Tycho from Penny Arcade wrote an infectious ballad about the death of  a game character called My Belruel. A good place to hear the song is the Wired article about the Penny Arcade crew.

It kept me awake the first night I heard it until I pulled out my guitar and learned to play it. I couldn’t find the chords anywhere online so I thought I’d post what I came up with here.

My Belruel by Jerry “Tycho” Holkins

                  A
’twas the twelving day of Everfair

            E
When fell my maid of raven hair

      D                                                     F#m       E
Beneath her cloven standard of the wren

           A                     
And damn that roiling goblin horde

            E 
We’d almost slain the overlord

       D                                       F#m    E
But I could never roll an elf again

(This pattern repeats through the rest of the song)

“The Queen of Bells and Battle-Downs”
She wore the title like a crown
Foes so deep a man would drown, but she still stood alone
A princess and a duchess both
And sworn to nine prestigious oaths,
Her duties, they would take her to that twisting spire of stone

Against his tower, a silhouette
She called like a coronet
And the green sea of his armies burst from warrens far below
The pacts he’d made with demonkind
Had rent his thin and tattered mind
And hellish princedoms occupied the arrow he let go

They took her through the crowded square
And laid her at the temple stair
The sorcelled barb of Arudair beyond their healing arts
There stands a circlet on her brow
That turns the blades of men around
But if Belruel could hear me now
This song would pierce her heart

’twas the twelving day of Everfair
When fell my maid of raven hair
Beneath her cloven standard of the wren
Damn that roiling goblin horde!
And damn their hell-bound the overlord!
But I could never roll an elf again

Download my_belruel_chords.txt

Tycho sang a soulful acapella version at PAX last week too. If you have any suggestions for the chords or another version you’ve put together, post them in the comments. I’d love to hear them!

Update: I’ve updated the chords I have here based on a suggestion from David in the comments. Thanks David.

Filed under music, video games.
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