ZeniMax Online Studios commissioned and collaborated with singer-songwriter Malukah to create The Elder Scrolls Online-inspired track, which was released today.
The company approached Malukah to create the song, after seeing her covers of Skyrim's songs. Her "The Dragonborn Comes" cover, composed by Jeremy Soul, received over 10 million views on YouTube.
"Thanks to the kind response the Elder Scrolls community had when I shared some Skyrim covers on YouTube, Zenimax Online Studios contacted me about creating a song inspired on The Elder Scrolls Online story," Malukah told Polygon. "They encouraged me to follow my instincts and trusted me with task of writing an original song."
The track is titled "Beauty of Dawn," a translation of lore word "Tamriel" which formed the basis for the song.
"I knew the story took place in the Second Era of Tamriel, and I found a book in Oblivion with a quote from a poet saying those were "days and nights of blood and venom." Malukah said. "This line set the tone for the song. Another book mentions the word Tamriel means "Dawn's Beauty", and this ended up being an important part of the lyrics as well."
Malukah says that she is grateful for the opportunity and is thankful to Elder Scrolls community for the encouragement and support. The song's lyrics and the track are available from The Elder Scrolls Online website.
ZeniMax is known to collaborate with artists in the past, such as screenshot artist Duncan Harris of Dead End Thrills. Known for his ability to capture beautiful and original in-game images, Bethesda had Harris create a set of screenshots for Dishonored last June.
