After my last post concerning the nature of Art, I decided to
turn my attention on the subject as it concerned m'Lord
Scarlatti. A fellow order mate of mine turned my attention
towards the last mention of Lord Scarlatti contained
within the histories:

Scarlatti, and his followers wove highly structured music to combat the
discord.
It is said that our greatest arias are simply an attempt to mimic
the music that Scarlatti wove during this time.

These brief sentences, plus my order mate's own suggestions,
piqued my curiosity, and I sought to further ponder upon his
idea. Basically, what allowed the followers of Scarlatti
to aide in the weaving of music such that they too could
use it in a different means. The suggestion to me was that
emotions may have a part to play in it.

Now, I said in my last post that a major key in the
development of Art was that there needed to be some inherant
meaning in one's work, such as to invoke a reaction
from those who view it. This is, as you may easily guess, an
emotional response. An Artist thrives on the emotion produced
from his/her work, it is the lifeblood they seek as if it
is not given, the artist has failed. Continued
emotional response from a work furthers the artist's
ability to cause change, make statements, etc in more and more
ways. And all Art is designed to have this affect. A lover's
poem is designed to illicit a like response from it's
intended viewer. Yet others at the same time are affected by
the same piece, whether it be from memories from their
own lives or hidden desires now brought to the forefront.
It is this kind of response a true Artist truly seeks,
one that helps them become more than just an Artist.
The Artist is able to use this 'essence' from emotion to
acheive his/her purpose.

I thought long and hard on this proposition and I could
see its merits. However, I could not figure out the key
to it: How does one harnass emotional essence? From what
the history said, even the greatest Arias were only able to
mimic the music that Scarlatti and his followers wove.
How did his followers then harnass the power of
emotion? This thought tumbled through my head but I could
never quite grasp it, until a conversation with a friend
made everything clear with a simple word. One I should
have thought of that made sense. She asked me if the
gaining of emotional essence would be a drain on those who
a bard gained it from, and I responded that I didn't believe
it would. She asked then if it was then more like Kai energy.

I thwaped myself on the head. That made perfect sense.
Funny how the simple things one should try to look at
and are ignored turn out to make so much sense.

Kai energy is gained through a trance that allows a monk
to harnass the energies given off from nearby combat.
Emotional essence, to continue the thought, is energy
given off by the emotions of those nearby reacting
to a piece of Art. As Kai users are able to harnass
their energy, so too should bards be able to harnass
their energy by similar, or near similar means.
This buildup of energy can then be channeled and formed
into a completly different affect, as Kai energy is,
with the aide of other devices if need be. But unlike
Kai, the energy released would have a longer affect, as
emotions do not just die away as quickly as energies
from combat do.

Alas, I know most of this post meandered around, but
I hope I got the main point for now out. I encourage rational
discussion about this from all who wish to do so with me.
I also intend to look further into the discovery of some
form of harnassing of this essence, and welcome
any suggestions of the sort.


Penned by my hand on the 11th of Phaestian, in the year 345 AF.