Systematic Truths from a Musical Tale

Power scaling and magic systems add a touch of the fantastic to our stories. And many things have been done before, or in mixed myriads of ways. We don’t have to reinvent the spell to make things interesting.

But it always helps to do things your way. I’m not as fond of elemental magic, but I won’t denigrate it because it has been done amazingly in multiple stories.

In my Orchestrylus Odyssey series, magic systems are based on emotions and colors, and the story examines how these emotions affect the world around the user through the music of the spheres. In the first two light novels, a basic form of soft magic called alter chroma compositions is introduced to wean the reader into something complex further into the story. At the onset of my series, I wanted to keep things soft, but the strength of harder world-building in some ways will service the story in positive ways.

My next light novel will be longer than the last two by a large amount, and each story from then on will tell the tale of the spheres of Orchestrylus in longer spurts of lore and plot threads. Light novels are usually on the shorter side, but I believe the story needs to be as long as it must to get the point across.

With a world as large as Orchestrylus, there’re seven spheres to explore, each with their own political alignments and cultures which thrive on them, from the high-tech sphere of Hadynus, to the cozier sphere of Liszt. But even the less technological spheres are influenced by higher technology. Every sphere has auroral nodes and a sophisticated, interlinked web of energy grids that make nature and technology harmonize with one another. This world doesn’t have the pitfalls of pollution, because every sphere of the world knows they share the resources of the array in common. Wars have started due to the lull events and silence across the spheres, not always because of lack and abundance or the facets of extremes or political alliances.

These different spheres allow the story to shape and mold a magical system that fits the culture of each. Music is the common thread in this world, constantly playing in nature as well as the battlefield.

And things get even more complex, the higher than the chain of normal life one goes, with the Nine Golden Masks masters over their emotions and affinities. The Ensemble can create miracle notes from their compositions, something forbidden for just anyone to do. The Nine Golden Masks are the highest offices in the Ensemble, not allied with any nation, and their understanding of the magic system is the highest caliber possible.

The instruments most soldiers wield as an assembly of symphonists are created from the symphonic streams of the Eterna, called alucinized instruments. The name is deliberate, and these instruments are the only things able to touch negasongs and their lulling effects.

I used them like this to build another side of the magic system. Common people have gemstone songgraphs, which they use to compose the gem (instead of sheet) music of their heart, and it is only a certain caste of people chosen by the Euphonious Phoenixes that are allowed the honor of using alucinized instruments.

The world is balanced in such a way that songgraphs allow all people to use the magical system, but the true system opens when one becomes a symphonist. The main character, Stanzielle Quintette, is one such symphonist, who lands the role after a series of events out of her control. She’s level one in a field of study where everyone else is in their high fifties.

Using her this way allows me to develop the system and world around her to tell a better story. She’ll learn the system as the reader does, making it far easier to understand as the pages move along.

Everything needs to be planned out regarding the magical abilities of the characters.

Do they make pancakes with a songgraph composition?

Is travel by music instead of carriage?

Is it a musical chair that floats along that enables travel?

How do the sounds of the natural world mix with music from humanity’s creative well?

What does a villain’s emotional affinity tell you about their character archetype, if it does at all?

There also needs to be a sense of balance among the cast. They’re used to this daily life, a life the reader has no experience with. How much awe and wonder do the characters need in a world that exists the way this one does?

The magic system and the world-building are so integrated with each other that they are almost the same thing.

A fleshed-out world needs every jot and tittle of the story interwoven in such a way that it becomes believable.

Magic systems are a wonderful tool to do that with.

And, hey.

Everyone could use a little more magic in their life.

Wouldn’t you say?