Some Thoughts about Some Dungeon Synth

𝔄s I have continued to work in this webspace and others, I have tended to do so with music of one sort or another playing in the background. It's often instrumental music; vocals tend to pull my attention to them to a degree I find incompatible with working on writing, as they sound too much like someone is trying to talk to me for me to be able to focus elsewhere. And as I was casting about for such music, I came across the Dungeon Synth Archives on YouTube, which both fit the kind of ambient, instrumental music I was seeking and suggested itself as presenting medievalisms that do not seldom make of themselves some kinds of tales after Tolkien.

Because I always try to have a blast when I work...
Gif from Giphy.com, deriving from Monty Python,
and used for commentary

While I have linked the channel above, plowing through examples does not necessarily or efficiently describe a genre. What dungeon synth is reported as being varies. Wikipedia, that first-use go-to reference, calls it here "a subgenre of dark ambient music that emerged in the late 1980s and early 1990s" that "employs aesthetics and themes typically associated with black metal and applies it to dreamier ambient songs" in which "use of dark soundscapes suggests medieval or fantasy motifs, often with a nocturnal aesthetic" and which "is often compared to video game music, as it is occasionally applied in those settings." Another source, Andrew Werdna's Dungeon Synth blog--much like this webspace-- describes it here as "the sound of the ancient crypt. The breath of the tomb, that can only be properly conveyed in music that is primitive, necro, lo-fi, forgotten, obscure, and ignored by all of mainstream society." Robert Newsome's 2017 comments on Bandcamp identify it as "Drawing its musical themes from Medieval and Renaissance compositions and its aesthetic sensibilities from black metal and fantasy literature [...] the perfect soundtrack for this kind of escapist fantasy," much like "the 'intro' track to your favorite metal album, but stretched out to album length"; Jonathan Carron's 2021 comments on Invisible Oranges call it initially "a style of grim fantasy ambient that would serve as intros, interludes, and full releases played and traded among black metal musicians in the 1990s" that works well for many internet subcultures

Admittedly, there is always peril in posting genre definitions; there are always exceptions, of course, and there are always ambiguities to consider. This webspace has noted such things in the past; consider, for example the boundaries of "the medieval," as here. My own attempts at offering definitions have been...less than inspiring, I think, as these all attest. So I will not pretend that the definitions I note above are complete, comprehensive, or definitive; they are functional, and that has to be enough.

You're gonna look at this and say it's not medievalist?
Image is one of the video thumbnails on the
Dungeon Synth Archives YouTube channel,
used for commentary

A quick glance at the albums uploaded to the Archive linked above notes a number of names that come from Tolkien or seem to evoke him and his work; "Aldaron" is both the name of a group with an album of dungeon synth and a by-name for one of Tolkien's Valar, while "Oshanoe" would read as well as a medievalist fantasy nation-state as it does as a performing name, and "Castle Zagyx" is a clear evocation of the Castle Zagyg that informs older Dungeons & Dragons--itself a decidedly medievalist  and Tolkienist construction. Other performance- and album-names are more overtly medieval: Walpurgisnacht and Tir, Mari Lwyd and Vale Minstrel, Fen Walker and Myrrdin all speak to northern and western Europe between the end of Western Rome and whatever temporal point might be used to mark the end of the Middle Ages.

It is clear that there are attempts to link the music back, either directly to perceptions of the medieval or vicariously through linking to works that link to the medieval. How accurate those attempts are, it surpasses me to say; there will be limits imposed due to instrumentation--"synth" is not exactly something attainable with the kinds of instruments available in the European Middle Ages, although I do know that time had more available than is commonly recognized--but I did not succeed as a music major, leaving that course of study before reaching the parts of it that would have let me speak with certainty to the accuracy of intonation and melodic and harmonic structures, for example, or performance practices. But this blog always welcomes outside contributions, so those who read it and who are thus knowledgeable would find their comments on the matter welcomed.

For myself, however, I have some reading and writing to do, and this should give me some more music with which to do both.

Thoughts about The Magic of the Unicorn

Read the previous piece in the series here.

---

ℑ don't think it even approaches being a secret that I am a nerd, and a big one. I don't think its anything resembling a secret, either, that I (quietly?) encourage my daughter, seven years old as I write this, to follow along in my nerdiness. She's picked up a fair bit of it in musical taste so far, which pleases me, and there are glimmers of it in such things as a recent question she asked me: "Daddy, what's a gelatinous cube?" I am pleased to report that she appreciated a quick perusal of an older-edition Monster Manual for an answer, and it looks to be time to encourage her towards roleplaying games.

The cover, of course.
Image taken from the book's webpage,
used for commentary.

