Lanefan
Victoria Rules
All of this is great. I like it.To me, the bard is the character who puts stuff together about the setting. They dig out the meanings of old legends, fit those together with the cleric's understanding of people en-masse and the wizard's understanding of esoteric knowledge, and figure out what's really going on. Any character with brains can attempt this, but bards do it better. They also get more out of libraries than other classes, and realise how the world's history is affecting current events quickly. The music and entertaining are ways to earn a living, moving from place to place, and to turn yourself from a suspicious stranger into a trusted friend. And when someone needs to be eloquent now to avoid everything going wrong, the bard is the best bet.
The problem is that such a character would likely best function as a lone wolf doing her own thing rather than as a member of a larger group, which kinda plays hell with typical party-based play.
As for what I think a bard should be and be able to do (ideally):
--- a lore-master and legend-teller
--- a charmer and beguiler
--- sneaky enough to get into trouble - and then out of it
--- able to manipulate magic through music to effects no other class can achieve (i.e. a completely bespoke-to-class "spell" or effects list)
--- able to fight just enough to get by during the early days (mechanically, combat progression very good for the first few levels then slows down dramatically and eventually stops dead)
--- beholden to no law, monarch, or authority except maybe that of other bards (i.e. cannot be lawfully-aligned or equivalent)
Prime stats (using D&D as a base): Int, Dex, Cha. Dump stat: Wis.