Empathy

"Everything lives and lasts by the inner necessity of its being, by its own nature's need."

In a world ruled and made chaotic by the emotions of mortals and gods alike, a world where power created ambition, fear, determination, suffering, a hero came from the jungles of Ecith. Syren was renown in her homeland for always being where she was most needed. When a man needed the comfort of a mother long since gone, when a wife desired a child but was barren, when an orphan craved the warmth of touch and the flavor of something sweet, Syren was there, healing the wounds that are not visible, wounds of the heart and mind. Syren taught her people that Suffering need not always be fought by blade or by might, but by opening one’s heart to the world, by sharing the beauty and pain in the most beautiful of ways.

And thus the Bard was born.

Those that carry Syren’s Emblem of Empathy are known as Bards. While the world is filled with many a troubadour, busker, courtesan, and every type of performer in between, only those with her mark are Bards.

Bards have traveled to every part of the world, to ease the Suffering of mortals. They are masters of music and the vocal word, and seek not to control their emotions with an iron grip, but rather to express and share how they feel with the world. They heal broken hearts and they uplift the downtrodden, they seduce and they tease, they ply with a word and a look. But be warned, they can just as easily break every heart in a room, knock a hero from their pedestal, reject and humiliate, devastate with a song and a smile. They may not seek to control their emotions, or those of others, but they are masters of their expressions, and they have desires of their own.

Unlike the Emblems of the others of the Triumvirate, Empathy is not overt or easily discerned. With Bards, they exude a divine aphrodisiac around them at all times that changes based on who is casting attention their way. One man might smell the roses of a favorite lover, a woman might hear a light tune from her favorite bar in her youth. Every individual has one of these and they will appear in their mind while in proximity of a Bard. This is a secret among the Bards, not for safety or security, but because most tend to jest and dance around such suggestions.

Attracting Divine Attention

Syren does not have any moral predilections when choosing those to bear her Emblem. Rather, she looks for those who do not shy away from expressing their emotions, good, bad, or ugly. She seeks out those who want to share themselves with the world and wish for the world to share in return. The candidates she chooses are just as likely to fall madly in love as they are to climb peaks of rage and fall into valleys of depression. She seeks out the emotionally expressive first and foremost, but having a yearning for the creation of music and poetry always warms the Goddess’ heart.

Syren usually hides the trials for her candidates in the world around them, and likes to utilize her Bards to do them. The First Trial typically involves a Bard conveniently finding a way into the candidate’s life. The Bard is tasked with trying to draw out as many different emotional responses as possible from the candidate. This is both a test for the Bard and the candidate, as this is one of the Trials for an Acolyte to move up to an Avowed.

The Second Trial involves putting the candidate in a situation where others have extremely intense emotional responses toward them, selected to test the insecurities and doubts of the candidates. Candidates that are self conscious would be tested with overwhelming disappointment, those that are hot headed might find someone that upsets them but is not upset, but rather smug toward them. It’s designed to see if the candidate will grow emotionally and face the challenges or will shy away.

The Third Trial is always conducted by Syren herself. She asks that the candidate share a feeling with her, through an art of their choice. If satisfied, she grants them the Emblem on the spot and wishes them the best on their journey as a Bard.

Age of Wonders

Syren is the youngest of the Triumvirate, and in the village that she grew up in, she was always the loudest laugher, always singing and humming, danced everywhere instead of walking, sobbed dramatically when she skinned her knee, and many other such things. As she grew up, those around her began to feel bigger and more in depth emotions around her, as the Orkhan shifted out of the chains of Suffering that had them little more than barbarians. And Syren was there to hold their hands, to cuddle them close, to be enraged and indignant with them, to share their pain, to scream in ecstasy with them, to feel hopeless as they looked to the stars and feel pride when a new baby was born. Syren became a champion for a people forged from Suffering because she made life more beautiful for everyone.

The first of her Bards wandered the Ecithian continent, spreading songs and stories, and were the keepers of Ecith’s vast oral history that was only barely beginning to be recorded by Galetira’s Seers. While Galetira’s Seers are believed to have helped ease the pain of the Suffering, and Raxen’s Arbiters helped prevent more Suffering from occurring, Syren’s Bards were there to remind people that life was meant to be enjoyed and appreciated, that a life of mere survival was not living at all.

