Call me Fir | She/her/bruh to my kids | Author of “Viatica” and “Cantata,” both IFs available on itch.io | Curious about my recent colorectal surgery and health journey? Follow my side blog @fir-bag
This is the intro post for my WIP, “Cantata.” Read my completed IF, “Viatica,” here on itch.
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Questions about fan fiction of my work and what’s permitted? Please read my STATEMENT HERE.
A low fantasy IF loosely based on the Italian Renaissance period, with a steampunk edge.
SYNOPSIS
The story is set in Saleste, a vast empire with a long history of expansionism and colonization. Within the empire, technically citizens but not, are the Iredicci. The Iredicci can hear and feel the cordis, the harmonic pulse that connects all living things, and they connect to it through song. Iredicci have excellent hearing, but their defining feature is their voice—they have an echo to their voice, a resonance of two pitches at once.
A simple, nomadic people, the Iredicci were traditionally welcome in all corners of the Saleste Empire. But as steam technology progressed and the push for new resources grew, a prejudice developed against them. Over the years they stopped being welcome. Eventually, their travel was restricted, and the Iredicci were forced to live in settlement camps.
You are one of the Iredicci, born into such a camp. The elders sing songs of past travels and wonders you have never seen. Ever the optimists, the elders tell you to take heart. To be thankful you are among friends and family. That things can’t possibly get any worse.
Until they do.
Historians and politicians would call it The Proelium, a righteous battle against the traitorous Iredicci. What it really was, was the systematic genocide of your people. In one night, soldiers attacked every settlement camp across the empire. No one was spared—not the elders, not the children, not your mother.
It was mere whim that you snuck out of camp that evening, a mischievous escapade with a friend that ironically saved your life. You are taken in by your friend’s family and kept safe. But with survivors being hunted and killed, you must conceal your identity. So, you pretend to be deaf and mute.
Journey through the empire of Saleste and beyond. Grow from a child into an adult. Make friends, lovers, allies, and enemies. How will they react when your secret comes to light? Will you abandon your song in favor of machine? Join the rebel forces against the tyrant regis? Will you heal the wounds of the realm and restore balance? Or plunge it further into chaos?
FEATURES
Play as male, female or nonbinary—you’ll be able to choose your pronouns independent of your body type.
Customize your character’s appearance and personality.
Choose your attunement/proficiency with the cordis. This choice will heavily influence gameplay, affecting combat, weapon specialization, character interactions, and problem-solving situations. Choose wisely!
Create 2 character names: your birth name and an alias. The Iredicci have culturally unique names, so your birth name will be limited to a preset selection. But you will go by an alias of your own choosing for most of the story.
Develop your relationship with your adopted sister. Are you friends or rivals?
Romance! Or not. Romance 1 of 5 possible love interests, including a late addition, secret RO! Or choose the platonic route with the best of friends.
Save a wild animal from a hunter’s trap and gain a steadfast companion. Because fur baby.
THE MC
The game begins with you at age 7. When you are 12, your camp is slaughtered during The Proelium. With your voice and heightened hearing identifying you as Iredicci, you pretend to be deaf and mute in order to hide your heritage. The main game occurs 13 years after The Proelium, when you are 25.
ROMANCE OPTIONS
Calliope Cato (she/her)
The inventor/artificer, Calliope can build and fix any machine. She is 2 years younger than you, petite, with gold eyes, rich brown skin and black hair in multiple braids. Her hair and clothes are adorned in rings, belts, and pins which double as tools. She carries a man’s cane sword with her everywhere, which she wields in a fight along with a hand crossbow. She’s curious, optimistic, excitable, and easily distracted by her many projects, but much of that is to keep her mind occupied. In quiet moments when she thinks no one is looking, you glimpse a profound sadness on her features.
