#classpect analys

Active or Passive: Passive

What they do: Bards allow the destruction of their aspect or allow destruction through their aspect. Breath is the aspect of freedom/flexibility, confidence, airiness/disconnection/detachedness, wind/flight/travel/wings, and options/differences.

Active equivalent: Prince of Breath

Inverse: Maid of Blood

A Bard of Breath would start off acting like a Blood player. The opposite aspect of Breath is Blood, which represents bonds, relationships, obligations/commitment, camaraderie/loyalty, and stubbornness/inflexibility. So this Bard would be a very stubborn person. They’re not quite like the Prince of Breath, who is about as flexible as a brick wall, but it’s more like you can’t really win with them. If you bring up another option or difference, the Bard will be like, “Nope. Nuh-uh. It’s always like this.” But despite this, they’re probably good at networking themself into all sorts of friend groups. They know everyone. Bards often have a carefree, almost cowardly sort of personality, but the commitment abilities of a Blood player would lend themself well to this Bard, creating a laid-back but reliable friend. Definitely not a leader, but they’re someone everyone knows.

Those qualities may sound somewhat healthy, but when you get into the meat of it, you realize it’s not a very ideal personality type. Seeing as this Bard dodges away from flexibility and choice, they likely stick to one option over all else and freak out whenever things go wrong. They might be extremely reliant on their friends for what they should do, and they might be the clingy type, sticking to their friends like Velcro as sort of a safety net. This might lead to them trying to keep all their friends together, because if they start to split, who will they have left to cling to? They also prefer routine over not having a set plan, and considering their stubborn nature, they might be very restrictive of other possibilities when it comes to their schedule. This Bard takes on a great deal of responsibility/obligation in the hope that they will be able to control everything and keep it from swerving off course.

In the beginning of their journey, the Bard of Breath will be dodging away from their aspect. They might have a few dreams or thoughts of freedom, but they consider these to be nothing more than figments of imagination, or even consider them dangerous. They consider detaching themself from certain situations in order to give themself independence, but this Bard is so scared of being alone and independent that they will continue to have a firm grip on their friends. They are chained down by every relationship and obligation in their life, constantly privy to the fact that destroying one link in the chain will screw up everything else. They might even be afraid of heights. I see the Bard of Breath as someone who, if gravity switched off, would cling to the ground for dear life, terrified of falling into free space.

Bards do start out acting like players of the opposite aspect, but once they have a sort of collapse in their life, they actively pursue their aspect, trying to take in as much as possible. The Bard of Breath will probably collapse under all their responsibilities and bonds. There will come a time when it’s all too much, and the Bard will say, “You know what, I can’t do it anymore! Screw this! I’m leaving!” And by leaving, I mean that they cease to care. They drift away from it all, isolating themself by withdrawing from every friendship and relationship they have. Their increased concern about micromanaging everything transforms into a sudden apathy, like they’re distancing themself from what their life once was. This Bard will be going off on their own whims and doing whatever instead of sticking to one set path or what their friends think. They are indifferent to the consequences of their actions and will instead just try everything in an attempt to explore the fun and freedom they possess.

The Bard eventually creates a sort of balance by destroying their aspect, intuitively learning “how much is too much?” A healthy Bard of Breath will have detached themself from some of their commitments and obligations, but not too many. They will have also learned how to be confident and make their own decisions without constant input from others, but they’ll know to take others’ advice into account, too. They’d be able to allow destruction through Breath. Literally speaking, this could involve wind, like they just ride the breeze around all day and allow it to destroy whatever’s in their path. Maybe they could power the winds up or down depending on the situation, allowing them to do anything from just floating around to sitting in the middle of a tornado. So this Bard definitely has options. (Another player yells “This b*tch empty!”, and the Bard catapults themself from the sky, yelling “YEET”.) Destruction through Breath could also involve using the freedom available in order to screw up everything. They’re probably not a master planner like a Mind player, but they definitely know where to find opportunities and use them for mass destructive potential. And lastly, destroying through motivation could involve pointing towards a very destructive option (“If all your friends jumped off a cliff, would you?”). They’d make it seem fun and an example of freedom, but in reality it would be a reckless dive at destruction.

The Bard allows the destruction of Breath itself. In a literal manner, they can destroy the wind, or even the air everyone breathes. While they sit in their mini tornado all nice and relaxed, the enemies are having the air literally sucked up from their lungs. Yikes. In a more metaphorical sense, they could destroy freedom and choices, which could keep the team together if used properly. On the other hand, it could obliterate someone’s options, one by one, until they are trapped with only one way (or no way) out. (Sort of like the horror movie Saw.)

And now onto something kind of dark: An unhealthy Bard of Breath could become so detached that all their friendships and commitments wilt and fall apart in their absence, and by the time they even consider balancing out their life, they will have nothing left to convince them to return. Bards tend to be wild cards so this scenario could go very, very badly, considering how they’d be extremely confident, reckless, and virtually unbothered by the consequences. Their impulses would be extremely detrimental to the team, and their powers of destroying choices, motivation, and freedom would basically ruin the session by turning it into a standstill where no one can advance and no one even wants to. So good luck dealing with that, I guess.

As for a land for the Bard of Breath, I suggest the Land of Links and Levers. The floating islands of LOLAL are held down by a series of gigantic chain links. This has led to a great deal of stability and order, though the consorts have little freedom to travel or dream. But the denizen has brought strange levers upon the planet that, when flipped, will detach some of the links depending on the sequence. The levers are scattered throughout the land and, if too many are links are severed too close to the top, the islands will become too light and float off into the sky to the point where they can never be retrieved. The Bard of Breath must learn to balance between too many chains, to the point where the consorts are confined to the ground, and too few chains, to the point where the consorts are all isolated on their little islands.

We don’t know much about the weapons for Bards apart from Gamzee’s clubs. Breath players have often had medieval weapons (hammer, lance). Since a Bard of Heart would start out acting like a Blood player, though, they might have some kind of sharp weapon, maybe? I would say it should be something reasonable and reliable at first, like a plain old knife. But once this Bard has their crisis, they try out all sorts of wacky weapons until they find one they like.

Here’s an example that will make you all think I’ve lost my grip on logic, but hear me out: Dobby from /Harry Potter/ is a potential Bard of Breath. He starts out with the characteristic of a Blood player; he is under the constant responsibility of his masters. One might even say he is bound to them. He even offers Harry advice despite the fact that his own life is a mess (major Blood player characteristic). But once he has his ‘crisis,’ that being him receiving the sock that grants him freedom, Dobby has a sudden influx of Breath (freedom!) in his life. However, he manages to balance it with the right amount of Blood; he uses his newfound freedom to help advocate for other house-elves, and of course, he still feels a great obligation to assist Harry Potter. Bards are also super unpredictable which definitely describes Dobby.