Eternal Return
Tadayoshi Makino Lyrics


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′Neath a faltered sky, cross loamless plains, and watered blight.
Ah! Where gone those days, once glory shone ao bright?
Fallen 'neath baleful wings dark as night.
Ah! A moment give to me
Hark! Shall none hear this soul′s tale,
Of a land, benight?

Pitiful man whom death has undone,
Leaned upon a broken blade, looks too, skyward.
Prithee above (Almighty One) Be this thy word?
Cried out, begged for truth but no answer's sound be heard.
Yet, now he sees the Dragon's Dogma.
Unbound by time; all-binding, grand design.
Land and skies, and seas yearn,




Finish the cycle of eternal return.
Finish the cycle of eternal return.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics to Tadayoshi Makino's song Eternal Return express a sense of loss and longing for a glorious past that has been overtaken by darkness. The opening line speaks to the desolation of the world, with a faltered sky, loamless plains, and watered blight. The singer mourns the loss of the glory days and wonders where they have gone. The imagery of baleful wings dark as night suggests a sense of foreboding and despair.


The second verse introduces a pitiful man who has been undone by death. He leans upon a broken blade and looks up to the sky, hoping for an answer that never comes. He cries out to the Almighty One, begging for truth, but his pleas go unanswered. Despite his desperation, he finds solace in the eternal cycle of the Dragon's Dogma, which transcends time and space.


The overall theme of the song seems to be the cyclical nature of existence, with the idea that everything that dies will eventually be reborn. The singer longs for a return to a brighter, more glorious past, but ultimately accepts that the cycle must continue, and the world will be reborn again and again.


Line by Line Meaning

′Neath a faltered sky, cross loamless plains, and watered blight.
Under a sky that is failing, across barren plains and diseased land.


Ah! Where gone those days, once glory shone so bright?
Oh! Where have those days gone when glory shone so brightly?


Fallen 'neath baleful wings dark as night.
Fallen under malevolent and dark wings.


Ah! A moment give to me
Oh! Please give me a moment.


Hark! Shall none hear this soul′s tale,
Listen! Will no one hear the story of this soul?


Of a land, benight?
Of a land that is dark and suffering?


Pitiful man whom death has undone,
Pathetic man who has been undone by death,


Leaned upon a broken blade, looks to, skyward.
Leaning on a broken sword, gazing at the sky.


Prithee above (Almighty One) Be this thy word?
I beg of you, oh Almighty One, is this your message?


Cried out, begged for truth but no answer's sound be heard.
Cried out and begged for truth, but no answer is heard.


Yet, now he sees the Dragon's Dogma.
Yet, now he understands the Dragon's philosophy.


Unbound by time; all-binding, grand design.
Free from the limits of time, yet bound by a grand design that encompasses everything.


Land and skies, and seas yearn,
The land, the skies, and the seas all desire,


Finish the cycle of eternal return.
To end the cycle of eternal repetition.


Finish the cycle of eternal return.
To end the cycle of eternal repetition.




Writer(s): Tadayoshi Makino

Contributed by Alexander M. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
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Most interesting comments from YouTube:

@maarten_burger

'Neath a faulted sky; cross loamless plains, and watered blight
Ah! Where gone those days, once Glory shone so bright?
Fallen 'neath baleful wings dark as night.
Ah! A moment give to me
Hark! Shall none hear this soul's tale,
Of a land, benight?


Pitiful man whom death has undone,
Leaned upon a broken blade, looks too, skyward.
Prithee above (Almighty One) Be this thy word?
Cried out, begged for truth but no answer's sound be heard.
Yet, now he sees the dragon's dogma,
Unbound by time; all-binding, grand design.
Land and skies, and seas yearn,
Finish the cycle of eternal return.
Finish the cycle of eternal return.



@knowwhoiamyet

**Spoilers to those who have not beaten the game yet below. Don't read on in this reply if you haven't finished the game and/or don't want spoilers.**









In the regular (Not Dark Arisen) version, in the opening theme song they even say something along the lines of "Why can't they understand we kill ourselves in the end?"

Heck, good thing we didn't know better or else that would have literally spoiled the ending.



@AugustoXRock

​@Kapitan Dupa I guess it's faulty logic by the studio's executives. Look at this way: You're making a game, everyone in the studio think it's gonna be great and a huge hit, so the higher ups set and expected sales figure, such as: 10 million copies sold. At a 60 dollar price, the expected return in investment should be 600 million dollars, right?

