Frequent Asked Questions

The Mythic Sons are a fantasy boy band made up of five bards from across the world of Vadura. There's Xac (half-satyr frontman, charisma problem, plays a lyre named Lirien), Brad (tiefling lead guitarist, brooding heartthrob, answers to Brad and Brad only), Gunther (minotaur percussionist, gentle giant, designated dad of the group), Odo (pixie falsetto who is forearm-sized and somehow the loudest person in any room), and Becket (half-orc flautist and vielle player who wrote half the setlist and deserves twice the credit). They were the biggest act in the kingdom of Solmara. They are no longer a band. It's complicated.

The official story changes depending on who's telling it. The unofficial story involves fame, ego, old wounds, bad decisions, magical complications, and one extremely jealous lyre named Lirien.

Lirien is an ancient crafted lyre made from living wood, rumored to have been grown from the heartwood of a dryad grove. She is magical. She is powerful. She is temperamental. And she may have loved Xac a little too much. No one agrees whether Lirien is truly alive, but anyone who has spent time around her knows she has opinions. Strong ones.

That depends on how you define "alive." Xac has been arguing with her for years. Lirien insists she's winning.

Success is easy to celebrate and difficult to survive. As the Mythic Sons grew into the biggest mythical boy band in the world, old friendships strained under fame, touring, expectations, and the increasingly unpredictable influence of Xac's enchanted lyre, Lirien. Whether she was protecting him, punishing him, or simply expressing her feelings remains a matter of debate.

Because every documented disaster surrounding the Mythic Sons somehow traces back to one of three things: Fame. Xac. Lirien. Most historians consider the distinction largely academic.

His signature instrument is a living-wood lyre named Lirien. She is sentient, opinionated, and deeply possessive. She has feelings about things. Many, many feelings. He has aspirations to someday pick up the hurdy gurdy. He does stage magic and handles pyrotechnics. Lirien has feelings about that too.

Vadura is the world where all of this takes place — a patchwork of kingdoms, each with its own relationship to music and magic. We see it mostly through Xac's eyes, which means we see the sticky-floored taverns, the festival stages, the roads between towns, and the occasional vampire village before anyone realizes it's a vampire village. The world is bigger than the books. We only go where Xac goes. Author's note: IRL Vadura is my husband Chad's homebrew D&D World. We've been adventuring around Vadura since the early 2010s.