Description
Title: yOur World
Cover art by sleepytea

Join the Priestess Celyse and her Guardian, as they journey to the Shrine of Salvation on a quest to summon their Goddess to the mortal realm.

This is an OST for an imagined 3D Action JRPG, with music in an orchestral fantasy style.

You can experience the entire OST as one story here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diF3KnO8ch0

Or you can listen to the tracks separately on this playlist!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG112Jk1pSQ&list=PLOgLHGbaMPUGMUS-bYgR7AVYx8zHCJWRc

Story:
In an age of unrelenting strife, the world lay in ruins, torn asunder by war, pestilence, and famine. In their despair, the people of the land prayed to the heavens, pleading for deliverance from their suffering. The heavens remained silent, save for one entity, who promised salvation in return for devotion. The people proclaimed this entity as their Goddess, and she in turn carved out a sanctuary amid the chaos - a sacred land encircled by a mystical barrier. Within this sanctuary, the followers were protected and blessed, their lives infused with prosperity and magic. Yet, this haven was but the herald of a grander promise, for the Goddess has foretold a day when she will descend from the celestial realms, to finish her work and forge a perfect world for her faithful. And now, as the prophesied day draws upon us, a story begins within Her World...

Track List

1. Theme of the Goddess (Opening BGM)
2. Celyse's Theme (Character Theme)
3. The Goddess Festival (Town BGM)
4. Awakening: Guardian's Theme (Character theme)
5. Their World (Exploration Music)
6. Fight for Whom (Combat BGM)
7. Sanctuary of the Forsaken (Area BGM/Cutscene Music)
8. Her World (Final Boss BGM)
9. My World is You (Ending Theme)

[Track 1] Theme of the Goddess
- This is one of the main themes which recurs throughout the soundtrack. This particular track plays during the opening cutscene which depicts how the Goddess created this world protected by a mystical barrier. I used this theme in the other tracks as a way to convey how the people view the Goddess and her world, and in this rendition, I kept it sounding holy, neutral, and with a hint of ominousness.

[Track 2] Celyse's Theme
- Celyse, a priestess of the Goddess, serves as one of the protagonists of the story. She fully believes in the Goddess, seeing her as the benevolent savior of her people, as reflected by her warm and loving rendition of the Goddess's theme. Celyse's signature instrument is the harp.

[Track 3] The Goddess Festival
- It's time for the annual Goddess Festival, and the townspeople are ready to celebrate and give their thanks! Similar to Celyse, the townsfolk also love their Goddess, and happily play out a jaunty rendition of the Goddess's theme as they have the time of their lives. I purposefully took out a lot of the audio effects that are present in the other tracks, and messed around with note timings to make this track sound more 'human' and 'imperfect', compared to the other tracks.

[Track 4] Awakening: Guardian's Theme
- As the festival draws to a close, Celyse suddenly receives a divine vision from the Goddess. She is to be the Oracle for the Goddess, and journey to the Shrine of Salvation to undertake the ritual required to bring the Goddess into this world. To aid Celyse in her journey, the Goddess imparts part of her Divine Essence into an ancient set of armor, and commands this newly raised being to become Celyse's Guardian. The music begins with melodic fragments sung by the vocals, which slowly coalesce into one melody, the Guardian's Theme, played by the Cello, the Guardian's signature instrument.

[Track 5] Their World
- Celyse and the Guardian set off, and Celyse is happy to show her beloved world to the Guardian. This music details their journeys through the lush fields, enchanting forests, and soaring mountains of this realm. I had originally planned to make a few overworld BGMs, but instead decided to combine all of the musical ideas I had for those into this narrative piece to better convey what this world is like in a concise and better scoped style. It portrays the wonder and excitement Celyse feels about exploring the world, and the joy she feels from being able to share her love for it with another person/being. For Celyse, the words, 'My World' points to the place she belongs to, the place she calls home.

[Track 6] Fight for Whom
- Of course, the world is not without its dangers. This is the combat BGM for the battles in this action game, where you can switch between the Guardian, a tanky melee fighter, and Celyse, the fast-moving magic user. The piece is largely split into two parts, the first half having a somber melody based on the Guardian's Theme from earlier. Part way through the BGM, I pivot on an E major to switch to Celyse's version of the combat BGM, based on her Theme from earlier. To convey their different fighting styles, I made the Guardian's half of the BGM sound heavier, with longer melodic lines and slower harmonic movement, to match their careful, defensive fighting style. Meanwhile, in Celyse's half of the BGM, I use a variety of flourishes, much more active harmonic movement, and more digital sounds to convey her faster, magic oriented combat style.

