Song Lyrics in FFXIV: Compilation, Discussion, and Interpretation

[Rocl]

So the Dragonsong theme released today has lyrics sung by Susan again! Even though I'm skeptical of whether or not we ever found a true answer to Answers, it's always fun to speculate.

Children of the land, do you hear?
Echoes of truths that once rang clear
Two souls intertwined
One true love they did find
Bringing love and heavens near
But flames that burned full bright soon fell dark
Memories dim by shadowed hearts
In the waxing gloom did wane the lover's moon watching as their worlds drift apart
One soul's cry, a passion welling within
Sacrifice, a final plea to her kin
Yet this bond of hope by treachery was broke
Scattering her words to the wind
Swelling overlong seas of blood, our song
And death an afterthought to those who fight for naught
Alone, lying empty
A babe incomplete
Alone for eternity
A pain without cease
Children of the land answer this
Why must you turn to empty bliss?
Why break trust?
Why turn the past to dust?
Seeking solace in the abyss
Tell me why create a circle none can break
Why must you let go the life you were bestowed?
This I'll fear I'll never know
[Never know]
(OooOooOoooOooOooo)

Very likely errors :P

[Mysteltain]

As soon as possible I'll have the main theme of Heavensward transcribed and on the first post. I, sadly, didn't have any pen or paper on hand when they showed that first trailer (which was both awesome and unexpected!), so it might take just a bit.

[Rocl]

As soon as possible I'll have the main theme of Heavensward transcribed and on the first post. I, sadly, didn't have any pen or paper on hand when they showed that first trailer (which was both awesome and unexpected!), so it might take just a bit.

I had a friend make an mp3, I've since updated my post w/ what I think I heard haha

[Mysteltain]

Thank you so much! I just listened to it and we had pretty much the same thing, so I just copy/pasted yours and made my changes to it. It was just a few words here and there, but I'll listen to the song again, shortly, and make any final changes.

[Rocl]

Awesome, and yeah "pain" does make a lot more sense than "babe" hahaha but was working quickly on it! Now that they've released the video on youtube it's available to spend countless hours refining

[Mysteltain]

I actually don't think it's pain, but I just used it due to the symmetry of the lines at that point. I've listened to the song twice more since, so I'm making very small edits here and there.

I will say, I love how the song progresses, echoing both Answers and a lot of the things talked about in the Dragoon quest--a sort of sadness that one feels when they bear the Eye and communicate with dragons. This song really makes it clear that, at some point, dragons and people were not hateful towards one another, but then something happened and that's how we've ended up where we are.

[StarDrake]

My transcription, from repeated listenings:

Children of the Land, do you hear
Echoes of truths that once rang clear
Two souls entertwined, true love they did find
Bringing land and heavens near

But flames that burned full-bright soon fell dark
Memories dimmed by shadowed hearts
In the waxing gloom, did wane the Lovers' Moon
Watching as their worlds drift apart

One soul's cry, a passion welling within
Sacrifice, a final plea to her kin
Yet this bond of hope
By treachery was broke
Scattering her words to the wind

Swelling overlong(?), seas of blood are (a song)
And death an afterthought to those who fight for (naught)
Alone, lying empty
(Her rain, in a cliff?)
Alone, for eternity
A pain, without cease

Children of the land, answer this:
Why must you turn to empty bliss?
Tell me why break trust?
Why turn the past to dust?
Seeking solace in the abyss

Tell me why create
A circle none can break
Why must you let go
The life you were bestowed
This I fear I'll never know

Never know

---

That middle section is really hard to parse in some places, curse it. I'm confident in most of it except for that one line entirely in parenthesis.

EDIT: Okay, looked at the OP, and actually on listening I agree with a few of the bits I'd questioned and updated accordingly... except for the line after "Alone, lying empty". It begins with "her", but then I can hear nothing BUT "rain", and then the last bit is extremely unclear but doesn't seem to be "incomplete" unless Calloway is slurring like mad.

Though I do also think that first question-mark I have marked is "light", not love.

[LycorisSelunis]

It sounds like land to me. Bringing land and heavens near.... does that even make sense?

[StarDrake]

Now, the real questions begin since one line aside, we've got an easy 95% of the song as it's pretty clear: who's singing here?

In this case I think it's far less ambiguous than Answers ever was: the singer is either Hydaelyn-the-entity Herself, or one of the Seven Celestial Dragons. The first half of the song is, of course, a story. I suspect it's most directly the story of Shiva and her draconic lover, who I'd bet Gil on being Nidhogg at this point, and how they were eventually torn apart by differences in both their cultures (and a certain jealous king, I'd bet), and how Shiva specifically wanted this rift and fighting to stop, and tried to stop it, but in the end her actions were used to create an even bigger wedge. (Though you sure can turn the words around and apply it to a whole bunch of other people, too - "by treachery was broke, scattering her words to the wind", yeah, hi Nanamo.)

The fourth stanza is about the consequences - an age of blood, an age of people fighting for nothing, while those originally involved in the tragedy feel the pain forever. The last two, then, are actually the singer themselves - the person who watched this all unfold and just can't believe it's still going on, that the gyre of suffering the story opened still hasn't closed. Why are mortals so determined to destroy themselves? Why can't they see what was beautiful once and let it be? The singer never will know.

So yeah, I think this is all Hydaelyn (especially with that shot at the end of the video), but it'd make sense coming out of the mouths of one of the other Seven, too - maybe the one who isn't Nidhogg and has just watched this whole thing unfurl for aeons, or one from outside of Eorzea but is still tragically familiar with the whole story, perhaps the one who may have taken roost near Doma (as we know there were dragons near Doma).

[StarDrake]

It sounds like land to me. Bringing land and heavens near.... does that even make sense?

Yes, okay, listening again it's obviously land, and of course if it's Shiva (a landwalker) and a dragon/Nidhogg (a flying lizard) of course it brings lowercase-L land and heavens "near" to each other. Amended. Thanks!