Hi All, I'm Hanin and I draw all the illustrations for Kaya's Guide to the Fabric of History! In this post, I will talk about the Bard Subclass, College of Ancestors!

 The bard draws power from the spirits of the ancestors and plays their songs for magical effects. This can be an entire family or group dedicated to playing this instrument, or this could be the previous players. By studying performance traditions and ways of life, the bard can augment spells and gain access to knowledge.

What is important about this subclass to demonstrate is the passing of knowledge through instrument, specifically. We decided to design 2 characters to show their connection via the instrument. The compositions we had were a spiritual conga-line, a family portrait with the ghost fading, or a guardian playing the instrument in the bards hands.

I thought the spiritual conga-line was the most fitting, and to show how you can study from anyone, we had different heritages play this instrument. The hobgoblin being the bard, the orc being his teacher, and a nondescript ghost further down the line, a la the Avatar State in Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Later down the line, I made some changes when finalising the sketch and beginning with the colours and it cemented the illustration.

Truly, knowledge and history can come from anywhere.