When we think of acquiring eternal life, we think of deals with unknowable eldritch entities, of secret arcane rituals, of pacts with fiends of immense power, but we rarely think of the method most easily available to most of us: memories.
A piece of us stays alive through the memories that others have of us. Pouring a glass for those that are not there, reminiscing about the moments we spent with them, we call these rituals ways to “keep their memory alive”. We understand that this is a way to extend the life of someone past their lifespan.
Intoners understand this too, and take it to its logical extreme. If they can manage to live in the memories of those around them, if they can make people wish they would live forever, they will never truly vanish, never truly die.
The process in which a bard becomes an intoner starts with, of course, a song. They call this melody their Magnum Opus, and an hopeful intoner can spend decades writing it. This is no simple musical piece, but a verbal spell in the shape of a song, an arcane melody. The rituals needed to make a magnum opus vary by discipline and by culture, but the effects are the same. A true magnum opus carries a piece of the bard’s soul within it, as long as someone remembers the melody, the intoner can’t really die.
Once their magnum opus is finished, the intoner-to-be travels and plays their arcane song to those willing to listen. For some, this arcane song will resonate in a particular frequency, an earworm that will wriggle its way into their brain forever. They will never forget the intoner’s song, and in turn will never forget the intoner themselves.
To ensure their full transformation into a true intoner, the bard will die when they feel enough people have heard their magnum opus. Intoners call this their swan song: the last performance a bard will give in life before dying and rising again as an intoner.
Those that have heard the magnum opus will then act as the intoner’s living phylacteries. For as long as they live, the memory of the intoner will live with them. If the intoner dies, they will reform and rise again for as long as their magnum opus lives on in the memories of those that have heard it.
But there’s a catch. There is a reason why the last performance before turning into an intoner is called a swan song. Once the dead bard rises again as an intoner, they will never be able to perform their magnum opus again. They must rely on the people that have heard their magnum opus to keep it alive. Some intoners ensure their arcane song continues to resonate with new people by becoming beloved composers that inspire new aspiring musicians to learn how to play an intoner’s magnum opus, whereas others become tyrants that force others to learn their song so that they may continue to live within the memories of new generations. Which sort of intoner a bard will become, only the bard in question knows.
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