Voice of the Legion

"[Black Mage] has got some sort of screaming demon background noise reverb thing going on with his voice. I think he just wants attention."
—Fighter, Eight Bit Theater

Evil characters get a lot in the way of cool toys, powers, and even wardrobe options, but one of the coolest additions a sufficiently evil and powerful character gets is being able to speak with the Voice of the Legion.

The character's voice gains a reverberating Echo, sometimes a completely different voice(s) speaking in tandem and just slightly out of sync. Their voice will often drop an octave and become deeper, though even a falsetto can become jarringly creepy with the reverb alone.

The cause can be anything from channeling spirits, a Freaky Friday Flip situation, Demonic Possession, or an Eldritch Abomination (or its servants) deigning to speak in English rather than the Black Speech, except their accent bleeds through (like blood from the throats of so many virgin sacrifices) and makes the English they speak in sound positively scary and nightmarish. This is distinct from the Creepy Monotone in that the character may not speak in a monotone, but the voice itself is creepy.

Heroes or good characters can use this power, Dark Is Not Evil after all, and the possessing/channeled spirits might not be evil. Often, a good character will get this from performing a Fusion Dance with another good one, rather than a Demonic Possession. Gods, especially the Abrahamic one, are often portrayed with such voices too. Either way, this character is not to be trifled with.

In Manga and Comic Books, this is represented with stylistic indicators (e.g., using very large, heavy strokes) used in Speech Bubbles for "monster voice".

This trope is named for I Am Legion, the mental version. Sometimes this overlaps with Voices Are Mental. May contain Vader Breath, may be used when Hearing Voices. Compare Speak in Unison, where many people speak as one.

Examples of Voice of the Legion include:

Anime & Manga

  • In Dragon Ball Kai, Goku's voice turns slightly demonic for a short while just as he turns Super Saiyan for the first time.
  • In Birdy the Mighty Decode: Birdy is human, alien galactic superheroine who merges her body with Tsutomu, a typical high school boy who she mistakingly kills during an intense battle with an alien criminal. Over time, Tsutomu's mind begans to claim dominance over Birdy's, his memories eventually melding with hers. This leads to Tsutomu inhabiting Birdy's body instead of his own for a short period, resulting in his (and her body's voice) speaking in sync of each other. However, no one else can hear this since this is in his own thoughts.
  • Parodied in Bobobo-Bo Bo-bobo when Bo-bobo, Don Patch, and Jelly Jiggler merge to form Bo-Patchiggler. He talks in all three voices, just not at the same time. All the other Bo-bobo Fusions, however, only speak with one voice.
  • Digimon characters performing a Fusion Dance speak with the voices of both entities involved in the process (though each individual will speak on his/her own at times).
  • Any Fusion character from Dragonball Z, which might be the originator of this variation.
    • The original English dub for Cell's first form has him drop into an extremely deep register when he kills Piccolo. Very creepy and effective.
    • And although the Portuguese dub may not be perfect, one thing they did well was giving Piccolo this kind of voice, suits him very well considering his status as alien and former status as "Demon King".
  • Yami Bakura from Yu-Gi-Oh! In the dub, his accent becomes noticeably harsher (his hair rises and accentuates the pointiness of it) when the spirit of the Millenium Ring takes over Bakura's body.
    • How about Dark Marik? Normal Marik has a high, nasal whine. Dark Marik's voice is lower and snarlier, and overlaid by at least two or three others, some lower, some higher. Throw in the constantly stretching face, and you get the impression that something even worse than our resident Complete Monster is fighting to get out.
    • The English dub of Yugioh liked this Trope considerably. Whenever Malik possessed someone, they would receive a slightly distorted reverb sound effect to make it sound two voices at once. This effect was also used repeatedly to give villainous characters an "evil" voice, the "Dark" Malik for example.
  • When Chrono from Chrono Crusade begins to transform into his true form, his voice takes on an ethereal-sounding echo. (However, once he transforms his voice sounds normal, only deeper.) This is particularly noticeable in the second episode, when he's trying to transform without Rosette releasing the seal.
  • The Mariages from Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage X all speak with an echo, being Cyborg Zombie Super Soldiers that possess a Hive Mind.
  • Lots of examples in Inuyasha; standard anime monster speech.
  • The original Mazinger Z had Baron Ashura, who would speak in a female voice when only its female half was visible, a male voice from the other side, and both at once when both sides of its face were visible.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, there's The Truth, Hulk!Envy, Pride, and Father toward the end of the series.
  • In the late Ranma ½ manga, the cursed form of Rouge is the Vedic demon Ashura, who got three faces. The three mouths tend to talk simultaneously... though they don't always agree.
  • The Visored from Bleach talk like this when using their Hollow mask. Ichigo's own Inner Hollow talks like this regularly as well. Baraggan Luisenbarn also acquired this after his release.
  • The Lord of Nightmares.
  • Pokémon the First Movie touches on this trope for a few lines, though there's a somewhat mundane explanation: Mewtwo is communicating telepathically with the heroes as himself while, at the same time, the possessed Nurse Joy is speaking his dialogue aloud. He quickly realizes it and releases his mental hold on her. It's a shame, as the sound of their combined voices, particularly when both of them respond to a failed attack with "child's play", makes for one of the creepiest moments in the movie.
  • D.Gray-man had Jasdevi speak in this fashion when the two combine.
  • In Transformers Energon, the Alpha Quintesson's fifth, unseen "true face." It sounds like many voices talking at once because it is -- "the voice of all those lost" when Unicron made a meal of his solar system.
  • When Claymores begin to Awaken they start to speak like this. Yoma and Awakened Beings speak with an Evil Echo whenever they're not disguised as humans.
  • One of a the first of a series of horror stories stories from the manga "Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi" had the main character, Ootsuka Kaho, and her three friends receive a cursed text message. When two of her friends suddenly disappear, Ootsuka begin to panic fearing she will be next, but is calmed by her remaining friend, Maaya, who reassures her that the other two will be found eventually. When Ootsuka, though her texts, finds Maaya on the roof, she notices her talking in a completely different voice, which then become many voices. In a Twist Ending, it's revealed that it was Maaya who was sending her the cursed texts. Her negative emotions were absorbed and amplified by malevolent spirits, covering her body in misshapen faces, including Ootsuka's two missing friends who were jealous of Ootsuka's relationship with a popular boy they were attracted to.


