Shay - the last musician of the Valley of Shadow steppers
Shay
The history of the music in the Valley of Shadow steppers
The history of music in the valley has been erased from the records just like all the instruments were destroyed, so there is no recorded history of the musicians of the valley. The reason behind the ban of music in the valley is well stated in the rules: music is thought to be an instrument of debauchery and thus to be banned. That reason however does not tell the whole truth behind the ban and the story of Shay is forgotten. Only some of her songs that are still played around in other parts of the world remind from the person who caused the ban of the music.
Shay the last musician
Shay was born as the daughter of the High rector of the shadow steppers. That guaranteed that Shay had more possibilities than most of the other shadow stepper children. It was clear from the young age that Shay loved music. When the older musician of the tower died and the need to have a replacement arise, the High rector made sure that Shay was the one who was selected to be trained to be a musician.Shay did not have a natural talent in music, but she worked hard to excel in it. She also saw great effort to search from the records for the lost songs to revive them. She also started to write her own music and that was where her talents lie. The music she wrote was beautiful and emotive. For the first time after the degeneration of the culture and music began, the songs were exported from the Valley of the Shadow steppers.
Shay loved her life and work as a musician. As a part of the privileged people in the valley she did not face the injustice and suffering the less fortunate people so often faced. The first real setback in her life happened when the unrest among the shadow steppers arose and the shadow steppers were in the brink of civil war. As Shay was the daughter of High rector and had not been trained for fighting like most of the shadow steppers were, that placed her in high risk in this inflammatory situation and her freedom was severely limited for her own safety.
The unrest was put down eventually as the instigators had been found and exterminated, but Shay’s life was not the same after that as now she was conscious of the fact that not everybody had such a good life than she had. The more she paid attention to the life of the less fortunate the more injustice and suffering she saw. To her horror she realized that her father, the High rector, was the one behind most of the injustices and suffering there were.
Shay could not stand by when the people were suffering. She was not a fighter and her status in the valley came from her father, and the only thing she could do was the music and that’s what she did. She wrote and performed music to change the world and her music spoke to people. It made them feel the emotions they had hide. It made them unite with others feeling the same. It made them turn against the powerful and eventually the civil war that was evaded only few years earlier broke bringing death and destruction among the shadow steppers.
Shay’s plan to end the suffering and to bring down her father failed however and the powerful had victory over the rebels. When the captured rebels were interrogated, the pattern was clear. They all told how Shay’s music had spoken to them, but the High rector could not believe that his beloved daughter would willingly cause people to turn against him. He was completely sure that the captives had just lied to cause him to turn against Shay.
Shay was not willing to give up as she rather saw the shadow steppers to be destroyed than to continue to suffer and live in unjust system, so she continued her work to make world better. She kept writing new music and performing the songs and the demoralized people started to feel like the rebellion had been worth it and that the powerful needed to be brought down. This time however the rebels now recognized Shay’s important influence and took her to be a major part of their operation. Shay’s job was to assassinate her own father the High rector as she was the only one who got close to him.
The plan was clear. Shay would kill the High rector with poisoned dagger and that would be a sign for the others to attack. The plan failed however as the High rector knew Shay too well and saw that she was up to something when approaching him. Instead of managing to stab her father with the poisoned dagger Shay cut deep wound to herself and the poison from the dagger got to her veins making her to die slowly and horribly. The new rebellion was revealed with that and quickly and brutally crushed. This time the High rector had to admit that Shay had had part of it and after that the influence of music was recognized and the music was banned to prevent anything similar from happening ever again.
Poor Shay, you should have just kept on playing instruments and leave the weapons to others.-The High rector, when seeing his daughter to die
Quite an interesting story. I like how people rallied behind her thanks to her music. I wonder as to why they thought limiting music would actually make them more prone to stop interbreeding. Could they perhaps not have used music as a propaganda method?
Thank you for your comment! My original thought of limiting the music was because it was associated with partying and loose behaviour that was wanted to be limited among shadow steppers and to drive the shadow steppers to the events with regular people in them. But it could also be that they wanted to make sure that the music that was played was consistent with the agenda the powerful were promoting. Shay’s story however requires that in the time she lived the influence that music could have, was not well recognized, but of course the influence of music could be forgotten during the generations with limited access to music.
That is a nice approach. It could indeed have been forgotten over time :)