The Bards of Ash and Embers
Clan
The Bards of Ash and Embers (BAE) are based on uniting the remnants/diaspora of the peoples of the fallen Thagian and High Nogg empires. It was started by Thagian expats and refugees in Malgia reached out to people displaced from the collapse of the High Nogg Empire. Their culture blurs the line between many structures but especially that between family and state, creating affiliation by shared history and values. Their bonds are strongly tied to personal identity.
Treasure
Love of Communication
This faction is built around the complex art of communication. They can facilitate relations between houses, develop sophisticated forms of art and expression, and relish in gossip and espionage. Their forward-facing activities center on maintaining the knowledge of their lost empires and culture. Their talents as bards and storytellers cover their work as information brokers, mediators for hire, and otherwise manipulating power and influence from the shadows.
For the BAE, communication is believed to create power, and reveal truth.
As some of the last living stewards of their respective cultures, the Thagians and High Noggs of the BAE keep their culture alive through particular, traditional styles of stories and songs. Their passion and talents have influenced other bards and creatives, spreading all over Kai.
Behind the scenes, the BAE is credited as the father of the Bard College of Whispers, and more recently, the College of Lore. Early in the clan's history it was realized that most folk are happy to welcome a bard into their midst. The BAE decided to use this to their advantage, and developed the college of Whispers. Such practitioners appear to be like other bards, sharing news, singing songs, and telling tales to the audiences they gather. In truth, the College of Whispers teaches its students that they are wolves among sheep. These bards use their knowledge and magic to uncover secrets and turn them against others through extortion and threats. There are many other bards who despise this practice, viewing it as a parasite that uses a bard’s reputation to acquire wealth and power. For this reason, members of this college rarely reveal their true nature. They typically claim to follow some other college, or they keep their actual calling secret in order to infiltrate and exploit royal courts and other settings of power.
Soon after reaching out to High Noggs following their empire's collapse, the College of Lore was developed. Their collective knowledge gave them something to say about most things, collecting bits of knowledge from sources as diverse as scholarly tomes and peasant tales. Whether singing folk ballads in taverns or elaborate compositions in royal courts, these bards use their gifts to hold audiences spellbound. When the applause dies down, the audience members might find themselves questioning everything they held to be true, from their faith in the priesthood of the local temple to their loyalty to the king. The loyalty of these bards lies in the pursuit of beauty and truth, not in fealty to a monarch or following the tenets of a deity. A noble who keeps such a bard as a herald or advisor knows that the bard would rather be honest than politic.
The college's members gather in libraries and sometimes in actual colleges, complete with classrooms and dormitories, to share their lore with one another. They also meet at festivals or affairs of state, where they can expose corruption, unravel lies, and poke fun at self-important figures of authority.The oldest members of A&E are still extremely skilled in ways of the college of whispers. This faction also traffics in knowledge about lost empires that many others are not familiar with.
Relationships
The BAE consider the Order of the White Rose to be close allies. Soon after the White Rose was established and implemented, the BAE reached out to them. Both factions appreciate and respect the power of secrets, information, and communication. The White Rose benefited from (thought to be lost) knowledge preserved by the BAE regarding the flora native and exclusive to the Thagian Empire. The White Rose’s members proved to be valuable sources of information as inconspicuous spies-in-plain-sight, as well as the “unconventional applications” of certain plants. If either party were to be the source of information that blew the cover of the other, it would very likely break their alliance.
The BAE are opposed to the Order of the Eternal Torch. Between trafficking in information, secrets, and an internally shared personal history with oppression, the BAE see the Eternal Torch's embrace of Beshaba as a growing threat to the liberty of Kachmorah, and Malgians in general. They have acted against the Eternal Torch by attempting to intercept and disrupt religious propaganda, as well as empower more people with stories that challenge the very ideas and principles of the Eternal Torch. The Eternal Torch suspects there is an organized effort working against them, but have not been able to identify who is responsible. The BAE wishes to see the Eternal Torch defended, dismantled, and/or replaced with a new model of exercising law and order in the city. Namely, replaced with a more community-focused initiative. Nothing less would reconcile their conflict.
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