The Trials and Ordeals of Lang Thay, Artist of Hallifax

 

An account of the self-imposed exile, period of vagabondage, and various challenges faced by the historic Hallifaxian artisan Lang Thay in producing one of her greatest masterpieces

 

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The Frustrations of Genius

 

Hallifax has been home to many of the most talented and prolific artists in the history of the Basin.  One artist in particular, the Lang Thay is particularly notable for the stories told of the difficulties she faced in the pursuit of inspiration.  While some of the most talented members of the Commonwealth's highest castes may have exceeded the noble artist Lang Thay in their skills of artistic expression, none have suffered so greatly and at such length for the sake of inspiration of their art.

 

Lang Thay herself was a Merian, born shortly after the re-emergence of the glorious Commonwealth of Hallifax and Gaudiguch, the so-called city of freedom.  The latter is notable for its lack of any culture that might befit a city and the totally illusory nature of its citizen's freedom.  While born of a New Celestine family, the cruel vagaries of war, which ever plagues the Basin, left her both orphaned and abandoned near the outskirts of Paavik.  The specifics of the misery that composed the first tragic chapters of Lang Thay's life could fill novels, but in the interest of presenting the most inspiring portion of her history in a concise publication the finer details of her adoption by a Krokani family, the bestowal of her adoptive name Lang Thay* in a poor attempt at High Merian by the Krokani, the subsequent tragic death of her adoptive family** by plague in Lang Thay's teenage years, and her eventual departure from the village after enduring prosecution for her art will all be omitted here.  It is hoped that subsequent publications will provide an opportunity to expound on these details of her most eventful life.

 

Upon her departure from Paavik, Lang Thay made her way to Hallifax in the hopes of finding a home which would embrace her artist nature and support her in producing future works.  She found exactly such a reception, and for some time dwelt among the Commonwealth producing statues and painted works of such exceptional quality and moving emotional nature that her foreign origin was nearly forgotten and she ascended by virtue of her great merit into the highest castes of the Hallifaxian citizenry.  It is likely that Lang Thay would have remained a welcome resident of the Upper City's great galleries for the whole of her life but for the fickle cruelty of creativity.  The majority of her works were depictions of mortal suffering and bitter endurance, an expression of her pained childhood converted into motivational works that drove the citizens who saw them to ever-greater heights of civil service.  Over time, artistic freedom helped Lang cope with her grim memories but exhausted the chalice of her inspiration.  While her talent never left her, she felt her works become formulaic and, being made without passion, they ceased to inspire others.

 

As the cruel world's influence on her childhood had led her to so many great works, Lang Thay resolved to return to the wider world, hoping to discover new sources of personal inspiration.  What follows are accounts of the most important of these experiences and the subsequent second blooming of Lang Thay's art.

 

 Footnotes:

 *It is believed that Lang Thay's given name is a Krokani butchering and misuse of the Merian term Laetans, which means to be delighted or fortunate.  It was presumably given either over their joy in finding a child or in reference to the child's fortune in being found.

 

 **While no unambigious record exists, certain census documentation recovered from Paavik indicate the likely identity of Lang Thay's adoptive family are members of the Fea'guht clan.  This would properly make the artist's name Lang Thay Fea'guht.

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Life Among the Serenwilder

 

While success had garnered for Lang Thay a great deal of wealth, she chose to leave most of it behind to be held in trust by the Commonwealth during her wanderings, the better to experience the raw and unforgiving nature of the lands outside of Hallifax.  She supported herself primarily by bartering small works in charcoal and simple painting and largely found herself well-provisioned and safe in her travels, though she occasionally by encounters with unsavoury individuals had cause to be grateful for the rough-and-tumble skills she had acquired in her youth.  One such encounter left her worse for the wear, enduring a grievous wound from a cutpurse's dagger after her refusal to part with her sovereigns and supplies.  Fortunately, the worthy artist was spared untimely demise as a result of her discovery by a travelling band of Serenwilder scouts.  While the travelers lacked a proper healer, they possessed such expertise as was necessary to bind Lang Thay's wound and promptly transported her to their commune where she was graciously attended to there by a capable apothecary.  

