An excerpt from the journal of Catili Veralis, an up-and-coming Starshooter anthropologist.

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 singers.


"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.

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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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This is my Spooky Story entry for the 2017 Helgin's Haunt event. Check out the Festivity prompt HERE for more info!
The lullaby can be sung to the tune of "Jag Vet En Dejlig Rosa" by Robyn.
Catili is a work in progress and her design is not submitted or approved as of the time of posting, but Lorai is an existing Stareater.

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