Bladesingers can be found from the enchanted woods of Silvanesti and Qualinesti to the untamed woods of Southern Ergoth. Wherever elven cities sprout the bladesinger has risen to serve and protect his people.
Background: In the Age of Might with the looming thread of Istar and the Proclamation of Manifest the Speaker of the Star’s saw the need to establish an elite elven warrior of exceptional martial and diplomatic skill. He proposed his idea to Aerlyn, First Weapon Master of House Protector, and a dabbler of the arcane arts. Aerlyn grew excited with the proposal and took it one step further; he convinced Silvanos that he could blend magic and martial skill in one fluid fighting-style. For many years Aerlyn had used his magic, as a tool to focus his mind and guide his blade, but now the task that lay ahead of him required serious study of the eldritch arts. Aerlyn traveled to the Tower of High Sorcery in Istar and took the Test of High Sorcery. He passed the test but it left him scarred emotionally. The Test pitted Aerlyn’s loyalty for magic against his love for his people, the core teaching of his new school; all bladesingers must lend aid to any elf in need, including sacrificing their own life in that pursuit. Aerlyn never spoke to anyone of his Test.
The Wizards of High Sorcery where not keen on Aerlyn’s hybrid Bladesinger school and some mages even call it an abomination and insult to the Towers. To appease the Council the elves agree that the bladesong style will only allow the use of the longsword, rapier, and elven thin blades and the use of light armor only. This restriction appeased sufficient members in the Council who where weary of full-flesh fighter mages. With the matter resolve Aerlyn marched forward with his task. For the next century Aerlyn called to his side the greatest elven fighters and mages and together they forged the bladesong fighting-style and the Bladesinger Griffon Guild. The Bladesong fighting-style emphasizes beauty and style over sheer destructive power and elven fighters who lack the mental discipline to grasp High Sorcery practice it. The Bladesingers have embraced not only the fighting-style, but have made it their lives, seemingly blending their blade with their magic in a hauntingly beautiful and deadly dance.
Religion: It takes decades to learn the basics of the bladesong; therefore future bladesingers are enrolled in the Bladesinger Academy from a very early age. At the Academy young elves are taught to revered Solinari and embrace magic as a natural part of the world. Bladesingers have established a rare harmony between magic and the blade. The roaming bladesingers take to heart the tenets of Solinari, using their magic not just to aid elves, but to right wrong where they find injustice, protect the weak from tyrants, and advance the cause of magic by portraying the benevolent side of the White Robes to the world. E’li is also honor as the Father of the Elven race and some bladesingers follow his teachings zealously. Kiri-Jolith has found some followers among bladesingers that practice their martial skill over magic and some bladesingers have been known to venerate Chislev for the goddess fierce demeanor.
Race: Bladesingers hail only from Silvanesti and Qualinesti elves. It is not known if the sea elves have a similar tradition. The elves long-standing prejudice for half-elves prevents them from ever joining the ranks of the Bladesinger Guilds. Because of this very social elven stance there are few half-elves the can show the love and dedication to the elven race necessary to join the Bladesinger Guilds anyway. However, those rare half-elves that have shown exceptional loyalty to their elven cousins have been train in the bladesong fighting-style only as a reward. They can never take the prestige-class or join a Guild. The bladesong style has remain an elven secret. Any non-elf that somehow steals the secrets of the bladesong style will find their life cut short. The elves will swear a Blood Oath to hunt down the offender until he or she is found and slain. There are no compromises in this hunt.
Alignment: Any Good. There has never been a case of an evil bladesinger, although there have been cases of bladesingers falling victim to powerful Black Robe enchantresses.
Arcane Classes and Magic: Bladesingers can only hail from the Wizard class. Sorcerers and Bards use primal magic and therefore lack the discipline learned from High Sorcery and the loyalty to Solinari needed to become a bladesinger. After the Chaos War some bladesingers dabbled in sorcery, particularly Divination and Electromancy, but continue to revere Solinari never doubting the return of the Gods of Magic. When the Gods did return these bladesingers abandoned the chaos tainted magic and eagerly embraced High Sorcery once more.
Bladesingers use Divination and Abjuration with awe-inspiring results. The bladesingers use Divination to divine their enemies moves in the field of battle and in the political arena. There is little that escapes their notice. Abjuration is use to devastating effects in combat, offering equal protection against hostile magic and blades while disseminating their foes with sword and sorcery. Evocation is used to eliminate threads rapidly and efficiently from a distance. Bladesingers also rely on Illusion for spells such as Invisibility, Greater but tend to leave illusionary magic of higher levels to the Red Robes, since practice in this school can raise a few eyebrows in the elven homelands.
Bladesinger Guilds
There is one Bladesinger Academy in Silvanesti and Qualinesti with three different schools for each of the three Guilds. Aerlyn founded the first Griffon Guild that split at the end of the Kinslayer War. Even the Bladesingers where divided in ideology and some left with Kith-Kanan and where too proud of their heritage to change the name of their Guild. Below are the names of the six Guilds and their weapon of choice.
Silvanesti: Lynx (Thin-blade), Griffon (Longsword), and Falcon (Rapier).
Qualinesti: Unicorn (Thin-blade), Griffon (Longsword), and Gray Fox (Rapier).
The Bladesinger: The Bladesinger prestige-class presented in The Complete Warrior works well for a Dragonlance Campaign with the following changes. Exclude half-elf from Race and add Diplomacy as a Class Skill. The path of the Bladesinger is easier to attain if you follow the Wizard class without attaining levels in the Wizards of High Sorcery prestige class at first. However, levels in the Tower prestige class and the Order Secrets of the White Robes combine to create a very formidable Bladesinger. For an added twist one to three level in the Devoted Defender prestige class found in Sword and Fist can create an indispensable Royal Guard bladesinger.
Character Concepts: Elven emissary, Peacekeeper, Royal Guard, Community Champion, Roaming elf, Dark Elf Hunter