 

While treatment preserved Lang from mortal peril, she had never been of particularly hardy constitution and so was obligated to rest for some time to recover her strength.  It is a testament to the courtesy of those Serenwilder who hosted her that they asked no reward for her rescue nor did they require coin for her lodgings while she dwelt among them.  They insisted it was their honour to allow the famous artist to dwell among them.  While others in commune objected to the presence of the "city-dwelling miscreant," the influence of her hosts ensured that Lang was able to explore the commune in freedom and safety. 

 

Lang Thay experienced a number of the traditional rituals and practices of the Moondancers and Hartstone druids during the period of her recuperation.  While a number of them were distrustful of the civilized outsider, others recognized in her a curiosity without malice and welcomed the opportunity to share their beliefs and practices with the open-minded stranger.  While Lang never strayed from the laws and religion of Hallifax, she was moved by the dedication some of the druids showed to defending and empowering the earth and many of her later works depicted elements of growth and nature.  Before she departed the Serenwilde forest, she produced a number of small crafts in a new style which she left with her generous hosts and those druids and wiccans the company of whom she had particularly enjoyed.  While the details of the crafts are now lost to us*, it is known that one druid was so moved by this gift that he gave Lang a powerful charm, an enchanted vial containing the blood of a stag, which he promised would grant her the strength a great work in the future.  True to the druid's word, the blood of the hart was essential to Thay's greatest masterpiece.

 

Footnotes:

*Anecdotal evidence suggests that Lang took inspiration from the face paints of certain Serenwilders and combine this with her knowledge of sculpture and painting to produce a series of stones with elaborate depictions of painted faces.  It is known that at about this time period, a trend of ownership of so-called "pet rocks" began in the forestal communities.

 

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Visiting the Holy Duchy

 

Near the end of her adventures abroad, Lang Thay found her path taking her near the Duchy of Gaudiguch.  While a member of another caste, such as a trader or soldier, might have had previous encounters with Gaudiguchian citizenry which would have firmly cemented the wisdom of avoiding such dissolutes, and the education of a scientist or artist born and raised within Hallifax would have imparted a similar degree of caution, Lang Thay had the benefit of neither.  Further, in her journey she had encountered tolerable and even to some limited degree admirable members of the various cities and villages outside of Hallifax and her own home of Paavik.  This combination of factors allowed her to delude herself into thinking that travel with Gaudiguch might be pleasant or even enlightening.  Hoping to find the complaints and grudges held by her comrades to be exaggerations and generalizations, she resolved herself to visit the Holy Duchy.

 

A rapid succession of misadventures followed Lang Thay's poorly considered decision to visit the duchy.  Almost immediately, she drew the attention of a pickpocket who presumably viewed the purse of a stranger from out of town as the shortest route between his miserable existence and being able to afford some conveyance to a state of inebriation.  Made wary by previous encounters in her travels, the artist was not taken by surprise and the profligate thief found himself at the disadvantageous end of a steel dagger when he moved to take the her purse. Her pride over this success turned to frustration as she found that those who passed for guards in the city had little interest in applying the due processes of law to the would-be robber and she was ultimately compelled to let the scoundrel go with no punishment harsher than having been paraded about the marketplace. 

 

The bitterness of this experience had barely enough time to fade before Lang Thay found herself further put upon by the unique hospitality of the Holy Duchy.  A scantily clad and diverse troupe of inebriates noticed the foreigner in their midst and began to accost and solicit Lang, encouraging her to participate by various means in their demented revelry while screaming various praises to their patrons, most of which appear to be fictional inventions outside the pantheon even of Gaudiguch.  The group would on no account be put off, despite the artist's protests, and Lang Thay ultimately found herself compelled to elude her harassers by the indignity of fleeing them at a run.

 

Other ordeals quickly followed this one.  In various incidents, Lang Thay found herself very nearly set on fire numerous times, doused twice in the beverages of strangers, the subject of the amorous interest of a member of the Illuminati, and the accidental guest of honor in a dedication ceremony of a new shrine.  These various tribulations exasperated the poor artist and removed from her all doubt that the opinions of her fellow citizens were largely accurate in regards to the nature of Gaudiguch.  Harried to exhaustion, she had resolved to leave the city and at last return to splendid Hallifax but one last indignity remained before she would be able to escape.

 

Merians being something of a rarity in the area around the Skarch desert, and the distinguished Lang Thay possessing particularly memorable garments and mannerisms had ensured a strong impression on the guards she inconvenienced by attempting to turn over a criminal to.  As she approached the main gate of the city to depart, she found herself the subject of their baleful attention.  Their harassment was not limited merely to harsh words, as several of them made use of the smoked fish that was a part of their daily ration to pelt the artist alongside of jeers of "Fish for the fish!"  Lang Thay kept one of the offending projectiles, a smoked sole, as a bitter trophy to remind her of the depths that mortals can sink to.

 

Having at length the better part of what the Basin holds, but feeling no closer to an artistic breakthrough, Lang Thay resolved to return to Hallifax.  While some of her experiences had brought her joy others had been miserable and she found herself longing for the comforts of her adopted home and the company of her familiar friends among the Hallifaxian Peers.

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The Masterstroke

 

Returning at last, Lang Thay attempted to overcome her creative block by new experimentations in style and subject matter.  The frustrations of Gaudiguch fresh in her mind, she first began to produce works that expressed the chaotic city in both imagery and focus.  Sometimes she splattered paint wildly across the canvas.   On other occasions she chose deliberately clashing colours and textures for her work.  All of her paintings depicted the behaviour of mortals at their worst, whether it was in wasteful indulgence, wanton cruelty, or acts of bitter betrayal.  While these works did sometimes stir the emotions of their audience, it was only base feelings that were stirred and most reviews found the artwork only provoked headaches and dissatisfaction.

 

The first experiment a failure, in later days Lang set herself to trying to recreate the memories of healing and growth she had felt in the Serenwilde commune.  She painted flowers and trees and all manner of wild beasts.  She worked with earthy tones and every shade of pastels.  With her great skill, she produced painted statuework that could have passed for genuine beasts had they been found in their native lands.  None-the-less, the work lacked the spark of life which had made the experiences so meaningful to her.  What's more, it must be acknowledged that such scenes met their harshest critics in the refined and civilized sensibilities of the Nobility of Hallifax.  Having not shared her experiences, viewers found no inspiration in her works. 

 

Lang Thay despaired of developing a new style that would once again satisfy her creative drive and bring feeling and inspiration to citizens of the Collective.  Her masterpiece came about almost by accident.  To practice her technical skills while she wanted for inspiration to strike, she sketched and painted scenes from her journey.  Only with a collection of them all before her did she understand the lesson she could show by her travels.  Upon canvas far larger than any previous work, she painted the whole of her journey.  The portrayal was unflinchingly honest and she knew even as she painted it that some of the scenes would likely bring the contempt of her peers on her.  Determined to see her work through, she depicted her moments of weakness, her errors, and her poor decisions alongside her victories and moments of glory on the road.  The mural was an inspiring display of endurance and personal growth, certainly worthy of a talented artist, but it fell short of a true masterpiece.  Inspiration suddenly struck her.  Recalling the keepsakes she had from her travels, she mixed a new vibrant shade of red paint from the blood of the Serenwilde hart and a deep, aching black from the ground scales of the preserved sole.  With these pigments, she adding the finishing touches to her masterpiece.  The piece, titled "Journeys" was widely recognized as the greatest of its period, leading all those citizens who viewed it to passionately pursue new challenges to overcome for the glory of the collective. 

 

By this tale an important moral is seen.  Lang Thay was possessed of great artistic skill long before she undertook her journey across the world.  Thus we conclude this Lang Thay Fea'ghut story by observing that in producing a masterpiece, it is not enough to be talented - One must put their hart and sole into their work!