@Kloe LOL! That makes me think of Pinkie Pie!
@LaFlibuste I'm torn on your stuff, personally. On one hand, I kinda like the idea of the villain switching tactics because otherwise they'd be seen as predictable and not nearly as threatening. On the other... I have a Knight character- Quintus -join the party because at least a decade ago he fought the cronies alongside some old companions of his (he was a young Squire back then, and he was the only survivor of the attack, and the only reason he lived was because his friends told him to retreat and bring back news of what happened to their King, because he was the one least injured and they figure he's too young to die) and knows how to fight them. That and they need a strong, tough guy on their team and possibly the King telling them to protect my other characters. If they've changed tactics, that initial motivation is lost and Quintus would be just as lost on how exactly to combat the baddies as everyone else is.
I don't think the "Melody vs Harmony" thing would exactly work. My world is Fantasy Medieval themed (yeah yeah basic RTP stuff, sue me I like the style and I'm a fan of whimsical Fantasy), and there's already a character (the current Queen of Sonata City) called Harmony. So clearly they already know what the concept of harmony is.
Also, Bards in my realm are kind of Rogue-like, I guess. Causing distractions and acting as spies and (possibly) pickpockets isn't exactly "orderly", you know?
However! When I was first writing down notes for the game and discussing it with a friend of mine, I came across the word "Madrigal" and thought, "Huh! That's kind of a cool name. Maybe I can use that somewhere!" and I WAS thinking about using it as a name for another realm. But while I WAS thinking that it could be used for the "realm of monsters" or whatever... the definition of Madrigal is way too positive for something like that, that being "music that conveys emotions in the melody". So I was thinking "maybe the realm of the Gods"? Madrigal sounds Wizard-y anyway.
@Niten Ichi Ryu To answer your questions... I kinda like the idea of it being The Darkness, btw. But that's not musical, though I guess that makes the force "unnatural" to everyone, including the pantheon. It's goal? Well, look back at what I said in my lore. Nothing but it and chaotic, swirling wild magic. If it wasn't a primordial force, I'd imagine it'd feel pretty happy about that. Then Light broke through and became Symphony and blah blah blah, you know the rest. As for "they"? Well, I was picturing that The Darkness is the reason why monsters exist in this realm, like Imps, Demons and so on. The last time they attacked the Gods, they attacked with help- their created monsters, formed from within itself. Perhaps, after the attack on the pantheon, the monsters became detached from The Darkness and fled to some other realm (or perhaps The Darkness created it for them?), awaiting their creator's rise to power again so they could strike back? In any case, I can't picture that slaying a Demon would do much good, since they're probably either just sent home or absorbed back into The Darkness.
Something that my friend thought up was, maybe the forces that killed Quintus's companions were just "a gang of *******s" who were trying to take over territories and have sided with the baddies. And in response, I had this: "Well... remember the "ruffians" you mentioned earlier? My idea is: King Tocsin sends out his five best Knights to the town, and from what he and everyone else can tell, they ARE just bandits so he knows his men can handle them. However, once the Knights get there... said ruffians have been either transformed into something else (so they're technically not even human anymore), or have been given phenomenal amounts of power/magic by the baddies so they're much more tough and have an unfair advantage over the Knights." And as of now, I'm thinking that perhaps The Darkness has another tactic up their aetherial sleeve- possession by either itself or monsters. Since the bandits are already trying to take over, what's wrong with giving them a boost and spreading your influence even easier and using them as puppets, hm?
And the idea that I JUST had come to me today whilst typing this (don't you just LOVE it when you're getting new ideas when you're typing out info on worldbuilding?!
) is... the next attack by The Darkness (which is the events of the series) has the lackeys be a little more... personal. Like, instead of puppet bandits whom nobody likes save for eachother, THIS time they aim for targets that nobody would expect would go rogue. For example, the scenario I thought up for my plot just now: The head Wizard at Sonata City's Academy goes out of their office for a breath of fresh evening air, telling their students that they'll be back later and to be good. Now, everyone knows said Wizard in this city and knows them to be a nice, calm person who teaches their students well. So it comes to a great shock when they suddenly get a strange, blank look in their eyes and suddenly start throwing fireballs everywhere and summoning The Darkness's monster creations to cause even more destruction (what, you think that one person can do stuff like this magnitude and not get mobbed by the city guards?). And when (or if) the Wizard manages to snap out the puppetry thing, they're horrified at what they've done...
Generals? Well, somebody has to give the monsters orders, right?
That's true about the pantheon thing. I was thinking having all the Elements be tied to stuff like that. Like Thunder is tied to energy/knowledge for example.
@Warpmind Well, the "end of a performance" sounds like a term for Game Over to me...
Also, I almost forgot! Silence. The status of Silence is pretty darn bad for a world that runs on sound as magic. That's actually Alto's worst fear is to be Silenced (traumatic experience as a kid) and he has every right to be so, because his job involves talking and singing and in-universe it's possible to Silence someone permanently if you put enough force behind the command. Not very often it happens, though, you'd have to be pretty powerful and REALLY want them to shut up for good.
Also, a few features my Bards can do are: they cast spells using their musical instruments (which can be anything from a guitar to a drum to their vocal cords to even a frigging music box, anything that makes sound I guess) to heal, hurt, buff enc. They also have the ability to tell such good stories that it feels like the audience is actually there- they're not, it's an illusion, but who cares when you're enjoying a great story? -and provide distractions by talking to their target. Like for example, there'd be a point where The Band (as I'm calling my party members) has to be sneaky somewhere, and Alto can be the person who distracts the guards so his friends can sneak past.
