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True Barding

According to Fiona Frank


Fiona.frank@xs4all.nl

Thanks to Milla van der Have

Introduction
Why another book about barding you might think. Well, the answer is plain and simple: one of my players and I were not happy at all with the standard bard as described in all DND/ADD/3 rd/3.5 edition books. And I have been noticing that no player at all ever chooses to play a bard really. It might be my group, but I think a large part is also due to the unattractiveness of the class as it is. I think the existing bard character does not reflect what I think of as most important: the power over words and songs, the power of enthralling an audience by sheer personal performance alone. Why would a bard know magic? Why would she have to use hypnotic light patterns to keep an audiences attention? Great bards of all times would not need such devices. So thats how I developed a new bard character, using only songs, poetry and legend lore. Since I am very much interested in bardic knowledge and wrote my thesis on poetry and the magical sides of being a poet (together with Milla van der Have, just to say were poetry freaks), this was loads of fun. I used a lot of knowledge gained from several books. Wherever possible I stated those in footnotes. Naturally the bard kit was based on the original bard character as in the ADD books, but I changed so many things I might as well say its a whole different thing altogether. Of course I would like to hear all reactions, both the negative and the positive. My bard kit was developed while playing, so a lot of things could, and will still be improved. Please do let me know if you think one of my solutions is ineffective or you have an idea we didnt think of. Also I would like to mention that a lot of time and effort are put into this book. You are allowed to copy this text, please just refer to the rightful owner. Please do remember however that the copyright is mine. Id like to get credit where credit is due. Do not spread a version of this book you edited yourself without conferring with me. I would like to thank a lot of people, especially Milla van der Have, whom I once worked on this book with. I also send many thanks to my d&d group; I have been playing with most of these guys for 18 years now and I still love every minute of it. Last but not least, I would like to thank a lot of poets from all over the world and all over the ages. Orpheus gets the special mentioning because he is still the greatest bard ever. No one else ever made gods and mountains cry, according to my knowledge.

Poems are cheeky bastards, they tickle my heart and my head, they break all the rules and live by their own like a night of love, she said. (Brendan Kennelly)

Fiona Frank fionaqm@xs4all.nl

Table of contents
INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................ 2 CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO A BARD IS A BARD IS A BARD? ............................................................................................... 4 VARIATIONS ON A THEME .................................................................................................. 6

THE COURT POET ..................................................................................................................................................... 6 THE HISTORIAN........................................................................................................................................................ 6 THE LORE MASTER.................................................................................................................................................... 7 THE MUSICIAN OR MINSTREL ...................................................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR SING ME OH MUSE ......................................................................................................... 8 STATISTICS ..................................................................................................................... 9

Chapter one A bard is a bard is a bard?


It has always been the want of many people: to lure people by voice alone, to intimidate a crowd by chanting, to beget fame by a written ode or to make a rock cry by strumming on a lyre. Much of what we know from the old days we know because of the effort bards put into their work. What would we know of the Romans or the Greek for example if not Ovid, Plato or Vergil had taken the time to write things down? Also we know that in ancient days people attributed a lot of strange powers to bards; the filid from the Celts were known to curse rulers they did not like and it was generally believed a cursed ruler was doomed. The Aborigines even believe the world with everything on it was sung into existence. In the Dreamtime the gods were walking the earth and as they went along, sung trees into life to the right, rocks to the left. Bards were known to make or break someones position in society. For this ability they were paid in gold or secretly slain. This was one of the reasons bards sought shelter at courts or at mansions of wealthy and powerful protectors. They had the influence and the money to protect their minstrels from harm. Of course it was a two-way street. In exchange for protection, bards had to try their utter best to enhance the glory of their masters. Many lies were written down because of this. In times where 99% of the population was illiterate, having supportive writers and poets around would strengthen the protectors position in society. Those bards would sing the great deeds of knights from their courts, or praise the unlimited wisdom of their rulers. They would recite poetry to flatter their queens and satirise their rulers enemies. It was a luxurious life for a bard, as long as you stayed on your masters good side. It was also in its own way a dangerous life, living through all the intrigue that seems to go with court life and always living in fear of saying the wrong thing at the wrong time. Of course there were also the troubadours, the wild-at-hearts. No one would tell them what to write or sing about. Most of them were roaming the lands, looking for shelter (and the occasional (wo)mans bosom), using their trade to get free meals and drinks. Serving as a source of information for the rural areas and being tellers of tales of great magnificence in a televisionless age, they were much loved. This type of bard was feared by rulers, since they would not willingly lie about the practices of the rich or dishonourable. These bards would specialise in folktales and legends, but also in great deeds done by powerful knights to capture an audience. They would know all the love songs and could make the greatest political satirists. They knew all the latest gossip from the area, with which they could buy themselves shelter for the night. Life for such a vagabond would be dangerous: encountering perils on the road, enduring the harshest conditions of weather, sleeping in a hay stack and finding love for one night (and an angry husband/wife the next morning).

