We sit down with The Elder Scrolls Online composer Brad Derrick to talk about the Dark Heart of Skyrim and composing new music for one of the most iconic locations in all of gaming.

AusGamers: Skyrim has one of the most iconic soundtracks of all time, how did you approach those themes/motifs when scoring Greymoor?

Brad Derrick: From the very beginning, we knew that despite being set in Skyrim, this was not the "Skyrim" of The Elder Scrolls V. It had a different tone, a different identity. As such, the music also needed to support that and establish its own identity. That's just a fancy way of saying the music of Greymoor has no specific thematic ties to the music of TES V.

That being said, it was imperative that this score - like all scores for ESO - should still sit comfortably next to the entire canon of Elder Scrolls music… that it should sound like one piece of a larger whole. So while there are no literal musical connections to the music of the original Skyrim, there are broader stylistic ones - the expressive quality, haunting melodies, lush sonorities - elements that are the hallmarks of Elder Scrolls music.

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