Comics


Fanfiction

a billion different voices in a billion different tones, a low flanging and echo present in it's ominous timbre.

    • This is represented via text with bold italicized block capital letters colored red.
  • In Halo Combat Deformed, the Master Chief speaks in a deep, satanic rumble whenever he gets very angry.


Films -- Animation

  • Played with in the Disney film Chicken Little. The title character is abducted and put in a black room where a sinister bunch of eyes yells at him in a deep voice... and then a woman is heard telling said bunch of eyes to "turn off the Big Voice." A door opens and we find out that the owner of those eyes is about the size of Kirby.
  • One of the experimental voices of God in The Prince of Egypt involved using every voice Moses had ever heard in life at once. After creating "many excellent voices for Satan" and apparently running out of time they dropped all the special effects in favor of just having God use Moses' voice.
  • Other Bobinsky, towards the end of the film. "Not even that...anymore."
  • Aisling briefly speaks with this in The Secret of Kells as she's attacked by Crom Cruach.
  • The Mysterious Stranger in The Adventures of Mark Twain is voiced by a male and female speaking simultaneously.
  • In Care Bears 2, the villain Dark Heart speaks this way occasionally.


Films -- Live Action

  • Used for the voice of Drazuul in the film The Gamers: Dorkness Rising
  • Regan from The Exorcist might be the ur-example of this trope.
  • Also used in The Exorcism of Emily Rose when the priest orders the possessing demon to name itself. Several voices answer back, in different languages, each overlapping. One of them actually identifies itself as Legion.
  • Ghostbusters: "There is no Dana. There is only ZUUL!"
  • Blackheart from Ghost Rider because he's possessed by hundreds of evil souls.
    • He even says the line "I Am Legion, for we are many!"
    • Blackheart also has the Voice of the Legion before he gains the thousand evil souls; however, he originally only has the reverberating echo effect on his voice. It is not until the end of the film that this effect is enhanced, first used with the additional emphasis when he says the line above.
  • Hamlet's father, in Kenneth Branagh's movie, has a Darth Vader rasp, a deep voice, and there's a mike (not shown, but you can hear it) inside his helmet. Possibly done to show just how scary Shakespeare meant it to be when Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost.
  • Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings:
    • "In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!" This scene is almost Large Ham levels of Narm in the movie.
    • And don't forget Gandalf's voice overlaid with Saruman's in the second film, purely for the purpose of confusing the viewer as to which character is speaking (as his face is obscured). Both the overlayed voices imitate each other's style of speech for extra confusion.
    • When Gandalf speaks the Ring verse in Rivendell, which is only seen in the extended cut of the film, but present in the book.
    • The Mouth of Sauron from the extended version of Return of the King. As the envoy for the undisputed lord of Darkness across all of Middle-Earth, the Voice of Sauron's actual voice is six kinds of creepy—a hammy Russian accent, turned up to 11 and distorted considerably.
  • In Howard the Duck, Dr. Jenning often has this sort of voice after the Dark Overlord possesses him (especially when he and the main characters are conversing at the truck stop).
  • David Lynch, in his film version of Dune, depicts the Voice used by the Bene Gesserit to control minds in this way. It gets especially creepy when Alia does it, being not yet 7 years old at the time.
  • The Angel of Death in Hellboy II. Interestingly, one of its voices sounds a lot like The Faun, both of whom were played by Doug Jones.
  • Tia Dalma/Calypso in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
  • Paranormal Activity: A mockumentary, Blair Witch-like movie about a guy, Micah, who videotapes his girlfriend, Katie, as she is repeatedly tormented by a vicious unseen "demon" that has haunted her since her childhood. The attacks get progressively worse until the demon drags her from her bed and bites her. Right after the incident, she hysterically pleads to get out of the house. When making preparations for leaving, Micah finds Katie in bed, noticeably calm and wishing to stay despite her earlier pleas. When Micah leaves the room in confusion, Katie (in one of the scariest moments in the movie) whispers "I think we'll be OK now", her voice layered with a chilling undertone, and then smiles eerily, suggesting she has been possessed by the demon. This is boosted by the fact that they die that very night, or Micah anyway.
  • 5ive Girls, appropriately used for people possessed by Legion.
  • Good ol' Satan from The Last Temptation of Christ speaks in quite a few voices, one of them being this.
  • In the Stargate movie, Ra's voice definitely sounds like it's coming from the bowels of Hell.
  • Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin sounds this way in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.


