View source for Enchante Journals, Volume 5 (book)

==The Enchante Journals==
==A Chronicle of Music and Magic==
'''By Elesigis Arilafrei  '''                                     

===Introduction===
                                                            
Bards are the storytellers and lorekeepers of the           
land, but too often we have forgotten the truths of         
our own past.  There are fascinating tales behind the       
music and magic that so defines what and who we are         
as Bards; tales largely unknown.  For that reason, my       
companions and I have taken it upon ourselves to            
create these chronicles, what we have called the            
"Enchante Journals."                                        
                                                            
In this endeavor, this vast undertaking, I have been        
aided by the following noble Bards: Hildart Sverul,         
craftsman of Hibarnhvidar and master of the Dwarven         
epics; Nereeth Gethaelt, wandering singer and               
performer and entertainer of children; Endirek              
Chydaku, of the Order of Kalodi.  In this volume of         
our chronicles, we look at the Bardic tradition of          
the Prydaen race, and the Rage of the Clans.                

===Volume V===                        

While there is much we in Kermoria do not know or           
understand about Prydaen culture and everyday life,         
we do know that Bards played a very significant role        
in their society.                                           
                                                            
The Prydaen were largely a mobile and migratory             
people.  Central locations -- villages, to use a term       
likely more familiar to our readers -- called Hubs          
served as a gathering place for the various groups          
among the very clannish Prydaen race.  The Hub was          
the home to which they returned after their hunts.          
Thus most of the clans would, at all times, be out on       
the hunt...  seeking prey to serve as food, for one         
matter, but for another because the hunt is equated         
with life and living itself among their culture.            
     
                                                       
In this vein, a visitor to a Hub would find it              
lacking young adults, adults, and even the middle-          
aged.  What they would find instead would largely be        
the elderly and the children -- those either too old        
or too young to join in the hunt.  They would also          
find the Prydaen Bards.                                     
                                                            
For the Prydaen, it was life to be in the hunt.  And        
yet still, it was an even greater honor to serve as a       
Bard.  The Bards were the protectors of the Hub --          
the protectors of the old and of the children,              
keeping safe the homes and family of the Prydaen            
people while they were away.  They kept the                 
traditions and beliefs of their people safe and alive       
as well, and they served as teachers and instructors        
to the youths of the Hub -- they would train them in        
their ways, the ways of the Prydaen, so when it came        
time for the child to pass through the rites of             
adulthood, he could become a true Prydaen Hunter,           
like his kin.  But serving as protection was the            
primary task, the most important role, of the Bard.         


In this, their magic was, if you will forgive the           
play on words, truly instrumental.  It was this act         
of guardianship which led to the creation of the            
enchante called "Demriss' Resolve."                         
                                                            
It is an ancient enchante that the Prydaen Bards have       
been utilizing for many centuries.  So we cannot name       
its exact history or origins for certain, although          
several legends I have heard from my Prydaen Bardic         
brethren suggest it may have been devised by the            
fabled Bard Soundwraith.                                    
    
                                                        
(At this juncture, I must make a gentle correction of       
my late colleague Willem van Thorne of Asemath              
Academy, author of the book "A Brief History of             
Alchemy," for he mistakenly refers to Soundwraith as        
an Elf.  She was not.)                                      
                                                            
Now, Soundwraith was a Bard as well known in the            
Prydaen homelands as she is here in Kermoria -- for,        
as the tales go, she grew weary of her Hub-bound            
life, developing something we know all too well,            
wanderlust.  And she wanted to see things never             
before seen, explore the world around her.  She             
evidently made the journey all the way here to              
Kermoria, where she became renowned in our lands.           
This journey, of course, is the same that would later       
be taken by her people en masse as they escaped their       
Necromantic pursuers.  Soundwraith was blinded during       
this journey, forever altering her life and making          
her unable to ever return to her homelands to become        
an elderly protectorate of the Hubs -- nevertheless,        
her grievous injury aside, that she alone was able to       
make so challenging and perilous a journey, one that        
claimed so many of her people's lives, is a                 
remarkable feat.                                            
     
                                                       
In any event, some Prydaen attribute the creation of        
the Resolve to the adventurous Soundwraith, and I can       
neither confirm nor deny that this attribution is           
historically accurate or factual.                           
                                                            
But even for our lack of knowledge regarding its            
origins, we know its value and the role it played.          
The Resolve is an enchante that utilizes musical            
imagery, enhanced by elemental magic, to create a           
truly fearsome vision for its listeners.  The               
enchante, when used by these guardian Bards, served         
ably in driving would-be invaders away from the Hubs        
in terror.                                                  
   
                                                         
Another significant role the Bards of the Prydaen           
played amongst their people was that of one who aided       
their peoples' escape from the West.  With the              
enchante "Eu's Respite," they gave strength,                
vitality, rest, and determination to the fleeing            
Prydaen.                                                    
                                                            
It is interesting to note that their enchante "Eu's         
Respite" is, in almost all ways, identical to our           
"Hodierna's Lilt" enchante -- in all ways magical, at       
least, in that it creates very similar matrices,            
accomplishing similar effects.  The music, likewise,        
is very much alike in sound, which has provided a           
plethora of evidence suggesting a very strong link to       
the music itself and the end result of the enchante         
matrix.                                                     
    
                                                        
The most glaring exception to the similarities              
between our Lilt and their Respite is that "Eu's            
Respite" is almost always sung!  We have never              
performed the Lilt in such a manner, so it is clear         
our cultures -- and the Bards in each -- have much to       
learn from each other.                                      



The history of the enchante "The Rage of the Clans"         
is not much of a mystery, for the title alone gives         
away much of its origins.  Nevertheless, I feel             
compelled to elaborate upon its stories, so as not to       
leave an incomplete feel to our enchante chronicles.        
                                                            
The Rage was initially an enchante used to aid in           
small hunting parties.  It was created when some            
Bards attempted to create an effect similar to the          
bloodthirsty ferocity demonstrated by Barbarians in         
their more berserk state -- in essence, to create the       
rage and the power of the berserk, but without the          
loss of control.  Unsurprisingly, this effect was           
most closely mimicked largely by relying upon the           
element of Fire, which the enchante uses as a               
significant part of its elemental matrix.                   
     
                                                       
It was powerful, though, a truly great weapon that          
would heighten the strength of any force.  And so           
when the Clans went to war -- a war from which              
eventually emerged a victorious and conquering Akroeg       
-- the Bards of each side were called upon to use           
their magics to strengthen the clan armies and bring        
victory and new land.  With joy, they did exactly           
that.                                                       
                                                            
However, the Rage was not such a refined thing in           
those days, and lacked some of the finesse we possess       
with it now -- then, they were willing to sacrifice         
most control of the enchante's powers in order to           
drastically increase the ferocity the enchante              
generates.                                                  
    
                                                        
And so, in battle after battle, the Rage would bring        
each side to a bloody and breathtaking end that left        
few survivors.  In each battle, a carnage-strewn            
field was often all that remained.                          
                                                            
"Rage of the Clans" was not the original name of this       
enchante, but after witnessing the blood it spilled,        
that's the name it was given by the observers of the        
war.                                                        
     
                                                       
The lessons Bards learned in those days should be           
taken to heed now -- our magic is possessed of great        
power, but we must not use it carelessly or with dark       
intent, but we can create true devastation in that          
manner.



Our chronicles of Bardic magic are continued in the         
next volume.

By my hand,    <br>                                             
''Elesigis Arilafrei  ''
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