Bardmancy - Minstrels of the Void

[Zarsies 6024]

 

Bardmancy

Minstrels of the Void

 

Inception - The Trilling Mountain

 

“O’ dearest Mother Moon, an instrument for you, trills of the mountain captured in strings.”

 

An elf drunk with the blood of a behemoth listened to the discordant trills of the unseen force of Shub-Umbilius like a boy listens to his mother's womb for movements. Her melodies of deep thrums, whistles, wet coughs, sweet hums, and nasally chords were rapturous to the man for her songs resonated deep within him; deep in something he knew to be hers, in the blood he imbibed so his mortal eyes may be translated to transcend the material plane and gaze upon her invisible form. Perhaps his eyes lied, perhaps it was the roiling madness he was stricken with, or perhaps it was eldritch truth, but no matter the cause the great elder thing's caretaker was infatuated with this entity and smitten with her massive form. True love, he thought, was madness. Here he knew it well, the most he'd felt in centuries, and those weird chords of hers were darling love songs to him. What more could he possibly provide to the great entity that he hadn't already? This, he brooded, had but one answer, that which the Queen of Decadence labored in hourly: music. He would craft an instrument to sing the same otherworldly tunes she sang back to her, a symbol of his devotion and love. And so he worked. 

 

Weeks passed. A masterful artist of painting, sculpture, tailoring, and architecture yet all the elf produced were sad incarnations of Shub-Umbilius’ harrowing song. They were grand, intricate, and ornate instruments yet every waking moment the man spent awake was wasted on these mundane, spatial devices. There was something missing. Something ethereal, something as unseen as the Trilling Mountain herself. There was a timbre to her melodies unheard before, for never in all ages of antiquity had something as deep and inhuman as it were imagined. An artificial noise yet something haunting as if it lived. It was metal. It was organic. It was arcane. It was alien.

 

A sympathetic entity, especially for her brood and its caretaker, the songbird Shub-Umbilius took pity upon the naive attempts of the elf when he would perform for her to only be met with disappointment and woe. One day, months later and hundreds of performances past, the Mountain broke. She had enough of her love bird's attempts and, pitied, he would be delivered. By holding audience with great elder thing, the elf imbibed her blood once more and, drunk with her influence, had his brain suckled by a thousand worming tongues. She spoke. Unto the elf, knowledge. Unto the elf, music. Bardmancy was born.
 

 

 

Mechanics - Chords

 

Chords are manipulations of arcane energy laced within sounds produced by instruments, specifically string instruments, as bardmancy's machinations are derived from producing a “weave.” A weave is a work of sorcery borne of threads, thin strings of mana cast through ripples in the form of sound waves. Different patterns to these waves -- different notes -- produce different chords, producing different effects. There are two variants of strings to produce a married couple of resonant frequencies: hair and metal. Hair strings produce uplifting, inspirational effects while metal produces oppressive, heavy effects. Too, coming from the source of the mana, is an inherent code hidden in the weave of bards; this code is known as an ego or tone, consisting of two variants: extrovert and introvert. Extrovert egos produce outward effects while introvert produce inward effects. Together these four elements make up the base (hah) mechanics of bardmancy. Each combination of frequencies and egos create the four sects of bardmancy: extrohair, extrometal, introhair, and intrometal. Each sect produces unique effects full of specialized chords that bards, with study and experimentation, may expand upon with new lore additions.

 

All chords produce continuous effects that last as long as the bard’s mana does, maximizing at ten emotes of a single effect per half day; two at tier 1, four at tier 2, six at tier 3, eight at tier 4. All chords take four emotes to take effect and afterwards may be sustained by a bard appropriate to their tier. A bard begins learning beginner chords, the first listed under each sect, and then may push further into that sect to learn the more advanced form upon reaching the next tier or they may learn a new beginning chord in another sect. By tier 4 a bard knows all four chords in two sects and, at tier 5, they may bridge into the other tone to learn the remaining 4 from a teacher of the opposite tone.

