Song Lyrics in FFXIV: Compilation, Discussion, and Interpretation

[MinaM]

I was trying to hear the lyrics last night and interpret them and found this thread. from what i can tell, anabasis means "to ascend" (like a staircase literally, but also in knowledge or spirit philosophically) and to "march forward" but also it's the term for when the initial symptoms of a disease worsen into later symptoms. So like, when you have the plague and your cough becomes boils, that's anabasis. -eion is roughly "place of" and often used in the context of places or objects of gathering, ceremony or manufacturing. It can also mean "instrument by which it is accomplished" so you get twoish meanings if you're really loose with it: "place where worsening sickness is manufactured" or "instrument to reach ascension" and mixtures of those two interpretations. eios is the adjective form of eion, so this may be a grammatical error (or it sounded cooler)

there's also the literary/military reference. anabasis is a march inwards from the outskirts to the center, which is the player's course through the facility.

Edit:
Just went through with izotope RX (I work in audio repair for tv postproduction and audio forensics, funnily enough) and the lyrics posted before look about right, but I'm pretty sure that it's "choking" and not "sucking" There IS an S for screaming, it's right here:

[Zero-ELEC]

This is my interpretation of the lyrics. There's still some parts that are kinda ??? but I think they're mostly here, thankfully the vocals much less obfuscated than other songs

Soul laid bare
Foul and fair

Every secret, every odyssey
Answers unfold
One with the truth
Defined

By my guiding hand
Perfected they stand
I won't be denied, you were mine
You were blind, a fool to the end
Cast down forevermore

I create
Manipulate your kind in my image
My chosen ones
For you, the time has come
The sun is setting

Say goodnight
With each bite does your sanity die
Sucking the life out, letting the dark
Inside
Say a prayer as the light leaves your eyes
Or scream all you like, your gods can't hear you

Say goodnight
To weakness that you hide behind
Leaving the lies, leaving the fear
Inside
Never once were you truly alive
So scream all you want, no one can hear you

(PANDÆMONIUM)

Pride, Greed
In mud thrive these seeds
Wanton and reeking
The fruits of your making
Testify
Come take a bite

(PANDÆMONIUM)

Pride, Greed
Sins we have borne
Twisted and broken
And words left unspoken
Journey's end
As I ascend!

(PANDÆMONIUM)

Here I rise
Clear, my cries

Every moment, every sacrifice
In Anabaseios
I am the truth
Defined

By my guiding hand
Perfected they stand
I won't be denied, you were mine
You were blind, a fool to the end
Cast down forevermore

I create
Manipulate your kind in my image
My chosen ones
For you, the time has come
The sun is setting

Say goodnight
With each bite does your sanity die
Sucking the life out, letting the dark
Inside
Say a prayer as the light leaves your eyes
Or scream all you like, your gods can't hear you

Say goodnight
To weakness that you hide behind
Leaving the lies, leaving the fear
Inside
Never once were you truly alive
So scream all you want, no one can hear you

Dark horizons, boiling seas
From the borders chaos bleeds

Savage nobles, cultured thieves
Here be lions, follow me

(PANDÆMONIUM)

Pride, Greed
In mud thrive these seeds
Wanton and reeking
The fruits of your making
Testify
Come take a bite

(PANDÆMONIUM)

Pride, Greed
Sins we have borne
Twisted and broken
And words left unspoken
Journey's end
As I ascend!

(PANDÆMONIUM)

[MinaM]

choking:
https://clyp.it/omjfs0t0?token=eee54...c68ef68c2714f1

there is no evidence of an S in the full song spectrogram in this area, but there is the bottom of a Ch (lower in frequency than an S) because of the band pass on the vocals. you can also hear pretty clearly now that the first vowel in that word is a long o

edit:
i was able to get a clearer spectrogram out of the part of the song with no drums and bassline, because the drones don't cross center. this is actually an F i think, and a d after that! It's "feeding the fear"
https://clyp.it/0r225xe4?token=bf3c9...52479f49988ae3

and i see 3 discrete syllables for the part before that. it's hard to hear, but it's probably "believing the lies" the "be" is just weirdly early because of the syncopation of the singing, so it's "be-lieving". so the full line is probably "believing the lies, feeding the fear inside"

another thing that's up in the air is during the final time that it says "scream all you like, your gods can't hear you" it seems that the bottom of the s in gods and the lower half of the t are missing, so this line might be "scream all you like, your god can hear you" (referring to herself) only during that portion of the song, or that's just the band pass cutting the sibilant consonants out. i hesitate to do any more filtering than this. It's possible AI could remove more of the instrumental, but because of how it works it may synthesize "false" syllables. i really try to avoid using AI in forensic tasks for this reason. Even using it on white noise will generate "ghosts" of syllables.

Going thru the whole song now, pretty sure that line is "their hopes left unspoken" but it could also be words, hard to tell even with the filtering.

it could also be "roots of your making" which doesn't make sense in the context of the rest of the song at all, and it also conflicts with the official lyrics of hic svnt leones, but there is also no evidence of an F at all. It's probably fruits though, the F probably got gated out during the vocal assembly portion of the mixing process.

it's probably also "claim my prize" and not "clear, my cries"

So far, i've stepped through and here's what I hear and see on the spectrogram. I'll put positively identified syllables in the spectrogram but unidentified words in brackets.

