Light and Shadow
I have been listening to this piece on repeat since ~18:00 yesterday. I'll admit, the first time I listened to it, I thought it was alright but wasn't overly impressed. The buildup toward the end sounded muddied to me and removed me from the experience.
However, shortly after that first listen through, I received a message from my father, which got me thinking about Teyr'loch Delter Pach and wondering how I'm going to up the ante for Cael's next (final?) performance.
It can't be a rehash of the theme of who Cael is or the notion of fate. No, if this is Cael's true magnum opus, then it needs to encompass something more, even if it borrows thematic motifs from previous performances.
It's still too early to be considering this though, isn't it? There's a lot of time between now and then, and I have no idea how everything is going to unfold. If we're following a 5-act structure for Cael's character arc, then, by my estimate, their story has just entered Act 3. I don't have specific scenes in mind for this performance yet, let alone any idea of what the story should tell. Plus, something cataclysmic could throw the story out of proportion, disallowing the opportunity altogether. We almost didn't stop the sky from cracking apart in time just a handful of sessions ago, which would have altered the course of the campaign entirely. How can I plan anything when such an important performance is still a ways off?
Why, general ideas, of course! Pieces I can repurpose later if the story takes an unexpected turn. What's the goal and motivation? What are they trying to communicate here? Who is its intended audience? Who are they trying to move?
I felt a tug to re-listen to the piece while contemplating everything, because there was something about the clarinet's entrance at the beginning that made me go, "Oh, this hits differently." Most of the time a piece calls to me, it's because it sparks scenes or images of what could be. Not this one. The draw was the atmosphere and emotions it evoked, emotions that weren't mine but Cael's.
I thought of their performances thus far, of who and what Cael is, the areas where their future is already locked in. The pending title clicked instantly: Light and Shadow.
Grinning, I then jotted down a few other short notes:
Play on Kalduin & Efiáltis; Cael and Efiál; Plane of Night and the Plane of Shadow; Cael & Nim; Cael and Maryn Need to know Astral Projection first? Is this the performance? Candles like those used in Brod's? Everyone in the audience carries a lit candle that cannot be extinguished? Is the audience a part of the performance? Like a laser light show? Show the vision of Kalduin's death? |
Unlike previous performances, the intended audience is not Cael's friends or family but complete strangers. It's for their people as a whole, the Akryna and Kayal of the Shadow Plane, the persecuted shadow casters, and yes, possibly even Maryn himself, the antagonist to Cael's story.
Astral Projection, a spell mentioned in the above notes, appeals to me as a spell to take once we hit level 8 because according to the description,
Once per long rest, mark a Stress to create a projected copy of yourself that can appear anywhere you’ve been before. You can see and hear through the projection as though it were you and affect the world as though you were there. A creature investigating the projection can tell it’s of magical origin. This effect lasts until your next rest or your projection takes any damage
All of Cael's performances thus far have only occurred in one location. With Astral Projection, they could potentially, with some targeted practice and the completion of a project clock to master their ability to do so, perform in two places simultaneously.
Of course, that means the debut needs to count. Given that these performances are Rituals, what better opportunity than as a component to Cael's Ritual to release Kalduin and restore the Plane of Shadow to the Plane of Night?
With how early I am in the planning stages, however, anything can change, but all of these performances had to start somewhere. It just so happens the ideas and inspiration behind Light and Shadow arrived sooner than anticipated this time around.
Summary of Notable Accomplishments:
A little over 14 hours transcribed in total this past week, 3.5 of which were from Session 135.
By my calculations, I have ~35-36 hours in total left to transcribe for Cael's/Efiál's Session 0 side scenes/sessions, meaning I should be caught up in about a month and can then transcribe the smattering of downtime scenes from early in the campaign that I never got to.
I can't wait to be done.
The end is in sight.
Then, I can focus on their journals and the summaries~
Speaking of summaries, I tried out Anthropic's Fable 5 model of Claude, since it came back online last week, and holy hell. Not only did it put into perspective how ambitious my projects actually are, it took the almost-finished templates made for Session 0 and main campaign transcripts, stress tested them, tweaked them, completed the sub-systems associated with sections of the templates, and more.
Not only that, but it was able to load all of the 20k+-word beast Teyr'loch Delter Pach into its context window without needing to use subagents, allowing it to catch and expand upon the "worthy performance material" section in the template. I accomplished in a couple of days what would have taken a week or longer with the Opus model, and it didn't pause every 5 seconds to ask me questions.
Built With Science Quads + Core (been slacking off on my workouts again...)
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