The Bardschool
While the Great Library of Greyhawk boasts the best collection of written history in the entire city, Greyhawk's famous Bardschool houses a peerless collection of oral accounts, poems, and songs. Formed about a century ago by disaffected dons of Grey College, the Bardschool now serves as that august institution’s greatest intellectual rival (in terms of scholarship) within the city’s walls. In truth, it’s not a very fair comparison, since the Bardschool offers a wide-ranging curriculum with a strong basis in the liberal arts, spoken histories, and folk traditions (pursuits the industry-minded professors of Grey College often see as “soft” scholarship).
Though small, with only 30-40 students at a time, the Bardschool features superb instructors in each of its fields. These are men and women motivated more by a desire to spread knowledge than to live well, for their skills could command high teaching fees. The tuition at the Bardschool roughly approximates that of Grey College. There is no set period of instruction at the school, though students generally can gain little more after five or six years here.
Some students of the Bardschool are in fact bards, but the school is not a traditional bardic college and does not offer strong training in the magical arts. Its unusual name came from the self-deprecating scholars who founded the institution, who intended to head off criticism from their former colleagues that the school would cater only to listless jacks of all trades and not to serious scholars. The self-deprecating, laid-back nature of the school’s name is echoed in the disposition of its students. Often hand-selected from the dropouts of Greyhawk’s other universities, a Bardschool student often possesses much more smarts than ambition. Most would prefer tossing ban mots at each other over fresh beer to the dreary rote learning of a traditional education. When allowed to develop on their own schedules, however, Bardschool students often (eventually) produce work of true brilliance. Roughly three dozen students enroll here at any time, with educational programs usually lasting from five to six years, since the pace of learning depends entirely upon the interest and motivation of the student in question.
Tiberius Frost, the school’s High Tutor, is a master bard. He’s served the school for half of his more than 60 years, keeping a personal class of a half-dozen of the city’s most promising bards and musical prodigies at his side throughout the day. He and his special charges maintain a “living” document known as the History of the Bards. This multi-volume work tells the story of the city of Greyhawk, supplementing the official documents of the Great Library and city government with a record of Greyhawk’s art, beauty, and ever-developing culture. The work contains many references to possible adventure opportunities or lost hordes, and he helps to finance his small school by charging treasure hunters a small fee to review the document.
True, the scholars in the Great Library perform much the same function, with access to a greater wealth of facts and figures. One who wishes to learn the exact value of the jewels traded through the city during a specified year will indeed do better by consulting the library’s history. But for one who wishes to remember the sunsets that blazed during a misty autumn, or the lyrics of a song raised in celebration of the fall harvest, there can be no substitute for the History of the Bards.
Comments