#META / HC: NIGHTSONG.

[slverblood]

REVISION.

I'm not gonna go back and edit every post where I might have mentioned this, aside from what's linked in the pinned, but I'm cutting the bit about the shapechanger and the gem. I still want to say that an agent of Shar was involved in the miscalculation in the attempt to destroy the King-Killer Star that caused it to hit the moon instead. This catalyzed Aylin's creation, etc. etc. [hand waves] But there's no gem in Aylin's chest; she's not the safeguard against this army's release; none of that. The light burning in her chest is purely a reflection of the ember of ever-living flame within the moon itself. Instead, I'm connecting her to the Cycle of Night. Shar's attempt to enact this cycle on Toril had been stalled by her son, Mask. Her aims in imprisoning Aylin were to have a backup in case she could not absorb the rest of his divinity. She couldn't; he thwarted her and was reborn in Drasek Riven. The idea, then, is to make the Nightsong her new herald. If her Chosen slays Aylin using the Spear of Night, Aylin can then be claimed by her. She will give Aylin / the Nightsong part of her portfolio, raise her to a minor deity, and nurture her power. Once the time is right, Shar will consume her divinity, reclaim the part of her portfolio given to her, and unleash the true Shadowstorm. The world, the sun, the moon will all be consumed. So Aylin is still the potential harbinger of an apocalypse. I'm just removing the gem and the shapechanger from the equation.

[slverblood]

I've been mulling over what exactly Aylin would look like [undisguised] as the Nightsong. The design from cut content, aside from looking nothing like the final product for her, is really more evocative of Shar's Dark Dancer aspect. I do love, though, the thought that Shar makes her look almost identical to her in this verse, just really hammering home the loss of autonomy / identity + divorcing her from Selûne and her previous identity on every level + harping on the Nightsong being an extension of her not an individual. The question then becomes how we draw inspo from Shar's Nightsinger appearance while also fitting it to the Nightsong's role. Particularly with this appearance being more in-line with a veiled mourner than a person of action.

Then it hit me. The Nightsinger is said to wear "a mask of feathers of every kind, which concealed her face and disappeared into the dark depths of her cowl". If we lean into the feathers [a corruption of the feathers Aylin earned through great deeds in service of her mother], then the Nightsong has to lean into the most body horror plays on Biblical angels and an angel of death.

Her luminous golden markings turn black as night and rather than shimmer they seem to devour light. The golden glow that was behind her sternum, visible through her skin, dies entirely. What is left behind is a gnawing void stretched over with skin so translucent you doubt its existence. Her wings were cleaved not from her back but from her soul, for they were always more spiritual than physical. The opalescent feathers became shards of sharpest obsidian, the eyes at their end bruised wholly purple like Shar's. These were pushed into the Nightsong's skin all over her body, bound tight over her real eyes, leaving wounds that perpetually weep thick, black blood. She cannot see with her own sight any longer. She must rely perpetually on what Shar shows her through the eyes on her many feathers. Even her senses are not her own.

Like the Nightsinger, there is an element of eternal mourning to the Nightsong's appearance, but it is her own unending torment she seems to grieve. There is something hauntingly beautiful about the sorrow the Nightsinger croons and the despair that shrouds the hearts of all who listen. But, there is nothing beautiful about the Nightsong. She is horrible; she is bloody; she is hollow. She is the Nightsinger's promised oblivion, the void, the nothingness. It serves Shar to be alluring, but for any who see the Nightsong, it is already too late.

[slverblood]

In her Nightsong AU, she remembers nothing of being Aylin, not even being Selûne’s daughter. She doesn’t know how long she was caged or, hell, whether she’d ever been free. All she remembers is the torment she’d endured (most of it anyway) and an endless string of Dark Justiciars plunging blades into her heart. Shar has spun this to convince her those Justiciars were sent to free her, but alas they all failed until the one worthy of being Her Chosen (Shadowheart) prevailed. I debate whether Shar would claim she’s her mother, but it’s ultimately irrelevant? For she is now part of Shar, the song of the Nightsinger. Which seems an incomparable honor: to not only be “saved” by the Nightsinger but raised up as part of her.

[slverblood]

Okay I’ll polish this later but I gotta get something in the tag. AU where SH slays Aylin, and Aylin becomes the Nightsong in truth —

Shar’s Chosen (SH) slaying Aylin with the Spear of Night allows Shar to claim Aylin from Selûne. “Aylin” dies, and what is resurrected is the true Nightsong fully under the Nightsinger’s will.

This comes with several consequences—

Shar is able to prepare Aylin to act as her herald and eventual vessel to perpetuate the Cycle of Night.

The moon begins to darken in the sky, beginning with the Tears of Selûne.

Selûne, grieving her daughter and betrayed by her own (Kettle, etc), does not answer her faithful.

Not only is the shadow curse not lifted but it begins to mutate and spread.

There are several changes that come with changing into the Nightsong —

She is still the key to Sharrans becoming true Dark Justiciars. This involves the trope of the decapitation game.

Dark Justiciars, upon their death (which might be at the Nightsong’s hands), will be consumed by the Nightsong and feed the spreading shadow curse. This also grows Shar’s power + the power of her followers.

This might extend to other of Shar’s faithful beyond Dark Justiciars but [hand waves]

The Nightsong has had her memories of her previous life subsumed beneath her torment in the Shadowfell and being “freed / reborn” into Shar’s embrace. Perhaps they can be retrieved but it will be no small task.

She can be encountered throughout the world acting as an instrument of Shar’s will, although she will be disguised in most instances. You only see her for what she truly is before she strikes.