Final Boss of "The Twinning" Hunting for lore (Spoilers)

[Iscah]

Full understanding of what's going on in the Twinning relates back to G'raha's explanation to Urianger in 'The Unbroken Thread' - I don't have the script on hand, but basically Cid survived the Eighth Calamity, worked out the theory for time/dimensional travel based on information gained from CT/Alexander/Omega, and entrusted that knowledge for future generations to decide to put into use. That ultimately led to the tower being adapted into a time machine to send G'raha back in time to enact their plan, change history and prevent the Calamity.


Also worth noting: the central chamber of the tower resembles Alexander's core as seen in A11 (Cruise Chaser), with the huge crystal hanging above it and the green pool of aether at the base.


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Lyrics (copied from the lyrics compilation thread):


"A Long Fall", the main dungeon theme for the Twinning:

A drifting tender,
Come ride, heroes, ride
Her galleon severed
Away with the tide

The storm head gathers,
Come ride, heroes, ride
Illusions scattered
Away with the tide

Time
Try, dare the dead tread ahead on a road that is borrowed design.
Through the sum of their sons do they seek tomorrow.
Tonight, witness then as the end shall begin what was final.
Their lies, folding back, further back, ever back to primal.

"eScape", the full version of Omega's theme from which the lyrics originate:

A drifting tender,
Come ride, heroes, ride
Her galleon severed
Away with the tide

The storm head gathers,
Come ride, heroes, ride
Illusions scattered
Away with the tide

Why
Do weathered warriors wander their way wither wanting wonders wait.
Hark the heralds, anchors aweigh! Hither happens mine escape.
Freedom forgone, sinking apace. Comets crumble, Phoebus fades.
Under cosmic clamor decayed, hides a path untaken.

Ancient echoes
Come ride, heroes, ride
In deafening silence
Away with the tide

A wave of hazard
Come ride, heroes, ride
A-whorling inward
Away with the tide

Time
Stellar stories starward bestrewn, slipping sidewise; see, they're snakes.
Twixt the leaves you'll find naught amiss--missing aughts and crossing fates.
Freedom surgent shifting ahead, comets dancing in her wake
To the cosmic clarions accord, along the path not taken.

Try, dare the dead tread ahead on a road that is borrowed design.
Through the sum of their sons do they seek tomorrow.
Tonight, witness then as the end shall begin what was final.
Their lies, folding back, further back, ever back to primal.

"Locus", the Alexander boss theme reused for the Twinning's final boss:

Seeking the peace of reason
Sheep in a peaceless season
Reason to keep believing
Waken the beast who's sleeping

Let go this destiny, you're caught in a trance
Ever marking time inside a dream, no sign of advance
You see, the mortal coil we serve is taut like a spring
Step back! Two-step, two-step, two-step one two three

Our world's a fantasy, no more than a test
Ever feeding off the fallacy creating this mess
Deep down inside this bleak machine with all the rest
Break free! Two-phase, two-phase electricity

Time turning up the volume
Time turning on us always
No time enough tomorrow
For turning back to where we began

Twenty-two sectors tested
Fragments in one direction
Celestial noise detected
Delirium unsuspected
Static tuned in to reason
Time in the aether deepens
Transmissions blink uncompleted
Seven two three two three...<send>

Arrested destiny, alone in a trance
No escaping from this waking dream, no hope for advance,
You see, the mortal coil we serve is naught but a spring
Unwind! Too slow, too quick, too much to believe

Your world's a fantasy, you've failed the test
Ever forging all new fallacies creating more mess
Directly through this bleak machine, with all of the rest
DC! Dying, dying, electricity

Falling back right into the system of
Falling back on all that's erased
When fighting back right out of this system
Means falling back right into this space

Yes, falling back right in with the system
Who'll see you falling back to the end
When falling back is better than simply
Falling back into pieces again

Silent steel breathing, breathing
Memory writing, reading
Error! Repeat deleting
Radicals flowing free and

Energy slowly seeping
Suspending all disbelief in
Synergy with our being
Synapses fire in three, then...

Interestingly it's the theme used for the "lesser" bosses and not the final boss of each raid set, or for Alexander Prime which the Tycoon is directly modeled on. We do hear a lot more of it though, and it's the song I'd first associate with the raids in general.

The lyrics for 'Locus' are definitely interesting - though hard to make sense of, and I wonder how much 'intent' there was in writing it versus just throwing together phrases that sounded good, but I feel like there are more 'hooks' that match up with Shadowbringers than there are with Alexander. But there are parallel themes between the two plots anyway.

The lines about being in a trance or dream probably were intended for Dayan trapped in what he described as "Alexander's dream", but could easily apply to G'raha sleeping in the tower.

And multiple references to erasing or turning back time, which is what the Illuminati were trying to do, but G'raha and the Future Ironworks were the ones who actually succeeded in doing so. (Ironically paralleling them to the villains in Alexander, by their actions at least, though their motive is very different. I did have to laugh when I was replaying it and we learned that Quickthinx claims to be "a traveler from the future come to the present to return history to its proper state"...)


'eScape', having come out much closer to Shadowbringers itself, seems likely to have been written with this double use already in mind - and makes far more sense in this context. The verse reused in 'The Long Fall' is most obvious ("their lies folding back to primal"), but the other "long" verses in the full version tie in as well. Time, a path untaken, crossing fates.

"Through the sum of their sons do they seek tomorrow" is prettymuch the theme of the expansion - we will not live forever, but do what we can to entrust the best future to those not yet born.