All-Patron Reward: The Music of Writing: Phoenix Rising

Following Grand Central Arena, my next solo novel was Phoenix Rising, the first novel in the Balanced Sword trilogy. Originally called Fall of Saints, this story went back to my early grad school days in Pittsburgh, and the character of Kyri Vantage was derived from Kyrie Ross. a Paladin I played in a Ravenloft campaign run by Jeff Getzin. 

In the game, a particular piece of music became associated with her in battle, and has stayed there in my mind, even though it's publicly directly associated with another, vastly more famous, fantasy character. Still, this is the first piece of music I had to start Kyri's journey, and it's worth listening to anyway: Conan the Destroyer (Main Title).

Kyri, of course, has many adventures, but though there are intimations of what is to come early on, her journey truly starts when she discovers the truth of the Justiciars, and confronts her god Myrionar.

The first section -- the horrified discovery that the Justiciars, her idols and the supposed protectors of Evanwyl, were the murderers of her parents and her brother -- was written to "Nadia's Resolution", from the soundtrack of Nadia: Secret of Blue Water.

Following that discovery, Kyri flees into the Forest Sea, partly to escape the terrible truth that she cannot outrun, until she breaks into a clearing and is confronted with the constellation of the Balanced Sword in the sky. She screams her betrayal to the heavans and demands Myrionar  explain why it has abandoned them. In that moment, Myrionar tells her "I have not abandoned you", and offers her the chance to become the one true Justiciar. This scene was written to and remains set to, in my mind, The Doctor's Theme from Series 4 or the New Doctor Who. 

There are of course two other key characters in that book, one of them the smallest and most popular: Poplock Duckweed, dimunitive, clever, and far too dangerous Intelligent Toad. I spent quite a while searching for a theme that fit him, and eventually settled on Hired Mana, from the Mana Khemia 2 soundtrack. There's a bounce to this tune, but also seriousness and complexity that shows what lies beneath the clownish exterior. 

Tobimar Silverun is banished from his country at the turn of a card... but that was anticipated by Konstantin Khoros, and so we get Knoros' theme again: Burning, from Yoroiden Samurai Troopers. He shows up a lot, that guy with the funny hat. 

While I had a lot of trouble finding a theme for Tobimar, I finally settled on The Mummy Returns (Main Theme) from the film of the same name.  

The main characters finally meet in desperate circumstances. Tobimar and Poplock discover that Thornfalcon is no hero but a monster who has already tricked Kyri. The battle that starts with Thornfalcon utterly overmatching Tobimar, only to have Kyri show up at the last moment, with the three Adventurers then taking on the fallen Justiciar, was written to Dragonball Evolution's main theme, one of the few good parts of that otherwise badly fumbled adaptation.

More music to come as I reach the other books in the series!