At noon, it was an ordinary Imperial market square.
Merchant.
Servant.
Watchman.
Beggar.
Everyone knew where they belonged.
By sunset, everything had changed.
The stalls became tables.
Lanterns appeared.
Masks covered faces.
The servant wore a painted crown.
The merchant wore antlers.
And the watchman was drinking with the man he had fined that morning.
**Caelwyn:**
“Temporary madness.”
**Stacy:**
“No.”
**Caelwyn:**
“You’ve seen the antlers?”
**Stacy:**
“It has rules.”
Then the drums began.
Four beats.
Clap.
Again.
Four beats.
Clap.
Twenty people joined.
Then fifty.
Then a hundred.
Merchant.
Servant.
Soldier.
Baker.
Beggar.
Four beats.
Clap.
**Stacy:**
“Synchronisation.”
**Caelwyn:**
“That’s a very ugly word for dancing.”
Then someone pulled Caelwyn into the circle.
A little girl took Stacy’s hand.
**Stacy:**
“I am observing.”
**Girl:**
“Dance.”
So she did.
At first Stacy counted every step.
Then she stopped counting.
The songs grew louder.
Hands changed.
Partners changed.
The circle broke and formed again.
And somewhere between watching and dancing, something happened.
Stacy looked at Caelwyn.
**Stacy:**
“When did we stop watching?”
He looked around.
They were standing in the middle of the crowd.
Neither remembered moving there.
**Caelwyn:**
“I don’t know.”
Four beats.
Clap.
Two hundred hands moved together.
For one instant, the sound belonged to nobody.
It belonged to everyone.
**Stacy:**
“This morning they arranged themselves around difference.”
**Caelwyn:**
“And tonight?”
**Stacy:**
“They’re arranging themselves around each other.”
Nothing had disappeared.
Tomorrow there would still be rank.
Money.
Hunger.
Duty.
The Empire would still be the Empire.
But tonight had created something else.
Not *me*.
*Us.*
And none of it required Chaos.
People had made the music themselves.
Chaos only needed to understand why they might never want it to stop.
## PLAY EPIC. FEEL THE STORY.
Enter the Old World, where a song can turn strangers into a crowd — and what the crowd becomes next may depend on you.
Campaigns:
https://startplaying.games/gm/dunchan
Explore the history, religion, folklore and philosophy behind Mythveil Chronicles:
https://www.patreon.com/c/mythveilchronicles_bydunchanhuntergames
**Stories that remember. Worlds that change.**
# When everyone around you begins to move as one, how much of yourself do you need to keep?