Album: The Earthen Scar
Artists:
- Thomas Ferkol
Date: March 11, 2012
Date Added: February 4, 2025
Cover Artists:
- Nic Carey
Wallpaper Artists:
- Nic Carey
- Jebb (edits for wiki)
Art Tags:
- Annette (The Earthen Scar)
- Corvus (The Earthen Scar)
Wallpaper File Extension: png
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/album/the-earthen-scar
Color: '#f0eddc'
Groups:
- Thomas Ferkol
- Beyond
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/album/the-earthen-scar))
    (Read snippets of the story by clicking on each track)

    The first album of a series, THE EARTHEN SCAR follows a young mage, Annette, and her bird-like guardian, Corvus, as they traverse a nation at war with itself. Spawned from the inner state (Alacastor) capital known as The Spire, state mages have developed a "plague" of undeath through magic, spreading it radially from the center of the continent in an effort to bring renewal and eternal life. The Outer States do what they can to keep the "Miasma," or so the plague has been dubbed, from encroaching further, conjoining their military into one large force to isolate it within the state of Alacastor. Weeks prior to word of the plague reaching the Outer States, Annette awakens one day to find her parents, state-independent mages, gone without a word, leaving her with just a business ledger and their mute assistant, Corvus, an artificial human. Using the small black book, the pair seek to discover her parents' whereabouts, why they left, and who created the plague which seems to scar even the earth itself.
---
Section: Main album
---
Track: Cinderfall
Duration: 3:12
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/cinderfall
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/cinderfall))
    "They approached a desiccated fountain outside what appeared to have been the city hall. He didn't relinquish his grip on her shoulder though she strongly felt the urge to shrug him off. Turning counterclockwise in place, she found a path branching from the small plaza. A crooked watchtower, scorched into a new existence as an ashen monolith, stood like a grave at the edge of the town. Hopefully, this was the right place."

    Annette, a young mage, awakens in a small town ravaged by the Miasma and passing military forces. She and her guardian, Corvus, search for a path outlined in her parents' ledger through nearby mountains in their journey to find them.
---
Track: The Ashen Tower
Duration: 3:02
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-ashen-tower
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-ashen-tower))
    "The first few impacted with the ground and rushed at the pair in all manner of unnatural positions. Annette froze, but Corvus took a step forward, extend his right leg, and, with his foot, pushed one head-over-back into the dust, crushing its worn chest. He impaled a second with his taloned, right hand as it leapt over the grounded mongrel. Even with a foot through its upper body, it clawed at his legs, and the other gnashed its crooked teeth, trying its best to pull itself closer to him. With a flick of her wrist, not quite out of her daze, Annette set their heads alight, and Corvus retracted his arm, stepped out of the fallen body, and hurried back to her. More approached, too many to deal with at once. Even the once blazing wall waned dangerously, partially due to her split attention. Stalling them here seemed to be a fruitless effort."

    Finding a watchtower mentioned in the ledger, the two attempt to travel down the path beside it, only to be ambushed by remaining Miasmics not flushed out or incinerated by previous forces. Testing her abilities in a combat situation, Annette breathes in "inspiration," magical energy, from the ruined town, but overuses her conjured fires, burning into her own bodily energy in the midst of the defense. Corvus is forced to drag her from the wretched horde and flee down the path to an old trade route tunnel through the mountains.
---
Track: Stone Cavern Symphony
Duration: 3:48
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/stone-cavern-symphony
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/stone-cavern-symphony))
    "With an outstretched hand, Corvus pulled her onto her feet. He lit a torch, and the two gazed into the cavernous depths. The empty expanse was soothing."
---
Track: Boreal Plain
Duration: 2:50
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/boreal-plain
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/boreal-plain))
    "The outside air felt bitter cold, but clean. She could breath and not taste the fire, the ash, the tattered spellwork of the Miasma. Inhaling deeply, she found herself more at peace than she had been for days."

    On the other side of their mountain passage, the pair enter an unfamiliar environment. Their current path appears to continue to the city of Isstad on Lake Nostros, across the frozen, windswept plain.
---
Track: Dear Wasteland,
Duration: 3:15
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/dear-wasteland
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/dear-wasteland))
    "The eyes behind that enigmatic bird mask always stared ahead, never toward her. His rags made him blend in with shadowed alleys and corners, never stepping into broad daylight unless called upon. He walked silently, but quickly, avoiding attention and diminishing his presence however he could. A curious being, an artificial construct, but neither a golem, being made of true flesh and bone, nor homunculus, being larger than a sparrow. For as long as she could remember, he existed with her family, but for what reasons, she did not know. Ever since her parents' departure, he had followed her and acted like a guard dog, sensing danger and unease, popping out from behind walls occasionally to check up on her, then scurrying back to some hiding spot."

