This is one of the articles that was submitted to the Secrets of Tibia 3 contest and won the 4th place. It was written by Simula.
Music has existed pretty much for decades as a “novelty flavor”, before gradually gaining some use in various quests and only recently, some 25 years later did we finally get sound in Tibia.
But this begs the question, what did music mean from a lore perspective all those years?
In this article we are going to follow hidden clues and try to find whatever these clues might ultimately tell us.
This research contains sidenotes that are tertiary and are only supposed to make you think.
External sources are denoted with numbers [1], further reading will be denoted with letters [a].
Let’s begin!
If you’ve explored everything in the desert dungeon then you might know of the ‘true’ solution to this disconnected, low-reward quest which is quite unique with interesting mechanics.
Why panpipes?
And why is there an unreachable chest beyond the lava?
Why the lyre on top of a bonelord shield on this lava isle? [1]
Why the hidden lyre in Dago’s volcanic crypt?
Why the flute together with a crystal wand by Ferumbras? [1]
Why did the trolls want to steal a trumpet?
There’s an interesting theory about the bard’s tale that focuses on music being an instrument to seduce women.
This theory, or rather deep dive adventure will follow a completely different path.
We are going to follow an intriguing old trail I stumbled upon years ago which explores some sound.
In Kazordoon we can find a book, depicting some diverse gang being persecuted into Dwacatra, involving some human knights.
Most of the rebelious dwarves who betrayed us and allied themselves with the cyclopses and some dishonorfull human knights were prosecuted and thrown in jail on the prisonisle Dwacatra.
They now have to live or fight the captured Minotaurs, Orcs, and Cyclopses they seem to like that much.
Justice is served.
When we venture into Dwacatra we can find all the various beings’ camps depicted in the book, but the human knights are missing!
Instead we find trolls.
A true old-school mystery a.la. Knightmare ensues.
West of Kazordoon there’s an unruly witch breeding trolls. Is she a rebel?
There’s even another witch in the Basilisk Mines! And a whole gang of them on top of Kazordoon.
And the witch Wyda claims to have the key to the Kazordoon Treasury.
Spidey senses are tingling.
This begs the question, what are they doing here? Where did they go?
To explain the reason, we can talk with the imperialist Malech,[a] the guard overseeing the Basilisk mines which are currently under the control of the renegade rebels.
We can obtain a secret keyword from him which another dwarf in the Basilisk Mines responds to.
A somewhat blind and drunk dwarf, seemingly mistaking us for a rebel ally, leading to juicy insider intel.
Player: secret weapon
Shortsighted Dwarf: There is one thing that the imperialists have always feared: ...
The basilisk! If we could get the beast to attack Kazordoon or even better, gain control over it, we could destroy the enemy forces once and for all. With the basilisk at our disposal, soon we would rule Kazordoon! …
In the worst case it would at least wreak havoc amongst our enemies. We can certainly contain it again later on ... somehow. Our best geomancers are working on a plan right now, I tell you. …
You know those tiny runes that allow some magic users to become the master of a creature? Now imagine, all what it takes to enslave the basilisk is probably some gibber rune and more spellcasters. …
And just below the human.. .. troll camp in Dwacatra we find the Basilisk!
Fantastic, now we know what they are up to, and what they are looking for.
Where did they go after escaping Dwacatra?
That hidden exchange of words tells us they’re looking for strong magic to subdue the Basilisk.
Since they are knights, their magic levels are likely bad. So to achieve their goal of enslaving the Basilisk using some gibber rune and more spellcasters, they would need some help.
In a very early Tibian world, there are only so many places they could’ve gone when seeking out masters of magic and twinkiller… perhaps convince Basilisk runes.
Demona.
Sidenote: Also Dreamers Challenge, but that’s for you to explore!
On the way to Demona, we find a (judging by the snakes) quite recently abandoned basket containing a scroll. It reads:
And a little further in we find an oddly diverse gang!
There are some dead humans just west. [2]
This must be part of the runaway gang from Dwacatra, right?! Some rewards include Dwarven Axe, Obsidian Lance and the unique Griffin Shield.
Master the snakes, master the Basilisk?
I mean they are not far off, the music box can tame a lot of animals without fail!
[3]
Sidenote: You can study Kruzak, Wyda, Uzgod and A Sweaty Cyclops to find more information on this ancient trail.
What’s not mentioned in the prison-isle book are the elves we find here..
Elves are known for being notoriously into music, a key part of their culture.
They are also known for their mastery of dream magic. Is that why the gang got help from the elves?
Plausible.
Anyhow, it seems like the gang is waiting for those who went into Demona, but what did the others find, did they get slaughtered or did they learn something?
