Siege of Madrigal

***Siege of Madrigal*** is a piece of music from *Myth: The Fallen Lords* written by Marty O'Donnell that was added into every Bungie-created *Halo* game and *Destiny*.

To hear the song within each game, a player must typically be standing in a hidden location.

## Appearances

### Halo: Combat Evolved

In the level *Assault on the Control Room*, there are two places where players can stand to hear the song.

1. Right at the start of the level where Foehammer drops you off, get back in by facing the cockpit and when your are pushed out, Push X to Enter Pelican will appear. Immediately get back in. Keep facing the cockpit, and the Pelican will spiral downwards. When a sea green mist appears and fogs the screen partially, you will be thrusted out. Push X to Flip Pelican will appear. Do so. The Pelican will vanish and you will land on a platform that goes around the circular tunnel. Go left around the tunnel. The song will appear in a specific spot, relatively close to the way you land. It plays through a few times. This is an alternate and easier way compared to using the Banshee.
2. Players can also get a Banshee and fly back to the beginning of the level, but this is a much harder version to pull off. spot. If the player goes through the level and gets a Banshee, they can fly back, get out by the door to go backwards the way they came, and melee the Banshee through. It is possible to go all the way back to the beginning of the level (where Foehammer drops the Master Chief off in the first cutscene). The massive cylindrical cavern can be seen from the platform. If the player falls down without the Banshee, they will die. With the Banshee, however, the player can fly down to the first or second ledge. The *Siege of Madrigal* can be heard if the player stands in a certain spot.
3. One location can be found on the pyramid structure at the end of the level. There are three brackets on the large tower above the control room entrance. The player will need to land on the second one with a Banshee to do this. Then, once one has landed, face the cliff, go to the right side of the bracket. There should be a part of the bracket that points towards the cliff, then slopes down steeply. From the flat part of the bracket, move towards the steeply sloped portion slowly. Eventually, the music can be heard.

### Halo 2

On the multiplayer map *Ivory Tower*, stand by the metal door behind the elevator and wait. Attacking the door may also help, but be aware that the sound is very faint and hard to hear.

Many have disputed the claim that the music does not appear on *Ivory Tower*; however, anyone with access to *Halo 2*'s map files will find the music among one of the sound files for *Ivory Tower*.

### Halo 3

In the final stretch of *The Covenant*, after defeating the Scarabs, ignore the waypoint and fly toward the left of the Citadel (the building that Truth is located in). Carefully land the Hornet there (the return is possible without it, just much harder given the fall damage) and run along this ledge. Eventually, it will turn into a 45-degree slope; at the top, the music can be heard. It plays almost immediately after one reaches the slope. Unfortunately, it only plays a shorter version of the track, but it is easily recognized.

> **Warning**: If the player lands on the building where the Prophet of Truth is, there is a possibility of activating the Revelation chapter prior to entering the building (The word will appear in the corner of the screen, but nothing will happen). Should that happen, the player will be able to continue the level normally until the end of the cutscene (though to hear the music, the player needn't go near the building itself). The game will be stuck in the 'chapter title' mode with black bars across the screen, and will not return control to the player.
>
>

### Halo 3: ODST

The music is found on the level *Kikowani Station* on all difficulties. It can be found in the third open area of the level, on the right side rooftop on top of a small bridge, which can be found by turning right when exiting the second tunnel. It can easily be spotted by looking for a large red sign with the words "ACCESS DENIED" printed on the left. Standing in the very middle of the area, while touching the wall causes "Siege of the Madrigal" to play as well, moving or standing anywhere else will not allow the music to play. On Legendary, when standing on top of the small roof above the door on top of the bridge, an animation begins of Martin O'Donnell dancing, with winged hearts similar to the *Halo: Reach* armor effect flying around him. A dance beat will play. The winged hearts effect is used by Steve Cotton to test glitches, and someone seemed to have added the effect on the Easter egg as a prank on Martin O'Donnell.

In the *Halo: The Master Chief Collection* version of *Halo 3: ODST*, the dancing Marty gif has been replaced by a sweeping Frank O'Connor.

Pat Jandro, Senior Cinematic Designer for *Halo 3: ODST*, on making the dancing Marty easter egg:

“It all began on a fateful afternoon in our old studio in Kirkland. I was out back, shooting some animation reference for a cinematic in Halo 3: ODST when Mr. Marty O'Donnell, eager to make his way to the break area, made the fatal mistake of not going around the space where I was shooting. Instead, he decided on walking straight into my camera's view to interrupt my work and do a little jig in an effort to be "funny" ...oh how correct you didn't realize you would eventually be, Marty.”