Chords affect twenty meter radius areas -- the area in which the bard’s instruments can be heard.

 

Introhair:
Melodic, calm, tranquil, and pacifying.
-Soothe: a chord made to soothe the nerves of listeners and drown out their emotions with artificial sensations of calm and serenity. Even the most hateful of wraiths can have their ire extinguished, albeit only for a time. This chord quells hate and brings all listeners to a calm resolve; upon being harmed the effect is broken.
-Trance: a chord made to push listeners into a drunken stupor, addled into sleep in a more advanced form of the Soothe chord. The progression into sleep is gradual and crawls up the spine with tingles accompanied by waves of grogginess. This chord brings all listeners into a hypnotic state; upon being harmed the effect is broken.

 

Intrometal:
Depressive, gloomy, dreary, and somber.
-Elegy: a chord made to drill sorrow and woe into the hearts of listeners and drown out their thoughts in unfettered waves of sadness, numbing depression, and acute misery. This song may force tears from even the most hardened veterans or soulless undead. This chord brings all listeners to a sorrowful bout; upon being harmed the effect is broken.
-Dirge: a chord made to cripple listeners and throttle them into a state of stunning oppression and apathy; individuals hearing this chord become careless and calloused, their bodies and minds numbed with acute depression. They may give up their arms, weep, languish, or simply lay about and brood. This chord brings all listeners into a depressive state; upon being harmed the effect is broken.

 

Extrohair:
Audacious, intrepid, energizing, and emboldening.
-Inspire: a chord made to embolden and drive courage into the hearts of all listeners. This song layers the minds of those who hear it with bravery, audacity, stern tenacity, preparing them for any foe to be faced head on. This chord brings all listeners to bleed with spirit, grit, and heroism.
-Bolster: a chord made to spread raw mana through a weave out into the area around the strumming bard, allowing any form of casters to utilize the mana offered by the song to cast 1 emote quicker to achieve magical effects. This chord is more draining than any other and costs twice as much mana to maintain over time. This chord brings all listeners to grow their mana pool and charge the air with a weave to prepare it for magic.

 

Extrometal:
Dissonant, vicious, cruel, and woesome.
-Frenzy: a chord made to tear at listeners with pure, primal rage. Hate, malice, and malcontent manifest in the form of bloodlust upon hearing this warchant and listeners often drop into heated brawls or angered rampages. This is a volatile chord and thusly takes twice as long to initiate, taking six emotes to produce its effect as the anger and hate slowly fills listeners.
-Delirium: a chord made to descend the minds of listeners into hysteric mania; madness, in all its forms, comes crawling out of the darkest depths of imagination and grips their minds with unyielding strength straight from the roiling chaos of the Void. Listeners may experience hallucinations, illusions of grandeur, or overwhelming anxiety and the like. This is a volatile chord and thusly takes twice as long to initiate, taking six emotes to produce its effects as the madness slowly fills listeners. 

 

All bards, upon learning bardmancy, come to know three tricks -- one separated into two sects. Ghost sounds, also simply called music, are auxiliary noises created by a bard’s string instrument that take the shape of noises produced by other instruments; a sweep of a cello’s bow may produce a drum’s beat or tapping a violin’s strings may create a flute’s whistle. The more practiced the bard the more diverse their music can become, ending in the potential to become a full one-man band; a new instrument’s sound can be added per tier. As well, bards may use their weaves to create physical chords, sounds so loud and carefully knit that they produce either concussive blasts or fine cuts from the strumming of strings. Practitioners, scaling from tiers 1 to 5, may create blunt forces or slashing forces; metal strings produce concussive forces and hair strings produce slashing forces. At the most extreme a bard’s melodies may cut cloth, scratch skin, chip wood, shatter glass, or -- with sufficient charging and at point blank range -- dislocate joints. These effects take one emote to prepare and may be maintained appropriately to the bard’s tier. Lastly, musical instruments may be casting instruments for bards in other magics as well, such as using a piccolo to cast pyromancy.