The warlocks know most magic, but what really caught my attention is the moving of lava.
How to control the lava
By Jonea, ancient council of the warlocks
The lava was since the beginning our friend.
We always possessed the power to "talk" to the lava and to form/move it for our purposes.
But this ritual requires complete concentration and only with many warlocks it was possible to build this city out of the lava.
Here is how it works:
*The rest sheets of the book were pulled out.*
“Talking” to lava to form and move it.. Requiring complete concentration.
Why do we need many warlocks? Is this what the rebels’ “best geomancers” are working on?
I want to highlight this odd remark from Marlene in Northport who's been snooping in the caves above Demona, it seemingly contains some insights about their “talking”.
Marlene: But after some time I found a ladder to a deeper level of the dungeon but I didn't dare to go down there because I heard many voices. …
The voices were very strange and I ran back to my house because they were very loud and very angry. I hope they will never get the idea to attack the surface beings. …
This does not seem like any ordinary spell. We currently don’t have any ritual castable by us in the game; all are single-character spells. Exura. In the world of rituals we have little to go off.
Now we have hints of
When following the trail of sound which could be forming, moving - or altering existence, some very interesting ‘coincidences’ emerge.
Rathleton is full of talkative characters filled with riddles which I’ve not had the heart to spoil.
When I documented Rathleton transcripts, I was wondering what this cool hidden story and its hint meant, why this information was so hidden.
When loud sounds are played near glooth (slime), it can ignite!
Sidenote: this reminds me of the oil in Jakundaf. [b]
From a story of a doomed, desperate mother in Ankrahmun many centuries ago:
She was found soon enough, but just when the troops were about to arrest her, the unexpected happened. Clinging her baby to her breast, the desperate mother fell into a piercing, bloodcurling wail that quickly expanded into an unearthly sound to which nature itself seemed to respond. All of a sudden a sandstorm erupted, fiercer and stronger than anybody could remember, and within minutes destruction rained down upon the pharaoh's terrified troops.
Here a sandstorm erupts, and nature seems to.. move! Lava, sand and earth are not that different.. Or could it be the air?
From a book written by an ancient, which pretty much every mystery enthusiast knows. [c]
There were races like the S'vir who travelled the sky in their cloud ships; beings like the elephant men, their name is long forgotten, whose ordinary speech were words of magic that formed reality around them.
Could that elephant snout be considered an instrument, e.g. a trumpet?
When we talk to Devovorga, chilling similarities arise.
”PEREAT MUNDUS!”
Player: Devovorga
A Beautiful Girl: How cute and shallow that sounds from your limited vocal chords and lips. You should have heard my enslavers pronounce it - accompanied by thunder in their voices that shook earth and sky.
Thunder that shook earth and sky.
So we have limited vocal chords and lips.
This could be why instruments are used, especially by us humans.
To produce deep or high notes, or sounds we cannot squeak.
To amplify our decibel.
To have a constant tone, instead of precision-singing in the heat of the moment.
Complex melodies might be useful too? e.g. “exevo gran mas vis”, but also drawn out notes - a sound or.. scream.
The cultists have a strong foothold in Liberty Bay, Formorgar Mines and Goroma.
They hail a secretive cabal of archdemons, The Triangle of Terror.
All in the name of Zathroth.
And they seem to have figured something out.
Chorister
Lalalala... you now know the cult's hymn sung in Liberty Bay by heart. Not that hard, considering that it mainly consists of two notes and repetitive lyrics.
The cultists have a humongous group over at Goroma.
The warlocks mentioned that only with many warlocks was it possible.
Where we find cultists, there are MANY to say the least.
Now…. imagine what they could do if everyone started “talking” to the lava in this ginormous, active volcano…
They could likely cause eruptions and release tremendous amounts of energy.
With this energy they could do marvels, such as summoning Morgaroth and other powerful stuff.
Towncryer: Hear ye! Hear ye! The volcano on Goroma is spitting fire. Creatures are spawning, strong and dire. Lava is heading up the land. Adventurer, be careful or it will be your last stand!
Was “talking” how they built Demona, using certain frequencies to alter reality, chanting?
Is this how we could get over lava? Or even water, looking at you, Lake Amros…
It does look like there’s been an attempt above the Basilisk.
We also see this in Jakundaf, there’s even a lava pentagram there. (and that chest!?)
And we have Dago with the hidden lyre, rumoured to have summoned black demons in the volcano known as Mount Sternum.
