This is rerelease of Bards Reborn Student of Song, now a Become a Bard add on due to Pevey’s new Special Edition version! Huge thanks to
Pevey for making the original Become a Bard that inspired so much of this mod and being so gracious with their help.
 
Enhanced Bards College
The Bards Reborn College has been completely redecorated tomake it a true “musical museum” with the help of Tcz! It now includes specialinstruments from the Elder Scrolls Online with readable museum plaques and much more artwork on the walls. When you return with Finn’s Lute and Rjorn's Drum, they will also go on display as part of the museum.
 
There are additional rooms to explore including a shrine toDibella and a room with tanning racks for making instruments and an alchemy station. All students, including you, now have small, but private dorm rooms with a bed and desk and your dorm room has a chest for your use. An oven has been added to the kitchen to give you more cooking options while you’re using the College as a base and respawning resources are scattered throughout the College.
 
Many more books were added to the library making it a great place to find some rare books and over twenty new custom ones that I added in for flavor and the questline. Overall, I tried to improve the look of the college to make it seem more like a place of learning. Once you become a full bard of the college after King Olaf’s Festival, you also gain access to a room in the tower of the college which can serve as a small player home. The library includes two player bookshelves so you can add to the college library yourself. Note that some of the books in the Bards College are static so that shelves had full appearances without going overboard on books that the mod had to load.
 
Expanded Questline
A new quest has been added to give you an actual learningexperience at the Bards College. The new voiced NPC Malukah Hope-Singer (created with permission from Malukah) serves as your academic advisor and the quest giver. Instead of being sent straight to find King Olaf’s verse, you will study at the college and learn the skills of a bard before being sent off into the world to prove yourself worthy of full induction.
 
The courses you must pass are: History, Lyrics, Historic, Musical Instruments, the Poetic Edda, the Drum, the Flute, and the Lute. Each course has an oral exam you need to pass so you will need to read books in the library, attend classes and study the items around the college. For the drum, flute, and lute, you will need to raise your bard skill by playing instruments to pass the musical evaluations. Once you complete the courses, Malukah will direct you to Viarmo who will then give you the Tending the Flames Quest allowing you to be declared a full bard at the Burning of King Olaf once you complete the quest. Afterward, you’ll be able to access the Become a Bard quests from Viarmo and the vanilla side quests as normal.
 
New Music Based "Spells"
Skyrim is a region with a long history of Tonal Magic, be is the Thu’um or Tonal Architecture. Beyond Skyrim there are Sword-Singing and Green Singing so what if bards experimented with their music to unlock magical effects? Spellsong Magic is the result and by playing your lute, your bard can create a variety of magical effects. You can find the full spell list in the article section or play the game to learn them for yourself.
 
As you gain more skill as a bard (using the Become a Bardskill) you will unlock new Spellsongs to craft at the Spellsong scriptorium at the Bards College! These magical effects are ‘cast’ using your stamina, offering new playthrough and build options. The effects are mostly illusion based, but there are Spellsongs relating to other schools as well allowing you to play the bard you always wanted. A paper scroll recipes have been added to tanning racks for the components that you will need to make the Spellsong books.
 
This magic system was built on the great Spellsinger system from blueboar andadjusted using assets and some spells from Support Bards by mechanarwhal. I won’t say they are balanced as that can be a relative thing. You can unlock them by raising your bard skill and lack the stamina needed to use the most
powerful options. They are also slower to use as your character must stop to play their lute.

 
Additional Dialogue at Bards College
This mod adds more dialogue to characters in the Bards College.You can learn a bit more about what brought Viarmo to Skyrim. By speaking with Viarmo, you can donate to the college and gain the blessing “Patron of the Arts” which grants a temporary boost to your speech skill once in a 24-hour time period.
 
There are two more students at the college. A Khajiit named Kisani and an Argonian named Sakre to add some more diversity to the college and they have distinct dialogue. Additionally, the mod adds more dialogue to the students and professors to flesh them out more as people you interact with. You can have a few more conversations with them and unlock dialogue as you advance as a student. Most of them only have vague personalities and no histories in the base game so I had to invent a few things, but everything is lore-friendly and I think suits them. Voices have been redone in 5.0 using Eleven AI technology.
 
Additional Become a BardMusic
With the generous permission of Miracle of Sound, Rachel Hardy, and Gingertail songbooks with selectsongs by them have been added around the college or can be crafted at the special bard crafting station added by the mod.
 
Compatibility
This mod edits very few assets and will be compatible with most things. You should not use this mod with another mod that edits Tending the Flames. Most of the prior patches also remain functional, but users are reporting that the JKs Bard College patch is not longer working.
 
I have played through using Interesting NPCs and they move around the college without any trouble save occasional weirdness in the library. This mod was created for new playthroughs though the study quests don’t link to the Tending the Flames quest beyond dialogue so you can add it into an existing playthrough and do the study quest with Malukah if you’d like even if you’ve already done Tending the Flames.
 
Recommended Mods
Better Dialogue Controls by ecirbafhelpful for the oral exam portions of the mod
The Eloquent Reader by Sthaaggwhich improves speech by reading books
Dialogue Movement Enabler by Vermundslets you adjust position during dialogue
Bards College Excavation by dkdoubledubadds a bard excavation team and a bard flavor quest
Bards Reborn Bardic Lore by me letsyou craft books including journals of your quests
 
 
Permissions
The music added by this mod is copyright of the respective artists and is used with their permission. Please see the links to the artists above to find more detail about their terms of use. You are welcome to translate this mod and post it on Nexus or Bethesda.net, but it must remain free. You are also welcome to port this mod to other systems provided you don’t make changes beyond that as long as it remains free. Always link back to the original so people can view the full credits.
 
I have a couple of conditions for permission to use the assets of this mod. There are a lot of assets from other modders and a tribute to a real person that needs to be respected. When I reached out to Malukah, she granted permission for me to use her name and likeness on the condition that the mod remained free always and thanked me for asking her first. Therefore, if you want to use the Malukah character, please contact Malukah and explain what you are working on. If she agrees then you have my blessing to use the actor asset. For other assets, please check the credits to see if they belong to someone else and seek their permission. Outside of those conditions, you have my permission to use the assets you wish.