Crazy Jerome
First Post
My competing Bard:
Foremost, the bard is a loremaster.
The bard, true to its historical roots, knows stuff--broad and deep. While some of this knowledge is obscure and/or trivial, much of it has practical applications, some of it quite powerful and direct. Almost everything the bard does well is because he know exactly how to go about it.
Performance is the bard's idiom.
If knowledge is the source, performance is the method. A bard chants, sings, tells stories, orates, etc. because the bardic voice is how he remembers all that vast knowledge. Sure, in a pinch the bard can tell you a funny story or relate a sad tale purely for entertainment, but there is nearly always something deeper in the performance as well.
The bard is not a dabbler; it merely seems that way.
The bard isn't a warrior. But when he strikes at you while chanting the lay of the ancient warriors, he is recalling their techniques to his mind. The bard isn't a mage, but his knowledge of how magic works is both wide and deep (if often a little on the theoretical side), and the magic of music goes back to the dawn of man. The bard doesn't practice picking locks every week, but he knows how locks work. He doesn't charm your pants off because he is a fancy performer or a cunning rogue, but because he knows people. Any reputation that develops from all of this is often dependent on the bard's style and related vices.
The bard teaches.
His role in life is to spread knowledge, often in his travels. Not least of all, he looks for that spark that indicates the next generation of bards, lest the lessons of his stories be lost to time. This can often seem inspiring to others, but that is a feeling the careful, thoughtful teaching produces in them, not something the bard sets out to do.
Foremost, the bard is a loremaster.
The bard, true to its historical roots, knows stuff--broad and deep. While some of this knowledge is obscure and/or trivial, much of it has practical applications, some of it quite powerful and direct. Almost everything the bard does well is because he know exactly how to go about it.
Performance is the bard's idiom.
If knowledge is the source, performance is the method. A bard chants, sings, tells stories, orates, etc. because the bardic voice is how he remembers all that vast knowledge. Sure, in a pinch the bard can tell you a funny story or relate a sad tale purely for entertainment, but there is nearly always something deeper in the performance as well.
The bard is not a dabbler; it merely seems that way.
The bard isn't a warrior. But when he strikes at you while chanting the lay of the ancient warriors, he is recalling their techniques to his mind. The bard isn't a mage, but his knowledge of how magic works is both wide and deep (if often a little on the theoretical side), and the magic of music goes back to the dawn of man. The bard doesn't practice picking locks every week, but he knows how locks work. He doesn't charm your pants off because he is a fancy performer or a cunning rogue, but because he knows people. Any reputation that develops from all of this is often dependent on the bard's style and related vices.
The bard teaches.
His role in life is to spread knowledge, often in his travels. Not least of all, he looks for that spark that indicates the next generation of bards, lest the lessons of his stories be lost to time. This can often seem inspiring to others, but that is a feeling the careful, thoughtful teaching produces in them, not something the bard sets out to do.