[4]
(CipSoft) Amaro de Quester: Oh, all songs that I sung to win that banshee's heart! I even used my panpipes to play a lament for Othmor once because I thought that they might have been lovers. Apparently not, since it neither moved that blasted lever nor did it lower the water level of Lake Amros.
How rare, white notes!
It’s as if, the louder we are, and the bigger crowd we have the stronger the ‘ritual’ gets. With the right ‘tune’ different magic or manipulations occur.
One bafflingly obscure connection I want to show revolves around Chayenne’s key, where we also find two notes.
It’s a very strange connection, yet it somehow fits.
The backpack, the music box, the two notes and Liberty Bay.
We also get the key from Draconia with that huge pyramid, which surely has been lava-shaped, and how did they move all those bricks for the pyramid through Hellgate? I don't think they did that - easier to move earth, shape reality.
Sidenote: I’m gonna go out on a limb here, but.. considering how protected this realm of dreams is, how advanced and diverse it is, how extremely effective the ‘Music Box’ one-shot marvel is, that there’s items and terrain from all over Tibia, It’s actually not impossible that this girl is Zoralurk. One of Zoralurks thousand faces. Chayenne immortalized as Zoralurk. Fun to think about. [d]
There’s now a lot to unravel, we have seen numerous quite hidden occurrences of sound, and now there are a lot of emerging coincidences, or - usages of sound.
These cultists hold a unique book on music which sheds light on another use case.
The Demon Fiddler
A legend tells about a man, a sinister traveller that booked a passage on a ship.
In a stormy night he began to play a ghostly tune on his fiddle. The tune drove the helpless sailors into madness and forced them to sail their ship laughing on the next reef. The traveller though had vanished.
Of course there is a storm accompanied by the ghostly tune.
Interestingly, it causes madness and laughter.
And somehow, even more frighteningly, can control them enough to sail onto a reef…
Did the fiddler control them with madness and giggles, or did the fiddler diddle the weather & waters, forcing them onto the reef?
A riddle!
In The Cursed Crystal quest we seemingly do a lot of strange things with sound.
I did it! I reached the crystal gardens! What beauty and splendor I have seen down there. Even more: I discovered a small subterranean lake - but Harry was there before me. And he did something strange: He ringed a small, transparent looking bell and immediatly a big whirl appeared in the water.
We ring a small bell - producing sounds - and then the water starts whirling, moving.
This is oddly similar to the Demon Fiddler.
In another part of the quest, we use the scream of a banshee to break a cursed crystal
[5]
Maybe music has some form of relationship with crystals?
As we can recall, the panpipes came with 2 small amethysts(!). Demona is also full of gems. Draconia too!
Another really cool thing is, in Ferumbras’ treasury lies a Crystal Wand accompanied by a flute! Items we stumble upon when going to Demona.
But one that truly stands out is the Diapason, which we use to tame a crystal wolf!
Player: diapason
Edala: This item has magical abilities. We elves use it to tune our instruments so they create the most silvery, delicate song. It might have other uses, but I wouldn't know about that.
Player: diapason
Lothar: What a neat little elvish gadget. Did you know a diapason works with vibrations to create sound? I actually think this could work on a creature made of crystals.
So it shouldn’t come as a surprise - yet it does, that the small transparent looking bell, is of course, made out of crystal!
White notes are very rare in Tibia.
Does this indicate that different colored sounds cause different effects?
Several creatures use different coloured sound attacks for various effects too.
The incredibly rare blue-notes effect is used by Grand Mother Foulscale, who summons 4 dragon hatchlings when used.
[6]
Only by Vashresamun can we find an instrument that produces blue, this might have been used to ‘master’ the many dragons on Darama.
Sidenote: If we draw inspirations from the Colours of Magic, then red and blue makes purple.
Purple is the color we produce when we play the cults hymn. Like a chord, a combination of two notes makes a new one.
We certainly can’t be the only ones fascinated by crystals and sounds.
Some experts in the field are the gnomes.
Teaser images.
Gnomelvis is involved in a task where we find our soul music.
Player: crystal
Gnomelvis: Crystals are one of the most progressive things gnomish ingenuity has come up with. Even most gnomes don't fully understand how the usage of the crystals resonances and light breaking capabilities work. …
For outsiders it must seem like magic.
Yes, it does seem like magic!
And they know way, way more about crystal resonances.
When asked to explain why we need to ring some bells to their rogue crystal golems, Gnomenezer gives us some very interesting insights.
Gnomenezer: It's only for the time being, as I said ... so now ... without further interruptions you have to repair some of our crystal golems. ...
You know, they sometimes 'loose their music' as we say. The golems are controlled not by sentience but by complex melodies that dictate their actions. ...