Age of Conquest

In the Age of Conquest, the Bards were renowned and beloved around the world. They carried stories and songs from many a distant land, ever wandering and bringing news, history and variety to those who could not find the chance to travel. They were just as welcomed in a seedy tavern as in the courts of Kings and Gods alike.

Age of Sundering

After the Sundering occurred, the Bards continued their mission to remind people about the beauty of life. They continued to share songs of old, keepers of history and culture in their own ways. As governments toppled and grew, Bards also found purpose to remind people that oppression was a prison of emotion and control, and began to actively foster unrest in places that sought to control the emotions of any of its populace.

Age of Steel

Bards continue to roam the world and while beloved in many places, they are truly hated in others. Their freedom, their mercurial personalities and moralities and willingness to cause problems for those in power often caused them to be portrayed as vagabonds, philanderers, bums, and so many other terms to make people not lend them a coin, and certainly not an ear.

But still, Bards continue to play their music and to share themselves with the world.

Applying for Empathy

Requirement: A Musical Instrument or Singing Style at Competent

Tenant of Music

Gift of Music: Barding

Passive - The Bard has a special bond with music, and as such, as the Bard improves in their musical talents, their Emblem grants them new musical talents. The first they acquire when they are first Marked, and each subsequent is acquired as they gain a new mastery in a Musical Instrument or Singing (Style) skill.

0 - Access to the shared collective of songs kept by all Bards. All Bards will inherently know all of the songs known by all other Bards.

1st Mastery - Perfect Auditory Recall - Any sound heard by the bard will never be forgotten by the Bard and can be replicated by voice or instrument.

2nd Mastery - Mastery Harmonization - Any Musical Instruments or Singing Styles that have reached Mastery can now be utilized in tandem while the Bard is actively singing or playing other instruments. This additional music appears to come directly from the instrument or voice that the Bard is currently utilizing.

3rd Mastery - A Body For Music - The Bard’s body will make appropriate, temporary adjustments to allow them to play any musical instrument they are wielding or to sing any type of note to their skill level.

4th+ Masteries - Custom - Each additional mastery results in a custom passive that you can submit to the Support Forum.

Active Motifs - The Bard has the ability to imbue the music they with concepts with which they are familiar. These enchantments are known as Motifs. The concepts that can be utilized in motifs include emotions, mental concepts, personality traits and even physical concepts. The greater the Bard’s familiarity with the concept, the stronger and longer lasting the enchantment is. The enchantments are at their strongest while the Bard is playing and will begin diminishing the moment the Bard stops or changes Motifs.

Examples of Motifs

Emotional - Enchanting a song with the sorrow, pain, and grief the Bard felt when a friend died.

Mental - Focus - Enchanting a song with the mental focus and ability to block out distractions the Bard has when learning a new instrument.

Personality - Sociable - Enchanting a song the bubbly, open, and social seeking nature of the Bard’s personality.

Physical - Swordplay - Enchanting a song to literally cut as well as the Bard can cut with their own Sword Skill.

Tenant of Poetry

The Gift of Poetry: Free Expression

Passive Whenever the Bard communicates, regardless of medium, any who make the attempt to understand it will find that they can, regardless of various barriers such as language, disabilities, physical boundaries, etc. Any original work created by a Bard, such as a song or poem, will always carry this passive as well, even when performed by non-Bards.

Active The Bard exudes an aura that allows all living beings with the aura to understand one another, regardless of barriers such as language, disability, physical barriers, etc. This aura starts at Close Proximity from the Bard, meaning within range of touch, near sight, whisper, etc.

The Tenant of Lust

The Gift of Empathy

With concentration, the Bard can enter a lucid state that enables them to gain a heightened awareness that better assists them in connecting to their audience. They become attuned to the Needs and Desires of their target or targets and are able to inspire others to be guided to a solution to fulfill that Need or Desire or be led to that solution themselves depending on the circumstances. Upon entering this state, the Bard will be able to observe and differentiate between what is a Need and what is a Desire. How this manifests to the Bard is subjective to the individual. To some, it might be a difference in songs and melodies that play across their target’s mental symphony or it might manifest as an aura that they can see, with lines extending from that aura toward possible paths to a myriad of solutions.

