My attempt at the FULL lyrics for the Garlean (stolen) anthem.

[Rocl]

And Koji has given us official lyrics!

[Wyssahtyn]

Man, wasn't even close.

[Theodric]

The fourth paragraph is particularly interesting. That Garleans mourn their fallen very seriously is mentioned in the lore book as well - so it'd be great if we saw more of it in-game. Zenos showed very little regard for the lives of his people - but we also know that he wasn't particularly concerned with Garlemald to begin with. It's a side of Garlemald I really want to see more of - especially where Regula is concerned. An Echo vision showing how Varis reacted to the news of his best friend's demise would do wonders for the story, I feel.

[Enkidoh]

Hmm, some of the new lyrics have a very sinister edge, all but boasting of airship fleets blasting the land from above! It's clearly meant to rouse their subjects and intimidate their enemies.

[Theodric]

Hmm, some of the new lyrics have a very sinister edge, all but boasting of airship fleets blasting the land from above! It's clearly meant to rouse their subjects and intimidate their enemies.

To be fair, that's pretty standard for national anthems. Or least it's the case with my own country's glorious national anthem - the British.

[Anonymoose]

Hmm, some of the new lyrics have a very sinister edge, all but boasting of airship fleets blasting the land from above!

War and the State (as a concept) are inextricable, nigh universally the source of their founding and fall.
When a cause is seen as righteous and vulnerable, the songs tend to get... Well...

Aaand where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O'er the land of the free and the home of the braaave.

Or the more temporary...

When our land is illumined with Liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strike a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that dares to defile
The flag of her stars and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained who our birthright have gained,
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained!
And the Star-Spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

[Enkidoh]

Oh you're right, nothing gets patriotism running hotter than a patriotic anthem which is a thinly veiled call to arms, especially if said nation is born in war or surrounded by antagonistic neighbours. I guess just coming from a country whose own national anthem is the exception to that rather than the rule (I'm Australian, and our national anthem goes on more about the land's bounty and riches for the taking if you're willing to work for it than anything, making it look rather like an odd amalgam of Gridanian and Ul'dahan ideologies from a FFXIV point of view - and it was written by a Scotsman to boot, go figure. ) I looked at it from a different angle, with a sense of unease and disquiet.

And for that matter, the Ala Mhigan anthem's extended verses also have an uneasy feeling to them, more religious than anything, encouraging Ala Mhigans to remain true to each other and that traitors are heretics in the eyes of Rhalgr. So the Empire's butchering of it to turn it into Imperial propaganda really did not need much change when you think about it.

[VargasVermillion]

(I'm Australian, and our national anthem goes on more about the land's bounty and riches for the taking if you're willing to work for it than anything, making it look rather like an odd amalgam of Gridanian and Ul'dahan ideologies from a FFXIV point of view - and it was written by a Scotsman to boot, go figure. ).

As an Australian myself I understand this would mostly be due to the fact Australia's founding was simply not built on war, at least conventionally speaking. Many countries have a history of warfare which in many cases could of ended in their downfall and in USA's case they had to earn their sovereignty through it.

[Mieck]

There's quite a lot of boasts in there, as Enkidoh said, but one particularly caught my eye.
I've been pondering this ever since SB finished, but wanted to see if we'd find out more before I posted this. My wider premise (that this is the new Garlean anthem) has been shot down somewhat by Koji calling it the territorial anthem; there is an official Garlean anthem out there, but we haven't heard it (yet).
Still, this boast I am interested in is still a cool little observation, I think.

It's the line;

From distant shores of Othard to lakes of Aldenard

Not much to go on? Well, I think it implies a lot.
Possibly, this is the anthem used throughout the subjugated territories? It certainly speaks of a coast-to-coast overview. It's certainly a big boast, but it also hides a painful truth for Garlemald; lakes - plural. They weren't fussed with the rivers, or the mountains (though mountains are mentioned in the preceding stanza, so they couldn't use that again ) They focused on Eorzea's lakes.
Now I doubt, when this was written, they saw themselves just being content with Loch Seld. No, though there are many bodies of water in Aldenard, Silvertear Lake is the only one they cared to really own. Possibly this was written just after the occupation began, and they fully expected to lay claim to all of Eorzea. I mean, at that time, Middy was unknown to them.

Now, it could just be that the lyrics were never corrected in light of the setback at Silvertear, or they were deliberately retained as a sort of "don't you dirty Eorzeans get any silly ideas about complacency, ya'hear?" sort of thing. They are saying they'll be back (and, in fairness, they have tried a bunch of times). I'm pretty confident it is the latter; they see Eorzea as theirs, they just haven't been been allowed to pick up the keys, yet.

Anyway, that's my observations - not massively earth-shattering, I'm sure, but it leads me on to wondering what the flow of information is like in the empire? How aware is the ordinary citizen of just how badly things have been going on the Eorzean front? And the Othard front, too? They speak about owning the "lakes of Aldenard", but do the men and women on the street really know how badly beaten they were at Silvertear? Do they know how spectacularly both van Darnus and van Baelsar failed? Do they know anything about Dalamud? Presume they will have been able to see getting closer. What have they heard about the Warrior of Light?

How does the Garlean propaganda machine spin all this? Suppress or play down as much as they like, but some of those captured in Ala Mhigo and Doma will have had family back in the empire and word will spread. From the quest lines up in the Peaks (I think I'm right in saying) we learn that prisoners fear immediate execution by the Eorzean Alliance, so we have that to work with in terms of the propaganda messages.

I realise this is all rather rambling, but little details usually get me wandering like this. And I also think that lyrics for things like this are going to have been very deliberately chosen. They are used to steer thoughts and emotions, after all.

[VargasVermillion]

I'd say it's pretty obvious the people are kept complacent in some provinces simply through propaganda. We even see this in the army with how soldiers are told that the enemy is known to horribly torment their captors, essentially stopping them from just surrendering to the alliance. My current theory on how provinces are treated is simply the closer to the capitol the higher the QoL.