Guidarezzo and Blackmoor Bards

[Havard]

The topic of Guidarezzo came up again in a Piazza discussion about Mystaran saints where Mike mentioned that this immortal is referred to as Saint Guidarezzo by his followers.

Guidarezzo is first mentioned in the Immortal Set (Gold Box) p 49 and he also appears in IM1 p 13. He is mainly known for changing the sound based creatures known as "tonals" into lawful creatures and rejecting the "atonals".

In the Codex Immortalis, Marco expanded upon the character's background, making him a mortal of the Blackmoor Era:

History: LIKELY THEORY: Guidarezzo was a monk and a particularly gifted composer who lived in Blackmoor during Uther the Black's reign. He was the first to codify music according to modern canon (using the pentagram and the music keys) and he composed great operas like the Universal Canticle and the Requiem Mass. Thalia, patroness of Arts and Harmony, made him his protégé and led him onto the path of immortality. After defeating many other bards and composers in musical matches, after founding the first Conservatory (a school for music arts where he trained his successors and left a whole library of musical documents) and after creating the Symphonic Organ of Celestial Harmony (or Harmonium), a huge magical instrument whose mundane copies became the organs in Blackmoor's and Thonia's richest cathedrals, he finally became immortal in BC 3930 and was worshipped as Saint Guidarezzo.

His main goal became then bringing order inside the Chaotic sphere of Energy (he was responsible for the creation of the Faenare race and collaborated with Thalia in creating the Tonals), and after Thalia's mysterious disappearance, he became the universal patron of arts and especially of music and harmony. His cult later spread to the northmen (under the identity of Brage) and the Savage Coast, where he is known as Guy d'Aret in Renardie and Bellayne. In the Known World the only cult worshipping him is based in Darokin: the Church of Universal Harmony, where he is revered together with Koryis and Asterius.

Ascension in BC3930 means he ascended to Immortality in the Thonian Year 1070.

The World of Blackmoor contains the following Bardic Organizations:

• Brothers of the Dark Vision: Anywhere (BMPG)
  
• Dwarven Songmasters: Crystal Peaks (BMPG) - Dwarves only
  
• Jocular Jongleurs: Anywhere (BMPG) - Mainly Gnomes and Halflings
  
• Northern Collegium Musicium: The North (BMPG) - Originally a branch of the Thonian Collegium Musicium (See below)
  
• Northern Heralds: The North (BMPG) - Spreads information for the Northern Alliance
  
• Order of the Sun and Harp: Anywhere (BMPG) - Followers of the God Baldin
  
• Royal Society of the Lyre and Lute: Redwood (BMPG) - Elves only
  
• Silver Circle, Blue Circle: Blackmoor University (BMPG) - Overseeen by The Fetch
  
• Society for the Preservation of the Northern Record: Blackmoor University (BMPG)
  
• The Rhymers: Blackmoor/Thonia (GH) - Almost extinct. Formed by Valemen?
  
• Thonian Collegium Musicium: Thonia (BMPG) - Based in Mohacs
  
• Voice of the People Plains of Hak (BMPG) - Peshwah only

Could Guidarezzo be the one who established the Northern Collegium Muscium? Could it even be the name assumed by Alwyn Morland (DA1, DAB)? Morland is a woman, though Immortals have been known to switch genders whenever they feel like it. Or if not Morland herself, could there be a connection between Guidarezzo and Moreland?

Are there other ways we can use this information to expand on the way we see Bards in Blackmoor?

-Havard