Dragon factional music.. backwards?

[Shian]

Running through in game music files to find something and I got to thinking about something I've thought for a long while, but not sure if I was the only one that thought this way but it's bothered me for a few years now.

The Helian and Lunus faction music heard in the racial cities seem backwards to me.


Port in to Dralk and you'll get a deep, almost soothing chanting noise.
Not something I would equate to brutish dragons with a fiery temper.


Port into Chiconis and you get an almost guttural bellowing noise soon accompanied by loud, jarring bells.
I equate them to 'bells of war' or a call to arms. Not exactly something you'd want playing while you were studying.

On my modded computer, I've even switched the sound files so they 'fit'.

Post thoughts/discuss?

[Dhalin]

Not sure what you're thinking Shian... I think the sounds are right.

Try listening to them through headphones; the Chiconis tracks (there's two of them) both have crystal-ringing in the background and some sort of draconic music playing. That "bellowing noise" you hear in Chiconis isn't really a "deep guttering bellowing noise" at all; it is more of a... I don't know what word to use to describe it, a magical sound of sorts.

The Dralk track has some deep gutteral chanting in the background, and other sounds that sound "hot" and "lava-like" which befits Dralk. Though I suppose if you were listening to it through speakers, the sound may be distorted a little... try it again with a good pair of headphones and you'll see the difference.

You can find these files (and the others) in the game's sound directory, as normal MP3 tracks; any MP3 player (or WMP) will play them.

[Xanthia]

Assuming I am thinking of the same music you are refering to, I've always thought they fit. I thought the bells(while they are loud) gave it a more mystic, ancient feeling to the atmosphere. As for the deep chanting, for me it always had an almost dark harsh tone to it that I would expect from dralk (though that could be because it suppose to sound like dragons are chanting it).
But that what makes this game so nice. If you don't like something, it easy enough to modify.

[Dhalin]

Assuming I am thinking of the same music you are refering to, I've always thought they fit. I thought the bells(while they are loud) gave it a more mystic, ancient feeling to the atmosphere. As for the deep chanting, for me it always had an almost dark harsh tone to it that I would expect from dralk (though that could be because it suppose to sound like dragons are chanting it).
But that what makes this game so nice. If you don't like something, it easy enough to modify.

This is a slightly different way of saying what I was trying to say in my post. For some reason, the word 'mystic' fits Chiconis's music pretty well, but yet I couldn't come up with the word while I was typing my response above for some odd reason, lol.

Yeah, Dralk's chanting sounds more... I don't know... dark and harsh like you said. But then, as I also said, it is highly dependent upon your sound system. Those with cheap $10 computer speakers will miss out on a lot, while people who use $50 headphones (the type that cover the entire ear, like mine) will hear every whistle, whisper and chime.

[Steelclaw]

One of the Chiconis tracks reminds me of a street tunnel. o_O

Other than that, I think they match. The Dralk music has a darker feel that is more in tune with the dark, ashy, smothering atmosphere of Dralk.

Although, as I first thought when reading the thread title, I wonder what the Dralk music sounds like when played backwards....

Edit: Not as interesting as I had hoped. :/

[Thicklesip]

I think I sort of get what Shian's getting at, actually: the Chiconis music sets me on edge and sounds more aggressive than the Dralk music, while my mental tag cloud for the dragon factions certainly thinks that should be a feature of Dralk. Though, I'll admit it's almost solely that one "waaAAAAaah" in the Chiconis music that makes me go "GAH GAH GAH STOP FINE I'LL LEAVE". Grinds too harshly.

Compare and contrast: Dralk's chanting does, on a closer listen, sound pretty Lunus, but it's just so... subtle. The Lunus NPCs tend to present themselves as the least subtle beings on Istaria, so it feels "backwards" to me that they get the less eye-popping (ear-popping?) music.


Not to say I don't understand hearing it as it is, sort of depends on your internalized interpretation of the factions, I suspect. (And how you interpret the music, of course!)

[Vaz]

I think they fit just fine. The Chiconis music seems meditative, mystical, and experimental to me, whereas the music of Dralk is ominous, seething with quiet aggression and carrying numerous auditory references to lava. Also, in the background of the Chiconis music you can hear sounds of metal being delicately struck, whereas in the Dralk music you hear things breaking. xD

Listen to dragon_helian_mus_01 after 0:50. You have that playing in Dralk, Shian?

[Dracaena]

They are as they have always been. I find the Dralk music more.... creepy might be one way to put it. But then my dragon is helian and has always spent more time in Chiconis then Dralk. The Chiconis music sounds like home to her.

Dracaena

[Hasai]

I've always thought of the Dralk music to be something like you'd hear in the halls of the Knights Templar, warrior monks, or some other military Order.

[Shian]

I've always thought of the Dralk music to be something like you'd hear in the halls of the Knights Templar, warrior monks, or some other military Order.

That was the impression I got, but after reading some of the official tidbits, the Lunus just don't sound like an organized, very honed and disciplined people.

I do hear the 'hot' sounds, get the impression of ash and lava in the undertones of the lunus music and that does fit.

I hear the 'tinge' of metal in the chic music but I just can't hear 'magic' or 'serenity' anyone have a marker for where this is?

What I hear in helian 00 and 01, it just gives of a sense of foreboding. Like I should be watching my back. Something is creeping up on me and is about to pounce.

At 1:39 in helian 01 however, THAT sounds very helian. Quiet magic. That goes back to the uneasiness at 3:33.

[Dhalin]

For Shian...

Helian 00: 0-0:30-ish, these kinda sound like deep gongs/ritual bells. Then after that, you get some kind of odd chimes, etc stuff. If you listen closely, can hear a sort of... water bubbling sound? at about 1:20... 1:40 sounds like some sort of percussive instrument repeatedly, ... ouch... a screech at about 1:50... actually that bubbly sound sounds more like a heartbeat of some sort.

Helian 01: starts off with that familiar set of tones, but you also hear some sort of percussive tapping in the background... 1:10 sounds like crystal humming... 1:25 sounds like some water dripping... in fact the whole 1:25 - 4:00+ I imagine a magical room with magical humming crystals and water dripping.

Helian 02: This one is a bit more upbeat, it starts off with the same tunes as the first 2, but this one has some sort of music in the background. They sound like hollow air instruments, and maybe some percussives, maybe this is what dragon music is supposed to sound like? But this is definitely *music*... a tamborine-ish thing at 0:55...

Lunus 00: This one is completely and wrongly named -- this is played just about anywhere in Istaria...

Lunus 01: The "silent" one or near-silent one. This is purely lava-type sounds with the occasional hum in the background and other odd sound now and then.

Lunus 02: This is the dark and deep chanting. Definite lava-stuff in the background. When I hear this, I picture a gathering of dragons in a lava area, dragons reciting a very ancient chant or song, or maybe dragons performing an ages-old long-forgotten (to anyone but them) ritual or some-such. The music that follows the chanting is something you'd see (well, hear) in a movie that features something similar to what I described above.

[Amerelium]

Try my modified music files - I've added some deep dragon grumblings to the dralk tune(s), which goes VERY well with the chant, and some other types to chicons, that fit the setting...

[Vahrokh]

Port into Chiconis and you get an almost guttural bellowing noise soon accompanied by loud, jarring bells.
I equate them to 'bells of war' or a call to arms. Not exactly something you'd want playing while you were studying.

Helians are scholars but this does not mean they won't have good fangs and want to kick a** when needed.