Bard

Yes, bards still sing and play their songs, but if you pay attention, you'll see what they're really doing. They watch who talks to who, they see who is buying what, they know where the money is coming from. Some report back to their masters or work for a newspaper. Others sell their information to the highest bidder. If you control the bards, you control informtion.

— Duke Verneri Molndal

There are traveling minstrels who go from town to town singing songs, but they are not bards. Bards deal in truth and deep knowledge. They turn that knowledge into real arcane power.

Modern bards can still sing and perform with the best musicians, but their music summons real power. They travel and they discover what is really going on in the world. They report that knowledge back to their patrons: newspapers, bardic guilds, or rulers. A good bard discovers the news, but is never in the news themself.

The little halfling goes about his business from town to town. In one town he's a merchant bringing goods from the Kirinal Concordance Zone to the Warmshires. In the Grand Duchy of Molndal he's a traveling tailor who makes the finest clothes for the nobility. And in the City of Talinside Bay he's a wandering minstrel known for his skills with the banjo.

The human woman with dusky skin plays her lute in the finest homes and halls on the shores of the Vitran Sea. She talks to the wealthy and powerful and is famous for the profiles that she sends back to the Weekly Heavens Chronicle.

A laughing goblin accompanies a party of young adventurers traveling the Cantons around the Kirinal Pit. He feels greatness in them and wants to be there to record their deeds. His songs will last through the ages.

Kenithia, Human Bard

by Chris L

Kenithia is a human bard traveling the lands of the Sovranty by the rails. She sings songs, gathers information, and reports back to the Weekly Heavens Chronicle.

Type

Intelligence Gathering