Madrigal Highlights & Some Notes About the Two "Throne of Stars" productions
Madrigal Highlights!
Temple of Arcalia AKA "History of the World, Part I"
I arrived later than I had anticipated due in large part to the fact that I was working on mixing and editing the hour long narrative of the early history of Madrigal till the last minute, leaving little time to pack.
With the temple AV set up, I served as the Temple Spirit to welcome the PCs and queue the narrative. Eventually I had to tag-team with Rob to do another "round" of bringing PCs to the temple while I was a part of another mod that night.
It was great giving all the PCs a chance to get caught up on the early storylines of the Blood Queen, the Elder Gods, and the tragedies of Fae and Mortals.
We plan to have the vision up soon online for others who didn't attend to also be able to view it.
Throne of Stars VIsion
Completely awesome weather in a moonless sky made this night-time fight/encounter/vision absolutely magical.
Filming and editing for the vision there had been mostly finished several weeks ago, with a few edits, so I felt that these were a bit more polished than the first narrative.
After Torrin and I had set up the system and screens and effects, I was left alone on the field for the PCs and NPCs to arrive. I got about half an hour of sitting in the Throne myself, stargazing at the real stars and watching the star projector cast tiny motes of light against the trees. With all the work hanging sheets, untangling cords to various electronic equipment and lights, and "weaving" the video and audio recordings into a finished production, I did feel like Arcalia in a very meta-sense.
I regretted that I could not see the PCs reactions when Her eye opened at the end; it was just too dark and I was too far away. I hope it had the right "Oh, &h#t" effect.
The Soundtrack!
Music came from a variety of sources:
- Samples from freesound.org
- Liberal use of "The Fountain" soundtrack
- "Lux Aeterna" from "Requiem for a Dream"
- Eric Whitacre's "Lux Aurumque"
- Several songs from vocalist Azam Ali
- "Divenire" by Italian pianist Ludovico Einaudi
- Loreena McKennit's "Huron Beltane Fire Dance"
- Kitaro's "The FIeld" for the general streaming stars effects
- George Winston's "Tamarack Pines"
- A traditional Turkish song "Mevlana", arranged and performed by one of my personal friends, Carmine Guida, who plays every year at Pennsic
A Few "Easter Eggs"
- Chimes play when the Kingdom of Diarda is accounted
- "Lux Aurumque" was the White Forest "empowerment" song used during the Ancient Enemy fight in Eluviar; it is reprised in the narrative when Erionth brings the enslaved Liendrel to the Shining Lands
- The sound accompanying Her eyes opening is used in both the narrative and in the vision