Guild
Gossmere is one of the six magimystic guilds. The following is the text presented to newly realized Gossmeres:
Can you feel it, the heartbeat of life around us, the call of The Common Drum? A hand brushes against your own, a stranger’s hand. But it’s not unwelcome. Breathe deep, look around, and listen. Take a moment to witness the beauty of the sky, the colors of the trees. Hear the music of the land. Embrace what is around you right here and now. Now take the hand of the one next to you and see that all the colors become more vivid. The light becomes softer, warmer, the sky bigger, more beautiful. The world is not meant to be experienced alone. It is more beautiful when we look upon it together and help those we stand beside to see it more clearly.
You live in this moment, the dance of life. Offering your hand to another for support, encouragement, for solace and hope. Your heartbeats echo together in your grasp. That is The Common Drum. You are the many and the one, a member in a loose, ever-changing assembly of tribes that come together to share in the experience of life, a community that embraces all. Welcoming all who are in need. Respect life, and you are always welcome.
Perhaps you will be a healer, tending to the wounds of the body with curative songs. Or a great champion, fighting to free the enslaved with the shared spirits of brave warriors in your heart. Or perhaps a teacher, expanding and sharing your innate understanding of the world and others with empathy magic. Your magic alone is but a flicker in the face of the bonfire that burns when we are joined. You are here to inspire, entertain, and enkindle. To welcome those eager to learn from what you share, and share in turn in what they are here to offer the world. Breathe deep, see those around you, and listen. Take a moment. See the beauty in their lives, the vivid colors of their world. Hear what they are saying. If they ask for help, do what you can. Listen to their hearts if they are willing to let you. Share in The Common Drum. That is magic.
Motto:
Life binds us all as one. We all are Gossmere
Magic Affinity:
- Communion Magics
- Shapeshifting Arts
- Therapeutics
- Trusted Confidant
- Call To Hearth
- Choreomancy
Known Members:
Other Attributes
Gossmere’s cardinal direction on the chronocompass is northwest, and its primal element is Aether. Its governing time of day is Morning.
Guild Bearings
The Bearings of Gossmere are as follows:
Sun Bearing: Auromorne
Affinity: Intuvination
Guide Description:
You move swiftly and easily through camp, veiled in misty morning light, calling out to friends and delighting in the warmth of your community as it awakens. Their smiling faces and gentle energy always remind you how lucky you are to count yourself among a family so effusive in their love and welcoming kindness, qualities of such simple yet powerful magiq that guide you every step of the way. Being among your tribe invigorates you, empowers you. You are in many ways a product of those around you, your energy an amalgam of theirs, and yet you were born with a bright and clarion purpose. To give of the light born inside you, to share that kindling, and enjoy the warmth that comes from it.
One by one, you heed their call, seeking out those in need of remedy, a laugh, or maybe just a friendly face. You are known throughout your tribe as someone to depend on, someone who will willingly share chores, lessen burdens, dispense advice, and provide the occasional nudge in the right direction when needed. For this reason, you are welcomed everywhere you go, recognized as a harbinger of relief. The anchor in an otherwise nomadic existence, because you make anywhere feel like home.
The acts you perform and care you take are small kindnesses, and easily dispensed, but the warmth generated between two hearts connecting stays with you and everyone you encounter long after your work has finished. Though you wouldn’t call it work. You seek nothing more than the satisfaction of knowing you have served your tribe as best you can and that you understand each other a little better for having done so. This is what makes you feel most alive, with no barriers between you or any member of your tribe, sharing freely in the energy of their community.
The energy builds steadily within you until it can no longer be silenced, ringing out in your chest as proudly as the call of the Common Drum. You are an Auromorne-bearing Gossmere, born of the sun, compelled to spread the fervent warmth of the stars across the plains and beyond. As you look around the hearth at those for whom you hope to have made life a little easier, a little brighter, you know you are at home.
Eclipse Bearing: Eraverane
Affinity: Tympanic Transmutation
Guide Description:
You sense them before you see them, coming up a small hill over the plains. Their laughter rides on the wind, tidings of good cheer and the promise of a hearty meal wafting over the long grass towards you. Strictly speaking, this is not your tribe. You belong to no one and to everyone, a follower of the Common Drum in its most pure and primitive form: you are led by the drum which beats beneath your own skin. You are of the rare breed who walk between tribes, welcomed by all, but never lingering too long. Some say you are restless, and it is true that the desire for change and discovery, the need to seek broader horizons, motivates you to set out on your own. Yet there is a restorative nature to your travels as well; you have the security of knowing you are never far from friends, but you also possess a boundless sense of freedom, knowing you may depart again whenever you wish, and leave the bustle of camp behind for the peace of your own forged path.
In return for the hospitality you are given, you offer goods and collected trinkets, news, and messages from beyond this corner of the plains. You trade in the stories of other guilds and of the individuals within them, remembering them across the distances you travel and the vast expanse of time that passes, carrying their tales with you so that they may live on wherever you go. You carry entire cultures on your back, but you do not feel their weight. Rather, you take pride in your ability to deliver pieces of foreign song and dance, folktales and remedies, epics and legends that have been traveling across these plains for far longer than you have.
You are the physical embodiment of your guild’s most cherished values, for you represent communion for community’s sake, the connection of others from all corners of your world meeting and exchanging and finding connection against all odds. And then in the morning, or perhaps just before, in the faint-light, you will begin your next journey. The joyous energy of your time with friends will warm you as you walk, and the new stories you carry will keep you company until you come upon your next camp, as content as if you were still sitting beside friends. But all that is for tomorrow, for now you may take your place beside the fire. Together with your guild kin, you will eat and drink, dance and sing, and celebrate the beauty that is the life you all share.
You are an Eraverane-bearing Gossmere, born of the eclipse, called to walk between the tribes and to carry them within you always.
Moon Bearing: Diaphane
Affinity: Sight of Propinquity
Guide Description:
The campsite around you is ablaze with ringing voices and bustling energy as everyone prepares for the evening’s festivities, and though you bask in the eddies of warmth that roll off your tribe, your purpose is not among the rush of the others. You are innately sensitive to the ebb and flow of energy, but to truly use your senses you must sometimes observe from the outskirts, allowing the aether to wash over you on tides of camp smoke and laughter, and in return you send your senses out to listen for those in need. The overall morale is joyous, yet it is never without its disruptions, those fluctuations of temperature or temperament that signal when your talents might be needed. For you, it has always been second nature to know when someone else is ailing, almost before they know themselves. Some solutions are simple: a hot tea, a cool compress, a tincture of herbs and roots. Other afflictions are less straightforward: broken hearts, racing minds, lethargy, or sinking sadness. Suffering does not discriminate; this you understand better than most.
When called, you make a place on the edges of the tribe and those who need you always seem to find you, for you have called to them on the air, and given them space to breathe and be. Sought after for your ability to understand where it hurts without needing to be told, for the clarity you possess to seek the root of the cause when there is one and the patience to accept when there is not, when all there is to do is to offer comfort and wait for the worst to pass. You are blessed with the potential to do immense good, but beware the strains of your calling: your magiq is precious and powerful, but not infinite. When you have given more than is wise, that is when you seek a cool and quiet place to rest, replenished by the songs of your tribe echoing nearby. You are at peace knowing all is right once again.
You are a Diaphane-bearing Gossmere, born of the moon. You have been called to sense that which most needs tending and make a place for those who need to heal. It is a difficult life, to be sure, but all it takes is to see a smile across the campfire where there once was only pain for you to be absolutely certain of your purpose and path.