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"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, 8-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, almost mathematically calculated to just be able to distinguish one from another. The character's voice will often drop a tritone or a full 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.

If the individual speaking is possessed, this may be an indication that there are Many Spirits Inside of One. (Or it could just be one with a really creepy voice.)

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, as well. 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 overlaps with Voices Are Mental. May contain Vader Breath, may be used when Hearing Voices. Contrast Speak in Unison, where many people speak as one. Compare Evil Sounds Deep, and Evil Sounds Raspy. No relation to Man of a Thousand Voices.


Example subpages:

Other examples:

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    Anime & Manga 
  • Eren Jaeger from Attack on Titan sometimes sounds like this when speaking from inside his titan form in the anime version. Thank God no one else seems to be able to hear him.
  • In Birdy the Mighty Decode, Birdy is a 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.
  • In Bleach, whenever Ichigo or one of the Visoreds don their Hollow mask, their voice gains an echoey filter. Hollow Ichigo has this by default. Word of God explains this as their inner Hollow speaking at the same time.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Claymore: 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.
  • D.Gray-Man has Jasdevi speak in this fashion when the two combine.
  • Digimon Adventure: 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). There are exceptions — in the third season, this trope only applies to the American dub, as the Japanese version has the fused character speak in a third and singular voice.
  • Dragon Ball Super gives us the example of Fusion Zamasu in the Future Trunks Saga after Black and Zamasu fuse with Potara earrings. It's his own voice doubled because Black is just another Zamasu in the body of another Goku.
  • Dragon Ball Z:
    • Any Fusion Dance character (except the Kais, who retain the Supreme Kai fusee's voice) will speak with the voices of both their fusees in tandem, which might be the originator of this variation.
    • In the original Japanese version, Vegeta gains an echo effect to his voice when he becomes a Great Ape. In most English dubs, his voice as a Great Ape is pitch-shifted down considerably to create a similar effect.
    • The Portuguese dub gives Piccolo this kind of voice, which suits him very well considering his status as alien and former status as "Demon King".
    • The Greek dub takes this trope to the extreme: almost every "evil" character, like King Piccolo, Piccolo Jr., Nappa and Vegeta (But not Raditz), Freeza, Cell, Babidi, Buu, the Ginyu Force, all Namekians (even though they're good) have this voice effect applied. Vegeta's voice actor changed a few times, at which point he isn't given the effect (maybe it didn't work well with his new voice), but it comes back as soon as the old actor does. Tien's voice is also given the effect a couple of times, even though he doesn't have it to begin with. In the Dragon Ball GT and movie dubs, the voice effect is completely missing.
    • Averted in Z's Hungarian dub, save for a single sentence (Gotenks naming himself/themselves). They actually attempted it, but the actors found it too hard to do, so the fusions had only one voice. In GT, however, they pulled it off.
  • In Dragon Ball Z Kai, Goku's voice turns slightly demonic for a short while just as he turns Super Saiyan for the first time.
  • In Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, there's the Truth, Envy in One-Winged Angel form, Pride, and Father toward the end of the series.
  • One of the first of a series of horror stories from the manga Gakkou de Atta Kowai Hanashi has the main character, Ootsuka Kaho, and her three friends receive a cursed text message. When two of her friends suddenly disappear, Ootsuka begins to panic, fearing that 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.
  • Lots of examples in Inuyasha; standard anime monster speech.
  • The original Mazinger Z has Baron Ashura, who speaks in a female voice when only their female half is visible, a male voice from the other side, and both at once when both sides of their face are visible.
  • Buggy in the 4Kids dub of One Piece shouts like this whenever he's angry.
  • 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.
  • In Tokyo Ghoul, one of the effects of the Kakuja form is an echoing, distorted voice. The Creepy Child-like Eto speaks like this normally, one of our early clues that there's some very strange about her.
  • In Transformers: Energon, the Alpha Quintesson's fifth, unseen "true face" 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.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh!: Whenever Marik possesses somebody, his voice overlays theirs. This later happens to Marik himself after his Split-Personality Takeover. Normal Marik has a high, nasal quality — Dark Marik's voice is lower, 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 villain is fighting to get out. This is exclusive to the 4Kids dub — in the Japanese original, Marik just takes on an eviler tone.
  • Yu-Gi-Oh! GX: Supreme King Judai/Jaden has this in the English dub.

