Who was singing here? 🎵🪨

November 7, 2026

Since the summer they have been standing all over the galaxy: rune stones. You find them at old monuments, in ruins and sometimes all on their own in the landscape, painted with glowing signs. The game says just one sentence about them: "Nobody has ever read them."

For months we walked right past them. Yet we could have heard them the whole time. 🎵

Every stone sings one word. Aim at a rune stone and press E, and it sings you a short melody. The signs are painted notes. They belong to the Sounders, a people who speak in music and write in music. They are said to have been tall and thin, with four arms and no eyes. Nobody has seen one in a very long time. VEGA collects every word you hear in the Song Archive in your Journal. After the third word she has a suspicion: if single stones can sing, then somewhere they must sing together.

Eight pillars are waiting for an answer. Somewhere stands the Singing Shrine, a circle of eight pillars with eight voices. It sings something to you and then waits. We won't tell you what happens when you answer correctly. Only this much: afterwards you'll have something that spins and sings.

Discs of black glass. The Sounders sang their memories onto Song Discs. On a Song Spindle every disc sings its song, but understanding it is up to you: letter by letter, in the Sounders' note alphabet, with two notes for every letter. The discs have names like The Beginning, The Builders, Hunger and The Great Song. Some of them even tell you how to rebuild what the Sounders built. What kind of people were they? And what is a disc called "Hunger" about?

Someone is still singing at the old stones. If you have the right ears for it, you'll notice sooner or later that it isn't quite silent at the rune stones. That is where the Echoes wait. They are tall, translucent figures who quietly sing to themselves. They aren't ghosts, and they aren't evil either. But they only answer if you ask in their language, which means with a melody. Four of them each know a piece of the way home.

A home that is on no map. Somewhere out there lies the home of the Sounders. You won't find it on your star chart, no matter how long you search. Anyone who wants to go there has to know their song first.

What happened to the Sounders? Why has nobody read their stones in all this time? And who are the Echoes still singing for? 🔭

How to start. The Sounders' Song has been in the game since version 2026.11.9. It is a second story next to VEGA's, and each of you plays it on your own. It starts very quietly, as soon as you make a rune stone sing for the first time. Monuments have several of them. You can also start the story early in the Journal, or switch it off there. You never have to fight, and a wrong note doesn't break anything: you just try again. 🎶 If you don't know VEGA's story yet, our first story teaser tells you how it begins: The Stars Out Here Have a Past.

By the way, the way the Sounders look comes from our school club: Theo and another child from the club drew them. Thank you! 💜

Justus and Marcel