Literature

  • A rare literary example of the tandem voice occurs in Perdido Street Station, where the representative of the demons appears as a perfectly normal human man with a perfectly normal voice... followed on a slight delay by the faint and far more unsettling voice of his true form.
  • An apparent literary example would be Death.
    • Theatrical example!
    • An arguably more creepy version is actually a subversion. The Auditors of Reality do not have voices as one would think of them. Instead, they simply alter the nature of reality such that they have already spoken. The words appear fully formed in the mind.
      • Which is represented as their dialogue being without speech marks. Unfortunately this was replaced with more generic italics in Thief of Time.
    • The voice of the Big Bad in The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, like the Auditors', goes directly into the mind without entering the ears:

It was all hisses, and it slid into the mind like a knife.

      • Death's voice is often described as going to the brain while skipping the ears completely. The Auditors don't do even that. You just suddenly remember that something was said moments ago.
    • In Sourcery, the Archchancellor's Hat plays this trope straight, which is appropriate for something that derives its intelligence from its hundreds of previous wearers.
  • In Dennis L. McKiernan's Mithgar series, all necromancers must deal with this when trying to find out information. Nothing is hidden from the dead, but whenever a corpse is raised hundreds of spirits try to speak through it, and only a necromancer's intimidating power can force the voice he wants to speak just ever so much more loudly. Considering what most necromancers are like, this is hardly a surprise.
  • In Jonothan Stroud's The Amulet of Samarkand, the demon Ramuthra's voice sounds as if spoken by a large group.
  • Raezazel the Cunning from the Warhammer 40,000 novel Hammer of Daemons is said to speak with a hundred voices at least.
  • In a non-demonic example, the two-headed Puppeteers in Larry Niven's Ringworld series are the only species physically able to speak their native language, because all other races in Known Space only have one throat.
  • The Goddess Verra in the Dragaera series. Vlad compares it to two identical voices speaking slightly out of sync.
  • Soulcatcher from The Black Company speaks in the voices of all those whose souls she's caught.
    • Although usually only one at once, each with regular human intonation; listeners still get freaked out by the rapid switching of gender, age and mood, though.
  • Used by the Raggedy Man in Stephen King's Cell. The Raggedy Man himself is the psuedopod of a massive hive-mind, and can only speak through other characters.
  • The Silicoids in Sergey Lukyanenko's Line of Delirium are floating columns of rock which natively communicate via modulated electromagnetic fields. Since most races communicate vocally, the Silicoids have learned to vibrate their entire bodies to produce sound, turning them into huge speakers. Due to this effect, a Silicoid sounds as if an entire choir is speaking. This is a non-evil example, though.
  • In Polgara the Sorceress, an adolescent Polgara shows off at one point by singing with three voices (and three different vocal ranges) at once.


Live Action TV

  • Buffy the Vampire Slayer has invoked the trope on more than one occasion, including Willow in the midst of her black magic rampage, Caleb after merging with the First, and The Anointed One, who being a child had a high regular voice.
    • A non-evil version happens when a ritual grants Buffy the combined power of the Scooby Gang, she speaks with all four of their voices simultaneously.
  • The Goa'uld from Stargate SG-1 can do this at will, along with Glowing Eyes of Doom for the sole purpose of intimidation. The idea behind is that they're manipulating the vocal chords directly rather than talking indirectly through their host's brain. They can talk normally, and do so at length to infiltrate their enemies' strongholds. For fun too, I guess.
    • The Tok'ra also do this, but only so people can tell if it's the host or symbiote speaking.
    • The Goa'uld seem to see their unique vocal pattern as symbolic of their claims of being gods; hence Baal (who unlike most Goa'uld doesn't fall for his own propaganda, instead being rather flippant about his "godhood") being prone to speaking normally to people who know he's not a god, reserving the Voice of the Legion effect for intimidation and for maintaining the illusion among his true believers.
  • Stargate Atlantis: The voice of the Wraith have a bit of reverb too. Wraith queen's mind control also echoes in the victim's head.
  • WE ARE THE BORG.
  • The new Doctor Who has an excellent example of this appear in the Season 2 two-parter "The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit". It is played very effectively. WE ARE THE LEGION OF THE BEAST!
    • Quite literally, since an Expy for Satan is mind-controlling a legion of service industry workers who share a single consciousness that has to be orbiting over an Eldritch Location.
    • "I Am THE MIGHTY JAGRAFESS of the HOLY HADROJASSIC MAXARODENFOE!" (AKA Max)
    • The Absorbaloff has this too, which makes sense, since his entire schtick is that he absorbs other people into him.
  • Many villains and monsters in Power Rangers have some kind of effects added to their voice. Your average Monster of the Week will simply add a bit of growliness
    • In contrast, Super Sentai only rarely uses this trope, with most villains and monsters speaking in normal human voices. Desumozorlya from from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger is a rare counterexample.
  • In contrast to Super Sentai, Ultraman, when aliens speak, applies effects to their voices, especially the reverberating laughter of Baltan-seijin.
  • Arch-villain Sylar occasionally talks like this on Heroes, although there's no real plot-related reason why he does. The writers have admitted they put it in just because it sounds cool.
    • Eden McCain would also do this when influencing people with her ability. A clear Shout-Out to David Lynch's Dune and the Voice.
  • In True Blood, Sookie hears people's thoughts with this effect. This gets specially creepy when she tries to read Maryann's mind where Creepy Monotone and Gratuitous Greek are added to said effect.
  • In the "Small Worlds" episode of Torchwood, the fairy things sound like multiple voices as once whenever they talk.


