[the_logos]

Year 350 in Achaea has  seen a lot of new additions to the world plus a huge competition with thousands of dollars of prizes including real-world swords and an iPod. The new major additions included:
- Selene, the Goddess of Love and Beauty
- Scarlatti, the God of the Arts
- A system for players to become bookies and take bets from other players.
- Foozling! A new global game.
- A new area: The Valley of Actar
- Hunt the Bandersnatch, another new global game.
- The Scarlattan Theatre: An incredibly competent system for putting on plays.

And last night, at the very end of Year 350, the long-awaited Bard class (our 15th class) was introduced! Bards gain the new skills of Swashbuckling, Voicecraft, and Harmonics. I won't post the full skill lists (25-35 abilities in each skill), but some example abilities from each:

Swashbuckling
-------------
Swashbuckling mainly involves offensive abilities with a rapier or acrobatic movement and defensive abilities. For instance:

- Flourish              Intimidate an opponent with a flourish of your blade.
- Knuckleslap         Numb someone's hand with the flat of your rapier.
- DrunkenSailor      A stance designed to increase the unpredictability of your movements and attacks.
- DeathFromAbove  Leap out of the trees to knock down and skewer some unlucky S.O.B. below you.
- Backhandspring       Execute one of these to leave the room while kicking someone in the face on the way out.

Voicecraft
-----------
Voicecraft is the use of one's voice to create various effects, usually on a single target. Unlike nearly every other ability in the game, however, it doesn't use or require equilibrium or balance. It uses its own type of balance called 'voice balance' such that one can be using Voicecraft and either Swashbuckling or Harmonics simultaneously. For example:

- Sing March     Cause even the steadiest of mounts to panic.
- Sing Vibrato    Shatter a victim's arm with a trilling vibrato.
- Recite Poem    Cause severe nausea in someone with a poem of gluttony and decay.
- Chant Dwinnu  Cast off web spells.
- Sing Qasida     An ascetic qasida to instill anorexia in your victim.
- Sing Solo        Temporarily increase the maximum health of a friend.

Harmonics
---------
Harmonics are usually, but not always, ongoing room-based effects requiring one of the bardic instruments: lyre, mandolin, flute, harp, or lute. Abilities include:

- Divertimento     Periodically disrupts the equilibrium of enemies in the room.
- Berceuse         Will regularly try to put an enemy to sleep, or remove a sleep-related defence such as the effect of the kola nut.
- POES              (Acronym for Place of Eternal Song). Allows the bard to store a limited number of undecaying harmonics that may be called upon instantly in case of danger.
- FuneralMass     Requiring four bards to execute, this deadly harmonic can slay an unprepared enemy nearly instantly.
- Cacophony       Destroy the reverberation vibration of a Magi, allowing the use of a cube sigil to attack the other vibrations.
- Rondo              Call out the rats from their hiding places with an enticing rondo.

Stop by and check us out! Few muds can match our pace of development so there's always something new to use or play with.

--matt