"Three Hearts As One" from The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited on the PC
Composer: Malukah
Album: Self Released
Developer: Zenimax Online Studios
First off, this is not the version of the song that one of the female bards sings in-game, that song, although identical in music and lyrics is titled "The Ebonheart Pact" and is also sung by Liam O'Brien, Jim Cummings, and an unknown (to me) female bard. This is an arrangement of her own song that Malukah did by adding some reverb and additional layering that I think improves upon the song.
I wasn't sure what song I wanted to post for today, then this song came on and as it always happens with this song, I got goosebumps. That didn't always happen with this song though. Once I actually listened to the words and took into context the Second Akaviri Invasion, that's when the song hit me.
"Three Hearts As One" and "The Ebonheart Pact" is about the joining of the Nord, Dunmer and Argonian races in order to push back a massive invading force of Akaviri. Previously, these three races were at odds in one way or another. The Dunmer had a thriving slave trade and had a very negative view of Argonians. The Nords often come across as very nationalistic and against outside influence. . .sort of, but not always the case. A real world example that I can make (although I do not make comparisons to any of the fictional races and the real world cultures), would be if Israel, Palestine and the Iran all found common ground, peacefully acknowledged each other (for the most part), and joined forces in order to stop their lives and the lives of everyone on their continent from being overrun and destroyed. I know that's a loaded sentence full of loadedness with the potential to offend some people, but I obviously do not intend to that, which should be pretty obvious if you know us here.
So once I had all of that historical context of Skyrim, Morrowind and Black Marsh in my mind while listening to this song that I previously had not given much time, it suddenly became this anthem of divided peoples coming together to overcome something bigger than their own prejudices. Sure, not everyone (in-game) was happy with this alliance and you still hear people on all sides lamenting the opening of their lands to those who until recently had been their enemies and/or slaves.
Plus, with this arrangement being all reverby, makes the song much more epic sounding. Or at least I think it does.
~JWfW/JDub/Jaconian
No comments:
Post a Comment