lesbians make better characters

1. Legends Never Die by Belle Sisoski

Legends never die, when the world is calling you, can you hear them screaming out your name? / Legends never die, they become a part of you, every time you bleed reaching for greatness

YES i know it's the league of legends song i know i know i know. But the original has been on my electrohouse but for d&d playlist for years and I like it and so help me god i'm PUTTING it on the playlist for the d&d character who is Literally A Legend Who Cannot Die. Aegis Iuramentum anthem.

chose the belle sisoski cover bc her instrumental stuff is very cool and her voice makes me a little. um. you know. and this playlist is for me.

^^ The original song got (presumably) copyright struck and is gone from spotify - still on youtube though

However, for the sake of the playlist, we have a New opening track

THE REVELATION by Belle Sisoski

Do you see it? Do you hear it? Do you feel it? / This is your story, this is your people, this is your legacy / We rise, we fall, we do it all / The past reborn, the present recall

Sorry for putting a ten minute song on here but no I'm not. Belle Sisoski is STILL an incredible musician and vocalist and you all Will listen to her. And this one is just SO! It has the narrative themes, it has the immortality themes, it has the fighting and the legend and the cycle and the rebirth and it also very specifically picks out the word "call" several times, I simply had no choice.

And also it rips. can't forget that it rips.

2. We All Lift Together by Freya Catherine and Jack Victor

This the song of sons and daughters, hide the heart of who we are / Making peace to build our future, strong, united, working 'til we fall / And we all lift, and we're all adrift together, together / Through the cold mist, 'til we're lifeless together, together

Morgan sent this one to me veeeeeery early on as a potential Day song. Might've actually been the first song on the playlist. It's a song for his time with the Aegis: everyone working together for what is clearly some greater good, but the toll gets taken, and you start to mayyyybe get the sense it's gonna haunt you a little bit. haha.

3. Scarecrows by Dirt Poor Robins

They're Lazarus the last of us, the comatose, the dearest friends we've ever lost / Lift your head and see a tree become a forest, a duet become a chorus / Awake and feel the rush of your own blood / For the way we were was the way we learned to live, we couldn't give the things we never had to give / But when we fall we may ascend and begin again

Been obsessed with this song for YEARS. It was my #1 played song in like 2020 i think. I'm so excited I get to put it somewhere. Picking out "standout" lyrics in this song is nigh impossible, but the last verse I think best shows the dual (triple?) meaning I wanted for this song.

On the one hand, it's another Aegis song. It's about choosing to show up and fight the good fight and win against all odds, heavy on reincarnation imagery.

BUT! It's also about Day and Break choosing to walk away. Are they going to be brave enough to stand up against the Aegis and make it clear that something needs to change in the way they choose to fight and die, because their self-immolation is not sustainable. This part's mostly in the chorus and also in the BRIDGE (Remember when you find my bones, remember that I told you so, and when my ashes fall like snow, remember that I told you so) which drives me sooooo crazy insane forever. But also, the selected lyrics above I think have an inkling of this in it, since their whole point in leaving was to get more Aegis on their side. To inspire a movement. (To have their duet become a chorus.) AND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's about Day and Break choosing to walk away. Are they really going to go back home with the rest of the Aegis and leave this group of mortals to run headlong into death on their own? God damn it. They've got an inkling of care for these people. No, no, we're going to join them and everyone's going to become stronger for it.

4. Giants by Bear Attack!

When we stand up strong, when we rise above, we'll be proud as lions / And they'll know our names, no matter where we are, we'll be tall as giants

OG party song!!! It feels good to be the good guys! It feels good to be the hero! It feels good to be knighted for your deeds, to be recognized on the street, to be The Party people look to to save the world, and to actually be the ones to do it! It just feels good! Haha don't worry about the last line of the song there are definitely no quencies

5. Welcome Home, Son by Radical Face

Ships are launching from my chest, some have names but most do not / If you find one please let me know what piece I've lost / Pick the scars from off my back, I don't need them anymore / You can throw them out or keep them in your mason jars

a song for crawling back to your demiplane with the body of your best friend and lover in your arms after having been gone two years and sitting down over a lump of clay to build her a new body and holding the tools and sobbing while trying to make the first cut because as soon as you do break is gone and someone just like her but not her gets born

and i'm completely regular and normal about the song closing on "I feel your thumbs press into my skin again" for reasons. morgan knows.