The crystals vibrate in certain ways and react to certain vibrations in certain ways. I would explain it in more detail but I fear you could be a bit at a loss in face of gnomish crystallography. ...
Truly fascinating that they seem programmable somehow. Like a computer. Instructions with melodies, Power from crystals?
When we read about the crystal golems in the creature library, we find out that they get out of tune from the seismic activity of those below.
Crystal golems are a marvel of gnomish ingenuity. Though the gnomes claim that no conventional magic is a work, it is hard to believe that only sound resonances and light is involved in controlling and animating the golems. Though intended as guardians and manual labourers that substitute for the tiny gnomes with the muscle power that they might lack, sometimes a malfunction drives them 'insane' as the gnomes claim. Especially seismic activity can disrupt their control melodies and might turn them into a threat for gnomekind or anyone they might encounter.
This wonderful coincidence of seismic earth-moving and sound-maddening can't be just a coincidence.
This begs the question, could sound actually alter the behavior of others, as possibly hinted by the Demon Fiddler?
Could ‘those below’ be trying to control, or make entities ‘loose their music’, making them ‘insane’?
As if they'd transmit a computer virus, blue screen golem of death.
This makes me seek out how creatures communicate with each other, it’s also an angle we need to follow for more clues and a bigger picture.
When I started writing this, I had no idea what a cool world would emerge when studying how creatures communicate..
So, how is sound used by creatures?
There’s something about this one that makes me see Tibia more vibrant.
Wailing Widows
The Wailing Widow gained its name from its unusual hunting and attack methods. By letting its opisthosoma vibrate, the spider creates a variety of sounds that are used to lure or stun its prey. In ‘spider-like' abilities, they use this sonic manipulation in a way that reminds frighteningly of intelligence and purpose.
Play your opisthosoma to master the prey!
With Soul Wars came the Cloaks of Terror. A floating blob.
Cloaks of Terror
A mass of silent levitating bodies that floats towards their target is enough to shake even the bravest warrior. Even worse though they emit a sound, that only dogs and certain other animals are seemingly able to hear, but that is nonetheless unsettling and even frightening to most humanoid beings.
This is actually terrifying, who's stopping them from taming us with their “music box”? using sounds we cannot even hear? The implications of this are frightening. With the ‘wrong’ instrument or powerful enough transmitter, it could be abused to cause global mayhem.
I also enjoy how Fernfang can attract or subdue ‘dogs’ with the wooden whistle. Yellow notes good, red notes big bad wolf.
Gnomprona expanded more on the lore of gnome's sounds.
Noxious Ripptors
Curiously enough they seem to be drawn to the sound admitted by the so called Shrieking Cry-stals though it seemingly puts them into a kind of milder form of their common frenzy.
Crystals making sounds..:) but for now the more relevant part is how they seemingly subdue the Noxious Ripptors with sound. As if they would be under their control.
When we read the creature description of the shrieking crystals we find that they feast on some residue lingering over fresh corpses.. [e]
Chamek ath uthul arak, or souls?
Perhaps they are using it in conjunction with shrieking sounds.
I think so considering creating runes consumes soul points.
And when we kill monsters, we get soul points!
And as Morgaroth says.
MY SEED IS FEAR AND MY HARVEST ARE YOUR SOULS!
Recall The Demon Fiddler, with our new knowledge we get a strong argument that he actually did control the crew with his music, and since a fiddle can produce many various notes, he could’ve controlled the weather too.
Casting many drawn out spells or rituals at the same time, using an instrument capable of emitting loud sounds simultaneously. Powerful.
We can somewhat confirm this maddening effect with another fascinating, barely discussed book about Nargor.
The Howling Grotto
The Howling Grotto of Nargor used to be a hideout for criminals in the early days when colonisation just started on the isles. Those criminals were probably the first pirates although is unlikely that they had more than a few fishing boats at their disposal. They built some rooms in the caverns but supposedly they found evidence of prior attempts to use the grotto in some way and some of the caverns seemed to be not natural. For some reasons they were attracted to the lower caves where the howling of the wind was that fierce that people said it could drive a man crazy. Be that as it may, those first pirates were known for their bloodthirst, their frequent infightings and for torturing their prisoners. It is assumed that they all killed themselves in their madness. The grotto is rumoured to be haunted by the ghosts of these pirates and those of their victims - but those are only unconfirmed speculations. Nowadays, nobody knows the treacherous passages through the dangerous reefs to reach the isle of Nargor.
Basically Nargor has a shape which makes the passing wind produce a tune, and deep down where the howl is concentrated, madness ensues.
Sounds eerily similar to The Demon Fiddler. Or insane golems with buggy control melodies.
