Arkain News Network - 11th March 2026

[Shar Dundred]

Ladies and gentlemen,

I hope you have enjoyed or are still enjoying the newest release.

Work on the next playable mission has begun. Without spoiling anything, I can assure you that it will be... quite something.

Before this chapter was released, I asked for your opinions on a certain matter.
The results... have been very one-sided.

Once again, you have my gratitude for the trust you have placed in me to treat this matter with the utmost responsibility.

I have been experimenting and today I wish to release the results.
Before anyone gets their hopes up: This experiment did not include voice acting within the campaign.

Despite the overwhelming victory of "Use AI freely", I did not wish to initiate something like this as an experiment - I wanted to actually experiment outside of the campaign itself.

Instead, I have been trying my hand at music, writing the lyrics myself (with some editing) and generating the vocals and music with AI.
The whole thing started as a five minute test, turning into five hours, turning into... well, more than that.

After some tests, I have decided to generate a set of songs focusing on the van Durce family - the Legacy of (Renald) van Durce.

The eight songs I am going to share with you today (YT will mess up the order if I release them at the same time so there is a small delay of a few minutes between each song) are the result of over two hundred generations.
I want to have a certain level of quality control and am not just going to use whatever the AI produces, even if this is nothing like the actual process of creative music production.

Personally I am satisfied with the result of this and very curious to read your thoughts.

I have considered using ingame images of the characters portrayed here instead of generated ones but ended up deciding that this would be misleading as to the songs being generated with AI.
As I have said in my initial post about this matter, I oppose the idea of using AI images for Arkain by themselves. To highlight other AI content I am fine with their usage.

Now, with that out of the way, here is the first song & a link to the playlist.
Enjoy and stay tuned for the next map release!

Playlist: Legacy of van Durce

First song:

 

[RectorCZ]

Ladies and gentlemen,

I hope you have enjoyed or are still enjoying the newest release.

Work on the next playable mission has begun. Without spoiling anything, I can assure you that it will be... quite something.

Before this chapter was released, I asked for your opinions on a certain matter.
The results... have been very one-sided.

View attachment 577826

Once again, you have my gratitude for the trust you have placed in me to treat this matter with the utmost responsibility.

I have been experimenting and today I wish to release the results.
Before anyone gets their hopes up: This experiment did not include voice acting within the campaign.

Despite the overwhelming victory of "Use AI freely", I did not wish to initiate something like this as an experiment - I wanted to actually experiment outside of the campaign itself.

Instead, I have been trying my hand at music, writing the lyrics myself (with some editing) and generating the vocals and music with AI.
The whole thing started as a five minute test, turning into five hours, turning into... well, more than that.

After some tests, I have decided to generate a set of songs focusing on the van Durce family - the Legacy of (Renald) van Durce.

The eight songs I am going to share with you today (YT will mess up the order if I release them at the same time so there is a small delay of a few minutes between each song) are the result of over two hundred generations.
I want to have a certain level of quality control and am not just going to use whatever the AI produces, even if this is nothing like the actual process of creative music production.

Personally I am satisfied with the result of this and very curious to read your thoughts.

I have considered using ingame images of the characters portrayed here instead of generated ones but ended up deciding that this would be misleading as to the songs being generated with AI.
As I have said in my initial post about this matter, I oppose the idea of using AI images for Arkain by themselves. To highlight other AI content I am fine with their usage.

Now, with that out of the way, here is the first song & a link to the playlist.
Enjoy and stay tuned for the next map release!

Playlist: Legacy of van Durce

First song:

Excelent use of A.I. brother!

 

[Karmondia]

As RectorCZ said, these are awesome! I hope Gardon and his family gets similar songs in the future!

Here are my reviews of each song:

Spoiler

Ride before the Dawn - Poor Edward. This is an epic knight song, although the image of Edward attacking the farm prison I made for him in the True Story kept coming up in my head. I imagine him singing this, while he helplessly hacks away at that one farm, while the Ironfist peasant keeps repairing it.

Embers of Van Durce - After listening to this, I'm 90% sure she is responsible Garan's death.

Between Creation and Travesty - Not my cup of tea, but fitting for Marin.

Under the Banner of Gold - Lindra is sus. She could be Meya, we know she can disguise herself, buuuuut... could Lady Meya use the power of the light? She has stated several times how disgusting she finds holy magic, and the angelics, so I'm doubtful. But she is suspicious... and really pretty, judging by the image, which I didn't realize before. Her Warcraft 3 model doesn't do her justice. The song is great, my favorite so far.

The Watch Unbroken - A more solemn take on the honorable knight. Flavius really loved his family, it's a shame things ended the way they did. He could have kept his sibling together, I think.

Quiet Hands of Empire - Catherine is the hidden mvp of the family. How and why Lerrig became her husband is beyond me, they were not even on the same universe intellectually. The song is alright, it tells a lot about her as a character.

Bearer of the Guard - EPIC. Richard's path is going to be interesting. Another banger, second favorite.

Light Between Shadows - This song got me thinking. Can Valerie even be considered good, if she is unable to be evil? One can argue that goodness means facing the darkness within us and overcoming it, because we choose to be kind and selfless. If there is no choice, and one can only do good, can that person even be considered good? We still have no clear answer, how brainwashed Valerie is, but according to Richard, she was different before she became an angelic...

Overall, I enjoyed these quite a bit!

 

[OblivionDeadra]

Just i like in youtube comment. You definitely cooked with ai song especially with "Bearer of the Guard | Richard van Durce Theme" and it was my favorite XD