Bard - Tradition of Elegy

The few adventurers brave enough to venture into the depth of Yharn seldomly have time and leisure to sit down by the fire and listen to the songs of life, constantly overwhelmed by hostile wildlife at day and the swarming parade at night. Those who do find respite, however, are quickly entranced by the songs that sing out at dusk and dawn, hauntingly beautiful elegies for the deceased.

The College, or perhaps tradition of Elegy is a form of vernacular tradition practiced by Yharnic tribal shamans, enacting burial rites for the recently deceased, as the esteemed caste of “Songpriests”. The dense jungles of Yharn are unforgiving and survival calls for utilizing any and all resources that one can gather - including corpses, familiar and strange alike, recycled to serve a purpose with no waste. While Xbeltz’aloc forbids the manipulation of Souls to do one’s bidding, the Body that is left behind after the Soul’s passing is granted to his followers - it is thus the divine duty of songpriests to enact the final rites for the fallen, to cleanse their corpse of what remains of their Soul, so that the Body, purified, can be put to use one last time. Those perching comfortably in the spires and the studies might dismiss these practices as cruel and abhorrent, but morality is plaything of the privileged; those fighting for their lives have no moment to care for it.

Through these vernacular traditions, songs and elegies, the songpriests serve another purpose - to chronicle and pass down stories and teaching of those who have passed, threading the history of a tribe together with their voice. Even though a fallen warrior’s Soul quickly returns to the leyline, and their Body soon reduced in form after the rites, a proof of their existence lives on through these elegies for generations to come.

Prophetic Dirge

Starting at 3rd level, your divine duties can be exerted to influence the fate of others through a ominent song. As a bonus action, you can expend a use of Bardic Inspiration to place a prophetic mark onto an enemy that can hear you within 60 ft of you. You can influence a marked creature in the following ways:

• Wound. Whenever a marked creature is hit by an attack roll, you may choose to remove the mark as a free action, adding your Bardic Inspiration die to the damage roll of the attack as extra necrotic damage.
• Maim. When a marked creature makes a saving throw, you may choose to remove the mark as a free action, roll your Bardic Inspiration die, and substract the number rolled from the creature’s roll.

Rite of Warding

At 3rd level, you learn primitive rites that can bestow Xbeltz’aloc’s protection upon others. As part of a long rest, you may enact this rite upon a non-undead creature of your choice, remaining adjacent to the target creature throughout the long rest to complete it. Upon completion, the target creature is affected by the spell Death Ward until it is activated or until the start of its next long rest.

Whispers of Dread

At 6th level, your whispering voice plagues your enemies, inciting dread within their minds. Whenever a creature marked by your Prophetic Dirge feature makes a roll at disadvantage, they must roll one additional time, and take the lowest outcome of all three rolls.

Threading Songs

At 14th level, your haunting elegies thread the fate of your enemies and their prognosticated imminent death together. Whenever you target a creature marked by your Prophetic Dirge feature with an enchantment spell, all other marked creatures are also targeted by this spell.