Music has always been a staple of storytelling, from movies to television to video games.
Characters have motifs and melodies and theme songs, and I don't see why an RP character should be any different.
Music has been the single biggest influence on my characters and the world they inhabit. Many composers have helped shape the events in my characters' lives, and I craft most of my stories while listening to specific music.
I just thought I'd give everyone an idea of where my characters and tales come from, musically. I recommend you give some of these tracks a listen.
The Mage's early days consist of grand heroic themes from the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtracks, while tracks like Parlay apply as late as 2007, where Bleach takes over as the predominant theme.
The 2007 sequence was originally inspired by the soundtrack to Unreal Tournament 2004, but grew with the Pirates and Bleach soundtracks, so I've listed those instead.
September 2007 - Berlin
Battle Ignition ~Shiro Sagisu (Bleach Soundtrack 1) [
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-Trey's entrance into the fight. Powerful, heroic, and a little jarring. To me it symbolizes Trey as a lone hero.
Never Meant To Belong ~Shiro Sagisu (Bleach Soundtrack 1) [
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-Trey fails. A lovely emotional piece that cooincides with Trey's empathy kicking into overdrive.
Storm Center ~Shiro Sagisu (Bleach Soundtrack 1) [
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-Ark is unleashed. Violence, mayhem, speed, and deadly precision. A combination of anarchy and beauty in this track, the percussion representing Ark's villainy, the guitar giving it a sense of grace. This is no ordinary villain or psycopath, this is an altogether unique and incredible creature.
March 2008
Well, I'll fill this in when we get to Outpost's closing act. Suffice to say, the Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children soundtracks dominate this period.
Update: See next post.
The Space Age, 2013 AD onwards
This part involves orchestral music like Halo, representing the journeys across, and vastness of, space, as well as electronic pieces representing the advent of a new technological age.
Farthest Outpost ~Martin O'Donnell and Michael Salvatori (Halo 3 Soundtrack) [
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The Final Chapters.
After thousands of years exploring and spreading, humanity constantly at war, the last few thousand years of the Endless saga shift in tone, from the journeying themes of Halo, to the more focused steadfast themes. Taking elements of both Bleach and Pirates of the Caribbean, and additonally the truth behind the Mages and Trinity unravels, revealing itself in romance, emotion, darkness and heroism, best represented by the score to The Dark Knight.
Quincy's Craft ~Shiro Sagisu (Bleach Soundtrack 3) [
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-A heroic mage theme.
I Don't Think Now Is The Best Time ~Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) [
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-The Mages' battle anthem. A war spanning hundreds of worlds and thousands of years culminates in the full force of light and dark colliding. But throughout the battle, not everyone is sure who's on whose side.
Drink Up Me Hearties, Yo Ho! ~Hans Zimmer (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End) [
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-Trinity's hero theme. Four siblings, hundreds of friends and family, insurmountable foes. 2:25 is Trey's segment of the song, a broken man walking among gods. Trey's most light-hearted anthem by far, the hope amidst the darkness.
Like A Dog Chasing Cars ~Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight Soundtrack) [
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-The penultimate battle theme for Endless, and for Trey.
A Dark Knight ~Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard (The Dark Knight Soundtrack) [
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-The song singularly responsible for allowing me to write a fitting ending to my tale, it is also the theme to Trey's overall character.
Miscellaneous Tracks
Torukia ~Yoko Kanno (Ghost in the Shell Soundtrack 3) [
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-An alternative hero theme for the Mages, although I typically associate it with Trey.
Blue ~Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack 3: Blue) [
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-The "Abandoner's" theme. Trey's habit of leaving his friends when he feels he is a danger to them, physically or emotionally, goes well with this song.
Space Lion ~Yoko Kanno (Cowboy Bebop Soundtrack 1) [
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-Trey's loneliness theme. Represents Trey's own loneliness, his own despair, his own depression. Follows the Abandoner's theme, when he is disconnected from society, and his empathy is no longer in control of him. Rather than being ruled by the darkest emotions of others, he is ruled by his own.
The Crossroads ~Jovette Rivera (Voices of the Lifestream) [
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Remix of Cid's Theme ~Nobuo Uematsu (Final Fantasy VII)
-Combines the militaristic themes of Taylor and the Mages in battle, with darker Trey related tones, and a lighter, heroic anthem for Trey. I like songs where I can contrast Trey's nature against itself, as you can tell
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And this is just the immediate stuff, related to Trey and the bigger picture. Just to cap off, you should know that Terra's main theme is actually Nobuo Uematsu's Terra from Final Fantasy VI.
On top of a song (often more than one) to go with every scene and battle in my characters' history, each character has their own theme song with lyrics, a theme song without, a battle theme, and a hero or villain them, sometimes both. Orchestral songs, techno songs, rock songs, everything from Green Day to Armin Van Buuren. It would take forever to list them all, but I've gone over the important stuff.
So my question is, do you associate your characters and stories with any music? If you do, post what it is! If not, what else inspires you when telling your tales?