And those caves from an ancient time looked unnatural, so I guess someone must've.. shaped them. Sounds plausible.
Sidenote: Did the ancients shape the tunnels into an instrument as big as an island?
To add even more to the theory, and some foreshadowing for the next book, there's a suspiciously similar event that happened over at Falcon Bastion.
The stronghold was reportedly abandoned over night with no trace of the order itself or any hints concerning their whereabouts. Eyewitnesses confirmed vibrant lights and unnerving sounds originating from the top of the stronghold during many nights.
And now with all the information we have, we can start to understand an epic report written by the Thaian Bureau of Investigation, TBI. It details an encounter with the cultists.
We can truly see how many hints and foreshadowing we actually find interwoven in books. Things that we would not understand, or think about much - if at all without previous knowledge. Secrets hidden in plain sight.
That report partly explains a decades old mystery - with a detailed experience of people going completely insane.
The hidden ‘cellar’ below White Flower Temple
We have recently unearthed a cult of people who were seemingly demon worshipers. After chasing leads from the local underworld, we managed to follow certain individuals to a secret meeting spot.
…
Shortly before midnight, we breached the doors of their hideout in the wilds. Two armed guardians in robes fell swiftly. We immediately proceeded deeper into the lair, following the sounds of chanted incantations. That was when things began to go wrong. Some of the men in the vanguard began to stumble and became slower. We still pressed forward eagerly, discounting the irritation to the thick, aromatic fumes that ascended the tunnel from the gathering hall. When we reached the main room, our eyes were full of tears from the heavy smoke. The cultists seemed unaffected. When I loudly announced to them who we were and that they were under arrest, silence dropped. I was sure they would surrender now but suddenly, there was this scream. I don't know who screamed first but a heartbeat later others joined. The whole cavern vibrated from the insane screaming and I saw some of my men dropping their weapons to cover their ears. Then the cultists threw themselves against us in a single screaming mass of hands and daggers. They disregarded sanity and safety; the first wave impaled themselves on the weapons of the soldiers. But that did not even stop them. In hindsight, I'd say they weren't undead or something like that. They just seemed to refuse to die. Driven by insanity and rage, soldiers who knew their trade were killed with bare hands in horrific manners. Some lost their nerves and fled. Yet, others seemed to succumb to a madness that rivaled that of the cultists and started stabbing friend and enemy alike.
(creds to Meadek for hinting about the report being about White Flower Temple)
…
Later, we examined the corpses and several cultists were identified as local traders and craftsmen. None of them had been suspicious or had any criminal background. After searching their lair, we found evidence that it had been a rather newly established cult. How they had managed to induce so much fanaticism is a riddle to me. Disturbingly, some of the rooms had been built to house something HUGE. It was clear that those were rather living rooms or cells than storage rooms. What all this means, I only can wonder.
It’s as if all it takes is a scream at midnight to make everyone lose their mind -. ‘Loosing their tune’. Subdued.
Local traders and craftsmen turned into cult-obeyers in an instant.
Holy moly.
As they were “building”, or digging a huge cavern, I guess they could have been trying to summon yet another strong being. Kudos TBI.
Let’s get back to the creature sounds.
To me, the most fascinating ones are when certain non-humans try to explain their name.
“There is no need for names in this realm anymore. Even if I would I tell you my name, you'd not neither able to fully understand nor pronounce it.”
Those plushies, foreshadowing or a coincidence?
I guess it would sound cute and shallow with our limited vocal chords and lips.
But that's not all, during my travels I have seen this happen several times.
Do you know the artisan with ancient knowledge, Ben?
It's not his full name.
Player: Name
A Sweaty Cyclops: I called Bencthyclthrtrprr by me people. Li'l ones me call Big Ben.
Right.
In the realms of Devovorga, we find more of this phenomena
[7]
The Gate Keeper: The place where the spirits dwell that have unfinished business or were... called.
The call of the Ancients was sounded. The Key Master knows it. We too have been summoned to prepare for their arrival.
Curiously, loads of bonelords have come to this place, were they called?
Player: name
The Gate Keeper: My name is unpronouncable in your language.
Player: unpronouncable
The Gate Keeper: The nearest you may come to is Zg'!kch of Cthle-ZüuKh'lkrlxchwr.
Not once, not twice, but three instances of this happening in the spirit realms alone.
Player: name
Dread Guardian: Your body is not made for pronouncing it.
From other ancient races, we of course find more similarities. And now with an extra clue!
Player: Garamor Avolok Tor-Mazak
A Runaway Goblin: Nice try, hu-man. But hu-man hear not all there is to hear. Need goblin ears!
