Broadsheet Ballads

"If I get one more complaint about the noise levels from in here, I'll arrest the whole bleedin' lot of yehs! You sound like a pack of scent-blind dragon hounds screaming murder at a woodlouse - now pack it in!"

— Captain Yaravis, Alahnis City Guard

It is considered a lousy night's carousing in Kredashmi if, by the second morning-bell, a member of the night's watch hasn't stuck his head round the door of the tavern at least once to yell at the revellers inside. Broadside ballads are a prominent feature of Kredasene social life, especially amongst the lower classes. These large sheets of cheaply-produced paper are plastered onto the walls of taverns and inns across the country, their heavy, black ink announcing the latest news or exciting, new lyrics to well-known tunes.
Communal singing is a popular pasttime amongst both the upper and lower classes. Broadside ballads can be sung in groups or individually, and it is not uncommon to hear ballad mongers singing their wares on street corners. Sometimes these publications include the music score, so that a musician can accompany the singers, usually on a concertina, fiddle or piano. There are many different types of ballads: romantic, heroic, comical, cautionary and bawdy. Every publication is accompanied by a woodcut illustration of various size and quality, to attract the attention of passers-by.

Criticism of Ballads

The main criticism of ballads comes from Saints-Servants in the Raskvaerii temple. They condemn printed ballads for glorifying crime and debauchery, and view them as being intrinsically linked to the anti-social behaviour found in taverns amongst the lower classes.

These songs do nothing put pervert our sacred social truths and desecrate our histories. It is beyond the outrage of all Saints-fearing men that the memories of our magnificent heroes are vilified on the tongues of drunken **** and shameless *****.

— Saints-Servant Radimir Ekhorin; quote censored