By The Intrepid in Folktales — 22 May 2025

A Playable Folktale: The Choir of No Votes

A Playable Folktale for drifters, hyperpigs, and static that hums no name.

This is not a vote to cast or a world to save. It is a mirror for what rusts, what hums, what fades uncounted in the Glitter Band’s haze.

What You Need

2–6 participants
A shared space (virtual or physical)
A token per player (e.g., a shard, a thread, a written name) to mark a memory or loss
Optional: cards, dice, or objects to evoke omens or shifts
Consult the Lexicon of Resonance for terms like Hum, Shimmer, or Rift

Premise

In the Glitter Band’s rusting orbit, an unnamed habitat hums—its neural core leaks static, not votes, not voices, just a shimmer of what wasn’t said. Hyperpigs shuffle through its haze, their hoofprints trailing rust and maroon threads. You are drifters, here to name what was lost or let it dissolve. The habitat’s Hum—a low grunt, a fractured note—threads through your ritual.

Overture

Set the Vibe as elegiac and glitched, like a vote never counted.

In the Glitter Band, a habitat crumbles, unnamed, unmoored. Its core, a glass thorn, spits static—not votes, not voices, just rust blooming wide. Hyperpigs drift, their hooves glowing, trailing maroon threads that snag on the haze. You’re not here to mend. You’re here to hum. Her name was a vote, once. Now it’s static, dissolving in light.

Pause. Each player shares a fragment—a word, image, or glitch—that resonates with the habitat. Let silence linger.

Descent

Step into the folktale’s static.

Describe the habitat: its coral-rust hull, pocked with hyperpig scratches; its core, pulsing with no-votes; its haze, thick with maroon threads. Name a Signal—a hoofprint’s glow, a grunt’s echo, a thread’s snag.

Choose an Archetype:

The Ghost: Walked the haze, heard a name in the static.
The Scrounger: A hypermarginal, collecting rust and regrets.
The Static-Keeper: Guards the core, fears its glitches.
The Shrander: Sees a horse-skull figure, hums what none recall.
The Dissolver: Fades with each step, trailing no-votes.

Each archetype has a Flaw (e.g., “I forgot what I voted for”), a Signal (e.g., a neural shard, a rust-dust vial), and a Question They Cannot Answer. Players may co-play archetypes or let “The Habitat speaks through you.”

Ask: “What flaw do you carry here? What hum snags in your throat?”

Reckoning

The fulcrum moment. Something breaks or hums true.

Explore a fragment: a hoofprint’s glow, the core’s static, or a hyperpig’s off-key hum. One player speaks for the fragment (e.g., “The core hums a vote I didn’t cast”), another contradicts it, another reweaves them. Debate: Is this truth, myth, or static?

Each player places their token to mark a shift (e.g., “I leave my thread where the rust blooms”). As a Chorus, decide: What does the static hold—a name, a vote, or grief? Do you name it, shatter the core, or let it drift?

If a Rift emerges (e.g., clashing truths), name it: “What glitch leaked through?” When a fragment feels true, pause for its Shimmer. If silence holds too long, name something you lost. If a name is spoken twice, the static twists it—describe its new shape.

Between explorations, time drifts. Draw a card or token to determine:

What memory the static fed you.
What name you almost hummed.
What piece of yourself rusted away.

Echo

What hums when no one is left to vote?

When the static is named—or it defies naming—compose a final Echo. As a Chorus, craft a remnant: a phrase, an image, a hum. Decide:

What rust blooms in the habitat now?
Does the Band remember you?
Does it matter?

Preserve a final image (e.g., “A maroon thread unravels in the haze”). Create a session artifact—a sentence, sketch, or named object (e.g., a vial of rust-dust, a glitched shard)—to hold the folktale’s residue.

Tone Guidance

Play slow. Let silence hum.
Embrace ambiguity. Truth may be static, not solid.
Respect the habitat. Its rust is sacred, even if it fades.
If the Vibe shifts, name it: “This feels glitchier now. Let’s Drift with it.”

Artifacts

Neural Shard: Warm, glitching, hums a vote uncast. It fits your palm, but not your memory.
Rust-Dust Vial: Gritty, smells of Chasm City’s smog. It hums a name you forgot.
Maroon Thread: Snags on your breath, dissolves in light. It knows the habitat’s ghost.

Pass these during play. Use them to mark omens or shifts.

Glossary of Uncertainty

No-Vote: Not refusal, just a hum uncounted.
Hypermarginal: The Band’s edge, where pigs breathe rust.
Static’s Haze: The sound of names dissolving, singing itself to sleep.
Shrander’s Glint: A horse-skull flicker, never yours, always humming.

Activation

Solo: Whisper the Overture to a dark mirror. Sketch a fragment. Let the rust hum in your bones.
Group: Pass a Neural Shard; each player hums a fragment. Stay silent when you can’t hum.
AI: Feed a fragment to an AI, ask it to fractal the static. Keep what haunts.
Drift: Paint a maroon thread. Make a playlist of grunts and haze.

Aftercare

What hum lingered in your chest?
What name didn’t the static hold?
Would you hum it again, or let it rust?

Licensing

The Rust of No Votes is built on the Playable Folktale SRD v1.0 by The Grey Ledger Society. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0. Adapt, share, or remix with attribution to the SRD.