    Asian Animation 
  • The humanoid version of the Dark Demon seen in Season 7 of Flower Angel speaks with a deep voice that has another deep voice layered on it.

    Audio Plays 

    Comic Books 
  • Buck Godot: Zap Gun for Hire: He-Who-Must-Be-Watered 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.)
  • The Mighty: Alpha One has this by showing a unique red outline in his speech balloons. Any human given his powers has the same effect with a blue outline, which is pointed out as something they have to suppress to keep their new abilities secret.
  • Preacher: Jesse's words are in red when he's using the Word of God... except when the typographer slips up, which happens.
  • The Spectre: The eponymous Spectre typically speaks in dripping green speech balloons.
  • Usagi Yojimbo: Jei-san and anyone who is possessed by him/it.
  • Venom: The titular Horrifying Hero is occasionally mentioned to have this, sometimes illustrated by black speech bubbles with distorted outlines.
    Spider-Man: That weird-double sound when they talk through the suit. Like somebody yelling into a loudspeaker...
  • X-Men: During the 1990s, the villain Exodus's speech bubbles were unique, somewhat like Deadpool's, except they were purple-bordered instead of yellow. The effect they're going for was implied to be that he's always speaking verbally and telepathically simultaneously. Like many interesting '90s character tics, this was quietly dropped/forgotten about, as his post-'90s speech balloons have been of ordinary color and border — perhaps he simply developed greater control over his powers off-panel.

    Fan Works 
  • Samael/The Boy in the Theater from Angel of Massacre speaks in an alternating bold and italic accent. The author has complained about the difficulty involved.
  • In Amazing Fantasy, Izuku's voice is distorted when he tries to speak while using his Intangibility power, making it sound like four of him are speaking at once: one close, one far, one soft, and one loud.
  • A poltergeist girl in Calvin & Hobbes: The Series has this when angered.
  • Child of the Storm:
    • Harry develops the ability to do this, with two voices speaking at once, indicated by italicised writing. It proves to be one of the very things that can get the Weasley Twins to shut up instantly, something noted by Hermione. It unnerves him and everybody else, especially since he can't initially control it, and no one's entirely sure where it comes from.
    • Further confusing matters is the fact that in chapter 58, the Phoenix (which turns out to also be Lily Potter) speaks through him, the text being rendered in bold italics. Ditto in the sequel, with the Dark Phoenix.
    • When Chthon possesses someone and speaks through them, his voice is a) creepy, b) constantly subtly shifting, c) makes reality scream. Needless to say, he's the Big Bad.
    • The Elder Wyrm, Arc Villain of the Of Dungeons and Dragons arc in the sequel, has a voice described as resonating in the bone, rendered in bold.
  • In Code: Pony Evolution, X.A.N.A is implied to have every kind of scary voice at once.
  • A Diplomatic Visit: A heroic example comes from chapter 6 of the first sequel, Diplomat at Large — Pinkie temporarily speaks with two voices when another Power briefly inhabits her body so that the two can deliver a simultaneous message of encouragement to her friends.
  • Friday Night Funkin': Mario's Madness has Ultra M, the opponent of "All-Stars" who, in the song's last moments, has his voice supplemented by the voices of most of the mod's previous opponents. He's The Assimilator who has the soul of every character faced in the mod, and he adds Girlfriend to his chorus as a consequence for Boyfriend backing out of their deal at the start of the mod.
    Ultra M: "SOON ENOUGH, YOUR VOICE WILL BE ADDED TO OUR CHOIR. AND WE SHALL PERFORM A SYMPHONY..."
  • In Gensokyo 20XX, Reimu does this when she talks to Yume Ni in everyone's voices (including her own), after stabbing the latter with a pair of scissors. This is indicated by the use of Zalgo text.
  • In Halo: Combat Deformed, the Master Chief speaks in a deep, satanic rumble whenever he gets very angry.
  • In Inner Demons, when Queen Twilight Sparkle succeeds in transforming into an Alicorn, it's commented on that her voice sounds like two voices speaking at once.
  • Kenny's voice become like this in the first story of The Mysterion Mythos after he finally joins with the Shadow.
  • In Poké Wars, Giratina's voice is described as "dozens of voices speaking in some unholy chorus and echoing from the darkest corners of the world".
  • A Pony Out of Place: In Flames and Twilight, after Flare and Nightmare Moon become Knightmare Nova, he has the voices of Flare and Nightmare Moon speaking at once.
  • In The Power of the Equinox, the voice of Dimmed Star, Twilight Sparkle's Superpowered Evil Side, is described to be as if an older mare, a younger mare and a filly were speaking all at once, with their voices echoing around each other. The author imagines the voice's effect to be like with Amnesia Pinkie Pie in this video.
  • In Time Lords and Terror, the My Little Pony G1 villain known as the Smooze is reimagined as the S'Müz, a being so infused with unreality that its voice is described as "a billion different voices in a billion different tones, a low flanging and echo present in it's [sic] ominous timbre". This is represented via text with bold italicized block capital letters colored red.
  • Time to Plan:
    • Love's voice consists of a stallion and mare speaking simulataneously, and they always refer to themselves as "we" and "our". This is because they are an immortal alicorn fusion of Shining Armor and Princess Cadence.
    • As the entity Magic Incarnate, Princesses Trixie Lulamoon, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer, and Twilight Sparkle speak as one, due to their minds and souls fusing together to form a Hive Mind. As is the case with Love, Magic's alicorn bodies all refer to themselves as "we" and "our".
  • Warriors Kingdoms: The Prophecy Begins features a heroic example. When healers reveal prophecies, they speak in a voice of a thousand ancestors.

