former beauty. So far, she's had no luck.
• If someone were to stand in the eye of the Firewander Wyld storm and sing Eroica's song in its entirety without missing a syllable, it would cause the storm to finally abate as the sheer beauty of the music calmed the raging Wyld energies.
• Eroica's ugliness is not a result of her loss of power. Her appearance reflects the state of the city, and right now it looks ugly and diseased. Maybe she's trying to pretty the place up somehow, without any luck?

Secrets

• Eroica secretly started The Singing Disease in an effort to jumpstart her career once again. She hoped it would either cause people to sing her song or get enough power to other gods of song that they would be willing to do her favors. Unfortunately, it spiraled out of control, causing massive disruptions to the city and angering a number of other gods; she is now lying low, hoping nobody will figure out what happened. Her accomplice in the Bureau of Endings is trying to make himself busy elsewhere, desperately hoping he doesn't get audited any time soon.
• Eroica controls a minor subterranean Manse underneath one edge of the Firewander Wyld storm. It was a gift from the City Father of Hollow millennia ago. Amazingly, this Chapel of the Earthbound Stars is unaffected by the chaos above. The Essence she draws from the Hearthstone is how she remains material almost all the time. She has not figured out how to safely get into it again since the Contagion, though; she is worried that it may need maintenance soon, and fears losing access to her primary source of Essence.

Comments

My first Nexus Project entry! I was multitasking heavily while I wrote it, so feel free to point out anything that could stand to be edited. Comments and criticisms welcome. -Everyl

Lovely description. She does sound a bit nutters, but who can blame her? -Okensha is vigorously shushing the Earl

Thats beautiful! Much better than anything I would have thought for her! Just as a little trivia for those who care Eroica is the name of Beethoven's 3rd symphony - Paladinltd

This is fabulous! Very creative. Also well-spelled and -grammared. ;) Thanks for writing it.
~ Shataina