We now come to the second installment of my soundtrack for Children of the Gods. These songs will take us on a rollercoaster ride of hope and despair, covering events up to and including chapter fourteen, “The Promise.”

There will be spoilers. I’m trying to keep them vague, but there’s only so much I can do.

5: The Predator:

“The greatest tragedy of war is that it debases all it touches.”

As the war progresses, Leha finds herself slipping into the darkest aspects of her personality. She becomes a predator consumed by the need to slaughter all who stand in her way. To accompany her fall into this dark persona, I’ve chosen the intro music for Myth II’s “Landing at Whitefalls” mission. Grim and menacing, it captures Leha’s methodical brutality.

6: Redemption:

In humanity’s darkest hour, there comes one single source of hope. A man who could offer a chance of redemption not only for the monsters created by the Arcanids, but for the rest of humankind, as well.

I chose the Elwynn Forest soundtrack from World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as Zuruk’s theme. It’s a tranquil song that gives one the feeling there’s always hope for a better tomorrow, even in the darkest times.

7: Humanity Falls Silent:

But just as there seems to hope after all, disaster strikes. With one terrible miscalculation, the human cause is crushed, and the Arcanids stand triumphant.

Though it’s used for what is theoretically a happy scene, I’ve always found An End Once and for All from the Mass Effect 3 soundtrack to be an incredibly tragic-sounding piece, so it’s my choice for the moment when all of humanity falls silent.

8: The Promise:

All is lost. It’s all over. Humanity has fallen.

Only a handful remain free, Leha among them. She wishes to end her life, and the pain with it. But she cannot shirk her duty. And so she and her few remaining companions make one promise, one pledge to press on for the human cause no matter how hopeless it seems.

My choice of song for this moment is the intro music for “Gate of Storms” from Myth II. It’s a bleak and morose song, but there’s the subtle hint of hope at the end. The battle is lost, but the war goes on.

* * *

Stay tuned for the final installment of the Children of the Gods sountrack, featuring a number of songs from World of Warcraft and a bonus track all the way from Iceland.

Having finished my soundtrack for book one of the World Spectrum, it’s now time to move on to Children of the Gods. It’s a grim soundtrack for a grim book, but as in the story, there are occasional flashes of hope for better times.

The first four songs will cover events up to and including chapter seven, “At the Foot of Keonum.” Once again, I’ll keep the spoilers as rare and vague as possible, but some are still going to slip through.

1: The Arcanids:

The Arcanids are a race as cruel as they are bizarre. Ruthless and calculating, they have designed themselves with the ideals of selfishness, greed, and ruthless domination in mind.

For their theme, I’ve picked the intro music from the mission “River of Blood” from Myth: The Fallen Lords. It’s a strange, exotic, and ominous song that sets the tone for the downward spiral that is Children of the Gods.

2: Beautiful Things Lost Forever:

Prince Tyrom is a tragic figure. Even before Pira fell the first time, he bore the heavy burden of living up to an ancient legacy he couldn’t hope to equal. His country had barely begun to recover before it was imperiled a second time, and he was forced to swallow his pride — the only thing he had left — and accept aid from the rest of humanity.

Early on, we see Tyrom vent his pain, singing on the ocean cliffs in the night. To accompany this scene, I’ve chosen Gaeta’s Lament — also known as the Stump Serenade — from Battlestar Galactica. This could easily have been the song Tyrom sung on that night.

As an aside, if these books ever get put to film, I think Alessandro Juliani would make a fantastic choice to play Prince Tyrom. Hmm… Anyone out there good enough with Photoshop to put together a movie poster with Ellen Page and Alessandro Juliani as Leha and Tyrom?

3: The Automaton Reborn:

The most terrible thing about the Arcanids is not the physical threat they represent, but that the only way to survive their onslaught is to sink to their level, to betray your own ideals and embrace violence.

Nothing symbolizes this better than the decision to rebuild Automatons. This is a moment of utter horror for the people of Barria, and for Leha especially. To fight monsters, they had to create their own monsters.

I find that An Ancient Enemy from the soundtrack to The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a good match for this event. It’s a song of pure dread, pure menace.

4: At the Foot of Keonum:

A pivotal battle in the war with the Arcanids comes at the foot of Mount Keonum in Pira. But this is not the Battle of Tallatzan. This is no noble uprising of humans against their oppressors.

This is a massacre. Thousands of lives are wasted at the foot of that mountain. That it is necessary in no way diminishes the tragedy of it.

It was difficult to find a song that fit both the epic excitement and grim brutality of this event, but I eventually settled on the Battle of the Hornburg from The Two Towers soundtrack.

Bonus track:

This is a song that always reminded me of Leha, and particularly her struggles in Children of the Gods. I won’t pretend it’s a perfect match, and I’m probably misinterpreting the lyrics badly, but there seems to be a certain resonance there. It’s a very bright, happy-sounding song — which suits Leha’s charismatic persona — but if you pay attention to the lyrics, it’s actually a pretty sad song — just as Leha’s is a sad story.

When I’m gone,

I’ll know

What I’ve done

I’ll go

Where I don’t belong

 

It’s all, not one

I love everything

No sleep

I lose everything

Oh, don’t tell me again

I won’t see you again

* * *

That concludes part one of the Children of the Gods soundtrack. Stick around for the next installment, which will take us from despair, to hope, to despair, to hope again with songs from World of Warcraft, Mass Effect, and Myth II: Soulblighter.