Music

  • Used a lot in Black, Gothic and Death Metal. The precursor is most probably King Diamond.
    • Behemoth's album Demigod was both lauded and criticized for extensive use of this technique. The backwards Sumerian at the beginning of the single, "Slaves Shall Serve", stands out, but the vocals for the majority of the album are heavily layered for this effect.
      • Actually, Nergal admitted he gargled chia seeds during recording just to make the voice sound extremely brutal. After awhile, he felt like he was going to hurl..
    • The chant at the end of the song "4th Arra of Dagon" by Nile features no less than fifty overlapping voices, according to the producer.
    • The aptly named Legion album by Deicide has this in abundance.
  • Used liberally in the Godflesh album Streetcleaner.
  • Strangely, makes a brief appearance in the Coldplay song "Rainy Day" in one verse. Hearing Chris Martin singing near the top and bottom of his vocal range simultaneously is both creepy and very cool sounding. (Likely the way it was meant to come off, considering the hodgepodge tone of Rainy Day.


Myths & Religion

  • In The Bible, Daniel sees a vision of a man who spoke with "the voices of a multitude" (Daniel 10:6).
  • And, of course, Legion, the Trope Namer.


New Media

  • "Scary"/"in G Major" videos (ab)use this effect. There are various ways of achieving it, from simple reverb to layering multiple "voices" in different pitches over each other.


Puppet Shows

  • Captain Scarlet: "This is the Voice of the Mysterons. We qualify in all the above respects, Earthmen."


Theater

  • Older Than Radio: Fafner in Richard Wagner's Siegfried has a bass voice amplified by megaphone, and sings mostly in tritones before being mortally wounded by Siegfried.
  • The extra-terrestrial "messenger" Astron, in Michael Tippett's opera The Ice Break, is sung simultaneously by a tenor and a mezzo-soprano, to emphasise its alien-ness and sexlessness.


Toys


Video Games

  • In the new Prince of Persia, the god of darkness has a two distinct voices (one male and one female) that alternate speaking and will sometimes overlap. Each individual voice also has a reverberating echo to it.

Ahriman: All you have to to, is ask. THE ASKING IS YOURS.
The Mourning King: You know that is that I ask!
Ahriman: If you would have your wish...THEN GIVE ME MINE.

