Animate Aria

An animate aria is the spirit of music in physical form. Granted life through magic and ceremony, these constructs emanate the inspiring music used to create them, usually acting as expensive and entertaining decor for the wealthy elite as well as simple servants and guardians.

As a construct of sound, an aria is usually heard and not seen, though it does have a physical body: a large humanoid-shaped framework without any distinguishing physical features, approximately 12 feet tall, made up of stylized symbols of musical notation. It can completely suppress its natural invisibility if needed, and while its musical aura can't be fully silenced, it can be reduced to a pleasant indoor volume suitable for light entertainment. The music used in the ritual to created an animate aria is the only sound that the construct can emit. It doesn't have the creative spark to create new music, though an animate aria in distress can emit all of the measures of its song at once to create a painful and deafening discordance. When it does so, the musical notation that makes up an animate aria's visible form briefly becomes jagged and broken, making the construct easier to see.

Animate arias are especially vulnerable to magic with sonic and silencing effects, which disrupt the melody that sustains them. When subjected to such effects, the extremities of the construct's shape begin to fade away, starting with its hands and feet. Those who create and maintain animate arias refer to this development as "diminishing."