 

Master bards can overcome their ego and learn from a user of the opposing ego how to produce a mimicry of the tone, a semblance of the magical sounds. While egos can be transcended, resonant frequencies cannot spare instruments gifted by the Trilling Mountain herself or bard-transfigurationist masters, allowing the playing of both metal and hair resonant frequencies simultaneously.
 

 

 

Example songs of a bard:

-Hair
In the Hall of the Mountain Kind, extroverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLp_Hh6DKWc
Ride of the Valkyries, extroverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGU1P6lBW6Q
Hunt or be Hunted, extroverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prvAdHXUvbs
 
Hollow Knight Greenpath instrumental, introverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABXga9y0B3I
Night of the Hunt, introverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lG7LX8BHCJY
Hollow Knight Hornet instrumental, introverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cfTLvQ9TZhg

 

-Metal
The Beautiful People instrumental, extroverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SA11Vc-2PM
Dragula instrumental, extroverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBG3Lu2flG0
Phyrexian Overlord, extrovert
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNXGbV3GUNs

 

Crack the Skye instrumental, introverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5M6fBOWy_cw
Frost, introverted
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9eDL01w2w

 

Special thanks to Tentoa and Phil for brainstorming and consultation.
 

REDLINES
-Those who cannot hear chords cannot be affected by them. However, plugging one’s ears is not sufficient to deafen one’s self.
-At maximum a bard can use two effects for an accumulative total of twenty emotes a day. Any number of effects can be used but only a total of ten emotes per half day at maximum; lower tiers use: 4 emotes per day at tier 1, 8 emotes per day at tier 2, 12 emotes per day at tier 3, 16 emotes per day at tier 4.
-Concussive and slashing forces cannot exceed the stated limitations.
-A bard’s concentration is required for all spells, meaning if their focus is broken then their weave is spelled and their chord fails.
 

Saved for edits.

[EdgyMagey 787]

amazing lore

[Ford 1990]

you are beautiful

[Tentoa 1991]

Me, personally? I think its 'aight.

[OzYmandi 647]

BBBBBAAAAAARRRRRDDDDMMMMAAAANNNNCCCCYYYYYY

 

 

HUZZAH

 

WHERE CAN I LEARN IT

[Thomas 3014]

Please. Holy ****.

[NotEvilAtAll 9926]

This lore post is only one letter away from adding Beardmancy to lotc.

 

+1

[MangoArt 399]

GODDAMMIT. My Halfling has been a musician/bard all his life, and just about he's about to get too old to fight/adventure (live?) you write lore for actual dnd bards. ;-;

 

Great lore, though! +1

Edited August 2, 2017 by MangoArt

[Mr. Etan 2839]

@Zarsies this is all literally already apart of sensory illusion, minus the fact that you force these upon people. What's to stop people from just forcing emotions down your characters throats from this? Is it completely unresistible? This lore is extremely vague on ability and redline and there's no explanation on how it even works or the power behind it unless I'm mistaken. Overall it seems very very vague.

[Zarsies 6024]

31 minutes ago, Tox said:

@Zarsies this is all literally already apart of sensory illusion, minus the fact that you force these upon people. What's to stop people from just forcing emotions down your characters throats from this? Is it completely unresistible? This lore is extremely vague on ability and redline and there's no explanation on how it even works or the power behind it unless I'm mistaken. Overall it seems very very vague.

1

 

 

Thank you for the feedback! This is what I was looking for when I posted this and I appreciate the comment.

 

I intentionally made it akin to illusion, mental magic, and air evocation because I didn't want to introduce something radical and extreme, as I'd rather see bards around with familiar tools rather than an entirely new set of skills that have never been seen before because I am not that creative, I don't think much is left for our already stuffed world, and I don't think this could be passed otherwise. It does force emotions, the concept is "music is powerful," and noticing that the bard is the one causing this effect is what stops people; you can move away from the bard or stop the bard, just like avoiding the attacks of an evocation. Wards against bardmancy would stop its effects, as with Fi' magic just like any other arcane art. I apologize if the language comes off as vague; the function and good ol' "science" behind the "magic" (catch my drift?) is covered under the mechanics section. Chords are the product of weaves, mana laced in sounds made from string instruments in a way to create effects similar to illusion's mental abilities. Can you be more specific as to what parts confuse you, what is lacking, and how I can better the writing?