  • Xel'lotath in Eternal Darkness has two voices with apparently different personalities. Its Greater Guardian has a standard Voice of the Legion.
  • The Dormin in Shadow of the Colossus speak with a male and female voice. Even in Simlish, it's creepy.
  • Star FOX's Aparoid Queen speaks with a very low voice and a high voice simultaneously, which makes them sound sinister.
  • System Shock's SHODAN starts alternating between thousands of distinct voices after being hacked to remove her morality controls. Her distorted voice, which also stutters, slows or speeds up, and has a lot of background noise, is actually meant to mimic a malfunctioning sound card.
    • See also: The Many from System Shock 2 who has three voice actors. A variation, as each voice speaks distinctly and separately, but with identical tempo and diction.
      • And SHODAN in her appearance in the same. And it is terrifying.
      • With her inconsistent diction, she can alternate between Evil Sounds Deep and its inversion for equal menace, especially when all her distinct voices join in the same pitch change simultaneously.
  • Viktoria of Thief the Dark Project and Metal Age, played by SHODAN's voice actress, also drifted in and out of Voice of the Legion when revealing her true form. Sounds different from SHODAN's version, though.
  • Death knights in World of Warcraft have this as a selectable option in the game's sound menu.
    • Thaddius, one of the main bosses in Naxxramas, also has such a voice. If you listen carefully, you can hear a female voice when he speaks.
      • This is entirely justified as Thaddius is "built from the flesh of women and children, it is said that their souls are fused together -- eternally bound within that foul prison of flesh." Upon killing him, they say "Thank... you..."
    • In Warcraft III, when Arthas and Ner'zhul merged into the new Lich King, their only line was the two voices speaking in unison. In WoW, however, this was scrapped and it's just a single (completely original) voice actor with echo added.
      • This is because the evil side of Arthas has taken control and proverbially killed both his good side and Ner'zhul.
      • Ner'zhul also had the echoing version of this trope before the merge.
      • Dentarg in Warcraft II Beyond the Dark Portal had such a voice. The main reason seems to be simply that his two heads are speaking in perfect unison.[1]
    • Members of the Infinite Dragonflight tend to speak with an echoing voice.
    • Although now impossible to loot, the Corrupted Ashbringer would speak to the player. In the first eleven speeches, Highlord Mograine, the Ashbringer himself, speaks as does an unknown voice. In the twelfth final speech, the voices merge. They closely resemble that of the Lich King and command the player to "kill them all."
  • The Liir in Sword of the Stars, being hermaphroditic telepaths, have a deep male and high female voice speaking slightly out of sync and in different tones of voice as their menu and combat sounds.
  • Every Shadow clone of a character in Persona 4 has this. Special mention goes to Shadow Teddie whose voice actor included Evil Sounds Deep for good measure.
  • The Great Mizuti in Baten Kaitos has this, presumably due to the mask Mizuti's always wearing. It comes off at one point, taking the Voice of the Legion with it.
  • The Dark Eldar in Dawn of War all speak with this voice, most notably with the Scourge and the Haemonculus.
  • The B&B corps from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots speak with two voices overlapped, one female, different for each member, and the male beast, shared between all 4.
  • Dark Archons from StarCraft.
    • The Protoss in general, including the regular Archon.
    • And the Zerg Overmind. The Terran hero units also get a bit of it if they've been infested.
    • Samir Duran, who already had the Voice of the Legion when he posed as an infested terran in Kerrigan's service, cranked it Up to Eleven when he met Zeratul on the Dark Moon.
  • The Collective in Warzone 2100 address the player and their own units in a menacing, reverb-laden voice. "Warriors of the Collective, attack! Attack and destroy all who resist the machine!!"
  • Mass Effect plays this trope completely straight with Sovereign, the game's Big Bad. For bonus points it even says that "we are legion" at one point.
    • Mass Effect 2 has Harbinger, who attains this when possessing other collectors.
    • The hanar, which communicate with bioluminescence, but the Translator Microbes give them a "forward echo" effect to their speech.
    • The turians all have a slight flanging effect on their speech, but Saren is the only really evil one we ever see.
    • Ironically, the geth sniper in Mass Effect 2 that comes to be known as Legion doesn't use this trope, despite its consciousness consisting of 1,183 separate and distinct software programs.
  • Arguably the G-Man from Half-Life. Done in an exceedingly cool and creepy way, as the guy's voice drops and heightens in pitch, elongates syllables and pauses completely at random. Similarly, although they're only footsoldiers who use vocoder devices, the Civil Protection and Transhuman Overwatch forces of the Combine fit this trope to the point where it's hard to understand them.
  • The monster/demon/zombie/thing boss Chaos from the old LucasArts game Loom does this.
  • The Master from Fallout has four voices that he alternates between. The dominant one is of an old man, another of an aggressive man, a sultry woman, and a Creepy Monotone computer-like voice. Creepy.
  • In Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal, there is one point where you are spoken to by a future version of yourself, voice acted with practically every reasonable possibility simultaneously. Male and female voices of both higher and lower pitch can be distinctly singled out if one listens closely. Also, in the beginning of the same expansion the "spirits" speak a prophecy in this sort of voice.
  • God Rugal in Capcom vs. SNK 2 uses this. It's actually a bit less intimidating than regular Rugal's voice in the eyes of some players.
  • The Beast in Homeworld: Cataclysm has overlapping male and female voices, along with other disconcerting verbal habits... like referring to the units in its fleet as 'parts'.
    • Actually, "parts" are enemy ships. Own ships are "selves".
    • Probably justified in that it may use parts of all the transmissions it ever heard to synthesise it's own messages.
    • That's true. To quote the Naggarok:

For millions of years, we have been trapped in this ship, listening to the electromagnetic chatter of your tiny self/worlds. We know you better than you know yourselves.

    • Ever heard the Naggarok's death scream? Voice of the Legion plus Big No, drawn out for 25 seconds. Creepy as hell...
      • ... Which devolves into Narm when you notice the scream is going on long after the Naggarok has exploded.
  • In Super Robot Taisen: Original Generations: During her tenure being forced into the ODE plug, Lamia Loveless will gain this voice, the other voice is either Wilhelm von Juergen or Duminuss, depending on who's managing the ODE.
  • Arakune from BlazBlue. Considering his background this trope is just icing the cake on how freaky he is. For a less synchronized version, listen to Ragna when he's under the effect of Blood Cain.
    • In one of the Story Mode Bad Endings The Black Beast speaks with the combined voices of Ragna and v-13.
  • The Gravemind from Halo. Considering he speaks in iambic heptameter trochaic septameter, it gets even more creepy.

Gravemind: This one is machine and nerve,
 And has its mind concluded.
This one is but flesh and faith
And is the more deluded.

