I want to start
producing useable material for the Pioneer campaign, and that requires a little
more time to incubate. But I did want to
expand a little bit on bards and talk about one of my classes, the Muhaddi.
I've always been
frustrated by attempts to shoehorn non-Abrahamic faith structures into the
Cleric class, in all editions. Religion
in canonical D&D is a Western polytheistic construct based on a Christian
idea of paganism (probably all Gygax and co. knew about actual polytheistic
faiths practiced in the real world). It
does not model, in terms of the specific powers it grants, Buddhism (any form),
Daoism, Shintoism, Hinduism, or any of the Native American faiths, to name
a few. It also does a piss-poor job
capturing what Grecian polytheism was like, as opposed to the Roman
conceptualization of Grecian polytheism.
Remember that the Romans appropriated the Greek gods, gave them new
names, and also fundamentally changed how they were discussed and
worshiped. Prior to the Romans, the
Greek gods didn't have domains or areas of interest. Instead, the faith was a collection of
stories about the titans and their children.
There were temples and shrines devoted to specific characters in these
stories, but one didn't necessarily pray to Hera for marital success while
giving offerings to Apollo for musical prowess.
You would instead go to the local temple, devoted to whatever patron
figure had claimed your geographic area, and ask them for help. The Romans bureaucratized this process, with
temples to multiple gods and requiring specific offerings for each god for each
aspect of each god and so on.
Both of these are
really interesting faith systems, but they are totally distinct in theology and
practice. What was particularly
intriguing to me, though, was the similarity, at least to my non-expert eye, in
the role of stories between this Grecian polytheism, some Native American
religious traditions, and Zen Buddhism (which is often taught in a martial arts
context entirely through metaphoric stories).
This idea of religion defined entirely through stories was incredibly interesting to me, so I designed one for my world, tentatively referred to as the Endless Myths of Fiája, the
Wanderer.
Prior to the
Tarluskani's unification and subsequent conquest of the lands north of the Sea
of Shadows, they were disparate nomad tribes that sustained themselves via
raids on the Confederacy to the south.
Each tribe had a single leader, usually the best warrior among them, and
they were counseled by a Muhaddi, a divine storyteller.
The Muhaddi, in
their dreams, travel to a strange land named Fiajodo, where Fiája the Wanderer
tells them the stories of her travels.
In all the stories, she is a peerless warrior and canny thinker who
wanders the land solving people's problems.
She is joined and opposed by other First Ones, individuals with skills
to rival Fiája's. The Muhaddi share
these tales (via oration, dance, or song) with all who will listen, inspiring
their listeners to attempt the epic deeds depicted in the stories.
While the origin and
background of the Muhaddi are drawn from my world, their abilities are very
similar to the Performing Arts bardic artwork effects I discussed previously,
but on a much less powerful level.
The first ability of
the Muhaddi is quite mundane. They can
perform a loud chant that draws people to pay attention to the Muhaddi,
affecting all who can hear the Muhaddi's voice.
Muhaddi can also
curse people, with the number of people affected increasing with their
level. The curse gives penalties
(ultimately leading to death) to those acting against the Muhaddi (attacking
them, stealing from them, and so on).
Muhaddi can tell
stories that inspire their listeners.
The stories take anywhere from 10 minutes to 1 hour in the telling, and
all who walk away find that their ability to perform a task, emphasized in the
story, has been improved for the rest of the day.
A Muhaddi, with
another story, can also enflame the passions and pull at the heartstrings of
that audience, inciting them to take some specific action immediately after the
story ends (essentially a Suggestion
spell).
Their final ability
is to become an incarnation of one of the figures from the stories, gaining
Master-tier in a few disciplines for the rest of that day (essentially they
gain all of the abilities of another class at 15th level), with the caveat that
they are no longer themselves - they are this character that they have summoned
(like extreme method acting).
These powers can't
provide an immediate and enduring effect for a community, but they do have a
limited ability to shape action in the moment.
This, to me, gives me an alternate list of bard abilities beyond whatever
core abilities are given to them by the game system (that often implicitly
assume a musical bard) that strongly parallels the artwork rules presented
earlier. While I don't think such a
thing is possible for each choice of medium, it is nice to have ways to further
differentiate between them (and, since the Performing Arts list of art powers
is not nearly as powerful as most of the other lists, it is a nice way to give
a Bardic Performing Artist a little more oomph).
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