Shroud of the Avatar Soundtrack

Template:Infobox RewardItem Backers at the Virtual Collector tier and above can download a digital version of the Shroud of the Avatar Soundtrack. Backers at the Explorer tier receive the soundtrack on physical media.

Track List

Beautiful Meadow

by Jarrod Kailef

This is a fine example of the primary goal I set for the musical environment of SotA. To me it has all the qualities I sought: First it matches the scene description very well “Beautiful Meadow”. It is both atmospheric and melodic without annoying repetition. It is not overly orchestrated, and sounds like something of the world. While not purely period instruments, it does not take you out of the period feel. Lovely!

Dark Alien Magical Warping

by Sir Wombat

Tackling the dungeon, and other more unusual environments, was always a weak point back in the Ultima days. Previous works were environmental but rarely melodic. Sir Wombat does a great job with this piece to accomplish the goal of building a more environmental and disquieting piece, without losing the melodic values we seek.

Elven Truth Seekers

by tinottt aka Faustino Sanchez II

Those familiar with the SotA backstory represented in Blade of the Avatar, know that the Elves of our world were created by the Obsidian Kabal as powerful combat troops for their attempt to dominate the world. Yet on SotA, you will meet the Vertas Elves, who (like Star Trek Vulcans vs their Romulan ancestors) have given up their warlike past and become peaceful truth seekers. This piece captures that perfectly!

Foundation & Strength

by Richard Daskas

Richard captured perfectly the confidence of the city builders of New Britannia, coming back from the brink after the fall of the moons and the obsidian cause. The hope, the power and confidence show through in this masterful, properly balanced piece.

Dance of Fauns / Hidden City

by Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell

From the master bard himself, has come many tunes you will hear going forward. But this early piece remains a favorite. The fauns of New Britannia, live lives of enslavement, yet, when they occasionally are free of the domination of their wretched Satyr masters, they frolic in the meadows and joyfully celebrate the world and possibilities. How they can remain so positive deep in their souls proves the real value of this race.

Kobold Industry

by Jarrod Kailef

Another masterful piece from Jarrod Kailef, perfectly captures the sound environment we are looking for when players discover the cleaver constructions of the Kobold race. Humans in our world owe a lot to the industry and intelligence of the Kobolds.

Loss of Honor

by Douglas Yassen

Douglass Yassen created this wonderful piece which will be found in one of the ruins of ancient Britannia. Sad indeed that the virtues have been forsaken. The loss of Honor is but one of the deep tragedies of the new world.

Mysterious Cavern

by Peter Boiko

Peter Boiko has crafted a great track here that nicely blends the environmental ambiance we are looking for in mysterious caverns, while also having a captivating and mysterious melody!

Over Hill and Round the Mountain

by Richard Daskas

Richard Daskas perfectly captured this exploration and discovery piece which players will hear as they explore new Britannia. The sun is shining and the world is growing in wonder, what will we find round the next bend or over that far hill?

The Garden of Sorrow

by Faustino Sanchez II

Faustino Sanchez II’s garden of Sorrow will sound perfect in the Necropolis, while players explore this underworld meeting it undead gods and unrestful spirits.

Trade and Commerce

by Sir Wombat:

Sir Wombat has composed an amazing piece which will be found throughout the land in growing communities as they aspire to grow from small villages to industrious towns.

Trekking in the Tall Grass

by Kailef

Kailef provided “Trekking in the Tall Grass” to inspire explorers as they traverse the wide open plains of Novia.

Valor and Cowardice

by Peter Boiko

Peter Boiko masterfully pulled off one of the more difficult requests, to begin to show the juxtaposition between the virtues and their forsaken opposites with “Valor and Cowardice."

Dark Planet

by The Space Bards

We would also love to showcase the intro musical piece crafted for us by the beloved “Space Bards”, who recently produced their first album as “Recap” and played their first public full concert at the HoBLotH II. Here is the complete instrumental created by the Space Bards for the opening cinematic for Shroud of the Avatar.

Power of Virtue

by James Stratton-Crawley (aka Holt Ironfell)

Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell took on the challenge of crafting the major Truth, Love and Courage themes for Shroud of the Avatar’s main virtue themes. This was especially hard because we wished to find separate themes for Truth, Love and Courage, as well as instrumentation, that could all play separately and play well together at the same time. To add to the challenge, we would eventually want minor versions to represent anti-virtues, and for Love we needed a masculine and feminine version. All in all, a very tall order. The Power of Virtue is a towering example of the successful combination of Truth, Love and Courage! Hear the bells ring true, hear the love of the strings and the brassy horns of courage. Then combined with orchestration and vocals. It is a masterpiece of composition!

Truth

by James Stratton-Crawley (aka Holt Ironfell)

The first of the 3 principle virtue break outs, Truth, by Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell, showcases the Principle of Truth, as a pure, and aspirational ideal!