    • Cortana also gets one in the similarly-named level of Halo 3, when aforementioned Manipulative Bastard Gravemind seems to be attempting to assimilating her It gets to the point where the annoying hologram of Cortana switches to the Gravemind's odd tunnel vision effect.
  • Many characters in Diablo (I and II), including all Prime Evils and Lesser Evils, Archbishop Lazarus, the Nephalem (Barbarian Ancients)... hell, virtually every talking monster.
    • Tyriel, in Diablo II, also. A rare example of an angel getting this ability.
  • Jack of Blades in Fable does this. Ironically, the higher-pitched voice in the original Fable sounds a lot more impressive and evil than the deep voice in The Lost Chapters.
  • Kingdom Hearts:
    • Riku gets to do this in Kingdom Hearts after allowing Ansem to take partial possession of him. Their voices speak in a creepy-yet-awesome as hell unison for the next few scenes, until Riku starts to disagree with some of the decisions they're making and tries to reassert his own will.
    • In Kingdom Hearts 358 Days Over 2—Xion's voice has a reverberating quality when she shifts into her final battle form.
    • And in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep when Ven is possessed by Vanitas. Jesse McCartney's and Haley Joel Osment's voice qualities are similar enough that their voices mesh a little too well.
  • Algol and Nightmare in Soul Calibur IV.
    • In Soul Calibur V, there is an option to add varying levels of this to custom characters. It is referred to in-game as "malfestation".
  • The souls which created the Soul Cube in Doom 3.
  • Countess Ingrid from Battalion Wars literally gets a Voice of the Legion; the undead soldiers (named the Iron Legion) souls fuse into a demon and possess her, giving her Evil Eyes and an echoey voice. It becomes more pronounced when anguished.
  • The mysterious child (later revealed to be the Firstborn) from Clive Barker's Jericho speaks with an echoey, high-pitched, childlike voice, and a deep, booming male voice at the same time.
  • Tear in Tales of the Abyss speaks with the Voice when Lorelei possesses her so it can communicate with the party.
  • Zappa in Guilty Gear does this occasionally; several of his lines, both during fights and in Story Mode conversations with other characters, are delivered in his own voice and S-ko's at the same time.
    • Testament, from the same series, exhibits it all the time. In the first game, he speaks in a clear male/female duality, which sounds extra creepy during some of his more vocal specials. This effect was changed to a subtle trinoidal voice for the remaining games, though the effect was pumped up in Accent Core Plus, presumably to raise his creepy factor.
  • Manah likes to do this in the Drakengard series.
  • Black Doom from Shadow the Hedgehog had this to an extent. Not that it helped him.
  • Taken from Alan Wake fluctuate from their normal voice to a strained voice to a creepy deep, snarly voice.
  • In God of War 2, Lahkesis speaks like this at first, because Atropos is inside her body.
  • The eponymous Darkness from The Darkness video game speaks in a form like this. Sometimes guttural, a dry whisper or demonic screeching, often changing in between words in a sentence. Extra super creepy points go to Mike Patton for voicing the part and not using any post-processing to achieve the effects, just his own voice.
  • In Neverwinter Nights, Aribeth de Tylmarande gets a Voice of the Legion when she goes over to the Dark Side.
  • A lot of the characters in World of Warcraft, particularly those of undead, eldritch, demonic, or deity based origins. Examples include:
    • Aeonus the dragon of the Infinite Dragonflight, who appears to speak with several voices at different time intervals, a result of him being "lost" in time.

"The time has come to shatter this clockwork universe forever(orever(rever(ever)let us no longer be slaves(aves(aves)of the hourglass(ass(ass) but i warn you(ou(ou(ou),those who do not embrace this greater path(ath(ath) shall become victims of its passing(assing(assing(assing)..."

    • Some of the dragons, especially the corrupted black dragon Deathwing.
    • The H.P. Lovecraft inspired old gods C'thun and Yogg-Saron (who can also impersonate other voices, such as the voice of his female mortal form, Sara).
    • The Lich King himself (speaks with the voices of Arthas and Ner'zhul when the minds join together in the beginning, but then reverts to the old-fashioned type by the arrival of the next game).
    • Arthas undead Nerubian servant Anub'arak.
    • The arch lich Kel'Thuzad.
    • Ashbringer (which happens to be a weapon corrupted along with its wielder by the Lich King's influence). In addition, while it speaks the voice of the Lich King can be heard, but is more difficult to discern what is being said. However, in the final clip both voices are united in saying "Kill... them... all!" Creepy.
    • Most demons, and a lot of the eredar.
    • All the elementals, servants of the Old Gods, with special mention to Ragnaros the lord of the fire elementals. Including the new Neutral Fire Lord hero.
    • The construct of Chaos, Setesh and Earthrager Ptah.
    • And many, many more(more)(ore)(ore)...
  • The demons in Dragon Age have a distinct deep growling echo below their normal voices, it's very effective for raising the player's wariness when dealing with them since some have normal seductive voices or are Affably Evil. The spirits also have an effect similar to the ones from the hanar mentioned above.
    • The darkspawn speak unintelligibly and laugh evilly in very low-pitched, echoing, death-metal-growl voices.
    • Listen to any character possessed by a demon. If you listen closely, you can just make out another, appropriately demonic, voice under their own.
  • In Mortal Kombat 2011 the otherworldly ninja Ermac is composed of the souls of thousands of slain warriors, and speaks with a strongly echoed/reverbed voice to reflect this. Going a step further, Ermac refers to himself with the first-person plural: "We are Ermac. We are many. You are but one."
  • In Portal 2, Wheatley says, "Welcome," and then, in a much deeper tone (with an echo): "TO MY LAIR!"
    • In the credits, GLaDOS's song "Want You Gone" has this effect at some points, hinting that she might not have deleted Caroline after all.
  • Gaol in Kid Icarus: Uprising has this.
  • In an English translation patch of Fire Emblem 4, killing the final boss Julius, who is the reincarnation of the dark dragon Lopoutosu with Julia and her Narga tome causes him to utter his final dying words in all caps, except the first letter of each word is in lowercase, kIND oF lIKE tHIS. Intentional or otherwise, it really made his death that much more awesome.
  • The Draug in The Witcher 2 uses this to great effectiveness.