With those two extremes there is still a lot left unsaid. There are millions of ways you could think of a type of bard somewhere in between those two stereotypes. It would go too far to put them all into writing here. I will however talk about some other possibilities of barding in chapter two. One thing remains however. Whatever type of bard you choose; it does mean you have power over words or melodies. This is one of the greatest powers known in the world (look at the media) and it could be your fame or your downfall. Remember the saying: The pen is mightier than the sword. And so indeed it is.

Chapter two Variations on a theme


The court poet
This type of bard is the one already mentioned in chapter one. This bard strives to maintain or enhance the honour and glory of one ruler and his court. This does not necessarily mean the poet actually believes what she says; she is one of the people indeed who would know better. The bard would know if the king is actually an ungainly pig, but as court poet she would choose to write about the honour and elegant manners of her protector. She gets lodging, food, pocket money, honour, a chance to shine at official events and protection in exchange for spreading propaganda. Court poets can be dangerous weapons as rulers can use them to influence the population and so change the outcome of elections for example. Also do court poets themselves have enormous power, since with their words they might be able to change their masters minds by reasoning (or fallacy) or flattery. They have a lot of dangerous inside information besides that and both protector and bard know it. It is important to both of them to maintain the status quo. The subjects a court poet could write about are actually unlimited. Most common though are romances of chivalry, historical works on ruler ship, odes to the ruler or his region of power, poetry on the beauty of the court women and great epics about battles. A lot of monarchs however are dying for knowledge and give their bards assignments according to their interests. A bard could write an encyclopaedia or a treatise on alchemy and dedicate it to her protector.

The historian
We would all depend on oral tradition if it werent for the occasional historical writer. This type of bard is a more serious writer (which doesnt mean he cant be funny). For most historians objectiveness is of utmost importance. Intensive research is undertaken to find the truth amidst the rubble of history. The historian digs deep in the past to learn about the old ways. However, there are also historians that wish to perpetuate current events going on around them. The kingdom might be in a complex war and the historian feels the need to register everything as it happens. Of course there also might be historians that want to change history. They twist things according to their needs, they leave events out, and they write plain lies. Traditionally, this kind of bard would also be the person to write rulings during disputes or write up a marriage certificate. In this possibility to influence the course of events lays the great power of the historical bard. Not only in his own times will most people look upon his work as the most objective account of an event (it is a written record after all), but people long after his death will be dependent on his narrative for knowledge of the event. The historian has the great power to unmake history or forever make it. For example the historian can show by twisting arguments, that the count indeed has the right to inherit the throne after the king dies. A historians main subject is of course history. But this could range from accounts of battles to the history of a mountain region, the downfall of the empire written in verse, the appearance of a god that changed society or a tale about the beautiful architecture in the capital. Also a historian could get an assignment from a ruler to get to the bottom of an issue or to forge documents or falsify history.

The lore master


Who does not know the tale of Snow-white or Cinderella? Thanks to lore masters like the Grimm brothers fairy tales spread all over western civilisation (and perhaps further). The brothers dedicated a big part of their lives to collecting legend lore. They wanted to save folktales and regional lore from certain death. They travelled far to find new stories and put them all together in a book calling them fairy tales. This is one way of being a lore master. Another type could be found in the chief or shaman of a village that knows all the history and tales of his region or fields of interest. It could be part of the tradition of the village that the chief or shaman knows all legends concerning the tribe. That way it prevents the traditions from dying. Basically being a lore master means you are frantic about stories that bring you knowledge. You know everything there is to know about a few subjects as talked about in ancient lore. You are always on the lookout for new stories. The knowledge of the lore master is limited, but that is always the case with fanatics. They are aware of the fact that you can never know everything about everything, so they choose to specialise. A lot of lore masters claim that it is better to know a lot about one thing than a little about everything. Being a lore master makes you a highly trained specialist. Whenever questions arise in your field of study, you would be the first people would seek out. If your field of study was that of an extinct tribe or something similar, you would be one of the people who could read their language and understand a lot of their customs. If you know every fairy tale in the region, you could be the one explaining to the well-meaning wizard why the population reacts badly to his magical fireworks. It is your job to link knowledge from the lore to the world and events around you and give all this precious, ancient material a day-to-day use. Output from a lore master could be a collection of (fairy) tales, an essay on the old ways of the Lost Tribe of Atlantis, research of eastern poetry or a treatise on how ancient customs are in the way of the rulers reorganisation of his parliament.

The minstrel (or musician)


Imagine you would be a Madonna or Michael Jackson, because that is in fact what a minstrel is: an old-fashioned artist. A minstrel could be working independently so that he gets to choose his own music and his own way of playing. A minstrel could be playing in an ensemble or you could be working for a master. In the latter cases a minstrel needs to compromise between his own desires and other peoples opinions.

The chanter (or vocalist) The juggler The philosopher The metaphysician The oracle The fortune teller The informant The troubadour The poet

Chapter three

Sing me oh Muse

Chapter four

Statistics

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