THE TRUE ORIGIN OF “OH WESTFORT”

 

THE TRUE ORIGIN OF “OH WESTFORT”

The Skas City-Binding Lament

Before Westfort had glass towers or smokestacks, before it was even a city, the Skas lived along the canyon-river and the hollowed stone beneath it. They didn’t build on the land.

They sang it into staying.

I. THE SKAS DID NOT NAME CITIES

Skas belief held that places already had names.
To name a place yourself was an act of violence.

Instead, they performed Witness Laments—ritual poems meant to listen to a place and reflect it back accurately.

If the reflection was true, the place would:

• Remain stable
• Allow habitation
• Not swallow its people

If it was false… the place would reject them.

II. THE ORIGINAL RITE (PRE-WESTFORT)

The original chant—never written, only memorized—was called:

“The Watching of the Stone and the Sky”

It was performed once per turning of the stars, by a circle of Skas voices chosen for honesty, not beauty.

The Structure (Sound Familiar?)

1. What rises (stone, cliffs, sky)
2. What breathes (wind, smoke, fire)
3. What watches (stars, shadows)
4. What flows below (river, dark, trade)
5. Who walks above (leaders, adorned ones)
6. Who bears the weight (workers, unseen)

The order mattered.

So did the restraint.

III. WESTFORT’S ORIGINAL SIN

When early Westfort engineers and nobles arrived, they noticed something:

• Machinery failed less often near Skas gatherings
• The canyon walls stopped collapsing
• The river docks held fast against floods

They assumed it was luck.

Then they stole the chant.

Not understanding Skas language, they translated the sounds, not the meaning.
They cut the silences.
They added flourish.
They moved the workers to the end as an afterthought.

Worst of all—

They began performing it constantly.

IV. WHAT THE POEM DOES NOW

“Oh Westfort” is no longer a Witness Lament.

It is a Maintenance Binding.

The poem:

• Reinforces the canyon walls
• Stabilizes the underground river
• Keeps certain things asleep beneath the docks
• Prevents the city from collapsing inward—physically and socially

But it is imperfect.

The Skas intended many voices, no competition.

Westfort turned it into:

• A single voice
• Idol worship
• Blood-soaked rivalry

The city compensates.

By consuming poets.

V. WHY POETS DIE

The binding demands:

• Truth
• Breath
• Turnover

When a poet ages, their voice changes.
The reflection becomes less accurate.

The city responds with:

• Illness
• Accidents
• Sabotage “coincidences”
• Murder that never quite gets solved

Westfort does not care who speaks.

Only that someone does.

VI. THE SKAS TODAY

The Skas remember.

They call the modern poem:

“The Crooked Praise”

Some Skas elders believe that if:

• The poem is spoken incorrectly on purpose, or
• Spoken by many voices at once, or
• Spoken with the workers not last

…the binding could unravel or be rewritten.

Others fear that stopping it outright would cause:

• Canyon collapse
• River inversion
• The city to wake up

VII. ADVENTURE TRUTHS & HOOKS

• A Skas elder hires the PCs to protect a heretical recitation
• A noble house learns the truth and wants to own the binding
• A poet PC begins hearing the city whisper between verses
• If the poem is silenced for one full night, Westfort bleeds

Not metaphorically.