“in life, the ratio of signal to noise is low. sometimes, i wonder if there even is a meaning to this overwrought, hopelessly complicated world.
but, when you tell me your story, there is a clarity that resonates. the sound rises to a sweet vibrato as the hero kisses his princess, then falls to a despairing hum as the rain patters at her grave exactly three acts later.
the music is beautiful, the piece comprehensible.
again. play it again.”
but, when you tell me your story, there is a clarity that resonates. the sound rises to a sweet vibrato as the hero kisses his princess, then falls to a despairing hum as the rain patters at her grave exactly three acts later.
the music is beautiful, the piece comprehensible.
again. play it again.”
LA AVRIA | soundtrack | inspo tag
- fanciful universe full of crying and political manipulation but mostly crying
- BUT REALLY: La Avria is a universe thematically based on birds. Music and sound are the main vehicle of magic. 'avia' referring to the Latin categorization for 'bird' and 'aria' like the musical term!
- It is overly decadent and delicate with bird cage/dome structures!!
- THEMES OF law/gvmt and its relationship with morality... Duty vs. family/relationships, and the inherent issues that arise from the ubiquity of stereotyped roles both in society and in personal relationships LOL *__*
AESTHETICS
- THE CITY is multi-tiered city with a great many gilded gate-ways and bird-cage inspired architecture. Most of the buildings are dome-shaped, with high-rise ceilings.
- THE MIDDLE IS ALL PUBLIC AREA AND PARKS! Also all the animals are BIRDS! Instead of public gardens, there are different, elegantly-coloured tamed birds that perch and preen in greenhouse-esque type things!! There aren’t any horses either; there are ostrich drawn hansom cabbies.
- Because of the ubiquity of birds, and the many mythos surrounding birds (SEE MAGIC SYSTEM), society has formed around bird species. Each family has a bird species from which it
A. derives its family name
B. uses as its insignia
and C. house colours. - THE LEVEL OF TECHNOLOGY IS ROUGHLY 1740s~early 1800s! austria/spain/france! But mostly Austria!! Because ah maria theresa ah mozart.
- The most common building material is something resembling (gold-plated) copper, iron, and tinted glass!!
MAGIC OVERVIEW
- Magic is activated through sound, particularly music. There exist certain small and common diddies to perform ordinary tasks (such as alleviating the pain of a small cut, finding lost objects, or etc.). However, the most powerful songs of all belong to the families.
- A family song in itself is a long and very complicated piece with specific notes that must be hit at certain speeds and pitches. In some cases, a song may require certain instruments or vocal training. Each component of a song builds upon itself—after certain refrains are completed, the subsequent magic might be more powerful, or another attribute is added.
- ONE SUCH EXAMPLE is the song of the swallow. REKNOWN FOR BUILDING HORRIFICALLY… STUBBORN… NESTS… IRL…. The swallow families are notorious builders in this universe! They are often seen about the cities with other builder-class birds… playing piano in order to tend and mend here and there! The “pianists that build” so to speak!!
- ANOTHER EXAMPLE is the amherstiae line, or the ROYAL family whose song is of Life. When the first few stanzas is sung, the singer wields control over plant life. Granted, there isn’t much to be done, as plants have incredibly limited movement.
the next set of stanzas increase the range of control over higher and higher levels of sentience— to small chicks to one person at the end of the song. - IT’S A VERY MUSICAL WORLD THERE’S LOTS OF MUSIC EVERYWHERE. In this particular culture (yes there are multiple cultures which i’m going to slit my wrists developing), the singing tends to be operatic and the instruments Western (violin, piano, cello etc!)
- An heir inherits a song from an early age; how an heir is picked depends on their family. Usually, this is based on personal merit and cleverness. While males tend to have a natural aptitude towards singing (LIKE REALLL BIRDSSS), the difference is negligible enough not to matter in a lot of cases!
- MOST FAMILIES only have ONE heir— to have more is a sign of indecision and thus frowned upon!
- In the OPPOSITE CASE a lack of suitable heirs (or yeah just having shitty kids LOL), noble families have been known to scour orphanages or pay lesser families for their talented children.
CENTRAL SOCIETY OVERVIEW
- SOCIETY IS HIGHLY TIERED AND HIERARCHICAL with the royal family at top with the most powerful song and the lowliest families having no songs at all! .
- BECAUSE OF THE HIGH EMPHASIS ON HEIRS/FAMILY HEADS, those who are heir to songs tend to have the most opportunities in their lives. For example, it is incredibly uncommon for an officer or captain of the army to be without a song. In their 800 years+ history there has never been a GENERAL who didn’t have one. (HEH WARS ARE BASICALLY MASSIVE ORCHESTRAS OF HIGH OFFICIALS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND AS FOOTSOLDIERS WHO ONLY KNOW SIMPLE DIDDIES AT BEST FIGHTING WITH SWORDS AND CANONS)
- University acceptance has also been known to be a lot more lenient towards heirs! THEY ARE AFTER ALL, TRAINING THE FUTURE LEADERS AND CREATORS OF THIS COUNTRY.
- With that said, there is insurmountably great pressure on heirs… If an heir screws up, the family is blamed for their POOR DECISION in picking that person. A number of families have been disgraced to the point of immigrating elsewhere in shame.
- The rigidity of La Avria's social structure also lends itself to very set standards for conduct. Each age group has set expectations placed upon it; these expectations play out such that the line between childhood, adolescence and adulthood are very clearly laid out. Likewise, the mobility of social class IS possible... However, once a person have been officially inducted into their class, they are immediately held to the standards of said class.