[Track 7] Sanctuary of the Forsaken
- During their journeys, Celyse and the Guardian discover a ruined Shrine serving as a refuge for the Forsaken, those who have been cast aside by the Goddess, or willingly renounced her. The player can choose to do quests for them, and help rebuild the Shrine to its former glory. The first half of the BGM is meant to be an interactive looping BGM, where the music becomes more and more grand based on how much of the Shrine you've managed to restore. The music feels quite lost and weak, but not fully broken, and amidst this music that struggles to rise up, there's an unrelenting bass line, the Goddess's Theme, always playing, always looming over these people. Once you fully restore the building, the Elder of the Forsaken tells you a story about what the world was like before the Goddess, where people may have struggled, but were also free to choose their own destinies. The music to accompany this cutscene is the second half of the BGM, where the time signature switches to a more willful 4/4, and the melody has a much more defined structure and stronger cadences.

[Track 8] Her World
- Having finally reached the Shrine of Salvation, Celyse prepares to undergo the ritual to summon the Goddess. As the great descension begins, the Theme of the Goddess is unleashed in its full glory, and the fate of the world now lies in your controller. This tracks portrays domination, awe-inspiring, incomprehensible power, and the twisted love and obsession the Goddess has for what she considers 'My World'.

[Track 9] My World is You
- After a cataclysmic battle, the Guardian and Celyse finally manage to banish the Goddess from the mortal realm, but at a great cost, for Celyse has been both mentally and physically broken by the fight. With the power of the Goddess now severed from this world, there is no source of magic or miracles the Guardian can use to heal Celyse...except for one... the divine spark imparted into the Guardian at the beginning of this journey. The piece starts with Celyse's theme, now shifted to minor, and no longer being sung. Although this melody almost fades away, the Guardian now cuts in with their theme, and after a long climb, manages to bring back Celyse's voice. The two play her theme one last time together, now with a more hopeful resolution, before the Guardian fades away, having given their all to save the one person that matters to them most, what they considered, 'My World'.

I knew I wanted to try and make a 'complete' sounding OST, so I spent the first few days of the jam really planning out the story beats, then how I could most efficiently hit those story beats with the least amount of BGMs. I then wrote out all of the themes, and planned how I could incorporate them throughout the OST. Coming up with the themes beforehand let me cut down a ton on the time I usually spend blindly looking for good melodies, which helped me finish everything on time. (Though I did still have to pull one all-nighter (^^;) )

Message from the artist
I hope you guys enjoyed the music!
I can't wait to listen to all of your music as well.

Huge thanks to sleepytea for the awesome art!

Music all made in Cubase 12, with some sound design done in Reaper.

Theme

How does it fit the theme?
Aside from trying to portray a fantastical world through my music, I also tried to incorporated the theme "Inside my world" into this OST by exploring the two following things:

1. How the experience of 'Being Inside Someone's World' can vary greatly for different people
2. How the phrase 'My World' can mean different things to different people

First, I examined how the experience of being inside the same world can be perceived very differently based on a person’s identity and perspective. I did this through the recurring Goddess's Theme, which appears throughout my submission in various forms. For characters like the Goddess's followers and Celyse, the Goddess's world is a paradise, and their rendition of the theme is joyous and warm, as heard in the Goddess Festival and Celyse's Theme. Conversely, for the Forsaken, the theme transforms into an ominous bass line, ever-present and looming like a dark cloud.

Additionally, I went into the various interpretations of the words "My World." For some like the Goddess, this means a world they own and dominate; for others like Celyse, 'My World' points to the place they belong to, a place they are happy to share and enjoy with others. And in some cases, someone's world can be just a single person, the one being they care about the most.

I actually got a lot of the inspiration for the story from the theme image, from worlds stuck in magical bubbles, to an otherworldly figure guiding a human.

Link(s) of the submission on streaming services
Full OST presented as a story: https://youtu.be/diF3KnO8ch0

OST Playlist on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kG112Jk1pSQ&list=PLOgLHGbaMPUGMUS-bYgR7AVYx8zHCJWRc

Number of tracks
9

Genre

Soundtrack use permission

Yes (CC BY-NC)

Any non-commercial project