Seventy years ago, how would you get your message out to people?

Let’s say you had a product to sell, a campaign to run or an idea to spread. What would you have done?

One option is to take out ads in a newspaper or maybe even write a book.

But what if printing and distribution are a hassle? And, for that matter, what if you couldn’t assume people are literate?

Well, radio might be your best bet.

You’d want to come up with catching slogans, jingles and advertisements, then run them as much as you can. How well your message spreads comes down to wit and charm.

Now let’s rewind the clock even further - and jump sideways into a world of fantasy and magic. The same principles apply, even in a world where dragons are real and tables can eat you.

Do the gods, fae, archwizards and other powerful beings have messages they want to share? Most of them probably do, right? What powerful entity doesn’t have strong opinions and a vision for how to make the world better?

All of a sudden, bards make a lot more sense. Maybe bards – knowingly or otherwise – are the marketers and communications officers of vastly more powerful beings. The catchier their music and the sharper the tongue, the more powerful they are.

Why?

Powerful beings want the talented influencers to survive… and to owe them for a lot of magic. High-level bards might find themselves needing to pay off their debts, designing ditties to spread the good word of Tsukaroth the Many-Tongued.

All classes evolve into warlocks if you wait long enough.