    Films — Animation 
  • The Mysterious Stranger in The Adventures of Mark Twain is voiced by a male and female speaking simultaneously.
  • Tetsuo talks like this in the Streamline Pictures dub of the AKIRA film when he mutates into the giant mass after losing control of his powers; in the Pioneer dub, his voice remains normal until he tells Kaneda to get out of his body while he still can and screams in pain.
  • In Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation, the villain Dark Heart speaks this way occasionally.
  • Played with in Chicken Little. The title character and his dad are abducted and put in a black room where a sinister bunch of eyes yells at them 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 the alien kid that Chicken Little was returning to them.
  • The Other Bobinsky towards the end of Coraline. "Not even that... anymore."
  • Himuro talks like this in the English dub of Lupin III: Blood Seal ~Eternal Mermaid~ after he injects himself with Bikuni's blood, causing him to become a giant hulking monster.
  • 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. 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.
  • 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 (though there is a kind of whispery after-affect audible).
  • The Witch-King of Angmar in the Rankin-Bass version of The Return of the King is a manaiacal screech underscored and echoed by a mechanical grind, somewhere between Darth Vader and Judge Doom's Deranged Animation form. Some people think the screechy voice sounds like Skeletor or Starscream.
  • Aisling briefly speaks with this in The Secret of Kells as she's attacked by Crom Cruach.
    "Turn the darkness into... light."
  • Kuruku, a living puppet, has this as his usual speech pattern in Unico in the Island of Magic. Given his backstory, it makes perfect sense — he is, after all, a puppet that came to life after being cast aside. As such, he'd have been voiced by many people at some point prior to being thrown away.

