The Weapon of Liberation

A Deafening Ode to Freedom

In the year 560, the world was in great distress. Two years had passed since the Grand Crowning, and many nations were still embroiled in civil wars or conflicts that had sprung out from it. But a period of peace would be coming soon, and this was emphasized by a certain song that reached its way around the entire world.
The Weapon of Liberation. That was the name it would become known by. A rousing song that gave everyone that heard it a feeling of hope, a feeling that, perhaps, everything would be alright.

Kathleen Ramone by masob the wise wizard

A song played by the former slave Kathleen Ramone at the end of the Dwarven Civil War.
But what had caused her to play this song for the whole world? What circumstances had led to this song? Below, these events will be chronicled. The history of a song known across the world.

Broken Chains

Kathleen Ramone was born into slavery. For much of her life, she knew nothing else than the service of the Human nobleman Henkirk Kilyurn, as her parents Kennedy and Mick Ramone were slaves, and had no way out.
However, she did escape, alongside her mother Kennedy and her brother Joey. It was the sacrifice of her father, one final song to distract the overseers, that allowed them the opening.
After that, Kathleen Ramone dedicated herself to freeing slaves around the world and ending the institution, which was enforced by the World Court at the time. To avenge her father and make sure no one else suffered through the horrors she was born into.
People deserved to be free.
Something that always remained with her were the words her father said to her, the night before the escape. When she still believed he was coming with them:

“I almost let myself be taken down by the greatest weapon in history: propaganda.
It's the only weapon that can be used to stop people, because there’s no weapon as efficient, no weapon as convenient, no weapon as effective halting the progress of people than by turning them against each other.
Fight with words when you can, when you can’t… fight with music. Music is the weapon of liberation… get your bass.
Tonight’s our last night here. Let’s fill it with the Music of Freedom!”

— Mick Ramone

These words would stir Kathleen up again, even as she was nearing defeat time and time again. When she went back to free the slaves owned by Kilyurn, it was her father's words that helped her kill Kilyurn, but she had been distracted afterwards, taken away, and Kilyurn's slaves were stolen away by the Dwarves. When she then faced Dwarven General Melmin of the White Wolves, the one who had stolen the slaves, she was nearly defeated when her father's words came to her again.
Melmin had her on the ropes. He was a man of considerable power, and more than that, he was a machine of propaganda, able to manufacture lies to stir up the people of Totania against anything. He had captured the slaves that Kathleen freed so that he could convince Totania that she did not truly mean what she said. So that he could convince the world that her crusade for freedom was one of vengeance, and that freeing the slaves was not a just cause, for Kathleen gave up on the slaves she freed right after killing Kilyurn.
But Kathleen tracked Melmin down not for revenge, but for the slaves. For freedom.
Melmin was not necessarily winning his battle against Kathleen, for she arrived, freeing the slaves and, with the assistance of other powerful mages, pushing Melmin back. So he had to pull out his greatest weapon. The weapon of oppression: propaganda.
Up until that point, there was a secret about Kathleen Ramone that few were aware of. She was known only as a liberator and nothing else. But she had been part of a secret project, a group of mages trained by the Grand Wizard Salasar Feaphed to discover the secrets of magic itself. These secrets were known by no one, but Melmin had spies to discover this. He had the Yellow Hornets to learn of Salasar's plan, and he intended to weaken Kathleen by revealing these secrets to the world.

Melmin by Jarhed

If anyone could study it, then someone, one day, could take down Kathleen Ramone. Someone could follow in his footsteps if he could not defeat her.

"Salasar Feaphed has a private militia of students called the Weave Initiative! They study the source of Magic… Mayowa’s Heaven: the Weave! They are able to access its powers, utilizing unlimited mana to create Weave Anchors! Their members include Shatt Gunn, Ogonn Ha, Lorakaen Darelor, Finethir Shinebright, Murphy Law, Orlayas Ojeux… and Kathleen Ramone!”

— Melmin

This put a target on Kathleen's back. She had not entered this for herself, but now, she had been placed in danger, and if any more was said, her very life could be at risk, as well as the lives of those that were around her.
But did that matter? Would she hide away as her secrets were revealed? No, she was here for freedom. She was here to end slavery. What did it matter if something happened to her? She worried for the slaves, and so, to protect them, to buy the slaves Melmin was holding time to escape and to prevent him from spreading propaganda that would hurt them, she began to play a song, as her father had told her, for it was the only way to defeat propaganda. The Weapon of Liberation.
She played it for the whole world to hear. If Melmin would spread propaganda that far, she would spread her message as well. But she did not have the experience Melmin had with this, and so hers would be more unrefined. She would have to sacrifice her hearing for the sake of the slaves.
And she did. Deafening herself in the process, she played her song for the world to hear. And when it was done, Melmin was nothing more than a weak man with no tricks left. A man that Kathleen Ramone beheaded to end his tyranny for good.

The Solo of Kathleen Ramone

This is all ignoring the song itself, which Kathleen called "the Solo of Kathleen Ramone" when she played it.
It was a song played only by a single bass, powered by the Music Magic of Ninatta, but many swear that it sounded as if it were an entire band playing it, this powerful piece about liberation.
The message she intended with it is that it is important to trust the people one loves and to remember what one has is important. With that trust, she hoped the slaves around the world could find it in their hearts to trust her, that she could help them be free, but also that they had the power themselves. That freedom was possible for them. They could fight as she did. They could fight alongside her.
But so, too, was it a song that was meant to help her strengthen her own trust. To remember that she had friends she cared about, and that they were her strength. If it played around the world, hopefully it would help her friends, wherever they were, remember that she was there for them as well. Even if their secret was out, they still had each other, and that was enough.