“What happened next was beyond delightful. After being momentarily irked that my shot was ruined, my brain shifted gears. I quickly realized that I was sitting on a gold mine. The instant after he passed through my recording camera's line of sight with his feet shuffling and his fists pumping, I knew that it was my civic duty to make something happen with this once-in-a-lifetime footage. Luckily, I knew just the man to employ for the job. The dancing .gif of Sir O'Donnell surrounded by flying hearts that Steve Scott authored made my insides tingle with delight. It took all the discipline in the world for us to hold this close to our chests. When showing this gem behind closed doors to those select few who needed to know, the audio and design teams rallied to forge a secret Easter egg that Marty himself was not aware of – a legendary prank that would essentially "ice" Marty's own Halo Easter egg tradition, the Siege of Madrigal.”

“As the launch date for ODST neared, Marty was so excited to keep his tradition of implanting a special spot to play his sweet secret music, he decided to hold a competition and reward the first dedicated player who found it with a special prize. I remind you, Marty had no idea what we had been up to under the hood. We managed to slip in some stuff in the 11th hour before ship that would make this special Marty Dance .gif pop up and play when a player activated his coveted Siege of Madrigal on the Legendary difficulty setting. Fate was on our side.”

“The person who first discovered this spot in ODST, and WON the contest Marty was so excited about, just happened to be playing on Legendary difficulty. Still ignorant to the fact, Marty gathered some of us in private to view for the first time the saved film of his grand contest being won. Let's just say the surprised "WTF?" expression on Marty's face as he learned first-hand what we had been scheming in secret will forever be burned into my memory. This whole experience solidified the fact that I work at the best game development studio on earth. Even though he may not have learned his lesson of interrupting people's film shoots; the ol' gipper sure can take a joke with the grace of kings.”
### Halo: Reach

The *Siege of Madrigal* in *Halo: Reach* can be heard in "Club Errera," a club that is located in the New Alexandria level via an easter egg. The piece can also be heard in the elevator as one of the "elevator music" pieces played on the level.

The song can also be heard in Dr. Halsey's Lab, the secret room in the level *The Package*.

### Other Halo Games

**Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary**

The music appears just as it did in the original game. However, there are two versions; "Classic" and "Remastered," depending on the music setting chosen by the player.

**Halo: The Master Chief Collection**

The music appears as it did in the original versions of *Halo: Combat Evolved*, *Halo 2,* *Halo 3*, *Halo 3: ODST*, and *Halo: Reach*.

### Destiny

The *Siege of Madrigal* was included as an easter egg in *Destiny* when a jukebox was added to the Tower's bar area in the Tower Hangar, however, it has been remixed into a "pop" version of the song.

## Trivia

1. "The Siege of Madrigal" was the name of level three in *Myth: The Fallen Lords* and where the song came from.
2. The song is featured at the end of *Halo* in the *Halo: Original Soundtrack*. A portion of this is included at the end of *Installation 04* in the *Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Original Soundtrack*.
3. There is a distinct resemblance between the *Halo: Combat Evolved* and *Halo 3* methods and areas to find the song. Both require you to land on a precariously perched platform on a Forerunner building. It is unknown whether this is intentional, or purely coincidental as the two games have several similarities.
4. The song was remastered into *Spartan's Regret* in the *Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrack*.
5. In the *Halo* television *series*, the show starts off on a planet called "Madrigal," where Kwan Ha used to live before she got taken into custody by Master Chief after they recovered the artifact that the Covenant Elite warriors were looking for on the planet.

## References

1. ↑ YouTube - Halo: CE Siege of Madrigal (Pelican version)
2. ↑ YouTube - Halo: CE Siege of Madrigal (beginning Banshee version)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 YouTube - Halo: CE Siege of Madrigal (end of level version)
4. ↑ YouTube - Halo: CE, Halo 2, Halo 3, Halo 3: ODST (with Frankie gif), Halo: Reach
5. ↑ YouTube - Halo 3 Siege of Madrigal location
6. ↑ YouTube - Halo 3: ODST Siege of Madrigal location
7. ↑ YouTube - Halo 3: ODST Siege of Madrigal location with Frankie
8. ↑ Bungie.net (archived) - Bungie Mail Sack 9.0 (March 16, 2012)
9. ↑ YouTube - Halo: Reach Siege of Madrigal location
10. ↑ YouTube - Siege of Madrigal in the Halo: Reach Tribute Room
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 YouTube - Halo: Combat Evolved Original Soundtrack: Halo
12. ↑ YouTube - Destiny: The Siege of Madrigal Tower Jukebox Audio Easter Egg
13. ↑ Youtube - Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary Original Soundtrack: Installation 04
14. ↑ YouTube - Halo 2 Anniversary Original Soundtrack: Spartan's Regret
15. ↑ Den of Geek - Halo's Madrigal is a Bungie Deep Cut (March 24, 2022)