It should be noted that the Gift of Empathy merely presents the Bard with the ability to perceive paths toward solutions. It is up to the Bard to utilize their own faculties, critical thinking and abilities to reach those solutions. The deeper the Bard’s faith and connection with Syren, the more quickly and easily they will be able to navigate toward the most optimal solution readily available.

Need - A Need is a fundamental requirement necessary to sustain life, free will, and expression. Needs are often more mundane. They often are related to things such as a need for food, water, shelter, and the like. The solution to the Need is most commonly rather plain and clear, not requiring much observation or critical thinking on the part of the Bard. While rare, there are some Needs that have obvious solutions but complicated paths toward reaching those solutions.

Desire - A Desire is something that the individual or individuals want. How strongly the person wants the Desire will determine how obvious it is to the Bard. If the person desperately craves the Desire, it will be abundantly clear to the Bard. Absent that, Desires tend to be more nuanced things as they are less connected to the fundaments of a Need. Desires and the myriad of paths toward the solutions necessary to fulfill them are the bulk of what requires a Bard's critical thinking and concentration.

Needs and Desires can be intertwined. The solution to fulfilling them can be simple but the path toward reaching those solutions can be complex. What Syren provides, is the ability to see the viability of these proposed paths based on the empathic connection she grants to her followers.

A city undergoing famine very obviously Needs food. The neighboring city could have an abundance of food that can relieve this famine but a lack of Desire to contribute toward said relief. The Gift of Empathy empowers a Bard to see the paths toward fulfilling the Need to end the famine by presenting the paths to inspire the Desire to fulfill that Need in the city with abundant food. These various paths could be connected to people, a geographical location, an animal, or perhaps even magical phenomenon. The paths to possible solutions will be visible, it is then up to the Bard to discern the most viable. The stronger and deeper their faith in Syren, the more clearly and rapidly this will come to them.

Empathic Migraine Empathy is not without its risks. Continued use of Empathy takes a toll on the Bard, whether that be because they continually expose themselves to the weight of perceiving so much all at once or because they expend exhaustive amounts of energy working to discern the most viable solutions to complex problems. Empathy is a double-edged sword and should be treated as such. Some people have very beautiful Needs and Desires. Some people have very dark and twisted ones. Syren does not shield her Bards from either. The world can be both wonderful and terrible and sometimes the most viable solution is neither easy nor pleasant. Whatever the circumstances, plunging oneself into perceiving the Needs and Desires too much and for too long will result in an Empathic Migraine.

The migraine is exactly that and can have compounding effects depending on how far the Bard pushes themselves. It can be just a headache or it can be a debilitating migraine that leaves them sick, exhausted, and in need of days worth of rest. It depends on the circumstance.

Faith of the Bard

Syren demands no faith be devoted to her. Rather, she expects her Bards to maintain a faith in the people of the world and in their own ability to help the world feel more alive through the emotions that make mortals far more magical than gods.

Acolyte Acolytes are still discovering their own voice and their own way. When they feel they are ready to move into a better position, and Syren agrees, she will present them with an opportunity to help test a new candidate as part of their trials to become an Avowed.

Barding. The Bard can maintain 1 Motif at any given time and the effect will wear off roughly one hour after the performance has finished.

Free Expression. The Aura is restricted to Close Proximity.

Empathy The Bard can resonate without hangover for a maximum of four hours. Migraines at this level are equal to the amount of time resonating past 4 hours.

Avowed Avowed are accomplished Bards and will have likely earned some renown and helped many people. They’ve helped many candidates and Acolyte Bards (in their own unique, often not very helpful seeming ways) and have begun to push the limits of their craft and their expression.

Barding. Can maintain 4 Motifs at once. The effects of Motifs will wear off roughly 12 hours after the performance has ended.

Free Expression. The Aura has a range of Far Distance (meaning distant sight, shout level speaking/hearing, etc)

Empathy. The Bard can resonate without migraine for a maximum of twenty-four hours. The migraine will last for approximately half the time spent resonating past the 24 hour duration.