The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind
Going back to the beginning
MMORPG stands for game as a service, which in the best case means years of content floods and for this page a bunch of OSTs for the various expansions of The Elder Scrolls Online. It all started in 2017 with The Elder Scrolls Online: Morrowind, transporting us to the island of the same name, which we already know from The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind , home to the dark elves known as the Dunmer. As with the main game, series composer Jeremy Soule is not involved, but Brad Derrick is. Unfortunately, he rarely achieved the qualities of his colleague, but I don't want to be too harsh. After all, the games in the main series are considered milestones in video game history and therefore benefit from a lot of nostalgia.
The score
In TESO: Morrowind , Derrick's kinship with Jeremy Soule's work doesn't stay behind the ash heap for long. As in the fantastic Nerevar RisingJeremy SouleThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind , we are greeted in A Land of War and Poetry (feat. Jeremy Soule)Brad Derrick by a deliberate drumbeat. Instead of the expected melody that promises us a lovely landscape, however, the track takes a different path in line with its title. The violin, which, accompanied by the percussion, almost seizes the theme, is more reminiscent of Assassin’s Creed IV: Blackflag before returning to the old TESO-nature with powerful horns. It is only towards the end that we come full circle to Soule's work with a faster and more dominant reworking of the theme. Such quotes and references to the past will be heard from time to time in the other DLCs, especially in the expansions that take us to areas familiar from Oblivion and the like.
The rest of the score for TESO: Morrowind , however, is an original creation that places the theme of adventure and exploration of a fantasy world in the foreground - what a surprise! Derrick creates this feeling with long drawn-out strings, which fly thoughtfully and movingly over the scenery in waves and praise an acoustic paradise in Magnus Smiles on SuranBrad Derrick, Vvardenfell VistaBrad Derrick, Ascadian IdyllBrad Derrick, Shadow of Baar DauBrad Derrick and Azura’s CoastBrad Derrick . This beauty, however, is called into question by agitated (Omens ProphecyBrad Derrick, Schemes of the AnticipationsBrad Derrick) or darkly threatening pieces (The House of Troubles (feat. Jeremy Soule)Brad Derrick, Ancestral TombBrad Derrick). The initially warlike Currents of the OdaiBrad Derrick is probably also one of them, whose opening reminds me a little of Warcraft III .
Abschließend noch auf Reverie of the NetchimenBrad Derrick eingegangen, das mystisch magisch daherkommt und bei dessen Streichermelodie ich mich irgendwie an Mash-Up ‚alter Disney-Klassiker wie Mary Poppins meets Anno‚ denken muss. Und ganz zum Schluss Grazelands Dawn (feat. Jeremy Soule)Brad Derrick, das als beschwingtes Zitat von Soules The Road Most TravelledJeremy SouleThe Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind daherkommt, schnell jedoch dessen Leichtigkeit verliert und irgendwo zwischen Wehmut, Frohsinn und Aufbruchsstimmung rangiert. Insgesamt eine schöne Ergänzung/Interpretation des Dunmerreichs, das auch ohne die Bezüge zu The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind funktioniert (hätte).