    The pair set up a temporary camp in a secluded, stone outcropping as Annette reflects on her parents' sudden disappearance, Corvus, and their what they'd witnessed thus far.
---
Track: Isstad Blur
Duration: 5:09
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/isstad-blur
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/isstad-blur))
    Annette seeks an alchemist mentioned in her parents' ledger while Corvus hides from the city's people. He tells her of a plant her parents sought known as the Gottestrane, located in the northwest portion of the inner state, Alacastor, across the great lake Nostros.
---
Track: The Last Great Lake
Duration: 6:32
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-last-great-lake
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-last-great-lake))
    "Annette didn't answer, let her blue eyes fall half shut, and gazed over the bow. Her head rested on her knees as she braced her legs against her abdomen as best as she could in the white hide jacket. She was lulled into a dream like state by the mesmerizing gray waters.
    Gerhardt dropped his head with a nodding motion, resting it on the wheel and staring at his boots with a not-so-subtle sigh. He surveyed his ship with a sideways glance, saw everyone he recognized in their places, but found his attention resting upon the girl's odd companion. Barely within the boat, the bird-man leaned over the edge, rags flapping in the wind, as though he were some skeletal vulture preparing for flight. No, he thought, he was what was left of the bird, a pile of calcified memories reminiscing, the flight all in its head."

    Annette and Corvus manage to hire a transport ship to cross Lake Nostros. After a bit of idle chat with the captain, Gerhardt, and a short storm, the crew are greeted by an interesting sight just ahead.
---
Track: The Miasma
Duration: 3:38
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-miasma
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-miasma))
    "She heard tales telling of it, in its highest concentrations appearing almost beautiful, a lurid mist hovering as if the auroras of the north were dragged down to the earth. Thus far, she had had no chance to witness it first hand and hoped to keep things that way."
---
Track: Southern Shore
Duration: 4:04
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/southern-shore
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-miasma))
    The crew, no longer willing to approach the southern shore of Nostros with the encroaching Miasma, offer the pair a lifeboat to finish the journey. As Corvus rows, Annette views changes in the land as they get closer to the Alacastor border.
---
Track: Ripples (In the Atmosphere)
Duration: 3:26
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/ripples-in-the-atmosphere
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/ripples-in-the-atmosphere))
    Annette and Corvus have their first encounter with Alacastor Miasmics. They are led to a ruined military camp.
---
Track: The Watchman on the Lake
Duration: 3:10
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-watchman-on-the-lake
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-watchman-on-the-lake))
    "You can speak, and you are clearly a mage, yet you rend our drones down to fleshy scrap. Are you, perhaps, still living?" He strode toward the pair in a graceful motion, like that of a crane wading in the shallow waters of the soaked earth. Threatening to hold them in place, the damp ground lightly tugged on their boots. With his neck at a crooked angle, he seemed to gaze through the tight fold that should've rendered him blind and straight at Annette. "Yes, yes you are. Then perhaps you came, young mage, to learn our way." He stopped and held out a pale hand, and with it, she swore she felt the earth slither under her feet, almost as if recoiling from the motion. Corvus brought his left leg back, assuming a defensive position. "Or perhaps," he rolled his head to face a dismembered Miasmic crawling legless toward him, "You came to learn your place."

    The pair find an old necromancer calling himself the "Watchman" just off the shores. After asserting her desires not to become a necromancer, he challenges Annette and Corvus, using Miasma-infested blood as a way to control the earth around them.
---
Track: The Murky Passage
Duration: 2:32
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-murky-passage
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-murky-passage))
    Corvus severs the head of the "Watchman" through a torrent of flame after Annette traps his earthen snakes under ice, and his body is cast into the lake. No longer with a guiding voice, however mad, giving the drones purpose, they become frantic and hysterical. To escape, Annette and Corvus resolve to move with a nearby river deeper into the state of Alacastor.
---
Section: Bonus tracks
---
Track: The Bitter Suite
Additional Names:
- The Bitter Suite (Bonus Track) (original name)
Duration: 10:17
URLs:
- https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-bitter-suite-bonus-track
Commentary: |-
    <i>Thomas Ferkol:</i> ([Bandcamp about blurb](https://eidolonorpheus.bandcamp.com/track/the-bitter-suite-bonus-track))
    "Why is this a bonus track? It's 10 minutes long!"

    Indeed it is, but I decided to release it with The Earthen Scar as an extra track, not directly related to the story but in a similar vein and deserving a release at some point after a year of being in the vault.