Into the Beyond: Ante Bellum - Main Theme
Hello everyone!
While you’ve been out enjoying the new Themes of the Old World album in your thousands, I’ve been quietly working with fellow creators to add the life of music to their projects.
The first of which is the Europa Universalis IV mod: Ante Bellum.
“Ante Bellum is an alternative history mod centered around Europe and the Middle East. The main idea of the mod is to preserve the base game gameplay without flooding the game with new mechanics while also offering new and fresh gameplay experience, provided by the addition of new countries, mission trees, events and such.”
In simple words, it provides a brand new scenario for players to enjoy in the original game. The new scenario paints a much darker and fickle picture for Europe at the start of the game in 1444.
Such an immersive experience requires equally immersive music, leading the developer into the warm hearth of Utopia. Based on the context of the mod and the associated lore and history within the mod, a dark and powerful, but not completely epic, theme was desired. The dark to represent the uncertainty of the current European situation, and the power to represent the endless battles and war in the past, present and future.
The end result was a re-orchestration of the original main theme from the Adventure_RPG Official Soundtrack, which was ultimately never implemented into the game it was intended for. With added woodwind, brass and percussion, dark and powerful chords have emerged from the piece, fully foreshadowing the precocious situation the player is presented with. The music joins the mod in a new update, replacing the vanilla title music for the game and is the first thing that plays upon opening the game.
Have a listen to the new theme music in the video below!
Alternatively, the music is available on Bandcamp.
- Utopia