Bard of Breath
The Bard of Breath. One who passively destroys movement and freedom through movement and freedom.
All in or all out, no in between.
Bard- passively destroy their aspect and passively destroy with it.
Breath- major themes of freedom, air, wind, breath, and flexibility. Minor themes of direction and change.
Abilities
Stagnation
The Bard of Breath passively destroys freedom, movement, and change. In the way that all things succumb to entropy, gradually losing energy and breaking down, they too fall way to stagnation. The Bard of Breath is a natural energy sink, stripping away forward momentum and bringing anything and everything, no matter how grand, to a screeching halt.
In the earlier stages of the game this could manifest as a dispassionate or disarming personality, a brick wall of a person. Someone who never knows where to go or what to do and stubbornly refuses any help or roadblocks the suggestions and actions of others. This could be for the worst, becoming an obstacle in the path of allies, or for the best, stopping foolish plans before they get in motion and disrupting enemy strategies.
There is a decent chance that their dream selves might be unable to fly and they might even, through powers, plot, or their own bullshit, knock others out of the sky and institute a no fly zone centered on them.
By the middle stages of the game the Bard would develop their powers, eating away at all momentum and force. Energy nullification would become a wide array of potential abilities. They may make it feel like gravity is working in overtime, slowing and crushing everything close to them. It may even appear as if time slowed as this hover motionlessly in the air. Long range projectiles would be all but useless against them as they lose all forward momentum and piercing power.
This could come at the cost of them too being subject to their own nullification, requiring them to scheme and plot traps based around this ability or simply lean into being an absolute dead zone. This power would become increasingly powerful with touch contact, draining away an enemies stamina and strength. They would excel in massively locking down singular, powerful opponents and debuffing many enemies at once while remaining relatively difficult to meaningfully damage and keep down. The Bard is however slow to act, if at all, and rare to respond, but the power of their own aura minimizes the need to do much of anything when in physical danger… (usually)
While their stagnation aura would be incredibly powerful, it does affect themself at the same time and can be pushed past by high energy attacks (such as lasers) or powerful or fast enemies (such as the Black King or any sort of speedster). Since it is purely motion based, it would likely interact very strangely with time shenanigans. While most mundane forms of harm would be all but dealt with out of hand, enemies capable of moving past their suppression could be devastating to the Bard, and only helped by their own stubbornness.
At the higher stages of the game the scope and magnitude of their deadzone would grow exponentially. While already potent in a set range, the Bard of Breath can expand this to be absolute or encompass a far wider area. Their power could manifest from greatly slowing to outright freezing, stopping any and all motion altogether, achieving near absolute 0. Chemical processes and atomic movement could begin to break down, literally stopping the process of cause leading to effect as long as their field is active. Bombs that can never go off, neurons that never fire, eyes and ears that never receive input.
At this stage, should the Bard’s focus break, this might become an almost indefinite localized time stop as their own body and mind slow to a crawl. Alternatively, they could expand their range from being localized to encompass an entire moon or even a planet, slowing all creatures and processes and causing those without sufficient momentum and energy to stop entirely. The war on Skaia could be delayed almost indefinitely if the Bard maintains their focus. The Reckoning could be switched from an intense hailstorm of meteors into an abysmally slow, long, and drawn out process. Indefinitely. Even for all their allies.
Chaos storm
A Bard of Breath passively destroys with storms, movement, and change. They have an off kilter aura of unease, never allowing anything to settle and solidify. In the earlier stages, on a personal level, they may be a person who goes with the flow. Instead of going along with everything they would be more like a hype man, charging up tension and energy with every idea, every plan, and encouraging everything to join them in going full steam ahead. Most likely to the chagrin of others.
As their powers progress they would begin to create localized storms or energy around them. Their chaotic, wild, and free energy would be a battery, generating increasing heat, wind, and electricity as they become more amped and charged up. As their energy reaches new peaks it would manifest very outwardly. While subjected to the consequences of their own reckless actions, they would, however, be an absolute whirlwind while carrying them out. Lightning strikes indiscriminately or anywhere that their attention is brought to, swirling gusts of winds giving them increased speed and flight and knocking away objects and creatures nearby.
As the Bard of Breath progresses further their capacity of shenanigans would steadily grow and, as a result, the size and intensity of their chaos storm. While before their storm was simple storm effects without much cause or reason, the storm would gradually grow to be more and more bound in the Bard’s emotional state and intent. This is not to say that it would be more controllable and manageable, simply more in line with *exactly* what the Bard is doing and/or feeling. A manic episode could see them coated in lightning and releasing a catastrophe of lightning bolts, while a temper tantrum could be bellowing, stone shattering thunder, while running to or away from something would cause incredibly powerful winds to take them wherever they wish. All without very little, if any, care towards anyone or anything around them.
At the higher levels the Bard of Breath would be able to usher in swirling hurricanes to cloak and disrupt the entire Incipisphere, increased to a near limitless amount of power and range as their own mania and frenzy become the storm itself. Prospit and Derse, as well as the lands of the session, could be swept up in the current and rattled out of their orbits turning the entire session into a colossal game of pinball.
Skills
Impact resistance- You are unnaturally resilient to blunt force and bludgeoning damage. You are immune to fall damage. Inertia- When you would be forced to move you may choose to move ¼th as far or 4 times as far.
Way the wind blows- Nearly everyone, regardless of faction or relationship, are willing to let you tag along
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