The Muse of Mutiny

"When a ship's crew turns against itself for no good reason, we know the Muse of Mutiny has been among them."

— Sailor lore

Sailors in the Great Ring tell tales of a malicious spirit they call Stasi, the Muse of Mutiny. This entity is blamed whenever the relations between crew and captain go sour quickly and without obvious cause. Sailors believe that Stasi will sow dissension among the crew in order to destroy the bonds that hold them together.

A Whisper in the Dark

Stasi is a possessing spirit who frequently jumps from one host to another. Once inside a person, it will encourage whatever grievances it can, and attempt to frame every interaction in a baleful light. If there is any unequal treatment or hidden grudge, the Muse will exaggerate it in their host's mind. It cannot directly influence the actions of the person it is possessing, but it can introduce thoughts and encourage rumination. Stasi will identify those individuals who are most easily manipulated, and begin to focus on them. If possible, the Muse will introduce rumors and innuendo targeted to destroy any trust that exists between the crew and the ship's officers.

Violence and Bloodshed

Stasi's ultimate goal is to induce a mutiny, which will shatter any remaining sense of trust and loyalty between the mutineers and the rest of the ship. It has had centuries of experience manipulating sailors to the brink of destruction, and is capable of turning even the most tight-knit group into a seething mass of conflict. Those who are able to ignore the intrusive thoughts it creates will still have their relationships broken when the mutiny explodes. The Muse does not care who wins the battle for the ship - it is enough for it that the mutiny takes place.

Banishing the Muse

Those who are skilled in the Folk Magic of sailors may be able to drive Stasi away, if they can catch it. A specially prepared rope can be looped around the Muse's host to prevent it from moving between bodies, giving the crew a chance to expel it. The ritual of banishment requires that a bird be bound to the possessed sailor, who is then induced to drink a foul brew that forces the Muse to be expelled (along with everything the poor sailor had in their stomach). Still bound by the rope, the Muse has no place to go but into the bird, which is then hurled from the ship to fly away. If this is done correctly, Stasi cannot return to the vessel for a period of at least three years, or until the one who performed the banishment dies, whichever comes first. In practice, there are so many ships around the Great Ring that the Muse will probably never return, preferring to simply begin anew on a new vessel.

An Otherworldly Fiend

The Muse of Mutiny is one of the Anima, a creature who is native to the Spirit Realm. Like all Anima, Stasi sustains itself on the spiritual energies associated with the bonds between people. Stasi is a fiend, the class of Anima which breaks those bonds in order to feed and survive. It has specialized to prey upon the bonds of trust and loyalty that bind together the crew of a ship, and adopted a persona built from the legends of sailors to inhabit. You can read more about Anima here.

Maggot-Caller

Muse of Mutiny is not the only title granted to Stasi, although it may be the most poetic. This fiend is also known as the Maggot Caller, since many ships they visit are likely to manifest the strange creatures known as Salt-Maggots. These animals appear when a ship is in turmoil, and have spelled the doom of many vessels. You can read more about Salt-Maggots here.