    Films — Live Action 
  • 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 William Shakespeare meant it to be when Hamlet is visited by his father's ghost.
  • Dr. Emilio Lizardo/Lord John Whorfin sounds this way in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension.
  • In the Artemis Fowl film, Holly Short speaks with the voice of the legion when trying to use the mesmer on Juliet Butler to get her to take off her sunglasses. Both her normal voice and a distorted, deep echoing voice can be heard atop it, reverberating, her eyes glowing yellow. It doesn't work, and Artemis appears to say as much and that they have protection. Since Short was trying to get Juliet to take off the sunglasses, Artemis is presumably referring to some sort of auditory protection.
  • Doctor Strange (2016) treats the voice of Dormammu, overlord of the Dark Dimension, this way, by blending several different voice pitches together to create a booming voice fit for a giant, eldritch monster.
  • David Lynch depicts the Voice used by the Bene Gesserit to control minds in Dune (1984) this way. It gets especially creepy when Alia does it, being not yet 7 years old at the time.
  • Elves (2017): Anyone who the elf doll speaks through has their voice distorted to sound this way. Although, it may be less to do with being possessed by the doll, and more the doll playing with its victims' minds so it appears this way to them.
  • 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.
  • Regan from The Exorcist might be the ur-example of this trope.
  • 5ive Girls, appropriately used for people possessed by Legion.
  • Used for the voice of Drazuul in the film The Gamers: Dorkness Rising
  • Blackheart from Ghost Rider (2007) originally only has the reverberating echo effect on his voice. It is not until the end of the film that this effect is enhanced after he's possessed by hundreds of evil souls, first used with the additional emphasis when he says the line "I Am Legion, for we are MAAAAANNNNNNNYYYYY!"
  • Ghostbusters (1984): "There is no Dana, only ZUUL!" Immediately lampshaded: "What a lovely singing voice you must have".
  • The Angel of Death in Hellboy II: The Golden Army. Interestingly, one of its voices sounds a lot like The Faun, both of whom were played by Doug Jones.
  • Hellraiser: Judgement: The angel Jophiel talks in an echoing voice to enhance her eerie, otherworldly nature.
  • 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).
  • In Ilya Muromets, that's how Svyatogor, the giant knight, speaks at the beginning of the movie before turning to stone.
  • When Jennifer is possessed in Killer Party, her voice becomes deep and masculine and gains distortion and reverb.
  • Killer Under the Bed: Chrissy starts talking in this voice when the doll possesses her body.
  • Good ol' Satan from The Last Temptation of Christ speaks in quite a few voices, one of them being this.
  • The Last Witch Hunter: the Witch Queen has a serious case of multiple voices, ranging from an odd echo to four or five speaking at once.
  • Mileena, one of Outworld's warriors, has this in Mortal Kombat (2021). You can hear two distinct vocal tracks each time she talks.
  • My Demon Lover: When Kaz is fully transformed into a demon, is voice is doubled and becomes deeper.
  • Oblivion: During the final confrontation, "Sally's" voice is layered with a very robotic voice.
  • When Newt speaks for the Precursors in Pacific Rim: Uprising, his voice gets a sinister-sounding overlay.
  • 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.
  • Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings:
    • The Fellowship of the Ring: "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.
    • Also Gandalf's voice overlaid with Saruman's in The Two Towers, 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 The 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.
    • Sauron himself gets a few lines of this in The Fellowship of the Ring, either when speaking as the Ring (appropriately, in Black Speech) or when addressing Frodo directly: "YOU CANNOT HIDE. I SEE YOU. THERE IS NO LIFE IN THE VOID. ONLY. DEATH." Charmed to meet you too, sir.
  • Tia Dalma in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End has this voice when she turns into Calypso.
  • Mewtwo in Pokémon Detective Pikachu, in a contrast to earlier depictions, speaks with one male and one female voice layered over one another, presumably to highlight its androgynous nature.
  • Zoe speaks like this when she awakens after being possessed by the spirit in Savaged.
  • In the Stargate movie, Ra's voice definitely sounds like it's coming from the bowels of Hell, contrasting with his innocent Bishōnen face. The TV series uses the effect also.
  • The Thing (1982): According to Word of God, whenever The Thing roars, it's roaring with the voices of all of its many victims.
  • Upgrade: It's unclear whether this is happening In-Universe or only for the audience's benefit, but once STEM takes over Grey's body completely, he talks with both voices simultaneously.
  • The Wizard of Oz: I AM OZ, THE GREAT AND POWERFUL! WHO ARE YOU?!
  • X-Men: Apocalypse: En Sabah Nur sometimes sounds like he speaks with multiple voices, and Bryan Singer has explained that this is the result of the character absorbing many "souls" throughout his lifetime.

