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Spirit poems

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Ameena
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Spirit poems

Sooo...a number of years ago I wrote a whole bunch of poems that I posted up on forums relating to those games - the poems were about stuff relating to those games and one was about all the playable characters in the game in which said characters could be found. I haven';t written any rhymes for ages and I was recently thinking that I might like to do some on the spirits of Spirit Island. Just because I feel like it :).

So here are some poems/verses, one per spirit (so it's either one big poem of twelve verses, or twelve little one-verse poems, I'm not bothered which ;)). I haven't bothered to title each one since if I do this right, each poem/verse should be a decent enough description of a spirit (but without mentioning that spirit's name) that people should be able to very easily tell which spirit it's talking about :). So in no particular order...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Human-like, but spirit still,
Firmly means the Dahan no ill.
Guardian, warrior, wrath and might,
Aids these mortals in their fight.
Standing with them, standing proud,
Eyes of light, voice booming loud.

A waiting mouth, a hungry maw
Surrounds the island, every shore.
Feasts on ship and crew alike,
With endless hunger it waits to strike.
Human lives it takes and drowns,
Then comes ashore and swallows towns.

When all is dark and people sleep,
Into their minds the dark does creep.
Visions of terror, deepest dread
Drives dreamers forth from sweat-soaked bed.
No safety can they hope to find.
You cannot flee what's in your mind.

Stalking through the jungle tracks,
The greatest alpha of all packs
Leads the hunters in a chase
For human prey who try to race
For their short lives against the beast
Who soon upon their flesh shall feast.

Bounding freely, wake of flame
Follows the spirit in its game,
Burning homes to dust and cinder,
Needs no fuel nor flint and tinder.
Turns the land to ash and then
Lets it regrow once again.

With bird-like shape it soars so high,
Has the freedom of the sky.
In its wake the thunder rumbles,
'Neath its power, buildings crumble.
Surge of storm-force strikes the land,
From mountain-top to dunes of sand.

Flower, bush, and shrub, and tree
Sprout forth with ever-constant glee.
Vines reach forth and creepers spread,
Humans watch the growth with dread.
Their homes pulled down, their progress slows
By simple plant-life, as it grows.

Sleeping deep beneath the isle,
Deeply sleeping, for a while.
But stirring now, driven to wake
By those who come only to take.
And when this sleeper wakes, be sure
That rage wakes with it, strong and pure.

Rising forth, the rock and stone
Greater than flesh and stronger than bone,
Sturdy, immovable, guardian's strength
Protects the island for any length
Of time required to drive away
The unwelcome ones who try to stay.

Strange of shape and strange of ways,
Haunts the night and darkens days,
Lurks among the jungle trees,
A hint of flame upon the breeze.
Looming forth to scare its foes,
But not the Dahan, for them it knows.

For ancient ones it moves and acts,
Perhaps sworn into ancient pacts.
Branch and bough it raises high,
'Gainst all creatures that might dare pry.
And mortals who dare breach the wild
Are punished for what they've thus defiled.

Bringer of life, a well-known friend
To Dahan when the land they tend.
Helping with farming, watering crops,
But when faced with invaders, the friendliness stops.
Humans and houses, all are soon swept away
By that which flowed by them, each night and each day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, there we go. Hopefully this post comes out okay as I had to change the formatting thing so it didn't keep leaving extra lines between every single line of all my verses. Just wrote those things for fun but thought other people might be interested. So there we are :).


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

jffdougan
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I had to read one of them twice to sort out which was Shadows Flicker and which was Bringer of Dreams, but these are overall really well done!

(And this comes from somebody who signs student yearbooks in limerick.)

Ameena
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Hehe, thanks :). I'd been lying in bed the night before and my brain had started going ahead and coming up with some of these (it was an idea I'd been toying with for a while anyway) so I had to basically tell it to stop before it came up with too many for me to remember (I had nearly all of the Thunderspeaker poem and some of Ocean's and Wildfire's, I believe) :D. I was thinking I might also do some for the Sentinels characters if people seem interested, but as there has so far been only one post about my Spirit poems, maybe I'll leave it.


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

jffdougan
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It's also a major holiday weekend here in the States. I think there's a decent possibility that a lot of the regulars just haven't had the chance to see it yet.

Lord Flash Fire
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I really like them, but as I don't have Spirit Island, I can only think of 2-3 names for the poems, so I can't talk about this without looking like a complete amateur.

Your title as Wordweaver has been well earned.


" Ever had those days where you have amazing luck,
everything goes right, and you feel like the king of the world...
....And then you wake up?"
-Someone special, 2012

Arcanist Lupus
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jffdougan wrote:

It's also a major holiday weekend here in the States. I think there's a decent possibility that a lot of the regulars just haven't had the chance to see it yet.

Alternatively, everybody's been rendered speechless in awe.  

"Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?"

- Terry Pratchett, Going Postal

Ameena
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Lol fair enough...I mean, there are plenty of people on here that [i]aren't[/i] in the USA, but yeah, and there's also the fact that I think there are a lot of people who don't own Spirit Island. My title of Wordweaver wasn't so much earned as made up and bestowed upon myself by...well, myself ;).

Lord Flash Fire, so that you can "join in", here is a list of the twelve spirits (with a brief description of what they're about) so that you can see if you can match them to the poems...they are just listed in whatever random order I happen to think of them, not the order for which I've written their verses. You can also then easily Google image search them if you want to see what they look like :).

Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares - Great at terrifying people by making them [i]think[/i] all kinds of horrible things are happening to them, but never actually kills anyone.
Vital Strength of the Earth - Big stone giant thingy who's very good at defending stuff.
Ocean's Hungry Grasp - Spirit of the sea that "eats" people/towns and generates energy from doing so to eat more stuff.
A Spread of Rampant Green - A plant-based spirit that constantly grows and spreads across the island, good at tearing down buildings.
Heart of the Wildfire - Happily bounces around burning everything as it goes, causing damage (Blight) to the land but also capable of clearing said damage.
River Surges in Sunlight - Spirit of the river that gets on pretty well with the natives (Dahan) and is very good at pushing the bad guys around, washing them away to other parts of the island.
Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves - A bestial spirit that roams the jungles with the beasts of the island, guiding them to hunt down Invaders and indulge in some vicious nomming!
Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island - Giant snake-like spirit that lurks deep underground, but is being driven to wakefulness by the presence of the Invaders and is really not all that happy about it.
Shadows Flicker Like Flame - Looks like a weird, four-armed shadowy thing with fire flickering along it, very scary to Invaders but has a fair bit of rather more friendly interaction with the Dahan.
Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds - Very large entity which appears to be made of moss and bare branches, its job is to keep humans in general away from its lands, somehing which makes it the only spirit that ever really actively harms the Dahan.
Lightning's Swift Strike - A bird-shape mass of lightning that moves super-fast and can speed up other spirits, in the meantime travelling around the island easily obliterating the homes of the Invaders.
Thunderspeaker - The only spirit whose form resembles a human (due to having been trapped for a long time and then freed by the Dahan, to whom it then pledged itself to help), this is the most Dahan-focused of the spirits and spends its time guiding them around and helping them fight off the Invaders.


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

fjur
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Your poems are amazing! Could you take a request for the new Jagged Earth Spirits?


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Ameena
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Oh wow, I'd forgotten about these. Yeah, maybe I'll write some poems for the new spirits...I'll have to dig into Tabletop Sim and re-look at their abilities and stuff, it's been ages since I messed around with any of them :D. Then again, just re-reading the stuff I wrote here, I pretty much just based these verses on the appearance and basic theme of each spirit. Maybe I'll do something at the weekend (when I have more time due to no work), since there is interest :).


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

Ameena
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Right, let me see what I can come up with for the new twelve spirits, going by what I remember of their lore and descriptions (because I am lazy). And I can see at the same time if I can actually remember all twelve off the top of my head without needing to look up the list :D. So once again, in no particular order...

Gathered horde and swirling swarm,
Coalesces and takes form.
With fang and claw, with beak and sting,
Shoals swim, feet scurry, birds take wing.
A single mind, though thousands strong
Guides the many, sings their song.

Even when still it may cause unease,
As faint specks of ash flit on the breeze.
Scant warning may come when this giant awakes,
When the underground rumbles, the great tower breaks,
And forth bursts the anger, the rage and the ire,
Devastation takes shape as a living-rock pyre.

Far from the temptation of the seas,
Another voice calls, from within the trees,
Beckons softly, charms the soul,
Doing so achieves its goal.
Through tangled wood and paths now crossed,
All who wander now are lost.

A bright new spirit does arise,
Fallen from beyond the skies,
Now touches earth and wind and flame,
Now takes a shape and earns a name,
Now spends its youth finding its place
Against the threats it now must face.

Many faces, many smiles,
Many tricks and traps and wiles,
Many insults, pokes and prods,
Jeers and whistles, gestures, nods,
Then merrily off into the night,
Leaving behind a savage fight.

A whispering mist, a chilling cold
Cools the blood and scares the bold,
Creeps across the land and water,
Finds the cracks in stone and mortar,
Grasps at living hearts, and then
Tightens - they'll not beat again.

A friendly guide or taunting tease,
Sweeps aside the rocks and trees,
Bends the space and turns the trail,
Straight from dark wood to sand so pale.
In moments, a route from shore to shore,
From highest peak to valley floor.

As time, like space, may be adjusted,
Each passing moment can't be trusted
Within the realms of one who may
Make you relive yesterday,
Take your hours and twist them round,
So that you burned before you drowned.

Welcome is the passing shower,
Rejuvenating tree and flower,
Bringing life then passing by,
As clouds move on from open sky.
But when the rainfall does not cease,
You may never again know peace.

Lumbering slow, a bulky force
Does not waver in its course.
Protects the land from harmful clutch
Inflicted by invaders' touch.
A solid stone, a bulwark firm
Sets its course and does not squirm.

When harm's inflicted on the land,
When blighted is both plant and sand,
A vengeful force awakens strong
And seeks out those who've done such wrong,
Burns their blood and eats their flesh
And leaves a trail of corpses fresh.

An ancient mind with ancient power
Blooms anew, like yearly flower,
Retains the seeds of actions past,
Of memories is still holds fast.
What slumbers may be gained once more,
By one who knows such ancient lore.

 

Phew! Okay, that looks to me like a list of twelve poems about twelve different spirits, so it looks like I was able to remember them all without looking anything up :D. Not entirely happy with a couple of them but that was the best I can come up with for now, based on what I can remember about each spirit :P.


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)

fjur
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Great job!

Ameena wrote:
All who wander now are lost.

Is this a Lord Of The Rings reference?


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Ameena
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Ha ha...yes, good spot - it is indeed. I'm currently re-reading it and when writing that poem yesterday the line came to my head so I thought I'd tweak it a bit to suit the spirit :D.


I am the Wordweaver...

Basically, I like writing stuff ;)