I'm trying to work out some details as to the status of old lore bards. From what I have read, old lore bards are on the decline or mostly gone from Greyhawk around CY 591.
What are peoples views on that?
IMC old lore bard are different from other bards, in that they have druidic training (and are a PrC in 3e) where as the other bards are just bards.
I believe there were seven old lore colleges - do you think these still exist? Are they actual physical colleges and if so who would they be placed geographically (I mean where in the Flanaess)?
I think the only one to be officially detailed is Fochluchan College, which received a description as a web enhancement for the 3rd edition supplement Complete Adventurer.
It was a generic, world-neutral supplement, so it wasn't given a place in the Flanaess. It's said to be "on the shore of Loch Firrnen, a few miles from the town of Oakenway." So, wherever you decide to put it, basically. I think the closest official place is Oakenheart in the Sea Barons.
The colleges mentioned in the 1st edition Player's Handbook are: Fochlucan (level 2-4), Mac-Fuirmidh (5-7), Doss (8-10), Canaith (11-13), Cli (14-16), Anstruth (17-19), Ollamh (20-22), and Magna Alumnae (23).
Oerth Journal #15 had an article on the Old Lore bards, and gave locations for the various colleges. It placed Fochlucan College in the Gnarley Wood, for example. MacFuirmidh is in Blackmoor.
In Living Greyhawk, the Isle of Cli can be found on the western shores of Lake Quag and I believe that is the headquarters for the College of Cli. Would have to do more Perrenland LG research to confirm, but that's what I seem to recall.
Also, I think one of the colleges was located in Geoff in that region's LG campaign.
Thanks both. The Oerth Journal reference was something I forgot about, it does indeed list the college and give them suggested locations.
If the old lore bards were largely a flan thing - and if the flans were largely nomadic - would that imply the colleges were less likely to be substantial buildings and more likely to be smaller buildings?
Even if the Flan were largely nomadic before the Great Migrations--I think this may have been true for some Flan nations but not all of them--it doesn't necessarily follow that their culture would have no substantial buildings in the present day.
Also, while I think the Old Lore traces its lineage to the ancient Flan, most cultures in the modern Flanaess are a hybrid and neither the Old Lore nor the Old Faith are exclusively Flan in the present.
I wasn't a huge fan of the 3e WotC writeup, it makes it sound like the college is just a little schoolhouse that low levels hang out in rather than an overarching organization.
The OJ article was much better - for my own campaign (3.5) I'm making Old Lore Bards the only bards and they are a PrC (different than the one in the OJ, you can enter it a few levels earlier and it has a better power curve so it can hold its own with other classes).
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