"White Stone Black" (Hephaistos Savage) with Official Lyrics | Final Fantasy XIV 

That transition with the tears running down the mask into him appearing is still the most sinfully smooth and satisfying boss transition they've ever done, goddamn. Never gets old.

This song would not feel out of place in a Devil May Cry game.

"Roughshod riding, overdrive, tilting windmills wicked, wandering blind" The story of Don Qixote is about a man who does absurd things, most infamously charging windmills on horseback because he's convinced they're monsters, to win the affection of a woman he barely knows. This part of the song is very likely a reference to that, meaning Hephaistos's own boss theme is calling him a delusional simp.

The lyrics are very much about losing one's self, one's perception of reality. Basically as the enrage puts it, pure ego death. The windmills are very much Don Quixote, who fought them thinking they were giants. At this point of the fight, Hephaistos has lost his vessel, and in order to get Athena back, he pushes himself to the brink. A complete loss of identity reflected in the lyric : "To the man behind, prithee pay him no mind." There's no use trying to reason with him, because he's long gone, reflected in another lyric "Roughshod riding, overdrive". He only has one goal, to make the Phoenix, and get Athena back. And you're the windmill that's gonna make the grist that makes that Phoenix.

I've listened to this hundreds of times, and there are two elements that I absolutely love and that I just want to take the time to highlight. First, the twin guitars in the opening, playing slightly different notes in slightly different rhythms on separate stereo channels, fuzzy and heavily distorted. Second, the full on drum attack that comes in at 0:50, manic, frenetic, almost random at times, but still building up to a tumultuous storm of percussion. These elements contribute to a track that becomes a chaotic, violent, energised battle, and by god do I love it so much.

Today I learned that there is a GIANT EYEBALL IN THE BACKGROUND during Hephaistos' "phase 1"/Normal fight.

To me with the title and context I think the song it about the creation of the Heart of Sabik. Auracite is usually a white crystal, but the Heart is unique in that its a black piece of auracite. White stone to black.

for as much as I got to hear this song during prog and 16 reclears it's surreal to finally know what the lyrics are. Hell yeah.

Soken pulls noise out of the screaming void and forges it with a hammer and anvil it until its music

This is my favorite song in endwalker (if not in the whole game)

Peak moment of this expansion (for me), finally seeing the transition in person after so many snake / dog wipes in P8S PF cuz ppl can't be consistent. And hearing the "RECIEVE OF ME DEATH AND BE HONORED" line even after wipes still gives the chills

Best track of the expansion

i don't know what you did but my god this sounds clean

It’s about time it’s one of my favorite endwalker tracks

"Silence warning us to violence / Violence swearing us to silence" is such a strong sentence. Silent violence is everywhere: it's the kind of violence no ones talks about, the one naturalized. Losing everything to a world that cares little about you is silent violence. Suffering abandon is silent violence. Being unable to express the pain inflicted upon oneself is silent violence. It's usually the cause of itself: often because you don't have someone to talk to or rely upon, secrets most suffered alone. Violence, swearing us to silence. That silence denounces violence. Sadly it's often also ignored to a point of no return. To my understanding, this song is about many things but, mainly, about Athena (which makes sense of having the lyrics revealed only after the raid is fully released): Roughshod riding over everyone, she not once cared about the integrity - emotional, physical and mental - of anyone around her towards a goal too abstract to grasp fully, forcing Hephaistos to not only kill her, but to separate part of his soul she had tainted with her ill selfishness. Her death - and the use of the Heart of Sabik - remained a painful secret ever since, forcing him down a path where only Lahabrea - a man of duty and little else - existed. Until the events of Pandaemonium. Rejoining with the part of his soul tainted by Athena's consciousness, Lahabrea became his own villain, sacrificing anything and anybody on the way towards his goal - the rejoining - much like Athena once did with hers. So it comes to this: A delusional abomination dreams of reuniting with it's lover. Made of nothing but the corrupted part of a soul, left behind by it's true self, it's the product of silent violence - Hephaistos' emotional refuse, torn apart so it could not haunt him from his duty. "Roughshod riding, overdrive tilting windmills wicked, wandering blind" Feeling trampled, betrayed, without any choice, "Milling slowly, grinding fine all the rotten grist upon which I dine" one is forced to go against his beliefs, violate their feelings for duty and sacrifice everything - only to receive nothing of it but the need for secrecy, "Black mark payback, marking time with a stone of white do we mark up the night" for a stone so meaningless but of cost so high to take so much, "Shadows shifting, paradigm to the man behind prithee pay no mind" leaving nothing behind but a husk of a man who was once full of dreams and life, but no longer. And with that I come to the conclusion that the Ancient Amaurot had no therapists. No wonder Amaurot is an anagram of "Torauma".

FINALLY!!! I was waiting forever for this one.

Had this tune stuck in my head for a bit. Couldn’t figure out where it was I picked it up from. Thank you! Can’t believe I managed to clear this and farm mount when it was fresh and current content. I think the trauma of pugging my way through this as a sage made me repress it lol

I swear to god, it sometimes feels like Soken and his team are writing music specifically, personally for me, catering to my own idiosyncratic tastes and preferences. It's as if they can just reach in to my brain, perceive the sort of music that will most effectively activate the audio centres, and then create exactly that music. It's miraculous.

