For a while now, I've been enthralled by the music video for Autoheart's song 'The Sailor Song" (see link below)*. And for a while now I've been DYING to know what the story behind it was. Unable to find anything online, I decided to write my own. Ultimately, it's going to be steampunk. But, it's already taking a weird direction, and I'm only 2 pages in. Ha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUcdobQxrRU
*In some other post I'll tell you the story on how I came across this song and now this new band that I ABSO-adore.
Check it out below! For now, I am just calling it The Sailor Song because that's the name of the song (durh). And yes, I am writing music video fanfiction. Is that a thing? Well, it is now.
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THE SAILOR SONG (Part 1)
Legend has it
that in the year 1431, a great ship descended from the heavens, piercing
through the clouds to land amongst the parched sands of Persia, the damp
forests of Siam, or some other distant, exotic city, itself more myth than
reality. This ship was seen by eyes spanning across the known world and even by
civilizations at the time undiscovered.
Some people
believed that it was a vessel from God, meant to deliver judgement unto those who
had turned their backs on the faith. Others asserted that it was a message from
the gods of antiquity, made of star stuff and sent down from Mount Olympus. However,
many simply did not know what to make of it. Holy men prayed in their
sanctuaries, common folk plowed their fields and tended their sheep, and explorers
set forth on grand expeditions. Most never returned home.
No evidence was
ever found of the ship itself, though whispers of its sole surviving artifact persisted:
A totem with five glowing stones that was recovered by a group of merchants
bound for the Bengal Sultanate. It was a gift for Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah, coup-appointed
sultan of Bengal. Before they could arrive, the merchants were set upon by
bandits and the artifact was appropriated, never arriving at its final
destination. Then, Jalaluddin’s reign ended two years later with his tragic
death at the hands of his beloved.
The artifact began
to descend into speculation and then into legend as it remained missing and while
the event slowly faded from the memory of most, one man never stopped looking. Antonio
Fruosino di Celso da Firenze, left his wife and baby son in search of the
fantastical, sparked by curiosity, wonder, and desire. For years he scoured the lands, travelling north
through Russia, to the Far East, and south to Cairo. He could feel the
mysterious relic calling him as he drew closer and the closer he became, the
more hardship it brought him. His search party all but abandoned him. He lost
an eye to infection in the parched deserts of Africa. Starvation, thirst,
exhaustion plagued him daily. He persevered, expending all his energy, so
consumed by adventure and possibility that nothing else remained in his heart. When
he finally attained the artifact, he triumphantly returned to Firenze – to the
home of his family – only to find it deserted.
Nearly thirty years
had passed while he hunted, though they only felt like ten. His son had grown
up and relocated to Vinci, hoping to marry. His wife had died. Unable to carry
on one mile further, Messer Antonio willed on his death bed that the relic be
delivered to his son Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Firenze, now Piero da Vinci.
He hoped the artifact would bring his son better fortune than it had brought
himself.
Piero did
become an affluent notary, and grew to wealth and power. However,, after being
spurned by his first love, and suffering through the early deaths of his two
following wives, Piero cast away his father’s artifact along with the only other
to know of its existence: his adolescent son, Leonardo.
