The Chanters - a sapient race based on the goldfish

[EchoMirage]

While joking about short attention span and forgetfulness, I came across an idea: how would a race with a really short memory be able to amount to something?

Then, I thought of the Chant. Everything important is chanted, and the individual can repeat a certain amount of information in his chant; by listening to the Chant of others, he has access to various bits of information. All worth knowing is kept alive in the Chant.
The ways to till fields, harvest fruit, to work the fabrics... chants of gods and fiends alike, the laws and ideals.

The language of the Chanters has several boons: it carries highly condensed information, it is near impossible to pronounce by outsiders, it carries far and clear.

Chanter cities are never silent; they're built so that chants resonate within them and are carried into the most distant corners.
By necessity, Chanters are very social, for a lone Chanter soon forgets who he is.

The race is intended more as color; they do not make good adversaries nor PCs.

[valadaar]

Idea:

Someone slips something not nice into the chant, such as the truename of something that shall not be named a certain number of times....

[EchoMirage]

Idea:

Someone slips something not nice into the chant, such as the truename of something that shall not be named a certain number of times....

Well, the Chanters will have named it a million times before the day is over if the attempt succeeds.

On a related note, the Chanters make excellent worshippers...

[Murometz]

Is this a sub yet? It should be. The Chanters.

[EchoMirage]

  Aye aye, sir! Will do!

[Strolen]

P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney, P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney

Perhaps the Chant is a way to establish the knowledge. Once they chant something for long enough it finally becomes part of their knowledge never to be forgotten. So, while they have horrible memories in general, they can be extremely specialized in their knowledge and what they are chosen to remember. There are others whose sole purpose is to know who has the knowledge.

I seem to remember some gnomes or something that we did this with somewhere. Seems to have become familiar when I was typing the above....like I chanted it before.

[Murometz]

Love this idea.

[Moonlake]

Not much I can add personally but like this idea  (I somehow mistyped 'like' as 'live' before and in reality I am a forgetful person so....)

[EchoMirage]

P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney, P Sherman 42 Wallaby Way Sydney

Perhaps the Chant is a way to establish the knowledge. Once they chant something for long enough it finally becomes part of their knowledge never to be forgotten. So, while they have horrible memories in general, they can be extremely specialized in their knowledge and what they are chosen to remember. There are others whose sole purpose is to know who has the knowledge.

I seem to remember some gnomes or something that we did this with somewhere. Seems to have become familiar when I was typing the above....like I chanted it before.

We could call it "Eternal Resonance" - anything that achieves this state forevermore vibrates through the world, heard by Chanters everywhere. They'd still sing the given stanzas when actively using that knowledge, like: