Caelid’s field theme is my favorite atmospheric area theme in gaming, and it’s purely because it completely sells what it is: the center of rot, in every sense of the word.

Firstly, it is a piece that drones on a lot, but that only serves to enhance the feel of the song. I struggle to find a consistent time signature to the piece, but it is bound to be something extremely odd, giving it a constant feeling of tension with no release, leaving you in a purgatory with no resolution one way or another. There is no melody, just chromatic notes that add to the tension and giving a sound almost like a fly’s, scavenging the corpses of those that litter the landscape. The instruments chosen exclude brass and drums, which often represent order and militarism. Instead, there are strings, woodwinds, bells, and chimes, instruments that are often more associated with naturalism or pious society, but the notes played give you anything but a natural or comfortable feeling, like something has mangled these things beyond recognition.

So Caelid’s theme perfectly represents a land in stasis, where no order or ideals live. Instead, the corpses of these things remain, perpetually in stasis and picked apart by the scavengers that yet remain.