The Music of Eberron

I’ve been reading the Eberron novels, and I must say I am enamored with the world. High fantasy meets noir with post-war grit and more than enough potential for Lovecraftian horror as icing on the cake. Atmosphere. Depth. A thoroughly conceived world.

I can’t comment much on Eberron as a game setting per se, since I don’t play D&D, but I have read a few sourcebooks before getting into the novels. Unfortunately for me, Eberron isn’t all that popular, which means that most of the novels are out of print, despite being relatively new. It has been a hassle collecting them, but I now have almost all the Eberron books I’m ever going to have. I like it a lot.

Actually, I’d like to play Eberron, but I have serious reservations about seeking a social venue just for the sake of playing a game. Games should serve the social circle, not the other way around. But it does interest me, since I like the setting so much.

And, naturally, it inspires me as a composer.

I thought about taking the premise for my overly ambitious Fantascapes project and applying it to Eberron as a series of tone poems. I thought about modeling the pieces after the 3.5 Edition Adventures, starting with The Forgotten Forge, the one included in the Campaign Setting sourcebook.

But what “sound” is the Eberron sound?

Grand Theft Audio: When in doubt, steal someone else's music! I kid, I kid. Not to use temp tracks as a crutch for a score (I really prefer not to, believe me), but in my ear I hear the following scores as being ripe for plundering, ideal for the world of Eberron:


The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Harry Gregson-Williams)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Harry Gregson-Williams)
X-Men Origins: Wolverine (Harry Gregson-Williams)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Nicholas Hooper)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Nicholas Hooper)
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (Christophe Beck)
The Golden Compass (Alexander Desplat)
The Chronicles of Riddick (Graeme Revell)
Alien vs. Predator (Harold Kloser)
Earthsea (Jeff Rona)
Plunkett and Macleane (Craig Armstrong)
Hellboy (Marco Beltrami)
Steamboy (Steve Jablonsky)
Clash of the Titans (Ramin Djawadi)


Given the steampunk influence of Eberron, I just don’t hear the same music as I do when thinking of, say, Forgotten Realms. This is just what I hear. Not The 13th Warrior, not Merlin, not Waterworld. (Well, maybe Waterworld. Maybe.) This is my working library of Eberron temp tracks.

Actually, I don’t yet own the scores to Sherlock Holmes, Clash of the Titans, Percy Jackson, or The Golden Compass, but I know them all well enough to know what I’m talking about here.

For the record, Percy Jackson was a shitty movie. We walked out halfway through—something I’ve never actually done before, which should tell you a lot. It was unbearably uninteresting, if there is such a thing. It was truly awful in so many ways.

Welcome to Tangentland. I’ll be your guide on this tour… right after I go chase that shiny blue ball down the street…

Hey! Ice cream truck!

I want chocolate chip mint!