Web Animation

  • When The Meta from Red vs. Blue talks (as opposed to snarling), you can make out a number of distinct voices speaking in unison, as befitting a composite consciousness.


Web Comics

  • From Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire, there's He-Who-Must-Be-Watered, who speaks from many mouths and with many voices. (Humorously undercut by one mouth that speaks out of turn, paraphrasing whatever the other mouths just said in a more colloquial style.) He is, apparently, the personal servant of Lord Thezmothete, who is considered a Class 1 Power. (Humanity, by way of reference, is a Class 12 power.)
  • In Looking for Group, Richard's undead warlock voice comes across as red and black Speech Bubbles.
  • A Miracle of Science does this to the extreme by having the box filled with echoing voices when a martian is channeling the Hive Mind.
  • In The Order of the Stick, Xykon's creepy speech is represented with black Speech Bubbles. In his case, we actually have in-comic (well, in-prequel-book) confirmation that he speaks with the Voice of the Legion:

Xykon: Hey, what's up with my voice?
Redcloak: Well, you're undead now, you don't have a trachea or a larynx, much less lungs to expel air through them. So your voice is magically created by the negative energy that powers you now.
Xykon: Sweet! I like the little bit of reverb on it. Really gives it that "evil mastermind" vibe.

    • The demonic-based characters like Qarr the imp get this effect too, along with V after he/she makes a Deal with the Devil.
  • In Girl Genius, Castle Heterodyne gets double bordered Speech Bubbles, rectangular with rounded corners.
  • The Sidera in Earthsong get big Speech Bubbles with multicoloured, multifonted speech all saying the same words, which tend to be few. They are the collective consciousness of the stars.
  • Possibly the case in Gunnerkrigg Court: in chapter 7, Robot's regular speech-bubble effect (pointed and white) is covered up by a round, purple speech bubble. This is Annie's first clue that he is Not Himself.
  • Eight Bit Theater: When Black Mage is at his most evil his voice gets a "screaming demon background noise reverb" and is shown with a different bubble.
    • Presumably applies to Sarda as well.
  • The Xul'kgmarhin aliens from The FAN have no word bubbles, and their lines switch between red and green to create the impression that they use two distinct voices that speak in tandem.


Web Original

  • Winnie-the-freaking-Pooh gets one in Dirty the Pooh and the Hundred-Acre Shitpile, Chapter Three: "I want souls... Thousands and thousands of doomed souls..."
  • This effect is pretty much the whole point of a minor YouTube fad called "Extra Scary", where the video is placed in a weird colour scheme and the voice track has several pitches playing in equal widths apart in a voice-of-the-legion-esque style.
  • In the Dragonball Z Abridged version of Lord Slug, Goku develops a Legion-esque voice when he goes pseudo-Super Saiyan.
  • The voice given to Super Smash Bros.' Tabuu in The Dubspace Emissary.
  • The Administrator from Echo Chamber speaks for the whole wiki—he uses a Royal We whenever he speaks except for The Stinger in episode 10 and has punished a troper for "refer[ing] to himself in the first person."
  • In the Metro City Chronicles, Squid Kid will occasionally adopt a voice that's described as "three-part Harmony-of-the-Damned."
  • Representatives of the Anonymous movement are typically rendered this way, such as in this video, which is about the danger of NDAA.