Hail Novia!

by Tuomas Pitkänen (aka Aftermath_FIN)

Composed and arranged by Tuomas Pitkänen with the marvelous vocals of Jenna Holdway, Hail Novia beckons to explorers of this first continent of New Britannia to come and seek their destinies, in the rich open lands full of adventure and promise. All visitors to our lands will be inspired by works such as this!”

Travesty of Justice

by Douglas Yassen (aka Dougyfresh)

Many have forsaken the virtues in the lands of Lord British. Players will oft come across a place where a “Travesty of Justice” might be found and need righting. Douglas has composed this masterwork, that will both inform, yet beckon unto adventurers to bear witness and take action!

Combat & Control

by Jarrod Ivan Soloman (aka Kailef)

A brilliant collaboration between Kailef and Holt, Combat & Control echoes in the hills and canyons where the good people struggle to resist the forces that would otherwise destroy civilization in New Britannia!

Love

by Holt Ironfell

Grandmaster Bard Holt Ironfell provides us with the beautiful feminine version of the “Love” theme, for use in Ardoris, where we will hear both this piece and the masculine form to be heard across the city.

Kobold Invention

by Kailef

Kailef has composed “Kobold Invention” for our pleasure. The kobolds of New Britannia are far more than a simple foe. In fact they created many of the advancements citizens of New Britannia benefit from. Often, this fact is at the root of the difficult discourse between kobolds and humans as they bicker about who steals ideas from who!

Elven Sadness

by Dougyfresh

Another masterwork by Dougyfresh is “Elven Sadness”, a piece that showcases the softer side of the often maligned Elven race. Most in New Britannia think of Elves as the brutish and warlike race, as they were created by the obsidians ages ago. In fact, since the obsidian wars, elves have struggled to find a place and a purpose in the new world. Suffering and strife is far from unknown in their ranks.

Deep Dungeon

by Sharm

Sharm provides us the wonderful environmental piece that is “Deep Dungeon”. The depths of New Britannia often hold riches that draw people in to seek them, but just as often the mystery and the beauty comes with less obvious value, and even danger!

Work & Play / Circle of Stones

by Ome

Ome The Bard crafted this piece, which is one of my personal favorites, “Work and Play” or “Circle of Stones”, which beautifully encapsulates the spirit of New Britannia, as it both revels in possibility yet must work hard to achieve its goals.

Praise

For SotA, I have had my heart set on finding music that hearkened back to the golden age of our work on the Ultima series. For me, the music composed by Iolo and Ken Arnold remains the best music of the series. Not that we have not had great composers since… we have. But there was something compelling about the simple memorable melodies, that most modern games lose in their hugely orchestrated scores (very much like movie scores). While I hoped we could have fuller music, I hoped we could reign in the desire to go overly large, and provide players with tracks that not only felt right for the area and happenings within the game, but were also both memorable, yet not annoyingly repetitious. I knew going into it, this would be difficult.

To be honest, when we first faced the problem of musical compositions for SotA, I was lost. We got bids from a number of composition houses, that both far exceeded the budget we had available for this crowd funded game, but also, and perhaps more importantly, their demos were far from the soundscape target I was hoping to achieve in SotA. We were stuck. We tried buying music off websites that had affordable music on them, but even after enormous amounts of searching, I found little that felt right. We started down that path though because of budget reasons, never feeling quite right about it.

Then YOU, our wonderful community, stepped up. People asked why they could not submit music tracks for inclusion. My initial thoughts, and even my first response to proposals, was lukewarm at best. Early offerings from the community were far from the mark I was hoping for. While they were often great pieces of music, they generally were either too modern, too orchestral, to much like a movie score, did not sound period enough, or were well off target for some other reason. I did not believe this was going to work.

Then Holt Ironfell of the Poets Circle contacted me and asked a simple question: “Please tell us, exactly what you ARE looking for.” Only at that moment, did I realize what a disservice I had been doing the community. I quickly made copious notes to clearly articulate what I felt was, and was not, music I would hope to find for SotA. The Poets Circle (and others) then went off, formed their own councils for peer review, and raised money when needed to acquire equipment and software. Then a few short months later, the community started to submit new work.

I was literally moved to tears, to hear what amazing work this community, all of you, have been able to produce. In a few short weeks, we went from ZERO accepted pieces of work, to about 100%! While for some of the MOST complex work involving Virtues and pieces that must play together, we have had vigorous exchange to “get it right”, the VAST majority of work now done by the fine Poets Circle and many other members of the community, deserve GREAT acclaim.

By the Virtues!
- Lord British

I am overwhelmed by the creativity and quality of music created for Shroud of the Avatar by YOU, our amazing community!
- Lord British

We would again love to celebrate the quality and diversity of music being created by the wonderful composers within our community. I believe we are ending up with one of the strongest soundtracks ever created for a game world.
- Lord British