An excerpt from the journal of Catili Veralis, a Starshooter anthropologist. The lullaby can be sung to the tune of "Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa" and Robyn.

Journal translation:

During some of my visits to Stareater villages, I heard
a lullaby being sung to children from infancy to
perhaps six or seven years old. I was taken aback by
the subject matter. The lyrics are listed below,
though there are some variations between singer.


"Quiet Now, My Dear"

The night has come and we must rest,
for now they search the town /
The shooters search for all of us,
so you must settle down /
I know you love to laugh and squeal /
But if you do, they’ll come and steal /
So quiet now, my dear /

They take our gems right from our chests
for magic and for greed /
The deities abandoned them,
so now they make us bleed /
But if you’re silent, they won’t know /
Your gems are here and softly glow /
So quiet now, my dear /

When gems are not enough for them,
on little ones they prey /
They’ll snatch you right out of your bed
and take you far away /
So quiet down and go to bed /
Look forward to the day ahead /
And you’ll be safe tonight


As disturbing as I find this lullaby, being a
Starshooter myself, Lorai seems even more upset.
She does not like to hear it sung. She admits
that the tune is familiar vaguely familiar, but
she was taken too young to remember childhood
lullabies.

--- page break ---

I was able to get an account from a Stareater (age 93)
who is a great-great-grandmother and familiar with
the lullaby.

"When I was a child, my mother sang us that
song before bed - a lullaby to get us to
settle down, you know. It was about the
Starshooters who would come at night and
snatch up noisy kids and their families.
(She laughs.) In hindsight, it is a dark
bedtime story! As a little girl I was
scared silly. I only ever made a peep
if it was an absolute emergency.

Then, when I had kids of my own, I sang
the same lullaby to my little ones just
to get them to be quiet. (She laughs again.)
Maybe it was a bit mean, but it worked like
a charm!

(Her expression fell and she spoke with a
serious tone.) It wasn't much of a lie, though.
A family down the street was raided by
Shooters when I was a teenager. The father
was found dead with no gem and the mother
and two kids disappeared. We were a luckier
town, though. They didn't come for us often."

It appears that many Stareaters view Starshooters,
or at least the concept of us, as the things that go
bump in the night. Many of the Stareaters I have
interviewed in this journal have stories of family
and friends who were killed or kidnapped by
Starshooters. There are so many of these stories that
I can't include all of them in this journal. Shooters
as a people need to be aware of the effect of our
treatment of these people.

Catili Veralis


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A Spooky Story entry by quantumsky for the 2017 Helgin's Haunt event.

Curious about what this is about? Check out the Festivity prompt HERE for more info!


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Story created by quantumsky
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