From Tibia’s official Facebook. Cool runic patterns.
We may need to have goblin ears, pointy ears - like those trolls and elves!
Perhaps a split tongue is needed to talk, ssssSSzz..
So perhaps “Limited vocal chords and lips” seems like a form of whistling along with a special voice. Pointy ears might be needed to hear certain frequencies, perhaps whistling or sssnake-ing. Though we don’t see these on standard lizards, except for the magical snakecharmers.
What do you think, are these the same languages? Hmm maybe, maybe not.
And just like the Cloak of Terror emits sounds that only dogs and some others hear, who knows what could be going on behind the scenes.
Now it's time to test our findings at the top of the hierarchy and visit Zathroth.
As The Triangle of Terror is directly below Zathroth, we should find usages of sound, right?
Let's see.
Let's inspect Roshamuul, its true name is “The Heart of Midnight”.
It served as a base of Zathroth and his underlings before it got destroyed in the culmination of a war spanning centuries, The Great War.
A cataclysm of epic proportions caused by the dreamcatcher itself, thought to have shattered continents. That’s some strong move-earth!
In Roshamuul, there seems to be sound involved.
Evident by the silencers. Ever blown a ‘Silencer Resonating Chamber’ on top of that silencer plateau? Absolute Mayhem.
[8]
There are also the horns.
We destroy the wall protecting the city by blowing bone horns.
I guess it would be a good idea to silence any destructive musical threat.
And then we got the quite hidden one, “Strange Good Night Songs”
[8]
Those Sneeze Blossoms seem to relax a bit when humming this disturbing cacophonic song.
Reminds me of the odd sounds we've heard throughout, e.g. what The Gate Keeper chanted, the warlocks, or what the miners in Basilisk mines heard.
We've dug that deep, that even we dwarves can hardly see. Fruzek told us stories of a monster making odd sounds from below the earth. These frightening tales of the basilisk have halted our mining schedule, forcing us to double the guards protecting the miners.
Were they digging, “talking” to the earth? Interestingly, the tunnels by the Basilisk do not look like they’ve been made by dwarves. Unnatural.
Remember the cultists' music?
After finding all the messages in a bottle around the waters of Roshamuul, we can enter a secret hole and read the last writings of a chained-up guy, The First Mate.
This is an excerpt from when the captain created The Ring of Ending.
When he pick up that piece of rope it suddenly got a life of its own. It wrapped itself around his arm, while he was still wearing that cursed ring. At first he was shocked but that feeling lifted soon, as he began to fantasize about strength, speed and power. He babbled about seeing things and hearing unspeakable sounds. I do not know if it was still our captain or just something else. Then he seemed to struggle in pain, he screamed and winded himself. We did not dare approach him. After some time he seemed to stop doing anything at all, no more moving, no more talking, not even a single breath. And then he just got up. He removed some dust from his coat and walked away, with a laugh on his lips and a pat on my shoulder.
Just as we saw the demon fiddler do. Laughing. Forced them to sail their ship laughing on the next reef.
Sidenote: It’s not impossible that these sailors are the ones that the demon fiddler diddled.
Then we have the tentacly Retching Horrors
Retching Horrors
they speak with different voices to ensnare and terrify their prey.
Different voices.. Very interesting. Does not seem like limited vocal chords.
Shock Heads
Occasionally, large packs of shock heads band together at coastal areas for a strange ritual in which they howl to the moon in disharmonious unison, which is rumoured to drive listeners mad and trap them in eternal nightmares. Oddly enough, their bestial minds can be overwritten by certain means and they can be tamed.
We can even tame them with a nightmare horn! Tooot tooot. Overwrite their ‘minds’, like those crystal golems. And hopefully not us.
But to me, the single most frightening item in Roshamuul (and all of Tibia) is The Dreamcatcher Device.
Guarded by Gaz’haragoth, and later researched by the perplexed elf Eruaran.
“It is one thing to have a certain amount of control over one's dreams, it is another thing to shape them.”
Player: apparatus
Eruaran: Not only were those who once dwelled here able to seemingly handle dream matter with ease, they also created this construct, which works in a way that should not be possible at all. …
In truth, it is a potent dream in itself; that is probably why it can interact with dream matter at all. ...
For now, it only seems to create a vortex of some sort in the realm of dreams, still dragging dreams here and turning them into... something. But it is so much more. It seems to work like a musical instrument of some sort. …
That is, if you create the right 'tune' with it, you can use it to shape the dreams it draws upon.
Not only does it pull dreams into the device, it's also an instrument, capable of creating different tunes to even shape the dreams.
