Since we're getting a number of musician and entertainer characters in SoA lately -- hooray! -- I just wanted to post a quick little terminology note.
I know that in MUDs and RPG culture in general, it's pretty much standard to call characters that play an instrument, sing, or otherwise entertain, a bard. So it's very natural for people to come in thinking of their entertainer character that way. But, in the non-European setting that is Omrazir and the Sirdabi Caliphate (or the wider world of Idiri) the term "bard" wouldn't really be in common usage.
Instead, it would be much more common for such people to think of themselves as musicians, singers, entertainers, or poets-with-a-lower-case-p (with true Poets belonging to their own extremely special and amazing guild, of course). The closest thing to a true bard in our setting would be the tribal Sirdabi sha'ir, or the Bissenke griot or jali, both of whom play a social role that is a combination of musician, storyteller, historian, and genealogist -- not just an entertainer.
But Mistsparrow, you point out reasonably, is there not a Bardic Fellowship right here in Omrazir??! There is, to be sure! But this is a brand-new institution in our setting, recently founded by Emmaline du Marais the Ruveran expatriate. Singer-musicians are often called bards in various parts of Ruvera, and the Bardic Fellowship itself is an organization that exists chiefly on that continent but also in scattered places elsewhere -- now including Omrazir. But especially outside of Ruvera, where the word "bard" isn't in common usage, a bard would be considered specifically someone who belongs to the Bardic Fellowship. So technically, it's a marker of membership in a particular organization rather than a general name for a singer/player/entertainer.
I'm not interested in being super strict about this, and if anyone has already referred to their character as a bard it's not a big deal. After all, I have not ever actually made a post about this, so there was no reason for anyone to already know! But I hope this is a helpful note for orienting entertainer characters within the cultural framework of Omrazir.