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Storytellers and Bards
Storytellers and bards, or the guardians of lore, have existed in Nalycia since before remembrance. The Nalycians place high value on spoken stories and history, believing that only when past history is known can their people truly identify with the country and prevent the mistakes of the past from occurring again.
Each village, town, and city has a single storyteller. He or she passes on the history of that place as well as its folklore that has been handed down from storyteller to storyteller. In addition to determining the way in which the history occurring in their lifetime will be told, the storyteller also adds to the lore. As the storyteller grows older, her or she watches the children growing up around them very closely, watching for the one that seems to have a natural aptitude to retaining and creating tales. This child is then taken under their wing and taught all the history and lore of the village in order to groom them to succeed the storyteller. Given that the child is of age, he or she will then take the place of storyteller at the current one’s death. If the child is not yet of age, the place will be held vacant until his or her sixteenth birthday, at which time they will take it. As the position of storyteller is revered above most others, the untimely death of a storyteller that leaves him without a groomed successor causes great rivalry between those that desire the position. Those vying for the position are not above dirty tricks and murder to gain what they want. However, because a bard is usually called upon to settle the dispute, those resorting to less than fair means do not usually gain the position, since the storyteller is historically a peaceable person.
A bard is like a storyteller. However, unlike the storytellers, the bards gather and tell the history and lore of greater parts or all of Nalycia. The ruler of each province is entitled to choose a storyteller that he believes demonstrates the most skill and aptitude and make him the bard for that region. After training a successor, the chosen storyteller will take his place as a bard. Occasionally, un-provinced bards will arise when a storyteller is displaced from his home by various means, such as mass migration or being driven away. The king chooses from the provinced bards one to whom the lore and history of the entire will be entrusted. Like the province bards, the kingdom bard will train a successor before taking his place as the kingdom bard. Bards prepare their successors in the same way as the storytellers. In the case of a bard’s untimely death, when the ruler or king chooses the new bard, instead of being taught by the previous, he must gather the lore of the province or kingdom himself.
Though the bards’ lore guesses at the beginning of storytellers and bards, it is not known if Nalycia existed long before the guardians of lore were instituted, or what it was like before them. The guardians have actively played a part throughout Nalycia’s history, except for a short time. Under the reigns of Isurn V, Isurn VI, and Heur II, bards were discouraged and sometimes, especially during Isurn V and the regency of Volcor IV, outlawed and persecuted. No bards were present at court after Isurn V. During the reign of Antreo I, bards began to slowly make a reappearance, especially at court, though they were still vulnerable to persecution due to Volcor IV, Antreo I’s regent. The guardians were functioning properly again by Riordan I.
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~Zoe M. Scrivener
After much thought and prayer, I am staying on Holy Worlds. I believe what we have here is worth fighting for. PM me for details.
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