    Literature 
  • In The Bartimaeus Trilogy (specifically the first book, The Amulet of Samarkand), the demon Ramuthra's voice sounds as if spoken by a large group.
  • The Belgariad: In Polgara the Sorceress, an adolescent Polgara shows off at one point by singing with three voices (and three different vocal ranges) at once.
  • 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 Cell. The Raggedy Man himself is the psuedopod of a massive Hive Mind and can only speak through other characters.
  • A somewhat inverted example occurs in The Children of Man, in which the Oracle of Nikela speaks like this when delivering her prophecies, despite the fact that in that state she is the direct mouthpiece of Lior (this world's equivalent of the Christian God).
  • Discworld:
    • An apparent literary example would be DEATH, whose voice is often described as going to the brain while skipping the ears. 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. You just suddenly remember that something was said moments ago, the words appearing 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 Death's, goes directly into the mind without entering the ears:
      It was all hisses, and it slid into the mind like a knife.
    • 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 a variant from Maskerade, Agnes demonstrates her ability to sing multiple notes simultaneously.
  • The lazar of The Death Gate Cycle speak with two voices, slightly out of sync — the body's voice speaks first, and then the soul's follows more quietly about a word behind. Living people who interact with them generally find the effect incredibly frustrating and unsettling.
  • The Goddess Verra in the Dragaera series. Vlad compares it to two identical voices speaking slightly out of sync.
  • The Faerie Queene: A thousand tongues speak a thousand voices whenever the Blatant Beast opens its foul mouth.
  • In Fancy Apartments, when Carr pushes his bond with Fancy to the max, his voice takes on a reverb. He doesn't know what to make of it; but tries his best to ignore it, having more important problems to deal with.
  • In Gorgo the Ogre one of the Black Ogres speaks to this effect as he has two heads talking at the same time.
  • Raezazel the Cunning from the Grey Knights novel Hammer of Daemons is said to speak with a hundred voices at least.
  • In Isaac Asimov's Utopia, the twin Master Computers Dum and Dee speak like this — Dum has a deliberately crude Robo Speak voice synthesizer, Dee a more human-like voice. When they operate in tandem they speak in unison but their words don't quite sync up, the result being wwrriitteenn lliikkee tthhiiss.
  • The Silicoids in 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 a choir is speaking. This is a non-evil example, though.
  • In Mithgar, 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.
  • 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.
  • The Quantum Thief: Done in a Creepy Awesome scene in Fractal Prince when Matjek Chen Prime assumes his true form:
    The Vir dissolves around them. Matjek assumes his Prime aspect, the voice of a billion gogols, the Metaself, the keeper of the Plan, the Father of Dragons.
  • In a non-demonic example, the two-headed Puppeteers in Ringworld are the only species physically able to speak their native language, because all other races in Known Space only have one throat.
  • In Second Apocalypse, Kellhus can do vocal tricks when playing himself up as a prophet. When one of his "imprompta" sermons kicks into high gear, an audience member notes how his voice splits, and he seems to be speaking as a chorus of voices.
  • In The Zombie Knight, a reaper servant's hyper state causes the reaper's and servant's souls to temporarily fuse, causing them to speak an a one-physical-one-mental double voice.

    Music 
  • Behemoth: The 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.
  • Clamavi de Profundis: The demon in "Boic Bravesoul" speaks with a strong reverb effect, making it seem as though multiple voices are all droning at the same time when it speaks.
  • Coldplay: This is used in "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.
  • Eminem incorporates reverb of this sort into his songs from time to time. It usually presents Eminem's alter ego, Slim Shady. Examples include "Bad Guy" and "Deja Vu".
  • Nile:
    • The chant at the end of the song "4th Arra of Dagon" features no fewer than fifty overlapping voices, according to the producer.
    • "Ketti Sotha Shemsu", from "Black Seeds of Vengeance", has a small chorus of vocalists credited to it. They even have a bit of Soprano and Gravel thrown in, to disturbing effect, c/o guest vocalist Scott Wilson.
  • Oingo Boingo: In "New Generation", Danny Elfman briefly sings a duet normally and with a deeper, distorted version of his own voice.
  • P.D.Q. Bach: In "The Seasonings", the soothsayer's voice is represented by a soprano and alto singing in harmony, for no clear reason.
  • The Protomen depicts a post-Face–Heel Turn Proto Man has having a mechanical reverb to his voice.
  • Tengger Cavalry uses the throat singing and combine it with folk metal.

    Mythology & Religion 
  • Older Than Feudalism: The Bible:
    • Daniel sees a vision of a man who spoke with "the noise of a multitude" (Daniel 10:6).
  • Legion, a man apparently possessed by several demons, is the Trope Namer. When asked his name, he answers "I am legion, for we are many."
  • In The Aeneid, when the Cumaean Sibyl is prophesying, she speaks with "a hundred voices from a hundred mouths."

