In the continent of Uladh, where there was little means of transportation, a nomadic people known as bards would deliver news from village to village. These bards would put together various stories, legends and anecdotes into song and share it with people in each village. Because songs have melodies and lyrics, it had a smaller tendency for the stories to get distorted compared to simple story-telling.

Throughout the Mag Tuireadh Wars 1 and 2 amongst the Fomors, the songs began to carry a more theatrical and dramatic storyline. Mabinogis were first created to tell battle tales in a more entertaining and dramatic fashion, but as time went on, many portions of the story were actually made up. When the War was over, and the Kingdom of Aliech became more settled, music, which had always developed on a small scale by individuals, began to flourish in larger, symphonic scales. The smaller scaled bard songs became known as narrative songs while the latter became known as musicals.

As music's production scale and the complexity of such productions grew, musicians were increasingly specialized in their craft. Music grew from personalized songs that could be touched and felt, to pieces that were written by composers, performed by different people. The simplistic melodies grew into functional harmony, and functional harmony developed into polyphonic pieces utilizing complicated counterpoint.

Unfortunately, with the rise of specialized musicians, came the seemingly slow demise of the bards who had been the central force of Erinn's music up to that point. However, the bards found a way to survive through a group of adventurers known as Milletians.

Milletians were a nomadic group, unlike Tuatha De Danaans, and they are known to go on adventures from place to place. They were found wandering in the northern part of the Uladh continent where the Partholons live. They do not belong to any nation and live around a particular village or city. As a result, they were unable to organize large symphonies, as that would require large number of musicians as well as preparation. On the other hand, the convenience of the bard's songs which could be played anywhere and at any time seemed very approachable and accessible to the Milletians.

The songs of the Bards were a source of comfort for the adventurers who were living in rugged circumstances, which gave them mental healing while music tugged at their hearstrings too. Using a special technique to load mana onto music, they also developed a kind of music that seemed to have the powers to protect and strengthen peoples' mind and body as if by magic.


(To be continued...)