Western Animation

  • In The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, whenever Junior takes the form of another person, he speaks with his original voice overlaid with theirs.
  • In Avatar: The Last Airbender, when Aang enters the Avatar State, he speaks with the voices of all the Avatars. All 1000+ of them. When he's mad, the effect is quite terrifying.
  • Desiree from Danny Phantom. Quite spooky.
    • All ghost have a reverb effect to their voice, (including Danny in ghost mode) however with most it's much more subtle.
  • Him, from The Powerpuff Girls, is an example of this trope with a falsetto.
    • And it is damned creepy.
    • a set of examples, though really only the first line is necessary.
  • In Codename: Kids Next Door, the Delightful Children From Down the Lane literally are a voice of a legion. I mean, five kids acting like just one kid?
  • When Luthor and Braniac merge into one being in Justice League, so do their voices. Sometimes one or the other is slightly dominant, based on the subject of conversation: Luthor tends to do the egotistical boasting, while Brainiac is only interested in the task at hand.
  • In Jackie Chan Adventures, Shendu, his son Drago and the other Demon Sorcerers all have eerie effects added to their voices, indicating their ancient, mystical evil.
  • Venom of Spider-Man fame. The 90s and Unlimited version is your standard voice-with-effect-added, which doesn't suck, but the Spectacular version really sounds like two entities talking at once, with the voices not in synch or always at the same speed. (Namely, Eddie's voice, and the voice the symbiote used when speaking to Spidey in the Journey to the Center of the Mind episode.) It is awesome. For some reason, Spidey wearing the black suit never has the voice.
    • One possibility is that Peter is still fighting the violent instincts it gives him, while Eddie has fully embraced it—Spider-Carnage of the 90s cartoon finale had the Ax Crazy nature of Carnage and the voice to go with it.
  • This trope is masterfully used in the Gargoyles episode "Grief", where two characters, a villain and a hero, fuse with Anubis one after the other. Both fusions use Anubis' and the other characters' voice on top of each other, but in the case of the villain-Anubis, they are out of sync, creating a very disturbingly chaotic and insane impression while when the hero does the fusion, his and Anubis' voices are one, in harmony. This is backed up by the Aesop of the episode: The heroic character learns after assuming the death god's power to accept the passing away of his son, thus reaching harmony with death itself, while the villain just wanted the power to kill everyone.
  • In Code Lyoko, people possessed by XANA's specters and Polymorphic Clones talk like this, at least once they're unmasked (along with serious reduction of vocabulary). Also happens to the mind-controlled heroes on Lyoko, most notably William who spends the whole Season 4 like this.
  • In the Family Guy episode "Petergeist," when Stewie is sucked through the television in a parody of "Poltergeist", he speaks to the family in a wavy, disjointed semi-multi-voice from the other side. He takes this opportunity to sing the beginning of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.
    • Partial example: In a Cutaway Gag, Brian dresses in a barbershop quartet outfit and sings 'Moonlight Bay' for the Griffin family, singing in full four-part harmony with himself.
  • Used by two different characters in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: the first was The Ultimate Drako—the Biological Mashup of villains The Ultimate Ninja and Drako—who used in whenever it said something both characters felt. The second was the Ring of Ying-possessed April O'Neil in the episode "The Engagement Ring".
  • Devastator (and the other G1 combiners, at least on the Decepticon side) has/have a very effective version of this, to represent a gestalt entity speaking. Some non-gestalt examples would be the giant Omega Supreme, both G1 and Animated, and Astrotrain. The Insecticons have one, but Shrapnel really is repeating the end of his sentences, sentences. Primus gets this too, and Unicron in Transformers: The Movie. Of course, what did you expect from Physical God Transforming Mecha with planets as their altmodes? It's really something else with Unicron, because in addition he's such a Large Ham he should have a curly tail.
  • Phobos talks like this in the first season finale of WITCH after getting a power-up by stealing some of Elyon's magic. Later on, Cornelia briefly has this kind of voice when wielding the powers of all five Guardians, as does anyone who uses the Seal of Nerissa and Cedric, after eating Phobos and absorbing both his powers and those of the Seal.
  • This is Callie's version of shouting in Ugly Americans.
  • Tiamat in the Dungeons and Dragons cartoon.
  • Baron Violent in The Tick (animation) cartoon, when he's wearing his power belt. When Arthur starts using the belt, he starts speaking like this.
  • Buufo in Adventure Time. Justified, because he's actually a group of poliwogs, and it's hard to understand them if they talk out of sync.
    • Also Princess Monster Wife, a Biological Mashup of body parts the Ice King stole from various princess to make his own princess. Because her misshapen head is made from the face parts of Princess Bubblegum, Lumpy Space Princess, and Turtle Princess, she speaks in all of their voices.
  • In the episode "Aftershock" of Teen Titans, Raven speaks like this during her fight with Terra.
    • She also does this when she freaks out on Dr. Light during "Nevermore".
  • Master Cyclonis of Storm Hawks occasionally had just enough of a creepy reverberation in her voice to drive the point home that there's something very wrong with her.
  • Normally Princess Luna of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic just has No Indoor Voice (she's running on extremely outdated etiquette where shouting at your subjects is proper), but when she gets angry she moves into this category.

"BE STILL!"

    • It doesn't help that said outdated etiquette causes her to use the Royal We when referring to herself.
    • Pinkie, when she gets really, really, REALLY, mad.

YOU PINKIE-PROMISED!"

    • Queen Chrysalis also has it, which adds to her already creepy appearance.
  • In Young Justice we have a (mostly) heroic example. Dr. Fate (Nabu) speaks with his very deep voice overlying the voice of his host.
  • In the Ben 10 Generator Rex Heroes United crossover, Alpha-Omega speaks this way.


Real Life

  • Tuvan Throat Singing is an art form practiced by the Tuvan people of southern Siberia. In this style two or more pitches sound simultaneously over a fundamental pitch, producing a mesmerizing, even entrancing sound. They literally sing in more than one voice as they are able to sing harmonies with one person.
  • A live chorus will give this effect while performing, preferably in a music hall or a cathedral with good acoustics.
    • As will a bunch of people reciting something from memory at the same time, or repeating after someone, such as the Pledge of Allegiance
  • Similar to the throat singing, there's a technique when playing wind instruments called dual harmonics. The player plays one pitch on their instrument and sings another. This is most easily done with notes that are harmonically related otherwise the interference can make the sound difficult to control.
  1. ↑ Which means that his Voice of the Legion is direct evidence of his threat: most Ogres don't have their heads work together all that well, but if they can co-operate well enough to speak in unison, and does so all the time...
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