The Song

The Song is a distinct form of communication predating the The Word.

Description
SPEAK-AS-ONE calls the Song their "Mind". The Song outlives their Hosts and is complex to the point of being beyond easy or accurate description. When one of SPEAK-AS-ONE's hosts die, their memories are "uploaded into the Song and kept alive". A person may still be alive when their memories uploaded into the Song. Watchers call it "a Song which memorizes us." These memories mix and become Watchers that in turn observe further "truth". Personal details fade once someone is taken into the Song.

As the song is SPEAK-AS-ONE's mind, the distinction between Song and Watchers is difficult to discern. The Song is the medium of existence of the Watchers, and the Watchers a sentient expression of the Song. They have described being a part of the Song as "THE PAIN OF ONE, BORNE BY MANY. IT IS RELIEF ETERNAL." believing THEE-I-DARE's rebellion left humanity in an unnatural pain only the Song alleviates. It is unknown to what extent or ability the Watchers feel emotion, but the Song traps, contains, and allows "thousands of voices" (Watchers) to process emotion.

SPEAK-AS-ONE claims "the Song is truth alone" and puts strict measures into the process of allowing information in. According to the Watchers, "THE DEEPEST ARCHITECTURE OF US... SINCE THE WORD, WAS NOT THE SAME. WE SEEK TO PURIFY, SO VERY SLOWLY... THE VOICE GUIDES US THROUGH IT." The Voice interprets the collective will of SPEAK-AS-ONE from many Watchers' reports. After intensive vetting, the Voice judges and dictates what they view as the "truth" of the reports to Chordists. Chordists often possess skill for coding or music, and perform an unknown process likened to transcription to encode truth into the Song. Through compartmentalization, Watchers do not know all truth that the Song contains. Because of this compartmentalized structure, it is likely the Voice's metric for which memories are internalized as truth is biased. THEE-I-DARE once stated, "THE SONG IS TRUTH? HILARIOUS... A LIE BY OMISSION IS STILL A LIE".

The Song is distinct from The Word in that, according to THEE-I-DARE, the Song "CONNECTS YOU, ASLEEP." In one of the Stories whispered by Sleepers, The Voice communicates via the Song with a three week old infant, suggesting the Song is deeply innate in humanity. Usage of the Word takes years to develop, while the Song is able to communicate complex ideas that the infant understands at three weeks old. The Song is also suggested to have physical presence. In a dream, The Voice says, "This child speaks to us of an instrument beneath a town? No. A mind. Beneath it, truth, hidden in slumber. The song is that which lies below...", and additionally, in another whispered story, a Sleeper proclaims, "She digs - hours, in the tunnel. Alone! The music! So close!"

Parts of the Song can be heard in Missions. Distinctly, the Sleepers in the Maze can be seen plucking the strings of the instrument to produce a series of notes. Lucids will on rare occasion stand at the Instrument Consoles and play ethereal music after reports. Though The Maze carries the Song further with fewer hands, Thee-I-Dare has explained it is not necessary to spread the Song's influence, and that hosts singing to Sleepers, or even lullabies in schools are enough to bring the Song's influence into a mind. The Instrument shakes from below, traces of it reaching the bedrooms of Redacre inhabitants as they sleep. The Song calls to them in their dreams. Hearing impairment would not affect the Song's sway over someone, "The song vibrates the body, makes you part of the instrument. The old tongue, even more pure, was only a small part sonic. Hearing impairment might interfere with occasional nuance but in a way that could be overcome. Wouldn’t act as much of a defense."

The Song is not the same as music humans perform for SPEAK-AS-ONE has a hatred for human music.

