Fermata

Notable Locations

The Rest Mark

A crescent plaza of black stone inlaid with a white harp sigil; every footfall arrives a heartbeat late, as if the realm itself is listening first.  

Audient Hollow

An open amphitheater whose seats are carved from pale driftstone; speak a tale of change and the pit replies in soft counterpoint.  

The Unfinished Conservatory

Glass galleries of silent instruments, lutes strung with moon-thread, flutes of frostglass, a Sword of Songs mounted above a dais, each awakens for a bar or two when handled with care.  

Echo-Walks

Ribbon bridges over cloud-chasms where the minor theme is clearest; hum in tune and the span steadies, fall to discord and the rails recede.  

Saurial Cloister

Low colonnades etched in scale-script celebrating reinvention; wind-chimes cut from shed plates ring in close harmony.  

Two Tablets

Twin stelae in the Entry Close: one names Rushlan as savior fallen aiding Ervenius, the other as obstacle slain, both are kept side by side, neither defaced.  

Travel and Access

The Staff-Doors, carved with five-bar motifs above their lintels, open when a traveler hums or plays the melody cleanly. Each leads to a different balcony or bridge within Fermata.   The Sustain Bridge, linking to Mithardir, manifests as a cloud-causeway when a company completes a performance in harmony. It descends to a fjordside mead-hall before fading.   Borrowed Margins, paths to the Library of All Knowledge in Brux, open when one speaks aloud a cited change they have truly lived through; a quiet side-aisle in the Conservatory then pages them into the Library’s stacks.   Overthreads sometimes slip through to Krigala or Brux when a performance here turns to rescue or reconciliation, though return requires a different melody.  

Inhabitants

Echo-Petitioners linger as faint and kindly after-images of audiences, players, and scribes, present enough to turn a page, sweep a stage, or hum a fragment of a melody, yet never able to sustain conversation for long.   The Caretaker Einherjar, known as the Seven Quiet, are once-champions who keep eternal vigil. They emerge from the mist to still quarrels and gently guide the lost toward shelter.   Passing Choirs of Azatas, Agathions, and good-hearted Fey drift through Fermata on pilgrimage, pausing only long enough to tune the air before continuing their journey.   Strays and Wayfarers, usually bards, dancers, and saurial pilgrims, are sometimes drawn here by rumor of a last hidden lesson.

Dead Air reduces spiteful shouts and boasts to breathless thinness, while apologies and thanks ring out to the furthest corner.   In Cut Time, the Rest Mark plaza slows all haste, rushing a task invites stumbles and mishaps until one matches the realm’s gentler beat.   A Fading Cue unravels promises made for vanity, yet vows tied to healing, mending, or honest change are not only held fast but softly amplified.   The Minor Drift lengthens hallways for grief left unspoken; a candle lit, a line written, or a bar taught aloud shortens the path once more.   Resonant Casting steadies concentration when magic is worked alongside singing, bowing a chord, or tapping a steady rhythm, with benign effects interpreted as part of the performance.   The Refrain of Mercy strengthens healing, restoration, calm emotions, remove disease or curse, and atonement when performed as part of a song or act, allowing them to last a little longer and reach a little farther.   Appointment Travel ensures that way-walks and teleports keyed to a clear purpose and time arrive with uncommon precision, while casual wanderings drift in the echo.   Silence for Tyrants causes domination, fear, enthrallment for cruelty, and necromancy that harms life to falter or fail outright, while rites of remembrance and gentle passing take easy hold.   Through the Borrowed Verse, once per stay a performer who honors the Courtesy of the Pause may take up a single perfect bar—gaining advantage to inspire, to steady the hand, or to unlock a stubborn door, so long as they promise to teach it onward.