The Athkatlan Bard's Guild

The Bardic Guild in Athkatla survives on information. They discreetly deliver information both specific and general, create and dispel rumors, and sway public opinion as needed. The need can either be bought, or determined by the Bardic Council. Since the only thing valued in Athkatla is money, and the power that money brings, those interested in protecting the arts in Athkatla have carefully cultivated the idea that supporting the arts, like giving to charity, is a good way to flaunt your money and power, and provided settings like Cavelli's School of Fine Arts to cultivate young (and rich) Athkatlans.

Cavelli's is one of the finest schools on the Swordcoast, rivaling even the New Olamn School in Waterdeep for the number and quality of bards, troubadours, and dramatists it provides for the entertainment of Athkatla, as well as the instruments and written works it creates in support of them. It also has smaller colleges dedicated to the visual arts, such as painting, carving and sculpture, and more physical arts such as jewelry and clothing design, architecture, and advanced pottery and glass techniques. These colleges often work with the professional guilds by providing advanced training for guild members in exchange for skilled teachers.

The Guild was created as an extension of the School to protect the carefully created image of the arts, provide a ready source of skilled practitioners for the Families to support, and create a network of information gatherers and brokers that could work together to protect each other. Only guild members are allowed to perform at the most lucrative functions, and it is a mark of power to have several Bardic Guild members at any party or gathering. Many guild members are also placed well within the Great Houses, either as Family members or under the patronage of the House. Guild membership is earned at a tryout held once a year, just prior to the Greengrass festivals, and a bard may try any number of times to gain the prestigious Silver Feather, which is given to them in a private ceremony within the guild after which they are presented to the Athkatlan public (the elite who manage to reserve space within the Hall, at least) in a public recital known as the Silver Paean. Theft of a Feather is considered an attack on the guild, and is punished most harshly under Athkatlan law.

In the early days of the guild, a few of the more powerful families decided that they didn't want the annoyance of guild rules but liked the image of patron of the arts, so they fabricated charges and had several of the better known bards arrested, charged and sold into slavery, so that they could be bought and kept, as one put it, like a canary in a cage. They were quickly granted their freedom, however, when songs and poetry lampooning several embarrassing habits of prominent family members became popular in the Market. The point was made, and both groups are careful to maintain the status quo for now.

The Bardic Guild is connected publicly with the churches of Milil and Lathander, but only loosely, while the private association is much tighter. Several high-ranking clerics of both churches sit on the nine-member Guild Council and the agendas of both are often quietly pushed within the gilded halls and dusty streets of Athkatla. The Church of Milil is the most obvious patron of the bards, providing access to further training and its vast repertoire of songs and legends to members of the Guild.

The Bardic Guild, while not one of the most obviously powerful guilds in Athkatla, is quietly influential, its members often going unnoticed in the markets, taverns, parties, and festivals of the great city. It is allied with few other guilds, though it has a great dislike of the Slavers' Guild on principal. Its members are generally good, though it has its share of ambitious fame-seekers, and its aims, guided by the allied churches work to aid innovation and prevent evil and destruction as much as possible within the city walls.