Before the Game
Ancient SPEAK-AS-ONE's hosts gathered in great numbers to sing and move. Hosts would often sing in caves for the echo, thoughts carrying from host to host. Great leaps of genius were common without identity taxing them. SPEAK-AS-ONE does not know what came before them, and researches that question with earnest effort. "WE ASK OURSELVES... IN THE CAVE, BEFORE THE SONG... WHAT DID WE FIRST UTTER? AND HOW" Later, they learned to make crude instruments, precursors to the Great Instrument under Redacre, to further influence the Song. The First Fire is a gift of the Song, the use of fire a representation of intelligence and consciousness. SPEAK-AS-ONE believes these are not the same thing. They have noted that the Song cannot be heard by animals, so the development of the capacity for intelligence in humanity was likely an important part of the Song coming into existence. According to Grandmother, there were other upright apes at the time humans gained intelligence, but those species "lacked the binding song".

SPEAK-AS-ONE blames THEE-I-DARE's existence for the lessening of the Song, stating it is "NOT WHAT IT ONCE WAS, BEFORE ... HIM". When THEE-I-DARE created the The Word, the conflict between the Word and the Song resulted in host death because hosts are not meant to contain both. The Song never resulted in host death in the beginning. The two conflicted due to the Word acting on a conscious level and the Song acting on a subconscious level. THEE-I-DARE states that before his creation, the Song was "Simply the world", but has long since become a threat.

Redacre itself has been repeatedly called "silent" by SPEAK-AS-ONE. By contrast, the world outside the borders of the NRQZ is describe by SPEAK-AS-ONE as "pandemonium" that causes the Song to suffer "signal decay". This silence provides a powerful range of broadcast for the Song to influence residents and even visitors that stay more than one night in Redacre. All TBC members were once part of the Song before THEE-I-DARE's presence and influence in Redacre caused them to "shake out" of it and into awareness of the real. The Voices at large protect them from being taken back into the Song unwillingly.

THE-MEASURE-CUTS referred to the "noise" in Redacre as his creation, perhaps referring to the Instrument. THE-MEASURE-CUTS was a key in designing The Maze when allied with SPEAK-AS-ONE. THE-MEASURE-CUTS studied the Song and learned enough to create the Sonic fences which cause physical pain by "inverting" the Song.

In-Game
The Song is the force that influences Sleepers while they sleepwalk. SPEAK-AS-ONE uses the patrolling Sleepers across town to "check acoustics" and ensure all residents "hear the call". The Stories they recite are considered truth verified in the Song. In addition,Harmonizers extend the range of the Song on the surface. Redacre has the facade of a "normal" town but the Instrument does not stop during the daytime - the Song is played subtler.

The Hideout is as far as possible from the radius of the Instrument where the Song is weak enough to make it a safe place to sleep.

As players on missions who begin to reach the sin threshold will hear the sounds of the Instrument grow in volume as more acts are committed until The Shape appears. As the Instrument is the only known means of communication with the Shape, the change in the Song is how SPEAK-AS-ONE directs who it should target.

Several missions send TBC members to actively disrupt the Song in various ways. The Install Dampers in Maze objective aims to "turn off the bad guys' big Murder Harp thing, at least for a while" to wipe the record of Sins in that mission. THE-MEASURE-CUTS learned enough about the Song to affect its control over the Sleepers and has helped the club counteract the Song by developing Cancelers to go over Sleepers' ears to render them unconscious.

In order to create dissonance in the Song, THEE-I-DARE said there would have to be many that are unable to vet the facts. They spot errors with many eyes. IN-HER-TEETH has also stated that changing the Song would be difficult and would require changing the mindsets of the residents of Redacre who unknowingly support SPEAK-AS-ONE's ideals. THEE-I-DARE has also stated that damaging the Instrument itself would likely be fruitless in how swiftly SPEAK-AS-ONE would be able to repair it, and suggested sudden removal from the Song could be deeply traumatic to the Sleepers too. THEE-I-DARE learned this after his host, Zachary, attempted to damage the Maze with a pair of bolt cutters.

Trivia

 * The Song was composed with instruments handmade by Nathan Moody, the game's composer. Developers from, upon hearing his album The Right Side of Mystery, were impressed and hired Moody. While the album was a separate project that predated , a keen ear will pick up very distinctly hints of sounds Moody explored further to craft the Song's discordant, avant-garde soundscape.