Nightingale Bell

In the Domain of Dread I’Cath, the Nightingale Bell is both artifact and anomaly—a sorrowful, enchanted instrument whose ringing sustains the illusion of Tsien Chiang’s perfect city. Suspended in the highest chamber of Ping’On Tower, the bell is fashioned from star-metal and ancient brass, its surface etched with script that flickers and shifts, written in no mortal language. Its shape is elegant and elongated, not unlike a birdcage, and inside it hangs a delicate clapper carved from petrified bone.

The bell does not toll of its own accord. Instead, it sings—a long, clear, lilting note that echoes like birdsong through the realm. This note rings continuously within the dream, unnoticed by dreamers, but in the waking world, the bell is rarely heard. When it does chime in reality, its sound warps space, causing architecture to shimmer and shift as if reality itself is resisting or reshaping. In those moments, all of I’Cath may fall still, as if listening.

The Nightingale Bell is the source of Tsien Chiang’s dream-magic, binding the dream-city over the waking world like a veil. It nourishes the illusion of a perfect, obedient I’Cath—where every citizen acts with purpose, every street gleams with golden light, and no voice dares to speak against the queen. Within this dream, the citizens labor tirelessly to meet the impossible expectations Tsien Chiang never received as a child.

Legends whispered in the slums of the real I’Cath claim the bell is alive—or at least, bound to a soul, perhaps that of one of Chiang’s long-lost daughters or an ancient spirit of truth. Some dreamers who’ve awoken in a sweat speak of glimpsing a songbird trapped inside the bell, singing until its throat bled.

To destroy the bell would be to unravel the Dream—but none who have tried have ever returned. The bell defends itself with psychic torment, hurling would-be saboteurs into recursive dream-loops or revealing truths so painful they tear the mind apart. Even Tsien Chiang dares not touch it now. She listens to it from afar, weeping silently as the bell tolls a dream she cannot wake from, nor bear to end.