Friday, August 14, 2020

Bodil's Gap Playbooks: The Skald

Standing before the city's gates, two armed men bar the way against a visitor in a colourful cloak. In a musical voice, the traveler commands them to stand asideand for an instant they step back, stunned, just long enough for her to slip through the gates and away...

On the deck of a ship rolling over turbulent waters, a wizened old man dresses his captain in a cloak patterned like fish's scales and paints on his face, in blood, the famous scars of a legendary hero who swam to the bottom of the sea to fight a kraken. Taking a deep gulp of air, the captain fills his lungs with the inexhaustible breath of a legend, and plunges into the cold water...

Standing atop a rocky outcrop, a young woman looks out over the battle raging below. Fingers plucking at the silver strings of her harp, she raises her voice in the saga of a terrible storm that once swept the land. Overhead, the clouds twist and churn as the heavens mimic her story, wind sweeping the enemy's arrows from the sky as lightning strikes amidst their lines...

Hemmed in on both sides by foes, a man stands with his back against a tree, brandishing sword and shield. As the crash of sword against shield and the ringing of iron on iron merge into a steady cadence, he recites a line from the saga of a great battle, and the tip of his sword leaves an enemy's throat a gurgling ruin...

The Skald


Stories hold an intense power of their own. They are the currency of common culture, and the archetypes and narratives they contain have a great influence on the minds of mortal men and women. Their influence goes beyond that, however; told with enough skill and passion, a story can influence the world itself, moving earth and sky no less powerfully than a human listener. This is galdr, the magic of inspiration and narrative, and the art of the Skald.


Whether taught the secrets of music and poetry by a spirit or able to grasp such things through divine inspiration or long study, a Skald can speak a story and make it true merely by the act of speaking.


The Power of Legend


Core to a Skald's power is the recitation of legendary sagas. Although individual tales are infinite, each falls into a broad archetype—a saga of the wilderness, a saga of war... By reciting one of these, a Skald can invoke the events and circumstance of legend in the present. And as the recitation continues and the saga progresses from its opening lines to its climax, the power a Skald wields through it only grows, finally manifesting in a crescendo of its own before fading away.


By reciting a saga of war, a Skald can sharpen their allies' blades, strengthen their arms, or turn the strikes of their enemies into glancing blows. With a saga of fortitude and endurance, they can let their allies ignore exhaustion, wounds, poison, and disease. The saga of a great storm can whip the sky into a frenzy of wind, thunder, and lightning, while a saga of the wilderness can draw animals near, force trees to blossom and bear fruit in an instant, or reshape the land itself to the Skald's advantage.


Sagas are not the only invocation of legend a Skald has access to, however. By hanging the trappings of a past hero on someone, a Skald can grant that person a measure of that hero's power, and allow them to echo that hero's deeds. And by recognizing the shapes of stories as they encounter them, a Skald can learn a great deal about the people they meet merely by understanding what archetypes they embodywhether the proud rival, the doomed mentor, the tragic lover, or some other stock figure of the sagas.


The Silver Tongue of a Poet


Less overtly magical is a Skald's talent for music and poetrya talent that makes a skilled Skald welcome almost anywhere, for poetry and music are the main forms of entertainment in Bodil's Gap. An artful recitation can bring life to a celebration and see a Skald showered in coins, while the promise of such can prove tempting to even the canniest negotiators.


A Skald is also a master of obscure lore, for their repertory of tales and sagas includes countless ancient legends and historical accounts. Their peerless grasp of riddles also grants them a knowledge of such obscure matters, and they can glean insights about any opponent with whom they match wits in a riddling contest.


Even outside the realms of poetry, a Skald's words carry the force of their will and the power of galdr. With a quick command, a Skald can set someone to motion before they have a chance to consider their actions, while a deception uttered with enough conviction will go totally unexamined so long as the Skald maintains it in their mind.


Using the Skald


This playbook is intended for spell-casters who wish to influence people and events both with their magic and with their words. If it can be summed up in a single image, that image is Egil Skallagrimsson reciting a poem before the King of Norway in exchange for his own freedom, and finding not only safety but fame and renown.

Although its greatest magics are overt, the Skald has a lot of subtle power and social influence. Use it instead of a playbook like the Bard to present a spell-caster whose magic depends on the power of narrative causality, and who has a story for every occasion.


Bodil's Gap is currently in playtesting, and the playtesting version of the Skald playbook can be found here. If you have any insight or feedback, leave a comment or send an email to brazenhead@zoho.com.


Up Next


Next week I'll be talking about the Óttimáðr, a sorcerer endowed with the dread power of the primordial giants, and burdened by their scrutiny.

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