The Penumbra Bards have been apart of Emathan for as long as time has been recorded and stories have been told. The Bards can be found all over Emathan and are recognizable by the Masks the bards wear. Each member of the Guild vows never to show their real faces, preferring to hide behind masks and disguises. The tradition can be traced back generations to a time when the guild members were hunted down and almost wiped out, now they protect themselves with the ability to disappear anytime they need.
Life of a Penumbra bard all depends on the status the guild has given them, some are like other bards travelling around the kingdoms and lands telling tales and gathering new ones, others are assigned to Courts and aid Kings and Lords with matters of state for they are valued for their abilities of mediation. Others are sent out with tasks given to them from high in the ranks, you see the bards have been slowly manipulating things to their ends for what purpose only they know.
To outsiders the guild is nothing of note, merely bards who entertain and travel the lands spreading news and cheer, but to those with in the inner circles the guild is intertwined in Emathan history writing much of it past and future.
The true numbers of the bards is unknown, guild halls can be found throughout the lands if you know where to look. The main school is located in the Kingdom of Alagon, a impressive building as old as the kingdom its self.
Types of Penumbra:
Nightingale
Sparrow
Starling
Crimson Shiver -these assassins’ work for the inner circle of the Penumbra Bards, this relationship is known to only a select few people.