6. Losing My Religion by R.E.M.

Oh, life is bigger, bigger than you, and you are not me / The lengths that I will go to, the distance in your eyes / Oh no, I've said too much, I set it up / That's me in the corner, that's me in the spotlight, losing my religion

listen it's just a fucking Good song i'll put it anywhere. I like it.

but also it is for Day choosing to leave the aegis AGAIN in the aftermath of break coming back Right and yet somehow it not being enough because Day's too different now

7. To the Mountains by Lizzy McAlpine

I'm trying to let go, I think it could help being alone / And I'm trying not to let you make me cry / I've spilled too many tears and I think I deserve to be alone / And don't you try to reach me when I pick myself up and go / I've got to do this on my own, I need to build myself a home

the og party: hey, um, Day, how's rebuilding Break going? how are you dealing with it? Do you ... want to come visit? Kez built a new tower. Theo's turning two in a few months and we're gonna throw a party. The news wants to do some more interviews and they really want you to come this time.

Day:

8. Country Corner by Lance Takamiya

[instrumental]

A song for Vigil. It really is a nice little town.

9. Solitary Confinement by Everybody's Worried About Owen

You cannot isolate me past the walls that I have built / So send your condolence cards, thinking that I have been held against my will / It's better you believing I'm fighting for some greater good, I know / I know that I believe in nothing, and I like being alone

This one's from Bekah in a round about way, she sent me some other songs by this artist, and then rec'd me this one later, and I said girl do NOT worry I already heard it on shuffle and it's on Day's playlist now. Because like, holy shit.

I almost don't know what to say here, the song speaks for itself so well. Day's self isolation was NOT made in a healthy mindset (I won't say that the entire time was unhealthy, because I stand by the fact that in Vigil he did actually become pretty stable, but only bc him "processing" his grief was actually him just getting SUPER good at ignoring it, and then he saw people that reminded him of it and he got bad at ignoring it again). But, point being, he put himself away, Unhealthy style, but refused to acknowledge that that's what it was.

He told people, especially people who didn't know any better, people who weren't as close to him, that he was out doing important, helpful things that just necessitated him being alone. This *especially* was what he told, and silently begged the rest of the Call to back him up on telling, Theo.

Day's pretty sure his absenteeism made him a fucking Hero in that kid's eyes, because he believed the lie that Day kept walking away from him, and his parents, and his uncle, and his aunt, for some greater good. Pair that with the next song about Day wrestling with the implications that Theo grew up on that lie and now he's gotta meet the expectation, and uh. Yeouch.

10. Psychomachia by I The Mighty

Wouldn't you love to be inspired, let the thought erode your fears / Wouldn't you love to be admired, does it get you through the years / Stay calm, you've got to carry on, oh even with the weight of all you've done / How does it feel to know they look up to you 'cause they're all so young?

Courtesy of Bekah, truly TRULY obsessed with this song. It's just good.

This one's getting us to current party era. It's about being asked to pick up your sword again and all the baggage and regret that comes with stepping back into that old role with a new group. It's about staring into the distance as Bard and Theo talk about "yeah haha wouldn't it be so great to almost die for a cause like Day and my parents did".

It's about wanting to be as good as you were before so you can be something for these kids and ignoring all the warning signs about which paladin in the party you're playing now (it's not the one it was the first time).

Also fun fact, in real life, it's about how the lead singer of Blood on the Dancefloor just sucks so much which I find. insanely funny

11. Heroes by MIKA

I wish there was a way, to give you a hand to hold / 'Cause you don't have to die in your glory, die to never grow old / It's your blood on me, and my blood on you / But to make you bleed's the only thing I wouldn't do

Court mandated MIKA kin song. If the last one was for the current party, this one's for Theo. And the OG party too. There's not much of a timeline anymore. Paladins protect. That's their JOB. and that's all I really have to say for this one.

12. The Light Behind Your Eyes by My Chemical Romance

So long to all my friends, every one of them met tragic ends / With every passing day, I'd be lying if I didn't say / That I miss them all tonight

Going from the last song into this one makes me want to throw up, just btw. It's fucking brutal.

Bekah also talked me into this one. I said girl idk if I want light behind your eyes on day's playlist I'll die every time i listen to it. And she said "that's the idea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Anyways imagine being immortal and watching everyone you love die over and over and over and over and over and

13. the war by molly ofgeography

You, you think that bad things happen when your guard's down, it's getting hard now to get by / And you, you wish that you could tighten up your grip round that wind-up heart that never cries / But you don't feel that young anymore / Let the war be over

if we all lift together Wasn't the first song picked for this playlist, this one was. molly ofgeography is my one my only my tenderest lover and I will put her entire discography on character playlists if you let me.

BUT! specifically. This one is, I think, Break to Day. I made a post a looong time back about how Break is fundamentally fighting to be an optimist and Day is hiding that he's a pessimist, and I think this really really speaks to that. I don't have much to interpret here. Just listen to it.

14. Nine by Sleeping At Last

So show me what to do to restart this heart of mine / How do I forgive myself for losing so much time / Wake up, roll up your sleeves, there's a chain reaction in your heart / Muscle memory, remembering who you are / Fall in love again and again and again, wage war on gravity / There's so much worth fighting for, you'll see

waaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh