Summary
- Battlespire’s soundtrack conveys an ominous atmosphere and fits its dungeon-crawling theme well.
- Arena’s score effectively captures the variety, mood, and grandeur of the game’s expansive world.
- Oblivion’s calming soundtrack, while underappreciated, sets the mood for exploration with tranquil and atmospheric tracks.
The fantasy worlds of The Elder Scrolls have captured generations of gamers with its majestic worlds, fascinating characters, and iceberg-deep lore. However, music has been integral to The Elder Scrolls series even before it entered popular consciousness with its breakout games, Morrowind and Oblivion, and is perhaps one of its most important components.
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Each soundtrack not only complements its game’s world but also stands as a timeless piece of art, resonating with players long after they’ve left Tamriel behind. However, here the soundtracks of The Elder Scrolls are to be ranked by their soulful qualities, variety, game-specific appropriateness, immersiveness, and ability to evoke the spirit of adventure.
Sonic Layers Of Oblivion And Mortal Demise
An Elder Scrolls Legend: Battlespire
- Released
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December 2, 1997
- ESRB
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m
- Composer: Unknown (Bethesda Softworks)
It is almost unfair to include Battlespire on this list, given the game’s scope and player directive: ascend the spire, prevent a diabolical invasion. Battlespire‘s soundtrack is aggressively omminious and atmospheric, really selling the fantasy of moving between the divine and the industrially damned with tracks like “Iya, Payem and Tayem Sigils” with its cross of syth choirs and rasping, grinding chants.
Because Battlespire is set exclusively in the tower as one big dungeon delver (although it touches several planes of Oblivion), it lacks the soundscape and thrust that full Elder Scrolls games would come to be known for. As dark ambient music to set the mood for a spooky tabletop session, this soundtrack works well in the background.
A First (Limited Step) Into A Magical Plane Of Music
- Released
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March 25, 1994
- ESRB
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t
Although the first Elder Scrolls game, Arena, certainly has a technological disadvantage based on its age, its soundtrack holds up in terms of atmosphere, mood, and variety. Arena took place across an entire continent.
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As such, the score needed to pull weight to convey such breadth and grandeur musically. At times eerie (“Dungeon Crawling”), heroic (“Blacksmith”), and mystical (“Evening Star“), the Arena soundtrack does surprisingly a lot with only a little.
A Light-Hearted Piratey Romp
The Elder Scrolls Adventures: Redguard
- Released
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November 16, 1998
- ESRB
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m
- Composers: Chip Ellinghaus, Grant Slawson
It is hard to fault Redguard soundtrack for its single-minded musical strokes, as the music does exactly what it needs to do when it needs to do it. Pirate-themed strings, wind, and synth pipe away to give wind to the sails of a grand (if limited by TES standards) swashbuckling adventure.
There are notes of majesty and mystery across the soundtrack, shining especially during tracks intended for combat (“In Game 4”), that make it hard for listeners to reject the freebooter’s call to plunder and sword fighting.
A Grand, Ambitious Score For A Grand, Ambitious World
- Released
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September 20, 1996
- ESRB
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m
The second entry in the series set out to go bigger and bolder than the first, and that goes for its music as well as its gigantic game world. Daggerfall brings the musical magic necessary to vivify a virtual world with tracks like “Blizzard” and “Snowing” (the latter of which contains seeds for all future Elder Scrolls themes) as well as its bold, brash, and battle-ready “Main Theme.”
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The long-winded synth orchestra can come off as blowhard when listening to the soundtrack apart from the game, but the near-hypnotic melodies serve travelers well on their extremely long-distance treks from town to town (assuming they haven’t given into the temptation of fast travel).
The Sublime Music Of The Heartlands
- Released
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March 20, 2006
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
Meditative, blissful, and occasionally melancholic (as with Minstrel’s Lament”), there is an air of peace in Oblivion‘s soundtrack that is unmatched in the series. Whereas its combat tracks have their moments, and its theme song, “Reign of the Septims” is stirring to say the least, they are outshone by the divine calm the soundtrack has to offer, such as with “Auriel’s Ascension” and “Peace of Akatosh.”
Oblivion also has some underrated atmospheric tracks for sneaking in dark places and digging around forgotten ruins and caves, including “Unmarked Stone” and “Deep Waters.” Thanks to the chaotic AI and uncanny design of Bethesda’s NPCs, some tracks have been sadly memified in the minds and ears of fans, namely “Sunrise of Flutes” (denoting NPC-like thinking) and “Death Knell” (denoting uncalled for aggression).
Vast, Breathtaking, And (Mostly) Lore-Friendly
- Released
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April 4, 2014
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence
- Composers: Brad Derrick, Jeremy Soule, 2WEI, Malukah
The music of an MMO should be built to last, as developers expect their players to explore and fight through their worlds for thousands of hours. The soundtrack of The Elder Scrolls Online understood this fact perfectly, just as they understood the importance of following established musical traditions, themes, and leimotifs found throughout the series.
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From the haunting “Moons of Evening Star” to the enchanting “Tides of the Abecean Sea,” Dawn’s Beauty, from each of its nine provinces, comes alive in soul-stirring song. Forays into provinces explored in prior games were given utmost reverence, as exemplified by “A Land of War and Poetry” from the “Morrowind” expansion, which captures the same silt-and-silver magic of the third Elder Scrolls game’s score.
Sonorous Wealth Beyond Measure
- Released
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May 1, 2002
- ESRB
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T For Teen due to Blood, Violence
There is hardly a more nostalgic sound than the heartbeat of Morrowind‘s theme song, “Nerevar Rising.” On theme songs alone, Morrowind‘s soundtrack would win handily. Other legendary tracks like “Peaceful Waters” and “Silt Sunrise,” to name only a few, place Morrowind in a special place in musical history, both within the realm of video games or without.
Every peaceful song weaves like auditory silver, with the leitmotif of Lorkhan’s still-beating heart thumping away when a spear threatens in the distance in combat, such as within “Dance of Swords.” One of the soundtrack’s few drawbacks is its variety. With Morrowind (or Vvardenfell) being such a varied land, some tracks come off as too beautiful and serene for the warped, ever-harsh, ever-bitter, and uniquely alien landscape of the Dunmer homeland.
Heart, Soul, Wind, Throat
- Released
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October 28, 2016
- ESRB
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M For Mature 17+ Due To Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, Sexual Themes, Use of Alcohol
Like the rest of the soundtrack (and in some ways, mirroring the design of the game itself), Skyrim‘s main theme builds upon both the themes of Oblivion and Morrowind, drummed up by the shouting chants of uproarious vikings from within frost-battered longboats. Skyrim‘s battle music, “One They Fear” or “Watch The Skies” never fails to quicken a pulse. However, there is more to this soundtrack than the bombastic battle tracks. The rest of Skyrim‘s tracks ride gracefully along the action-to-peaceful-exploration spectrum, providing a suite for both an epic adventure and a highly personal journey of self-discovery and perhaps enlightenment by wind and sky.
For example, “Unbroken Roads” walks tightly between an emboldening, steady beat that bloats the heart and throat with heroic pride while instilling a steady hiking pace for traversing the province’s warmer holds where bandits wait in hunger and stupor. On the more soul-soothing end are sentimental beauties like “Ancient Stones” that have the power to heal a tired spirit. Haunting night tracks like “Secunda,” temper the soul and restore a yearning for mystery, beauty, and “just one more quick adventure” before sunrise, both in game and at 4:30 AM on a week night. The soundtrack’s mix of power, variety, and beauty matches its homeland and places it tentatively on the top.
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The best video game soundtracks of all time stick with players long after their stories are complete.