THE BARDS OF IMPERIAN
[GUILD LEADERS]
The Soul of Music: Camaris
Secretaries: Bellentine, Camaris, Icsellom, and Mercer
City Affiliation: Kinsarmar
Guild Professions: Bard
Born from the people's love of music, the first bards travelled far and wide, carrying tales of history and heroes, news and knowledge, entertaining and informing all with their songs, sketches and performances. They varied from the Court Bard who sang of kings, to the travelling Troubadour who often sang for her supper.
After the Awakening, the Bards slowly found themselves discovering fragments of a lost song, each hearing a word or note, carrying exquisite harmony itself, yet incomplete. Pursuing these, they banded slowly together and discovered that they were hearing the Song of the World, sung at the time of the world's creation in the Ancient Tongue, which speaks directly to the very soul that somehow had been Awakened itself. Over time, these individuals noticed that properly combining words and fragments of the Language could alter reality itself, allowing them to weave mighty powers with their arts. Embracing the arts of Voice, Thespia, and Artistry, they sought to maintain their traditions of spreading tales and songs, seeking out both new fragments, and new tales.
Their old welcoming by many allowed their developing powers to be considered merely an extension of their music, and thus Bards are still welcome in countless places, as of old. However, there is an ancient saying, to anger a bard is to anger the world. Before the Awakening, it meant more that the bard would spread his anger in his tales, slowly turning others against the one who angered him. Nowadays, perhaps that saying has a more literal and mysterious meaning. Certainly few truly wish to plumb the depths of their power through having it focused upon them. Bound tightly together by love of their arts and histories, they are almost family-like, welcomed and welcoming, yet their power in its height could perhaps change the very world.