The Bard sRc

To bring everything to head, we'll recap the story so far. Ever since I started on the internet, all the way back in '97, I was known by the alias "The Anaconda". But, recently, in an act that's practically suicide in the realm of the internet, I no longer use that name. I have completely changed my identity, in the process of about a year and a half's worth of time, with a new identity, that of "sRc". I've talked about reasons why, but there's one thing I still haven't covered. The bard.

At this point I've now posted four poems under the "Something Different" header. The actual title of this series is "Refractions of a Shattered Soul", and it began sometime in 2004 with a poem my character quoted in the backstory I wrote for Ties to Infinity. Since I haven't gotten to uploading that onto here yet I'll not talk about it further right now, but it was based on a dream I had at the time. The second entry, the Crossroads of the Four Winds, I wrote in a notebook sometime before May of 2006. That's where I first really created the bard persona.

The bard is a profession from the Gaelic and British areas in the Middle ages. Most people nowadays know it by the D&D job named after it (or the Final Fantasy job based from that for those video game players that didn't play D&D). But in essence the bard's role is as a singer, a poet, a narrator and storyteller.  A task, while certainly known by different tiles in the modern day, essential to the world today. The bards are our musicians. The bards are our book writers. The bards author our films, and the bards give us our video games. And thus, I am a bard.

The idea of "The Bard sRc" came, actually, from my development of the story of Phobia. I was playing with the idea of a double of myself in that world sitting in on the storyline as a side character, taking down notes of what was happening to develop into a video game later. I didn't really call him the Bard until I paired him with another character, though, as a opposing personality to another sideline character, with that character referring to him not by name, and not by alias, but simply "The Bard" whenever someone asked her about him.

But putting aside where I first really used the term, the concept of "The Bard sRc" encompasses so much more. Refractions of a Shattered Soul, a opposing story I had started on the AnacondaSoftware site called "Reflections of a Tortured Soul", the many fragments of stories I've started but never finished, all the way back to my high school and the creation of the concept of James Millen. I am an author, I am a musician. I am the storyteller, and my job is to do just that. And it is my wish, and my task, that you not know me directly, but instead know me and remember me for my work. My name is not important, what's important is what you gain from my stories. I am the Author, I am the Bard.

Gather 'round, let me tell you a story.