    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.

    Podcasts 
  • In Gospels of the Flood the narrator's voice switches to this when he reads the text written on the wall of Bartholomew's church.

    Professional Wrestling 
  • While it's hard to call Winter a good person(Family Wrestling Entertainment's attempt to push her as a babyface failed), she did use this power for a benevolent purpose in TNA, scaring Sarita and Rosita away from Angelina Love. Winter herself didn't have good intentions for Love either, as it turned out, but the legion voice was used for good all the same.
  • Vampiro's unseen master in Lucha Underground speaks in this manner. And we know it is in this manner because Vampiro uses "master" in the singular.

    Puppet Shows 

    Radio 
  • The BBC radio adaptation of Pet Sematary has the undead speak (or in the case of Church, meow) like this, all except for Gage.

    Tabletop Games 
  • Fugaris' Helm, an abominable relic of the Death Guard in the 8th Edition of Warhammer 40,000, attracts a massive swarm of daemon flies to the wearer. These flies swirl around the wearer of the helm, repeating his words as the voice of the swarm. In-game, this helm increases the range of the wearers aura abilities to represent this loud, multitudinous voice carrying over the din of battle.

    Theatre 
  • 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.
  • The voice of the Giant (who is usually the same person who plays the role of Cinderella's Mother) sometimes uses this effect in the Sondheim/Lapine musical Into the Woods.
    • Averted in the 2002 revival when they asked the already mighty-voiced Dame Judi Dench to voice the Giant.
  • Satan in the musical The Book of Mormon uses this effect in "Spooky Mormon Hell Dream." Because, well, he's Satan.
  • In Pokémon Live!, MechaMew2 speaks with heavy reverb and a male/female voice similar to the Mewtwo/Nurse Joy example above, though at that point it had turned good.
  • Used in the Hamilton songs "The Adams Administration" and "The Reynolds Pamphlet" to represent the public in the face of Hamilton's audacity, voiced by the Lin-Man himself.
  • In the Ruslan and Ludmila opera, the Head (of a decapitated giant) is voiced by a chorus of basses.

    Toys 

    Visual Novels 
  • Because it's a combination of multiple spirits, Tsukuyomi's voice in Spirit Hunter: NG has multiple reverbs to match the multiple people that are speaking as one.

    Web Animation 
  • Dreamscape: When Melinda fuses with the Posessor Ghost to become Ghost Melinda, she gains a voice like this.
    Dylan: [after Melinda explains how she turned into Ghost Melinda] Well, that's about as twisted as your new voice!
  • Helluva Boss:
    • In "Truth Seekers", Stolas does this when speaking through a possessed human:
      "What's the matter, demon hunter? Never seen a real demon before?"
    • Millie roars at Chaz with earth-scorching fury upon learning that he once abandoned Moxxie in the middle of a bank heist, which landed Moxxie in prison.
    • Played with concerning Asmodeus. He has three heads, and they all speak in unison, but only have one voice between them. However, whenever he or the other Deadly Sins seen so far enter their "full demon form", the trope is played straight.
  • The final episode of Power Star gives a sickly, echoing voice to Mario, as an indicator that the demons within him are doing the talking and not Mario himself.
  • Red vs. Blue:
    • When the Meta talks (as opposed to snarling), you can make out a number of distinct voices speaking in unison, as befitting a composite consciousness.
    • The A.I. Sigma has a deep echo to everything he says, which sharply contrasts his actual voice.
    • In Season 12, while we don't actually hear what Control sounds like, the way their transmissions are distorted creates this effect.
  • Hazel from RWBY talks like this as opposed to his regular low tone after stabbing himself with several Yellow Dust Crystals.

    Webcomics 
  • 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.
  • 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 Legionnote :
      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.
  • 8-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.
  • In Paranatural, Max (or whatever is possessing him) speaks with two tails on his speech bubbles when conversing with Doorman in Chapter 3. Doorman is visibly disturbed by this, claiming in Cursed Words that his master does not fear 'broken gods'. This implies that whatever's possessing Max, it's far from good news.
  • In Stand Still, Stay Silent, Sleipnope speaks in this manner. The reason is that it is an amalgamation of souls (human or otherwise). Whenever it talks, its separate souls often break into tangents of their own, usually something along the lines of "Help", "I'm tired" or "I want to go home".
  • Debugging Destiny demonstrates this whenever Ignacia has all the people she's dominated using her Hypnotic Eyes speak together. It's depicted as a bunch of overlapping text boxes, all saying the same thing.
  • DICE: The Cube That Changes Everything: The Final Die talks with overlapping questions at once.

