The Sirensong Sea!

[Theodric]

So, what do we know about what was going on down there? It's a pretty creepy location, full of all sorts of undead monstrosities and spirits...many of which appear to be sailors. I even saw the wreck of a rusty Garlean airship partially submerged in the ocean nearby.

Did I miss some major revelation or is it intentionally left vague as to what the story behind the place actually is? I assume it could be some sort of experiment/necromancy gone wrong...

[Dualblade]

So, what do we know about what was going on down there? It's a pretty creepy location, full of all sorts of undead monstrosities and spirits...many of which appear to be sailors. I even saw the wreck of a rusty Garlean airship partially submerged in the ocean nearby.

Did I miss some major revelation or is it intentionally left vague as to what the story behind the place actually is? I assume it could be some sort of experiment/necromancy gone wrong...

I don't think there will ever be an explanation unless they add in a Hard Mode? Its basically like the Ship Graveyard from FFV but since we already have Siren in Pharos they used an expy of it. Also I don't remember seeing a Garlean airship though it wouldn't surprise me if the mist is able to extend that far up.

[Theodric]

Yeah, I figured it was a reference to FFV but tweaked to fit FFXIV. I'd love to know who built it and why, someday.

As for the airship, I actually took a screenshot when I first ran it since it was a neat feature that caught my attention:

[Dualblade]

Well I assume noone built it to be what it is now, though now I am wondering if the area immediatly after the second boss was supposed to be a prison of some sort? It could have been a naval base that got overrun by monsters. The second boss is also called the Governer and given that one of the bosses of Pharos normal was the zombiefied crew and brother of the quest giver, possibly was once a town of some sort. Lorelei meanwhile fills the part of Siren and was for sure the one who drew us in and almost certainly the other ships.

And with that picture there I'm now thinking of the Garlean embassy approaching us having learned we killed Lorelei and wanting us to explore the area again, either because of the possibility some of their own are still alive or to ensure the area is free of Siren beings and thus can be safe to start clearing out and maybe even inhabit again (Garlean occupied or not).

[Enkidoh]

Yeah, the crashed Garlean airship caught my eye too, which is what made the gil drop for me as to what it's really meant to be a (meta) reference of. It's less a reference to FFV's Ship Graveyard (which is already in the game anyway), and more to the Island of Yamatai from 2013's Tomb Raider remake (which SE owns the IP for now).

Think about it: mystical island in the middle of the ocean that seems to draw anything passing through the area to it, whether it's a ship on sea or in the air (hence the Garlean airship), the scattered remnants of 'survivors' now inhabit the island and forming a weird cannibalistic cult there (although in Sirensong's case, they're more undead than simply crazed), and a mystical beacon being the force that draws the ships there in the first place that changes the weather surrounding the island into impenetrable tempests. And of course, a siren/wraith-like figure as the ultimate cause of the whole affair (as in, the final boss). It was too obvious to me to be mere coincidence.

Either way, I wish Sirensong hadn't been simply used as a filler dungeon to draw out the scenario as once Lorelei is defeated we're back on the ship and continue our journey without even a second thought as to what the hell was going on there. So I too am curious as to the lore of that place.

[Anonymoose]

Maybe I should be digging into this deeper...?

I thought maybe someone on the dev. team just had a fondness for the German legend and wanted to put a distant spin on the Eorzean Siren so they didn't do to much re-treading while designing the Ship Graveyard homage. I'd assumed it was just a gnarly voidsent exacerbating the situation where they'd taken root (at an old lighthouse, a natural place for a ship graveyard to accumulate if no one who goes near the place lives), as everything there is either natural sea life, voidsent, or ashkin [possessed/raised] by voidsent.

I'm still 98% convinced Siren is a mis-classified voidsent cousin of the succubus in the first place.

[RobinMalvin]

I'm still wondering about this place too especially since the place doesn't seem to be an ordinary abandoned lighthouse, nor the tower seems anything like one. More like some kind of *God forbids* another relic of Allagan.