Roxas returns to a world overtaken by the Arcanum’s song. The people are hollowed out. Ylias, triumphant, activates the Hymnal Protocol. Roxas flees through the streets as the terrible beauty of the music of the great machine takes hold of his mind. With the last of his will, he consumes the sacred oleander and falls into the dark.

In Mercenarium, Arcanum is a board wipe—sacrificing one unit to destroy everything nearby. It’s total catharsis. In Dragonfruit, it represents collapse, revolution, and the trauma of sudden transformation. The old must be obliterated for the new to begin.

This is the album’s most intense track; a desperate sprint toward silence. Jason Kermit Jennings co-composed it in a fevered session that closed the trilogy (Hymns VIII–X).

LYRICS

If the Dragoon Destiny should come to pass
The stars will tumble down
Fools procuring heroes, more or less
Adrift, and twisting in the wind

Come while you’re young enough to say
Your songs will never go away
Within our glorious array

Synthesizing art
Arcanum of parts
Application, please
Restart

Caught in the chaotic current of souls
Trying to decide if it’s worth it to hold on
And stay strong
Charting the course of truth and remorse
inducing dichotomy, audience, enemy, please

Ctrl + freeze
Ctrl + freeze

Arcanum

Cursory glance
To deliberate blinds
The realities of the knowing eyes
Pushed me to move
Rearrange a few lies
Love showered me in praise left me to dry

Prodigy child 
To prodigal son
The fascination in “be all but one”
Left me to be
Mediocre at some
Couldn’t take it alone
But couldn’t give up the gun

Now everything is so heavy
Heavy on my mind
Wanna say I’m not ready
But time isn’t mine
Try to keep it steady
And hold on tight
But everything is so heavy
Heavy all the time

Love of a child
To love for a day
The narrowing of life swept years away
Urged me to beg
Forgotten lives to stay
Memories are strong but not enough to sway

Now everything is so heavy
Heavy on my mind
Wanna say I’m not ready
But time isn’t mine
Try to keep it steady
And hold on tight
But everything is so heavy
Heavy all the time

And I could pretend the hurting wasn’t here
But closing both of my eyes it won’t make
All the weight disappear
And I could ask to lay my cross down for the day
But it can’t stop now
It couldn’t stop anyway
Could you help me carry it 
Could you help me carry it
Could you help me

‘Cause everything is so heavy
Heavy all the time
Wanna say I’m not ready
But time isn’t mine
Try to keep it steady
And hold on tight
But everything is so heavy
Heavy all the time

Everything is so heavy
Heavy all the time x4

Heavy

Mythic synthpop for the end of the world.

Anthromancer is the sonic wing of a transmedia myth created by Daniel James Drake—a fusion of game, oracle, and concept album. The debut LP, The Hymnal, scores the fall and rebirth of a fictional civilization, blending icy electronica with poetry into a 13-track spiritual epic.

Our sound is somewhere between The Postal Service, Muse, Aesop Rock, and Nobuo Uematsu, with shades of Röyksopp and our venerable RPG nostalgia. The sound is cinematic, existential, and driven by a hunger to be known.

Support the work through Patreon. Or just listen closely. The secrets are already in the songs.

Arcanum

Anthromancer

Related tracks