    Web Original 
  • Winnie the Pooh, of all people, 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 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. Also commonly done in YouTube Poop for the same effect.
  • From AJCO: Kaja normally speaks in an unremarkable but pleasant female voice, until she drops the 'humanoid angel' act and enters her true form - at which point her voice warps into many speaking at once and is generally pretty terrifying.
  • In the Dragon Ball 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.
  • Skitter from Worm learns to do something like this using massed swarms of all different kinds of bugs. She can do this either alongside her own voice or with just the swarm itself.
    • Glaistig Uaine's speech sounds like dozens of people talking at once.
  • Sailor Moon Abridged gives one to Prince Darien.
  • In Vaguely Recalling JoJo, Chaka and Khan get this when possessed by Anubis.
  • Zig-zagged in Bee and Puppycat. The monster in episode two has two mouths, but only one is speaking; the other is whispering vague creepiness.
  • This tends to crop up in a few official Vinesauce highlight videos, usually for humorous effect.
    Joel: "YOU DARE NOT CELEBRATE SAN-TA?"
  • Caddicarus uses a deep distortion of his voice frequently as part of his Sensory Abuse.
  • Jacksepticeye, in his Undertale playthrough, uses a pitch-shifted and duplicated voice when reading the dialogue of Omega Flowey.
  • In the Crystal Kingdom arc of The Adventure Zone: Balance, each verse of "Crystal Kingdom" replicates this effect, adding more and more voices to it's midst. Eventually, it's revealed that the voice is that of the aptly-named Legion, a group of malcontent spirits imprisoned in the Astral Plane for trying to leave the afterlife. John/The Hunger eventually also talks like this.
  • The Hidden Almanac:
    • The many-mouthed plague god that a cult almost sacrifices the interns to does this.
    • Mord, after surviving being eaten by the aforementioned plague god, starts doing it too any time he's really angry.
  • Slimecicle Cinematic Universe: Jschlatt briefly has one during Minecraft, but every 5 minutes there's a natural disaster. It's actually genuinely unnerving, not helped by the background music... and then Slime gets dropped from orbit while a kazoo rendition of "Free Fallin'" plays. Still kind of creepy at the start, though..
    Jschlatt: Slime. Come to the water.

    Real Life 
  • Throat singing is an art form practiced by many different peoples, though it's most commonly associated with the Inuit, the Tibetans, the Mongols, and the Tuvan people of southern Siberia. In the case of the latter two cultures, two or more pitches sound simultaneously over a fundamental pitch, producing a mesmerizing, even entrancing sound. They sing in more than one voice, as they are able to sing harmonies with one person.
    • This video breaks down the five main styles of Tuvan throat singing.
  • 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.
  • And we've all spoken into a fan at least once.
  • More than a few Anonymous videos use this, sometimes combined with a Speak in Unison effect.
  • Songbirds vocalize using a syrinx, a double-corded version of a larynx that can produce a different pitch of sound on each side.
  • This can happen via Electronic Speech Impediment, such as having a recorded voice playing on a warped or scratchy tape.
  • The software Audacity allows you to invoke this on your own, you can add echoes, altering pitches and reverbs. And if you did it right...
  • In a reverse of inhaling helium, inhaling a gas that is substantially denser than air, such as sulphur hexaflouride, can make your voice sound like this.
  • What do you get when you have a bunch of local news stations owned by the same company, which then requires them to issue the same scripted message about the dangers of fake news? Probably something a lot creepier than Sinclair Broadcast Group intended.


 
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Alternative Title(s): Reverb Of Doom

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Ahrimen's Whispers

Though Elika succeeded in resealing Ahrimen, it came at the cost of her own life. Unwilling to accept this, "the prince" begins to undo the seal, encouraged by Ahrimen, who speaks of the apparent injustice of his imprisonment and the futility of Elika's sacrifice. That with the last of Ormazd's followers gone it is only a matter of time before the spell wanes again.

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