In comparsion: say the game's budget is 100 million dollars, hitting that goal above, there should be a profit of 500 million dollars.

Now say the game doesn't make that much success, and only manage to sell 5 million copies. They are still getting all their money's back with 300 million dollars in revenue, a 200 million dollars in profit.

You might say: "Hey, that's great, they got all their money's back, and still made a profit which will be able to viabilize the production of 2 more games of the same production size."


The thing is: The game is still considered a failure by the studio and investors, because, as much money they got, they didn't hit the expected goal they've set before releasing the game. So instead of immediately making a sequel (like it happened with Dark Souls), the studio puts the IP on the shelf and goes on to more profitable options.

TL;DR: In the end nowadays, it's about money and return of investment. Consumer satisfaction and reputation comes second (we're seeing Blizzard and Bethesda fall hard this year).
But we're seeing feintly an opposite trend with some companies like CDPR, doing games the way they were done in the past.
Sorry about he long post, this was all in my head for a long time, and I've had to write it down haha.



@92edoy

SPOILERS BELOW:



I heard this song way before ending the game, but I never paid attention to the vocals.

Now, I beat the game yesterday, and when this song popped out in the credits, I got curious and went and checked the lyrics.

It makes So. Much. Sense. Now.

"Finish the cycle of Eternal Return". The World yearning for the end of a God, so that a new one would Arise and take its place. Ending the Cycle. And starting the new one. The final, core truth of this world. The Dragon's Dogma.

Little analysis and opinions:
The game tells a tale. The tale of a world. You are in this world as the protagonist, but it seems you are not the "central focus" of the game IMO. The focus is the World itself. And you don't completely get it until the end of the game, until God itself reveals it. It may seem a sad and melancholic world, but is that true really? Souls may be suffering, our protagonist condemned to live an impossibly long time as a lonely god, but even that comes to pass. Those suffering souls will be reborn again, maybe into a peaceful life in a new Cycle. Another Arisen will challenge our lonely protagonist as the Seneschal, and take his place. His soul will be reborn again into another life, into another cycle. And, given enough time, that soul will experience EVERYTHING like all the others. Being a feeble ordinary human in one and being The Hero in another. Getting his life unjustly cut short by anything in one instance, and living a long, peaceful life in another. Being a simple mortal for uncountable lives, and becoming God for an uncountable amount of time.

What I am saying is that each and every soul will experience everything possible in this eternal world. NPCs like Madeleine or Carston will be merchants in this instance of the world (the game we play), but in another cycle, they may well become Arisen (and then Gods or Dragons) themselves.

In this context, is such a World "sad"? I don't think so. When I see such a world, the first words that comes to my mind are "Balanced", "Just".

And the fact they tied in this world with in game mechanics (such as NG+) makes it even better to me.



@sirjey4389

Lyrics:

Beneath a faltered sky; cross loamless plains, and watered blight
Ah! Where gone those days, once Glory shone so bright?
Fallen 'neath baleful wings dark as night.
Ah! A moment give to me
Hark! Shall none hear this soul's tale,
Of a land, benight?

Pitiful man whom death has undone,
Leaned upon a broken blade, looks too, skyward.
Prithee above Be this thy word?
Cried out, begged for truth but no answer's sound be heard.
Yet, now he sees the dragon's dogma,
Unbound by time; all-binding, grand design.
Land and skies, and seas yearn,
Finish the cycle of eternal return.
Finish the cycle of eternal return.



All comments from YouTube:

@fang4223

12 years, and we're still here.

in ten days time, we'll break away from the eternal cycle, and finally see what lies beyond the endless chain.

@benjaminmendy-cadol2706

3 days

@fang4223

@@benjaminmendy-cadol2706 two in my neck of the woods.
each day feels longer. -.-

@odeljtnt3793

Amen to that@@fang4223

@zzzduyen5343

1 day left bro

@fang4223

@@zzzduyen5343

Not even at this point.

Man, I love Kenshi but even the masochist's sandbox isn't chill enough a vibe to calm me down.

@ThatRandomBlackGuy

they're masterworks all, you can't go wrong.

@BoydTheMilkmanX

They're* Lern 2 basic engrish pl0x.

@whosaidthat84

Do you have anything to do with RandomBlackGamer?

@user-gk6gf1lq9x

Unless it's Anthem.

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