With that thought in mind, I looked at other bookshelves in my home than those where my RPG materials rest, seeing if I couldn't find something that might serve as a solid introduction to the genre for her but that would be accessible to her; she reads, and at or above grade level, and I'm proud of her for it, but there's a lot of RPG material that's dry and difficult slogging, especially for a seven-year-old. Fortunately, because I am a nerd and am married to a nerd, and both of us remember such things fondly from our own earlier years, we have a number of Choose Your Own Adventure books on hand--and Deborah Lerme Goodman's The Magic of the Unicorn (Chooseco, 2017; ISBN 978-1-937133-25-2) was the one that came off of the shelf for me.

Like all examples of the genre, The Magic of the Unicorn rewards re-readings and consideration of choices to be made; there are multiple endings to be found, and not all of them are particularly pleasant, although no few of them are. And while the specific text may be a bit ambitious for my daughter at this point--she's in first grade now, and the book checks out at a fifth-grade reading level--the ability to make choices and have them matter is something that my little girl appreciates. Too, she likes unicorns and dragons and the like that appear in the text, even though she doesn't always like every ending she runs into as we read it together.

The more pertinent stuff for this webspace, though, is how the text presents the medieval. It certainly presents itself as presenting it; ad copy on the book's webpage offers the following description:

Only a unicorn's horn can purify the water in your medieval village, so you set off to find one. Can you solve the town riddle and find the sorceress? Does a unicorn reside in the forest? A fire-breathing dragon, angry warlock, and powerful wood-witch all stand in your path.

So, that is there. The first sentence of the book complicates the matter, however; reading "The summer of 1507 is exceptionally dry throughout Flanders" (1), the statement regarding setting puts the events of the book into the ambiguous, liminal period that could be considered either medieval or early modern, depending on definitions of the terms (as noted here). While it does get the bit about the drought right, the ambiguous placement in time sits...oddly with me as I read it against the description of the book as medieval.

The rest of the text and the paratext work to make the book more medieval, however. Although there is much of the hovels-and-heraldry stereotyping at work, there are a lot of details that ring true. A weaver figures eminently, and weaving was among the major economic drivers of Flanders at the time. Too, monastic figures and churches take up a fair bit of space in the work, reinforcing the association with the medieval (yes, such figures extend well outside the medieval, but the medieval is often presented as typified by the interpenetration of Christian institutions into civil ones), and "typical" feudal structures are very much in place. In all, as might be expected from a children's book (and about which I have opined before), The Magic of the Unicorn works from an idealized, condensed, compressed understanding of the medieval that does well enough--again, unpleasant endings await readers, averting the Disneyfication of the period--and it could do better without losing narrative thrust or confusing younger readers.

That said, there are things the book does well. An early encounter along one narrative line in the text is with "Simon, a traveling peddler [the protagonist has] always liked" (7). The accompanying illustration (6), at least in the edition of the text I have, is of a dark-skinned man in what appear to be good clothes--they compare favorably with even some of the noble figures presented in the book, and better than the clothes worn by the prominent weaver (37)--so the problems of the monochrome Middle Ages and the Manichean allegory are averted (at least in part; tokenism may still be regarded as an issue of concern). Too, while there is much flattening of the medieval in the text, and there are decidedly fantastical elements in it--dragons, griffins, alchemy, and the titular magic and unicorn--the book does not avoid peril, injury, and death--including in what seems very much an oubliette, medievalist if not necessarily medieval; the book's medievalism is not all knights and princesses and pageantry, even as it is not all grim and grime and gory. And in maintaining at least that much nuance, it does decently enough for an elementary school read--although it, like all of us, could do better.

Sorry, I'm Not There Yet

So.

Such joy at avoiding the comparison...
Image from Tenor.com, used for commentary.

 

At the moment, I'm not amid any rewatches or rereads (other than the ongoing Hobb one), my daughter's watching YouTube life-hack videos, my wife's largely watching other things and reading for work, and my own media consumption is more or less in that same line. Consequently, I've been casting about for things about which to write. An online friend of mine--goes by Box--suggested that I might try to read Skeletor as an iteration of Æþelræd Unræd, and I looked into that possibility; while it could be argued that He-Man is a strange iteration of tropes regarding Danes, putting Skeletor in even such a position as Ironside's father would be a stretch even I am not willing to try.

Too, as I was doing some idle reading, I came across one of what I have found are many private projects positing what the United States might come to look like after an unspecified event resulted in the loss of modern technologies--a feudal America, as it is described. It piqued my interest initially, as could be expected; it'd certainly be a tale after Tolkien, and it's the kind of thing of which no few RPG settings are made (and, honestly, the concept's one that'd be interesting to play in). But as I reviewed the project and its author, I noted some...problems in it--not the relative age of the source, no, because I can work with things done in good faith that have simply been superseded by new information, but in some of the associations and assertions. I'm not linking it here for those reasons.

