Bladesong Tradition

Bladesong was developed during the later parts of the elven empire, during its most decadent periods where image and prestige were more important than practical concerns. It was lost during the fall of the elven empire, when its decadent nature was no longer viable and more practical systems reemerged.

Bladesong is a martial tradition, a sword style, but it is unlike any other. Rather than refer to martial principles that were well understood, practitioners of bladesong based their style on the sound of the fight. Their goal was to create improvised music from the clashing of swords, and their belief was that the way to win was to guide this song so that you could add to the song, while the opponent had no strike that could obey the rules of music. On its face this is a ridiculous system, and it was widely ridiculed in its time. Practitioners were generally less successful in combat that practitioners of other systems, and even when successful their fights lasted far longer and they missed many openings that other systems could take advantage of. Further study of the system, however, revealed surprising results. One was that, while an ineffective way to learn how to fight, musical theory could be interpreted to give rise to some existing fighting systems, and alternative musical systems, that sounded discordant but were equally valid, gave rise to other existing fighting systems. Additionally, there seemed to be a weak sympathy between the bladesong and some symbols, and shortly before the fall of the elven empire study was being done that showed that the bladesong could have a direct magical impact on a fight.