It used to create the strongest umbral items in Tibia, while the device itself is currently broken.
Can you imagine if it got fixed as Eruaran hints is possible. [f]
Dream power siphoned from all over Tibia into this device - which we can then use with this giant fiddle to manipulate at will.
Eruaran: If I'm successful, though, I could draw upon the dreams of countless warriors and magicians to shape them into something wonderful.
Oh boy. I wonder if it works both ways.
Now I am basing the following on previous research I’ve conducted over the last years. [9] [10] [11] [12]
I will dramatically simplify the dream bit here.
Concept of dreams is confusing, but to help, imagine a mana-sphere, a dream-sphere, elemental spheres, a sphere of spirits around Tibia.
All of them being the same thing, just different names for different cultures.
They are the thoughts and energy, the souls of the living and the dead.
They are the elements, life and death.
To swim in dreams, is to swim in mana.
As you enter dreams, you can see the dreams of others, experience them, see them, touch them, visit them.
The Dreamcatcher Device was built for harnessing this power, or rather to steal it.
To pull, steal all of this mana from all over Tibia into a single concentrated point where a musical instrument lies.
That is about as powerful as anything could possibly get.
Imagine casting spells costing millions, if not billions of mana.
Instead of gathering more spell-casters, many warlocks or cultists, we instead steal this power from ALL Tibians. Even you.
Think of when we create a rune, we use some of our inner ‘dreams’ we possess with sound as a catalyst to imbue, shape a blank rune with our magic.
Now imagine how powerful YOU would get if we took that power from all over Tibia, and instead imbued yourself. [g]
This is literally how you become a god.
With powers exceeding even Gaz’haragoth, the last protector of the dreamcatcher device.
I’m going to start wrapping this up now with some last insights into sounds.
Fanatics of Zathroth claim that the library also contains at least parts of 'the true speech', the first and only true language, the syllables the gods whispered at the dawn of creation. Each word, eons long, containing the power to create or destroy, shredding its speaker out of existence.
In The Secret Library we can find quite strange beings, squid, books, and some other floating eyes and animated tools.
The squids are especially interesting.
The squid warden is a member of a servant race of the god Zathroth that communicates telepathically and has no pronounceable name on their own.
Communicating telepathically, psionically is something bonelords are known for, too.
They have an unexplainable weakness for music though and sometimes can be soothed by it. The kind of music the squid warden fancies however, would be considered cacophonic by other beings, so finding the 'right tune' to please them is rather impossible.
“everything’s connected”
Something I haven’t really talked about much are runes and inscriptions.
The flying books are a creation of the squid race. They developed special sets of runes to write down their psionic knowledge while encrypting it at the same time. Over time they figured out how to arrange the psionic runes to create certain effects. The hovering of the flying books was the very first breakthrough in this area. In the centuries that followed, the squid race honed their skills and created a own caste of 'authors' to create weaponized books with psionic powers that emulate spells.
Warnings that those books might have been just 'allowed' to be found and repossessed to allow the squids spying on others have yet to be proven and haven't stopped many from acquiring such a prestigious object. The idea that a device could constantly transmit information to its creator does nothing to diminish its popularity in comparison of the need of many to show off.
The very same runes, or inscriptions, or.. Instructions can be found in a lot of places with scary implications.
What has been done to these books, are very similar to what the gnomes have done to their golems!
Icecold books
The only way found to unleash their considerable power, was to empower them with a will of their own and bind certain arcane crystals attuned to icemagic into them as an energy source. Thus the books became self-sustained entities that had access to at least some of the ancient spells bound to them.
Gnomes attune the crystals with sound and use light in some form. Though they don’t seem to have a life of their own.
And runes, inscribed with the power of our dreams, our soul, syllables representing complex melodies arranged into spells.
Instructions, which ultimately dictates the behaviors of the creature or object that've been inscribed, imbued with this magic.
Sinister usage of this magic is bone-chilling to say the least, especially when we read this book about a found madman.
They easily found the bones of the old man, but their findings were utmost disturbing and to this day the thought about what I had seen sends shivers down my spine. The fire had literally left over nothing but bones, which is not just improbable but rather impossible.
…
The frightening thing was, that his bones were full of runes written in languages even I did not knew. A few of the marks reminded of glyphs in ancient text that were found at the most remote places of the world, remainders of civilizations that had long gone extinct.
We find these runes, or instructions on the dreamcatcher device as well. Imagine altering them.
As we have seen, sound is necessary for triggering the use of dream power, as well as manipulating creatures and individuals.
We can use it to move elements like earth and water.
To reshape reality and to summon entities.
For communication and creation.
Now, let’s get crazy.