I love the atmosphere of this song. It gives off a corruption-vibe. As if something is infected. Well... Lahabrea's obsession with Athena really messed with his brain. Poor guy.

0:35 This guy reminds me of playing Parasite Eve back in the day ( well the footage does, I'm still all the way back in ARR content, gonna be awhile before I get to this guy )

It's wild to think that this is what only *half* of Lahabrea was capable of back in the day... ...And then remembering the Lahabrea fight in old Praetorium that only took five seconds lmao

The context adds so fucking much from this song and it was already great Someone's gonna deep dive the context of these lyrics for sure, and I was already talking with my friend about it for like an hour. So fuckin' badass, dude. Also the end of this song is one big fucking making bread joke and you can't convince me otherwise. My friend told me this madman theory, and I swear it can't be a coincidence.

God DAMN the lyrics are even cooler than I thought!

Best Endwalker track right here

Man, that boss design is so creepy and badass.

Someone took the g virus

Been waiting for this!

Nice to see lyrics for a song I loved from the first beat. I'm gonna have to still look up the underlying rap part though too. Was so undecipherable it seemed before haha I just kinda jammed to it.

I did not know how much content I've been missing by not participating in savage content, this looks insane

The lyrics go by a bit fast, don't they? They skip to the next line before the singer's even done singing them

Shame the lyrics on screen move on a little too fast. I tried singing along and forgot the last word of every line before it was said in the vocals x3

Me, jamming out and noticing the new P8S strat in the back: 😮😮😮

It's a real simple song. But damn do i love it.

I just came here to say the boss design is one of best of the ff series. SE is missing a trick by not selling statues of this.

I see people talking about hephaistos being delusional with the din Quixote allusion, I feel more like he is the imaginary giant when he is nothing but a figment corrupted by Athena’s desires.

this boss design is my absolute favorite it is both resident evil and also warhammer 40k as fuck it legit looks like nightmare fuel and the music track for the fight is epic the fight itself isnt too rough either a tad heavier w mechanics but they dont feel cheap or too much

First time I heard it I thought it was shit. Then I progged with it and it clicked HARD. Top 5 track in the game for me

That fight was so good ngl

And here I thought Landslide was the DMC music but this just SCREAMS Devil May Cry 4

Honestly hephaistos did so well in every aspect that athena kinda felt lame in comparison. This track is amazing Edit: nothing against the Athena fight, I just think p8s did better, phase 1 was pretty good but phase 2 drags the whole thing down I feel.

The most DMC song I've heard in the soundtrack to date heh

Easily the coolest fight in the entire raid series. Shit, I'd call it the coolest savage raid in the game so far.

I never cleared this but this is one of my fav fights in a mmo ever, from the mechs, to the music, to the theming (Especially the theming). That Athena wasn't bad but just kind of felt OK, Especially ph2 music

You're missing the main lyrics at 1:04 (Silence, warning us to violence) Roughshod riding, overdrive Tilting windmills wicked, wandering blind (Violence, swearing us to silence ) Milling slowly, grinding fine All the rotten grist on which I dine

This is straight up a Resident Evil boss

peak music

Athena cooked these fools so hard they became the best unknown DJ's of ancient times.

this boss, the bost that makes me rage, and brings the worst in me the door boss is hard as fck in pf, everything is snake 1 prog, even pt "p2 fresh or p2 a2c" all is fcking snake prog I almost uninstalled the game, but I did manage to clear it in pf ~ but this boss made me quit the next savage getting the mount from here, is like the best achievement for me

I like how nobody heard the "us" in the lyrics

while i very much love the insanely high quality for the music, it's weird how the lyrics shown for the track are almost completely off-point

The official theme for terminal illness

Okay listen... The way you guys do High Concept is wild, but I'm not against it :D

this didn't uave lyrics until now???

Gives me the same vibes as a Devil May Cry 3 or 4 song.

I really thought it was “To the land behind we pay no wonder”

Godhood is within my grasp I need only reach…

Das a resident evil boss right there

catJam catJam catJam

This would be one excellent Beat Saber song

How many of us got the chorus wrong 😅

This fight is why i was so disappointed with the phase 2 for p12s, I was hoping they would top this and (in my opinion) they did not.

Make the tree

okay anyone else get Resident Evil vibes from that boss?

Anyone else notice how close they cut it on the final burn phase? Like a quarter second slower and that would have been a wipe.

song's great and all, but wtf is that HC strat? Is that JP?

I'm seeing what could be either BiS or pretty much BiS, and they still saw the enrage cast animation, despite the fight almost 100% mandating zero deaths. No matter what anyone says, this fight was overtuned to hell even after the nerf. No wonder people burned out.

wideVIBE

FastChad.

visually speaking, I hate just about everything in this boss The grotesque design, the sickly brown background, those weird floaty things and the dirt-like particles that accompany them, the way _every single eye on the boss is twitching_ I wouldn't queue for this raid even if I had the skills to clear it whoever designed this- I hope they got a fat bonus and a decent vacation

RESIDENT... EVIL! 😂😂😂😂

Could you please reup with the lyrics actually synced correctly?

Tracks like these belong in fight that are not tab targeting. Music too good for the game its in lmao.

The fight looks so cool but I won’t be touching it until 7.3 at the very least