[Mr. Etan 2839]

1 minute ago, Zarsies said:

 

Thank you for the feedback! This is what I was looking for when I posted this and I appreciate the comment.

 

I intentionally made it akin to illusion, mental magic, and air evocation because I didn't want to introduce something radical and extreme, as I'd rather see bards around with familiar tools rather than an entirely new set of skills that have never been seen before because I am not that creative, I don't think much is left for our already stuffed world, and I don't think this could be passed otherwise. It does force emotions, the concept is "music is powerful," and noticing that the bard is the one causing this effect is what stops people; you can move away from the bard or stop the bard, just like avoiding the attacks of an evocation. Wards against bardmancy would stop its effects, as with Fi' magic just like any other arcane art. I apologize if the language comes off as vague; the function and good ol' "science" behind the "magic" (catch my drift?) is covered under the mechanics section. Chords are the product of weaves, mana laced in sounds made from string instruments in a way to create effects similar to illusion's mental abilities. Can you be more specific as to what parts confuse you, what is lacking, and how I can better the writing?

0

 

 

Mainly if this is going to be voidal I assume this will have to subcategorize under an illusionary magic, what's the point of introducing this concept if there's already such covered by the fields of illusion? I'd like what you think it could add that illusion can't perhaps a bit of insight to your intentions for this lore would be grateful.

[Tentoa 1991]

4 minutes ago, Tox said:

-snip-

0

 

You also miss the point of thematic use and true bolstering rather than being used particularly for deception and combat. The point of this magic from what I can see isn't to provide a method of duping or bothering others as with illusion, but to cause a physical effect through the manipulation of the waves. A big problem with illusion is that it isn't really fun to deal with, and quite limiting due to the restriction of everyone simply 'figuring out' that what they're experiencing is an illusion and because of its nature it is just so pointless to use illusion to help someone.

[Ducklingator 795]

Great concept overall, but I think that in spite of it being a supposedly lesser version of illusion, it should be harder to ward; make it so that at a certain tier, the magic can't be blocked/can only be partially blocked, or remove the part where- like illusion- if identified, the effects can be disrupted. But either way, great concept. Though, I have a few questions that should probably be sorted out sooner than later:

 

-Can you self-teach it? If so, what archtype of magic does it go under?

 

-Do you need to know how to play an instrument if you want to use it?

 

-Does the magic put you in a state of trance, where you can't exactly identify what's causing the effect? If not, does it affect the mind to do that?

 

-Do you need a specific metal for metal strings, or a specific hair for hair strings?

 

Aside for that, though, I love the lore.

[Mr. Etan 2839]

Just now, Tentoa said:

You also miss the point of thematic use and true bolstering rather than being used particularly for deception and combat. The point of this magic from what I can see isn't to provide a method of duping or bothering others as with illusion, but to cause a physical effect through the manipulation of the waves. A big problem with illusion is that it isn't really fun to deal with, and quite limiting due to the restriction of everyone simply 'figuring out' that what they're experiencing is an illusion and because of its nature it is just so pointless to use illusion to help someone.

0

 

 

You can use illusion to bolster the effects of your music and the emotions you intend on inducing to the theatric crowd. And no figuring out its an "Illusion" doesn't shatter it. I could tell you I'm an illusionist, cast a fireball in a realistic way and say "This is an Illusion" but it won't shatter because your subconscious is NEVER sure, the only time it shatters is when you go to touch the fireball and its cold (like the illusionist left out a detail or it's just extremely unrealistic etc)

[LeoRabbit99 360]

+1