What if bonelords actually emit ultrasonic sounds for their magic and communication?
Like, really loud, but for us completely silent.
Their huge, advanced lips and mouths must be good for something, right?
The Elephant Men, S’vir traveled ships up in the clouds, hovering.
Cloaks of Terrors also emit sound, and hovers.
As do the many hovering, incredibly intelligent creatures in the Secret Library.
How do bonelords use spells while silent, constantly, without using runes?
That should be impossible, right?
But what if they are constantly emitting ultrasound, magic, in ‘secrecy’, to levitate, to infiltrate your mind, using their advanced vocal chords and/or lips?
This could explain how the demon fiddler vanished.
Constant tunes, constant floating.
We can actually find some good indications of just this, in an overlooked hint from Knightmare himself. [18]
The beholder language is a completely different issue though. We hired an actual beholder [A Wrinkled Bonelord?] to write down texts for us. It resides still in the company basement [Hellgate?] and refuses to leave. The screaming of the dwarfs we have to feed him once a day haunts us even in our dreams. The worst thing is we have no means to tell if the beholder actually wrote down what we dictated him. Chances are his texts are some tasteless jokes and bad beholder poetry. Yet no one in the office had the guts to voice our doubts towards the beholder. Have you ever heard of the CipSoft employee Hans Christian Strakeldum? No? We neither after he went down into the cellar to tell the beholder to stop whistling that loud ...
That’s pretty insane.
We humans should be able to fly too, but in the "Remarks on the Legend of Lake Amros", we find that it’s not that straight forward.
It is told, that there is something of value on this island. I never was able to reach it; my magical powers didn't last to get there…
As crazy as it sounds, it does seem like maybe, just maybe he could not sing or shout loud and long enough to get there.
If we would be able to alter reality like this and levitate with our forbidden ‘legal’ knowledge, limited vocal chords and lips, then simple jobs such as carpentry or bricklaying would not exist. And we would certainly not be able to get into Lake Amros.
There must instead be some secret trick, forbidden spell, chant, tune or melody. Perhaps a whistle, perhaps a didgeridoo.
With all that said,
Tibia is a game filled with music and songs.
Imagine the insane choir of our songs when we demolish Ferumbras.
When your team starts shouting different melodic combinations of spells, or the vocal-chord shredding of exura, over and over and over again.
Pretty wild.
And finally,
There’s probably a lot of ultrasonic and even infrasonic languages, and we can’t even hear them.
I hope you enjoyed it.
[1]: https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Treasure_Rooms
[a]: https://talesoftibia.com/npsearch?t=Malech
[2]: https://www.tibiawiki.com.br/wiki/Demona_Quest
[3]: https://tibiawiki.com.br/wiki/Chayenne%27s_Realm_Quest
[b] :https://talesoftibia.com/libsearch?t=Different_Fluids_II.II
[c]: https://talesoftibia.com/libsearch?t=Ancient_Races
[4]: https://www.tibia.com/news/?subtopic=latestnews&id=3704
[d]: https://talesoftibia.com/npsearch?s=edowir+%26+%28thousand+faces+%7C+zoralurk%29
[5]: https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/The_Cursed_Crystal_Quest
[6]: https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Grand_Mother_Foulscale
[e]: https://talesoftibia.com/libsearcht=About_Shrieking_Cry-stals
[7]: https://www.tibiabosses.com/tgbh-2018/
[8]: https://tibia.fandom.com/wiki/Roshamuul_Quest
[f]: https://talesoftibia.com/npsearch?s=eruaran+%26+flaw
[9]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SolvingTibia/comments/13sa66h/what_is_the_strongest_and_mightiest_thing_in_all/
[10]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SolvingTibia/comments/11zrmt0/following_the_leads_of_469_my_descent_into/
[11]: https://www.reddit.com/r/SolvingTibia/comments/rz5b0n/the_true_sons_of_the_deserts_true_secret_dream/
[12]:https://www.reddit.com/r/SolvingTibia/comments/q7k2ap/the_thin_red_line_my_conclusions_after_solving/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TibiaMMO/comments/15832tv/lore_warlocks_draconia_trolls_the_mysterious/
[g]: https://talesoftibia.com/libsear
| Name | TC Amount |
|---|---|
| Sabin Rene | 1000TC |
| Cavaleiro Kyon Efusa | 600TC |
| Anonymous | 550TC |
| Hegal | 500TC |
| Pala Thebs | 250TC |
| Acolyte Rain | 250TC |
| Vall Astaoldana | 150TC |
| Parrilla | 100TC |
I love how articles uncover more content in Tibia and help me understand Tibian universe better.