Blade Singers

## Description

"*Most people think of the Bards, the Skalds and the Skops as whimsical folk who travel the lands with a song on their lips, a tale in their heart and absolutely no idea how to hold a knife let alone brandish a sword. Well I'm here to show you different kids: The Weave is a powerful beast and it can be controlled by more than just words and a juggling routine: There are arts that can be learned where the dance comes from the roll of the wrist and the prance of the sword through the air. The story you tell with your blades is one that your enemies will remember and could, you never know, be one that is not only sung about but one that I might end up teaching the folks that come through that door after you. From this moment on you'll be drawing on all the Bladesingers that have gone before you; right now you can't really hear them but as you progress, as you get better, you will come to know them like your oldest friends. Now; stand, draw your weapons and let's begin the waltz!*" - Mishomo Krezami - Bladesinger Instructor.

A Bladesinger has mastered the weapons of the warrior and the power of the weave and is able to quite literally bring magic to life through complicated learnt patterns of movement and techniques of foot and wrist work. Those trained as Bladesingers find their guidance from the Academy of Bold Companions from whom comes the heart of their power. In the days of the second moment the Academy created the Undying Song, first of the Harmonic Blades with the power to strike magic down before it forms, to make the air scream and fill people's hearts with fear. Since that day the Harmonic Blades and the story that they carry have been at the core of everything that a Bladesinger is. They are capable of calling back to the Bladesingers of the past that they might guide the current crop. The Bladesingers walk the path that the Academy gives them and offers fealty to no other before them but plenty after and walk an endless path.

### Battle Dancers

The Academy of Bold Companions has been at the heart of the history of the development of the Daer Akmir's civilisation for over a thousand years in one form or another. They have sculpted empires and seen the downfall of Kings through their art with the tale and the weave. Bards and Skops have graced many courts and carried the stories of the wise, the great, the poor and the foolish and through this the weave has grown. However there are some, such as the Blade Singers, who are trained in older mysteries and arts that have been trained to enter the heart of battles; battles that would shape the world to come. Here the soldiers of the Great Web would shape the moment as it was happening, call upon its power and form a future here in battle. To be able to call upon the power of the Harmonic Blade through the story unfolding around them escalating in the height of war in the echoes of the Oldest Song. Those few capable of achieving such a power are called the Battle Dancers.

*"I remember being a Blade Singer and it seems like a long time ago, if time is still relevant," here he turned over his blade and it looked so old, like a boulder in the stream in the history, a boulder that had once been a Mountain. "Back then the rhythm was different, calmer, the songs, the stories they were a part of you, waiting for me to tell them and when I wasn't performing they would guide me to the greatness of glory that was the Battle song." He lifted his eyes to me, I couldn't be sure if he was still breathing, talking or these were his echoes but I remember the feeling of his hand upon my cheek. "But when you dance daughter, the story fills you, directionless, yearning for its audience, at once a tale of victory; all victories, defeat; all defeats and death; just death. It guides you, it is you, through this blade it will be you and all the warriors, all the dancers that have held it before you. Shape the future, be part of the Weave."* Now I carry my Fathers blade and when I stand in the howl of battle I dance with him and all those that danced before him - From the endless steps of Zeria el Dash - Battle Dancer.

### Bladesinger Royalty

*"Some people believe that the Bade Singer Lords and Ladies were born once and now just echo in the eternity of great song being reborn into generations to carry on their tale. There are legends somewhere that their blades, handed down as they are, are like great needles and that their story is the thread which hinds the great weave together, blankets the world and keeps safe its great work. Knowledge passed down that the harmonic blades of the first nobles of the weave are words forged from the very Iron of the world and that if they are danced with together all at once they will sing the story of this world from its start and unto the very end of its days. That if they are all drawn together and those that carry them bring them together in the final dance that on that day the Weave itself will sing and the End of Days will begin. Some people believe this and they seek the reborn Lords and Ladies in the hope that they will be ready when the final moments sweep across the worlds and the Weave beckons*
them." *Ogri wirled on his heel and braved a smile into the room of young onlookers.* "Some people, of course is far from all people and there are many stories!"

*"The Mockingbird Lords have more basis in fantasy given the stories that are told about them and we know they are real whereas the validity of a Blade Singer Lady is always in question. The teachings that are passed down were never written and probably change with each telling but I suppose that is the best way. Were they ever real? Who knows? Am I really one? I couldn't say for sure. But I can tell you this: When I was told the tale of the Lord I was to become I didn't properly remember it, the Lady that passed it to me, Becka Klekartes, she told it well but it was a lot to take in. I told it to my harmonic blade nonetheless, even though I knew it was wrong and in that moment everything changed. Whenever I dance now, in battle, it's like a hundred others dance with me and some of them are those that danced these songs before and some are those that will dance after. Sometimes I am sure that they take over, other times I know it is me but I know that the tune I am dancing to will never change and that the sound is always the Blade Singing."* - The Choosing by Ogri Brai - Balde Singer Lord.