How Many Souls
How Many Souls? A song of Tigraen.
Tigraeners are a somber and fatalistic people. Their history is a trouble past filled with betrayal and uprisings, fueled by the dark powers of Gorothka. As such I wanted their song to reflect their people’s grim attitudes.
What I had hoped to capture with this song was a story that the people of Tigraen rally around. It would be a song that would bring them courage, and one that might be sung around a camp fire at night when traveling, or a tavern, or even on the eve of battle.
It would remind the Tigraen people that their greatest strength is standing together against the darkness. It might be one person or it might be all of them, but the Tigraeners know that they’ll all do whatever it takes to stop the forces of Gorothka from taking over, down to the very last man.
My original draft of the song was the story of warriors who were bolstering each other’s courage. The story that Rowan came up with for the song tells the story of a young farm girl standing against impossible odds, and entire horde of demons. This story is actually much more appropriate to the Tigraen peoples.
One of the things Dustin and I discussed in terms of cultural differences between Tigraen and their Sarmatii cousins. Sarmatii is a land of heroes, where the fighting and glory are left to those most capable of doing the job. In Sarmatti the common man aids his country by being a good citizen and obeying the law. By contrast, in Tigraen, everyone is expected to defend the country. Everyone from the Tyrant’s most trusted guards all the way down to the common man. I think Rowan did an amazing job of capturing that spirit of the Tigraen people.