Soul laid bare
Foul and fair

Every secret, every odyssey
Answers unfold
One with the truth
Defined

By my guiding hand
Perfected they stand
I won't be denied, you were mine
You were blind, a fool 'til the end
Cast down forevermore

I create
Manipulate your kind in my image
My chosen ones
For you, the time has come
The sun is setting

Say goodnight
With each bite does your sanity die
Choking the life out, letting the dark
Inside
Say a prayer as the light leaves your eyes
Or scream all you like, your gods can't hear you

Say goodnight
To weakness that you hide behind
Believing the lies, feeding the fear
Inside
Never once were you truly alive
So scream all you like, no one can hear you

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

Pride, Greed
In mud thrive these seeds
Rotten and reeking
The roots of your making
Testify
Come take a bite

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

Pride, Greed
[S] [F] [T] (wood or war) (? maybe referring to gnarled branches? it could genuinely be "softening our wood" which while it makes perfect sense in the context of the song would be...pretty funny)
Twisted and broken
Their hopes left unspoken
Journeys end
As I ascend!

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

Here I rise
Claim my prize

Every moment, every sacrifice
In Anabaseios
I am the truth
Defined

By my guiding hand
Perfected they stand
I won't be denied, you were mine
You were blind, a fool to the end
Cast down forevermore

I create
Manipulate your kind in my image
My chosen ones
For you, the time has come
The sun is setting

Say goodnight
With each bite does your sanity die
Choking the life out, letting the dark
Inside
Say a prayer as the light leaves your eyes
Or scream all you like, your gods can't hear you

Say goodnight
To weakness that you hide behind
Believing the lies, feeding the fear
Inside
Never once were you truly alive
So scream all you like, no one can hear you

Dark horizons, boiling seas
From the borders chaos bleeds

Savage nobles, cultured thieves
Here be lions, follow me

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

Pride, Greed
In mud thrive these seeds
Rotten and reeking
The roots of your making
Testify
Come take a bite

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

Pride, Greed
[S] [F] [T] (wood or war)
Twisted and broken
Their hopes left unspoken
Journeys end
As I ascend!

(PAN DAE MO NI UM)

[Enkidoh]

My personal take on it is the second verse doesn't sound like 'odyssey' to me, but actually sounds like 'honesty', which, fits the idea of what

Athena

is singing about ('divine truth' and all that). Of course grammatically the use of 'honesty' in that way is not really correct and it's use there does sound odd when another synonym would have been better, but then FFXIV song lyrics often are not fully grammatically correct English but have to fit the music. And it's just my own interpretation, so take from that what you will.

As for the other line that is unclear, I agree with Marche100 that it definetely sounds like a repeat of the first line of the previous verse, once again reprising the lyric from Hic Svnt Leones - "Pride, greed", and then changes the next part of the line to "thirsting for more", which again, makes sense from the context of the verse.

But until we get confirmation one way or the other, it really could be anything.

[Dikatis]

My personal take on it is the second verse doesn't sound like 'odyssey' to me, but actually sounds like 'honesty'

Regarding this, I think it'd be just as fitting for it to be "odyssey". An odyssey is a series of trials and tribulations that one goes through on a grueling journey. It's named after Odysseus from the titular epic poem, who was favored by

Athena

for his wisdom and cunning. Given that the villain is studying WoL to perfect their ambition to become a god, understanding WoL's struggles and the source of their strength makes perfect sense.

[Mysteltain]

Regarding this, I think it'd be just as fitting for it to be "odyssey". An odyssey is a series of trials and tribulations that one goes through on a grueling journey. It's named after Odysseus from the titular epic poem, who was favored by

Athena

for his wisdom and cunning. Given that the villain is studying WoL to perfect their ambition to become a god, understanding WoL's struggles and the source of their strength makes perfect sense.

After listening to this on and off throughout the week, I'm leaning more towards "Every secret, every awe to see". I had been thinking "honesty", like Enkidoh, but I could never hear the "t". And "odyssey" didn't make much sense to me for a similar reason to what Enkidoh said. Plus, if you're revealing everything within someone's soul, uncovering secrets and things that inspire awe make sense.

[MinaM]

After listening to this on and off throughout the week, I'm leaning more towards "Every secret, every awe to see". I had been thinking "honesty", like Enkidoh, but I could never hear the "t". And "odyssey" didn't make much sense to me for a similar reason to what Enkidoh said. Plus, if you're revealing everything within someone's soul, uncovering secrets and things that inspire awe make sense.

That's definitely possible! Like it's been said before, these songs can often have odd grammar and vocabulary choices. I could definitely see this being the lyric!

[MinaM]

here's the song but with every element that doesn't cross the center removed so that you guys can listen with fresh ears:
https://clyp.it/gfnijh3d?token=1a251...aa20d2563119a5

it looks like the line is [s][s][t] and the next word might be "be" so possibly [something] be our wood, continuing the plant metaphor into "twisted and broken"

[Fryfor]

I think it's 'chosen one' not 'ones'. To me, this song is from the POV of Ultima, speaking to Athena. Similar to Sophia. Either that, or I'm like 90% sure my ears don't work.

[AlphaRain]

I think it's 'chosen one' not 'ones'. To me, this song is from the POV of Ultima, speaking to Athena. Similar to Sophia. Either that, or I'm like 90% sure my ears don't work.

I need to review it again myself.