Music Replacer – Cathay
Harmony of Shadows is a comprehensive music overhaul for Grand Cathay, replacing the default campaign and battle music with over an hour of original compositions by Eric Gordon Berg, acclaimed composer of the Beyond Skyrim series, written specifically for Total War: Warhammer III. Eric’s previous work on Beyond Skyrim was featured on BBC Radio 3, alongside industry legends such as Bear McCreary, Inon Zur, and many others — helping to set a new standard for what’s possible in the world of game modding.
This is not a simple reskin — this is a lore-aware, cinematic audio experience that redefines the tone and atmosphere of Cathay both on the campaign map, and in battle. Every track has been written from scratch to match the culture, mysticism, elegance, and underlying darkness of this ancient empire.
Total War: Warhammer III features a highly adaptive, reactive music system — one that shifts dynamically with your actions, moods, and events on the campaign map. While this system is technically impressive, it comes at a cost: musical identity. Because the game relies on modular fragments that must blend seamlessly at all times, there’s little room for bold, memorable themes or lyrical storytelling. Melodies are often restrained, carefully shaped to be interchangeable and non-intrusive — which is why, despite the scale of the game, so little of its music truly lingers.
The Audio Mixer implements a replacement music system in frontend, campaign and battle through scripts which modders can interact with using the Audio Mixer Music Manager API. The frontend system works the same as vanilla where music is linked to the displayed theme, and the campaign and battle dynamic audio has been replaced with a more traditional playlist system which randomly plays tracks from a playlist. You can see how we use the Audio Mixer’s system in this mod’s scripts. More documentation on the API can be found in the Audio Mixer’s scripts. Alongside this the Audio Editor tool in the AssetEditor is used to make the modded music which we then play using the Audio Mixer’s music system. The Audio Editor tool is not currently released for public use but will be released for use in the next release of the AssetEditor.
Writing music for Grand Cathay was both an honor and a challenge. One of the biggest creative questions we faced was how far to lean into traditional Chinese instrumentation. We didn’t want to go full Three Kingdoms — this is Warhammer, after all, a world teetering between divine order and daemonic ruin.
What emerged was a careful balance: Eastern timbres with Western harmonic language. You’ll hear erhu, guzheng, and even an authentic Chinese string orchestra, but you’ll also hear lush western string writing, ambient textures, and darker harmonic undercurrents. There are nods to authentic Chinese harmony, and even moments of Japanese influence.
This isn’t just Cathay’s soundtrack. It’s the sound of the world around you — your allies and rivals, your dreams and disasters, the creeping influence of Chaos, and the silence that follows every battle. It’s a score meant to reflect the high fantasy weight of Total War: Warhammer, through the lens of Cathay’s ancient empire.
If you’d like to listen to the music/support Eric:
Spotify[open.spotify.com] •
Bandcamp[ericgordonberg.bandcamp.com] •
YouTube •
Website[www.ericgordonberg.com]
– Pear! Can’t praise him enough. Absolutely none of this was possible without him!
– Frodo and RPFM
– h3ro/Ole and the asset editor