Corinne Xenakis (she/her)
The leader of the rebels, Corinne works to overthrow the monarchy and aid the surviving Iredicci where possible. She is 6 years older than you. She is tall, with long, sandy brown hair usually worn in a messy bun or loosely braided bun, hazel eyes, and beige skin tanned by the sun. Quiet, serious and aloof, she feels a tremendous responsibility for those under her command. Corinne is a contradiction—she has the grace and manners of a noblewoman, yet fights with military precision that is uncommon for females of noble lineage. She is deadly when double wielding her flintlocks or axes. While not cold, she is not overly familiar or friendly with anyone, and very tight-lipped about her past. What does she guard so fiercely behind her armor?
Vicente Aloi (he/they)
The bastard prince, Vicente is calculating, ruthless and driven. They are the same age as you, and they, too, lost their mother the night of The Proelium, though under different circumstances. But while you were adopted into a loving family, he is the unwanted son of the regis, trained to be a lethal tool. He has long, midnight blue-black hair, icy blue eyes, and high defined cheekbones. The edges of a tattoo are barely visible on his neck above the collar of his doublet… wings, perhaps? It’s beautiful. He’s beautiful, though you’d never tell him for fear he’d take his rapier to your neck simply for looking. Will your plans align with his, or are you merely another pawn in his schemes?
Bayram Durmaz (he/him)
The son of the Aydem, the matriarchal leader of Tinebaille. Bayram is 4 years older than you. He has golden-honey skin, light brown eyes, and dark brown, tightly-curled hair that he usually wears back in a ponytail or half ponytail. He is tall and broad, muscular but not toned, with a rounded edge to his stomach and chest. A sprawling, colorful tattoo, the mosaic artwork of his people, covers the entirety of his back. He is boisterous, bold, and a shameless flirt. With his young sister bearing the weight of succession, he’s been free to explore the islands to his heart’s content, and is familiar with every bay, inlet, and harbor. He is equally skilled at wielding a spear, sailing a ship, and charming hearts.
CLICK HERE for a master post of all the fun, flavor text options in the story thus far. These are mostly insignificant, not plot affecting, and only for funsies.
Well we're certainly not the ones getting married but... Can we at least get to zone out amd daydream about the possibility of doing so with Tellus in the true iredicci fashion? This is literally the first thing I thought of and I know he would also let himself dream like that!!! Iredicci wedding, whoever it is that the spouses are, will have my hopeless romantic mc in shambles 💔💔
Finally had the chance to play through ch. 6 (3 times over for Tellus, Brayum and Vincient; im sorry women I only love men)
OUGH the angst in the bathroom scene. OUAAHHV incredible work honestly. Each scene felt so good. It fit really well. I CANNOT WAIT for the next chapter whenever it happens. I love you for one billion years.
one day I will get to kiss Vinciete (im sorry i spelled all of their names wrong i am just bad at names) and all will be well with the world
Tellus's scene was so sweet, and soft. and AH
I cannot sing brayum's scene with high enough praise. he could do anything to me.
Ngl, anon, my eye is twitching over the name spellings. 🥴 But Brayum, emphasis on the yum, is rather appropriate, lol.
I’m glad you liked the scenes, and we’ve only just started! 😉
Kinda obsessed with the element connection concept, which got my brain going down a rabbit hole about MC who embodies their element. I got thinking about an air MC and how you can’t really contain air in the way you can with other elements, and was curious how the RO’s would react to an MC who really embodies that when it comes to physicality? Like dances out of the way and out of reach of any move that feels like being caught, caged, or pinned down, and if one of them did manage to put MC in a position that triggered that caged sensation they find themselves looking into the eyes of a storm about to be unleashed.
Ooh, I like it! The elements have always been my go-to favorite super power. I was obsessed with Storm when watching X-Men Saturday morning cartoons.
