Descant

To be a descant is to be priest, architect, song-master, all rolled into one. It is to be an adventurer, a historian, a guardian. It is to devote oneself to the most sacred things in this life, and it is not an easy task.

— A king of some renown

To be a descant is something that every young child at some point aspires to. They are everywhere, and every kind of person can be one, join their adventures and their songs.

As a Whole

Descants do a lot of things, and most of them end up traveling all around the world to fulfill their duties. The sum of their job is that they record the truth.

By means of an art called inscription, they make records of history and events that due to the nature of inscription cannot contain anything false. While this is not the only way they pass things on, it is a primary source for them.

Since this is something that the Ruhoth despise, it puts them in danger, and thus tends to lead to them having more adventurous lives.

Subclasses

The term “descant” is a general one, with the most direct meaning being priest, the duties of a descant being primarily concerned with the religious traditions of Reeja. This is no small task, as these traditions are interwoven with every aspect of Reejan life. To cope with this vast responsibility, three major sub-classes have arisen, divided by focus and the means to achieve that focus.

The most common is the vestant. These descants' concern is set in the past, and their teachings emphasize learning from past mistakes. As such, they devote much of their time to the study and creation of accurate written traditions. Leinants are the next most common, and their concern is the present. Much of their time is spent in charitable dealings. Their legacy comes from the artistic representations of current events. The final group is the marcants. These men and women devote their entire lives to the promise of the future, in creation of songs and symphonies that express their hope for what is to come. While their music can include elements of recent battles or ancient kingdoms, they inevitably lead to the future.

The divisions listed above are by no means exclusive. Each order intermingles and interchanges traditions, sharing information and learning.

While on paper their focuses would seem to be splintered between past, present, and future, in reality each descant carries all of those elements with them. They carry a grand legacy into the present day, with an eye to keep it going far into the future. Most children don't consider that legacy when excitedly declaring that they want to be a descant someday, but even by wanting to be a descant they are a part of carrying that tradition forward.