Skyla Swiftbird

Being quiet was never a strength for the little bird. The precocious halfling lass from the banks of the Cesetmoun river may have lived among artisans - the town was known for its fine leatherwork - but she spent more time lining up the awls and hitting them with sticks to create clanking melodies than she did actually trying to learn the use the tools. Always the first to hear the The Ametrine Fish off in the distance and the last to leave when the strains of song faded from the cool river air, Skyla was drawn to music like a cat to a sunbeam. She would make up songs for her friends, for the tannery workers, for random folk on the streets of the town. It wasn't long before, on a trip to the capital to buy and sell, her uncle came back with what became Skyla's first lute - a small, four-stringed kobza made of a rosy maplewood. Though it wasn't a new instrument, that didn't matter to the girl, who didn't let it out of her sight for the next nine days.

The Swiftbirds were not the wealthiest of families, nor were they struggling to provide for their kin. It was decided that Skyla could, if she wished, take one year to prove that her songs would lead to respectable employment. As long as the work remained honest - or at least was deemed appropriate by a proper halfling matriarch - she could contribute how she saw fit. If after the year no progress had been made, the girl would make the effort to learn the family trade.

They needn't have worried.

Two months after the agreement was made, a familiar voice was heard carrying down the Cesetmoun River as the Ametrine Fish made it's monthly journey inland. It was discovered that Skyla had not only talked her way onto the riverboat, but had convinced the designated artist to accompany her as she sang about the clouds on a summer's day.

I could choose to hold a lute, or play the pipes like a feywild satyr, but my true instrument is you, my dear listeners. I can play you like the finest harp, strung with golden wire. I can break your heart with a line of poetry, and then have you laughing so hard you turn blue but a moment later.

— Skyla Swiftbird

It was shortly after this that Skyla began her travels, exploring Ishen by way of city plazas and the common rooms of inns, earning her way from place to place with stories and songs. Along the way she gained knowledge of history and nature from passing adventurers and, after a particularly marvelous story of daring rescue acted out on the docks of Shipton, eventually found herself with an invitation to The Reeds of the Dell. After that came bardic training with the troupe, and although recitations and study were not as fun as singing to a crowd, this new knowledge lead to greater opportunity. It was with pride that Skyla brought home, two years later, a letter of payment from her first composition to a noble family of the empire.

Skyla toured and travelled with the Reeds for several years before leaving to assist the Alliance with the training of new recruits. Many joined with the misunderstanding that the guild needing brave adventurers ready to protect the Empire, and while this was partly true, reality begged for not only fighters but diplomats and investigators, and Skyla's time travelling from court to court made her a knowledgeable resource on the subject.