I love hearing how you guys take these concepts and really adapt them to make your own unique MC. ☺️❤️
ive just started playing cantata and im having a blast! went with fire attunement for my first time and im really liking the little touches and flavour in the descriptions, emphasising warmth and heat. im only partway through, but reading vicentes descriptions from the beginning reminded me of someone i couldnt put my finger on, but its clicked lol. vicente really reminds me of julien davinos (character from critical role) and honestly the image has stuck in my head haha. and his weapon of choice is a rapier? cross universe siblings. thanks for this really fun game! pic for reference:
Ayy they are cross universe siblings! ❤️ Although judging by that smirk I’m guessing his personality is more like Bayram’s than Vicente’s? Love the look of him, though, and voiced by Matt Mercer is a huge plus!
Thanks for giving my story a try, I’m glad you’re enjoying it!
Everytime the poly is mentioned I earn deeply for it to be reality. If I had a billion dollars I'd give it to you to make it so 😭
Lol, it’s not completely off the table, but if I did it, it’d be extra content after the main story is done and published. 💕
Chapter 7 has 30 different beginnings because apparently I wasn’t in enough pain from surgery, I needed more. Can you imagine if I add a poly route on top of all that?? 😵💫
as promised, a fan server has been created for the community to collectively appreciate @fir-fireweed’s cantata ✨ ty for giving us permission to make it, fir !!
to note, this discord server will be exclusively 18+ ‼️ be prepared to show verification at the door 🫡
see you there ‼️ welcome to our accord
Welcome to "The Accord"! We are a fan-run server for the interactive fiction "Cantata" by fir-fireweed on Tumblr. | 8 members
The wonderful fan community has created a discord server for Cantata! This is a fan-run site but fully endorsed by myself, and I may lurk from to time to time. 👀
Chat with others in the community, share fan content, or just be a lurker like myself. Thank you @bulu-boo for putting this together! 💕
you were excited about drawings of the resistenza officers, so i played through a whole new save to write notes on every detail you described them with. And I'm not even good at art
gel pen on notebook paper coming (maybe) soon to my blog. (i'll @ you)
Aww, I love this! ❤️ Vicente would totally princess carry Vita and that is such a sweet moment! 🥹
On a side note, Vicente is the most difficult for me to write and is usually the last route I write whenever I’m doing RO routes. The feral cat is still pissing on the narrative. 😆
I don’t remember if you’ve included anything related to makeup—especially lipsticks—but let’s assume there’s a reasonable variety of them. In this scenario, all the ROs are in their “free time” or spending time with MC. How would the ROs feel about being MC’s “guinea pigs,” while MC keeps applying one lipstick after another to see which one doesn’t leave marks on the ROs faces?
Reference image in case the scene wasn’t clear. MC is the girl, obviously.
Which one would end up like the guy in the picture?
Hahahshszzhkhvj! 🤣 I’ve got the perfect answer to this already made by one of the talented artists in the fan community!
The answer is not an RO, but Nik, as seen in this hilarious piece of fanart here! 🤣
I know I’ve seen a follow-up to this with Tellus somewhere out in the wild but I can’t find it in my search. If you’re the artist or know who is, please tag me! 🫶🏻
I like that there's an option to be sad, if not resentful about how Calliope can meet her father again while we'll never get such a reunion. Can we potentially approach that topic in a conversation with Calliope herself, potentially with Calliope comforting us maybe?
I’m glad you liked that option! Several other readers have mentioned the same.
I could try to fit in a conversation like that! The problem is that I didn’t code those choices in a way that I can call back to. I’d have to add a variable in and you’d have to replay the chapter. I can write a convo that doesn’t reference that previous choice, though. Hmm, have to think about that… 🤔
This might be a weird question but what do the surviving workers and soldiers in the hangar that were present for the destruction of the airships think happened?
Do they think it was a simple malfunction? Coincidentally in all ships at the same time…
Do they suspect sabotage? Do they suspect it was an iredicci considering the rather unnatural behaviour of the elements?
Could they hear mc’s singing? Surely not considering the distance, right?
Or does the possibility not cross their minds? On that note, have there been other iredicci sabotaging the Regis’s plans at some point or would mc be like the first? (Not counting Tellus, I mean like elemental-based sabotage)
Most iredicci are brought to tinebaille for safety from what I remember. Mc is like the first and only iredicci fighter of the resistenza that can make use of their song and abilities + child of a duette. A unique kind of threat to the Regis.
