BARD: “The Facilitator of the narrative”

Includes: Gamzee, Cronus, Dualscar

Observant readers will notice immediately the deviation of the Bard’s role definition. Humor me.

There is a thing in kabuki theatre, the kuroko or kurago. They are the stagehands of the performance, who move around the stage to assist in costume changes, to move props around, to strike the stage and set new pieces. They dress in head to toe black, wearing a veil over their faces, and as such they are a device of the theatre that is meant to (and reportedly does) fade into the background of the audience’s perception, as if they became invisible. The story could not unfold without them, but they aren’t actors or playing any specific role. They are the hand of the narrative itself, the embodiment of necessity and impetus.

The Bard is such a stagehand unmasked. They exist in the story only so much that they are ready to be plucked up and put into place to instantiate whatever must happen. And when the story doesn’t need them, they are no one of consequence.

As such, the Bard is not playing by the same rules as every other class. They are not playing at all. They are staff caught under the spotlight, they are the choragus asking direct questions from stage left, they are a tool. And as such are resigned to a non-arc. 

Gamzee is a nice, goofy, but ultimately not narratively significant character until he is activated as a villainous accelerant to the story, and his character arc is all but dumped into the trash. Cronus, stuck in a failed session that needs no facilitator anymore, is locked into the same maturity level as he died in and has no affect on the story. Dualscar’s influence peaks at a failed attempt at shitstirring.

It would be hard to define this class to someone. It is the diametric flip of the Heir in a sense. It is a blank slate. The Bard’s strengths are what the story demands. The Bard’s weakness is a lack of definition or purpose. You, dear reader, are not a Bard, I assure you.