Honestly, there are enough problems with the medieval, broadly conceived, being deployed by hate groups to bolster execrable ideologies--and it is clear that there are more such groups doing more foul work that should be tolerated. How wrong such things are is amply and abundantly attested by far more intelligent and capable scholars than I--Mary Rambaran-Olm, Dorothy Kim, Adam Miyashiro, Jonathan Hsy, and others--whose work is well worth reading and investigating. I do what I can to address well-meaning errors in my groups; people make honest mistakes, working from information that has been superseded or that they accepted in good faith from people who did not act in the same. And, here, at least, I continue to call for the repudiation of hateful, wrong-headed ideologies that try to prop up systems of oppression and unwarranted violence; I may not be able to raise my hand against the evils of the world, but I can, at least, join others in raising my voice against them.

The Dragon Prince Rewatch 3.9, "The Final Battle"

Read the previous entry here.
Will there be another entry in this series?

It's no joke; the rewatch has caught up with the series at last.

---

3.9, "The Final Battle"

Written by Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond
Directed by Villads Spangsberg

Synopsis

Maybe they'll work better as tattoos...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Callum marks himself with the characters for the spell Ibis uses to give himself wings, preparing to attempt the magic in advance of the coming battle. The attempt fails, and Rayla offers some gentle mockery before the two consider their situation and likely deaths. Soren interrupts to summon them to council, apologizing for his prior misdeeds towards Callum.

Viren's army passes the petrified remains of Avizandum, and Viren praises Claudia for her loyalty and her prowess. Aaravos offers to teach Viren how to drain Zym's power and enhance himself.

The council in the Stormspire progresses, with plan of battle laid out. Zym sorrows amid it, however, and Bait attempts to comfort him. Rayla offers to guard the two and is hailed as the last Dragonguard.

Not a face to see in a back alley...
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Viren's army advances, approaching the Stormspire and its arrayed defenders in power and terror. The empowered Kasif rages forward without orders, followed swiftly by the rest of the army, and battle is joined. The use of magic by Claudia and Viren is a factor that further unbalances an already asymmetrical conflict; the arrival of a flight of dragons seems to even out matters initially, but the seeming soon reveals itself as such, as the dragons' fire strengthens the invading army.

Was this the plan all along?
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

Battle continues, with the dragons coming under restraining fire. Several are brought down.

Within the Stormspire, Rayla accompanies Zym as the titular dragon prince calls upon his mother at last. Despite his clear entreaty, she does not respond, but continues to slumber deeply.

The invading army breaks through the first defensive line. Callum deploys his own magic to interdict the advance, meeting only limited success. He is saved by the arrival of other human forces, led Aanya of Duren; the onslaught helps to balance the conflict, and the newly reinforced defenders make progress against their attackers, finding victory on the field. Ezran calls for tending to the enemy wounded amid freeing the restrained dragons, though there is some resistance to the idea. Viren's absence is noted and the search for him begins.

Pursuing Claudia, Ezran encounters Viren; Soren defends Ezran, confirming that he has turned against his father utterly. It is also revealed that the Viren present is not the real one; the actual Viren is elsewhere, pursuing Zym, whom Rayla and Bait defend in vain. Zym flees but is taken at the pinnacle of the Stormspire despite the attempt to fly away, and Viren begins to drain power from him through Aaravos's ritual. Rayla again attempts to interdict Viren, pitching them both from the pinnacle. Callum leaps to her salvation, finally enacting the spell Ibis used, and saving her; they affirm their love.

A promise of more to come.
Image taken from the episode, used for commentary.

After, the victorious forces confer, with amity among them in the offering as Ezran is recognized again as king. Zym's mother awakens, and the gathered forces present themselves to her as one. And Viren awakens, Claudia having restored his body and life at great cost to herself; Aaravos, however, is absent from him, having metamorphosed into a form that foretells something else...

Discussion

From the episode, in comparison to the films,
used for commentary...

It is clear that the battle scenes borrow from Jackson's Middle-earth films and their depictions of such battles as at Gorgoroth, of the Five Armies, at Helm's Deep, and at the Pelennor. That is not to be wondered at, given the outsize influence of the movies and their antecedent texts on popular culture, generally, and on the presumed secondary audience of the series--the parents of the children who would watch it, including me--more specifically. Such evocation does not make the episode particularly authentically medieval, but it does make it medievalist in the way Sturtevant describes as supplanting or replacing the medieval in common conception. That there are problems of coding in the episode--note the association of animalistic rage with dark-skinned characters on both sides of the conflict--is perhaps one with that, as might be inferred from applying Niels Werber across the similarity between works and looking at the long and amply attested association of medievalist work and racist impetus. Even without overtly racist intent, after all, a thing can reinforce racism, and appropriation by execrable ideologues happens, as is all too abundantly clear.

At a minimum, it is a fraught issue. But I think more than the minimum much of the time.

It should be noted that, while it is clear from the episode there is more story to tell, and press releases have noted that more of the series is to come, there is not more of it as of this writing. If and when more emerges--because renewals, even when announced, are not guaranteed--I will resume the re/watch; until then, though, I will turn to other projects after a bit of a break. I'll have new material on 15 April 2021; I hope you'll return to read it!