Omg it would be so fun if at some point we find out the Regis has given out an order to capture mc just like he did for Aestus…
Excellent question! The singing could easily be heard by those in the hangar and the factory; the Ossequenti in particular would have recognized the song for what it was, and reported back to the regis. The destruction happening in the airships themselves was louder than MC’s singing. However, the sound does amplify when an Iredicci really strains, as MC did, so those on board may have heard it faintly.
Aestus used their song a few times in the year they were traveling, and some Iredicci (like Unda) fought back during The Proelium, so the regis does understand the power they’re capable of. But MC is the first Iredicci in years to weaponize their song, and to such a degree.
As for the rest of your ask… ahem, we shall see. 😉
(Kinda spoilers since its been out for a bit but I don’t want to be super vague)
Hey Fir, glad to see you about. It wasn’t a shock to corrine and Vicente that we were irredecci, but was it a surprise that we weren’t deaf, mute, or that our connection hadn’t been severed? Did they think at least one of those things were true?
I keep thinking if Corrine sharing her past and even if we show her forgiveness and grace and mourn the position she was in, I wonder if she thinks about how we still didn’t tell her. I wonder if she took that to mean that we forgave her and felt sorry for her but that we didn’t trust her. All I can think is that she’d… agree, which really makes me want to wrap her up in like the biggest hug. I hope we get to tell her that we do trust her and we did want to tell her and that we were going to T-T
And don’t even get me started on Calliope, she was so open, from the very start. And I can just see her trying to write off her own feelings about it, like she’d think up all of the good reasons we had, and I can just see her trying to hold her own hurt to herself. And on top of the fact that her dad is alive? She’s got to be in the whackest head space right now. Happy and devastated and now one of her safe spaces, one of the people she believed she could trust, well maybe she misread that. Maybe we don’t trust her and how can she go to us now? God, please please please, I’m hoping she doesn’t get in her own head about it.
My girls! My girls! I need my girls to be okay!
(im so terrible for this, I do actually like the boys & Vicente but like, when my girls are in Big Sad™️? I’m over here like, Tellus is in his natural state: mourning, he just needs to hydrate, and someone give Vicente a water spritz because whatever you’re planning while everyone is distracted needs to be heard by at least one more person, and like Bayram will be fine after a hug, I’m busy. The girls! [please note: no Vicentes, Bayrams, or Telluses were harmed in my playthrough, this is a dramatized retelling to place emphasis and do a funny. I do not want to be hunted through the woods by the people playing their routes])
“Tellus just needs to hydrate” 🤣🤣🤣
I do get more asks around those 3 so, yes, let’s consider our poor ladies! I won’t go into detail here but you’re spot on with Corinne. Calliope won’t be as angsty as Corinne but she does tend to mask her feelings, especially when there’s so much going on. Can we say distraction?
after reading the "safe option" bath scene, I found I really liked getting to know the other resistenza characters. Are there going to be more opportunities to get to know them well? I find all of the ROs a little daunting because they each have some kind of special role in the story, and i'd like to know more about the less essential characters.
mirabella and matteo are a great bundle of joy, and gabriele is totally cool. I think levi might be my favorite though. my first time through he was the only one i remembered specifically. maybe if have time i'll try to draw them all
I’m delighted to hear that! I wondered how many readers would try that scene. If you do draw them, I’d love to see it! ❤️
The Resistenza officers are my lovable band of misfits. You’ll get to know them more but not for a while, I’m afraid. They won’t be in the next couple of chapters. You’ll get to know Yıldız more in the next chapters, though! I do, however, have some shenanigans planned with them when the narrative finally gets to court. 😉
And I’m actually relieved to hear you talk about the ROs in that way because that means I wrote them the way I intended. I want my ROs to have their own significance in the story; so much so, that the narrative would fall apart if you removed that character.
