Zarword: Tales and Poetry Podcast

The Scavengers return to the Academy expecting recovery — instead, they find fractures spreading beneath their feet. An ancient sigil pillar cracks, students lose control of their shifts, and the ground itself begins to react to fear, conflict, and indecision.As instability worsens, the Council is forced to reveal a long-buried truth: the Academy was built atop a dormant failsafe created by the First Scavengers — a living mechanism designed to absorb sigil collapse by binding itself to a human carrier. And now, awakened by the ocean node, it has begun to choose.A midnight incident exposes how deeply the corruption has spread, turning classmates against one another and placing Tlotlo at the center of suspicion. When the failsafe partially activates, stabilizing the Academy at a terrifying cost, the Curator’s true strategy becomes clear: he is no longer attacking from the outside — he is forcing impossible choices from within.Amahlé must hold a fractured school together as leader, Naledi confronts the limits of laughter as a weapon, Otsile listens to a land that is no longer neutral, and Tlotlo realizes the fragments do not want the same future.Part 12 is the moment the war stops being theoretical.The ground has chosen to wake up — and it is demanding payment.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/zarword-tales-and-poetry-podcast--5838727/support.

The Scavengers travel east to the edge of the Indian Ocean, following a Sigil fragment that has fled into the deepest memory the world possesses. Beneath the waves lies an ancient node — older than the tribes, older than the fracture — hidden for centuries by the ocean itself.As they descend, the team is overwhelmed by drowned memories: shipwrecks, chains, final breaths, and grief the land could never hold. The ocean does not show visions — it transfers them. Otsile listens to water that remembers blood. Naledi is forced to confront what laughter cannot silence. Amahlé struggles to hold the Chorus together as the pressure of leadership deepens. And Tlotlo feels the fragment change inside him, growing heavier, clearer, and dangerously aware.When the Curator appears, he does not come to conquer — he comes to learn. Watching as the ocean node partially awakens and violently resists control, the Curator realizes something critical: the Sigil fragments are no longer passive artifacts. They are developing preference. Choice.He withdraws by design, leaving behind an unstable node sealed imperfectly by the sea — and a terrifying truth.The world is beginning to choose sides.Part 11 is a haunting, lore-rich descent into memory, grief, and agency — and a turning point that reshapes the war ahead.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/zarword-tales-and-poetry-podcast--5838727/support.

The Scavengers descend into Shongweni Crater, a scar in the earth where the Curator has fused stolen memories, broken machines, and fragments of the First Sigil into a single monstrous creation. What begins as a reconnaissance mission becomes a battle for identity, survival, and truth as the team faces weaponized echoes, corrupted sigil-tech, and the Curator himself — finally unmasked, finally speaking, and more dangerous than ever.At the crater’s core, the Sigil fragment responds to Tlotlo with terrifying intensity, revealing ancient truths and unbearable futures. Naledi weaponizes her laughter, Sipho manipulates sight itself, Otsile calms the land’s pain, and Amahlé channels the Chorus-Mind to hold the team together as the Curator’s machine awakens.But when the fragment shatters once more — sending a piece into Tlotlo and another racing toward the ocean — everything changes. The Scavengers escape collapsing tunnels with the Curator’s warning haunting their steps:“Every fragment you keep from me… will cost lives somewhere else.”Now the team must regroup, rebuild, and race eastward toward the next node before the Curator reaches it — or before the Soundless March consumes everything in its path.Dark, emotional, and action-packed, Part 10 marks a turning point in the saga — where the truth behind the tribes and the Sigil begins to surface.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/zarword-tales-and-poetry-podcast--5838727/support.

The Academy wakes to a terrifying discovery — another tribe’s sigil has cracked, and the Curator’s silence is spreading across South Africa. As fractured banners flutter over the courtyard, the Scavengers are summoned into an emergency war council, where an old prophecy returns: The Soundless March, an army of lifeless constructs powered by stolen voices.Assigned to intercept one of the marching columns, the team travels to the abandoned mining town of Rhalale, only to find themselves hunted by constructs that make no sound, leave no footprints, and share a single goal: retrieve the fragment of the First Sigil hidden inside Tlotlo.An all-out battle erupts, forcing the Scavengers to weaponize memories, awaken the town’s lingering echoes, and combine their powers in the most intense Chorus-Mind fusion yet. But even victory comes with a price — the Curator finally steps forward, revealing his vision of a world ruled by a restored, unstoppable Sigil.With one march temporarily halted and Tlotlo’s newfound ancestral knowledge burning through him, the team must prepare for the inevitable next strike. All roads now lead to Shongweni Crater… and the next fragment of the truth.Part 9 delivers action, lore, emotional depth, and the chilling rise of the Curator’s war.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/zarword-tales-and-poetry-podcast--5838727/support.

After surviving the Dust-Eaters, the Scavengers return to the Academy with more questions than answers. But when the Curator’s strange device finally opens, it reveals something far more terrifying: a shattered fragment of the First Sigil, the original source of all Scavenger powers.The fragment pulses with ancient memory—older than the tribes, older than shape-shifting, older than the Academy itself.As the team follows the Curator’s cryptic message into the forbidden Plateau of Whispers, Tlotlo is confronted by the echo of his father, Amahlé fights to hold the Chorus together, and Otsile warns of voices in the wind calling their names.At the plateau’s center, the Scavengers awaken a Sigil Warden—a colossal guardian made of fractured rune energy, programmed to destroy anyone who tries to rebuild or erase the First Sigil.In the chaos, the Warden chooses Tlotlo and implants him with a lost piece of ancestral memory… making him the new Keeper of the Sigil’s past.But when they return home, they find the Academy in disarray—and the Hyena Tribe’s sigil broken.The Curator is no longer just watching.He is dismantling the tribes one by one.A mythic, emotional, high-stakes chapter—Episode 8 deepens the lore, raises the danger, and marks the beginning of the Sigil War.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/zarword-tales-and-poetry-podcast--5838727/support.