Composer
Juan Agustin Magariños
Juan Agustin Magariños writes music that moves easily between worlds. His catalog runs from the complete soundtracks for the games Seraph of Creation and Deepstone Rift to the scores for the films Lo Que Dura un Beso and Sunflower Spark, with jazz, acoustic, progressive rock and folk rock pieces along the way. He is a performer as well as a composer, and a guitarist who has spent time on stage.
For VESSELBORN he gave sound to the planet itself: the themes for Geba and Jeyrha, the three pieces that carry the listener across Thazvaar from Kharan's Gulf to the deep interior, and Feral Remnant, the music of the battlefield.
Website: magarinosjuan.com
VESSELBORN Original Music
Geba
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
2:11
The piece
The theme for Geba, the imperial heartland, where Vaer'karesh forged the first empire and where civilization has been centered for six thousand years.
The lore
Geba is the origin continent and the smallest inhabited landmass on the planet. Vaer'karesh united the five nations that once divided it, Thaloryn, Garnath, Beithon, Varena and Therik, into the first empire, and for six thousand years everything has turned around it. The capital, Karesh, was founded by Empress Vaer'yinda on wilderness she purged as a gift to her father, and the imperial day still begins and ends when Izhara passes over the continent.
It is the most lawful place on Geba, at least on the surface. Thaloryn stands half in ruins, never rebuilt so the wars that forged the Empire are not forgotten, and it remains the center of art and ethics. Beneath relay coverage the Jerhit Syndicate has embedded itself in the legitimate economy, and imperial officials take syndicate varens to look away.
Read more in the Codex: Geba
VESSELBORN Original Music
Jeyrha
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
1:49
The piece
The theme for Jeyrha, the Green Jewel of the south and the one continent that joined the Empire without ever being conquered.
The lore
Jeyrha is the Green Jewel of the south. It joined the Empire during the Imperial Conquest without a battle, through the Haavu Cannon Systems designed by Xerik Haavu, so it was never conquered, its names were never replaced and its people were never culled. The Haavu rose with it to become the most prominent non-imperial family on the planet.
It leads the world in biological science and ecological engineering, and the academies of Reykhaal train elite bioengineers and artists side by side. The south catches the fixed light of Saethern, and fungal forests grow there that exist nowhere else outside Saethera. The entire relay network traces back to a Jeyrhan descendant, Architect Varenth Solarn.
Read more in the Codex: Jeyrha
VESSELBORN Original Music
Kharan's Gulf
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
1:38
The piece
The first of three themes for the Thazvaar continent, set at the far edge of the coast in the inlet named for the pirate warlord Kharan Khatan. It carries the Gulf as it is now and the history underneath it.
The lore
Kharan Khatan was the most feared pirate warlord of pre-relay Geba, some eight thousand years ago in the Middle Dominion Age. When the Thazvaari Dominion drove the last pirate fleets toward extinction, his was the only plan that could delay the end, and they followed him into the inlet that now carries his name. He fortified it and held it long enough that the place became synonymous with him. There is no account of his death.
Thousands of years later the Gulf was the Dominion's last position in the Geban-Thazvaari War. King Hies held it through a siege that lasted decades until Emperor Venar'Tal Kareth ended it. Today it sits at the far edge of Coastal Thazvaar, and the Children of Kharan, the largest pirate confederation on Geba, still carry his name.
Read more in the Codex: Kharan Khatan
VESSELBORN Original Music
Coastal Thazvaar
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
2:25
The piece
The second Thazvaar theme, for the southern coast that was once the naval heart of the Thazvaari Dominion and is now fully part of the Empire.
The lore
Coastal Thazvaar was the naval and technological heart of the Thazvaari Dominion. After decades of war it was conquered and assimilated so completely that no ethnic or linguistic divide remains, and hardline imperials call it New Geba. The Dominion's rail and water systems, the most advanced on the planet at the time, were adopted across the whole Empire.
It holds some of the most luxurious cities on Geba beside some of its poorest slums, and that pressure has produced generations of artists and athletes trying to rise without joining the inland syndicates. The Scarlet Verse festivals and the vertical combat sport of the Thazvaari Ascension fill its streets, and it remains the only safe route into Inland Thazvaar.
Read more in the Codex: Coastal Thazvaar
VESSELBORN Original Music
Inland Thazvaar
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
2:18
The piece
The third Thazvaar theme, for the immense interior that no power has ever governed and the main theater of the Energy Wars.
The lore
Inland Thazvaar is the immense, ungovernable heart of the planet, a country of deserts, jungles and mountain ranges that swallow armies, relays and intention alike. Its problems predate the Thazvaari Dominion and outlasted its fall, and even the Empire at its height could not pacify it. For much of imperial history the capital believed the inland was settled, until Prince Ashan'Raeth Vareth crossed it and proved that belief false.
It is the main theater of the Energy Wars. The Teytan hold their fortified strongholds, the Jerhit Syndicate controls the southwest, and the Children of Kharan move most of the inland's illicit goods. Beyond all of it lies the deep interior, which no power in recorded history has ever entered and held.
Read more in the Codex: Inland Thazvaar
VESSELBORN Original Music
Feral Remnant
Music by Juan Agustin Magariños
4:16
The piece
Feral Remnant, the fast and violent genre of soldiers, mercenaries and hunters, and one of only two commonly played on active battlefields.
The lore
Feral Remnant is permitted savagery: fast, violent and deliberately dehumanizing, made to strip identity down to instinct. It belongs to soldiers, mercenaries, hunters and anyone close to combat, and with Conwave it is one of only two genres commonly played on active battlefields. It lowers the barriers to violence, and it is accepted because it amplifies a mindset that is already there.
It barely exists as live performance. Most of it moves as recordings through military and mercenary networks, often made by active combatants who never rely on it for income. When shows do happen they are held in venues built to take damage, with no choreography and no lighting design, and many of the performers play armed.
Read more in the Codex: Musical genres of Geba