Madness Is Mercy
The Elder Scrolls · Sheogorath
The story in the song
A dark cinematic tribute to Sheogorath and the Shivering Isles - a song about madness as the last mercy against perfect, lifeless Order.
This is not a retelling of the Hero of Kvatch. It is a Shivering Isles song: Mania and Dementia, the living throne, the cold threat of Order, and the terrible idea that a broken world may be more merciful than a flawless one.
Released
Lyrics
They call this place a fever.
I call it breathing.
In Mania, lanterns bloom like fire in the rain.
In Dementia, roots remember every name.
One half laughs too loudly, one half locks the door.
Both halves are alive, and that is worth a war.
White crystal grows where choice should be.
Cold perfect hands reach out for me.
If silence is the shape of peace,
then let the broken sing.
Madness is mercy
when order turns the living into stone.
Laugh with me, darling,
before the silence makes a throne.
Madness is mercy,
a wild heart beating under bone.
If I must be the wound that keeps you free,
then madness is mercy.
The Knights come shining, empty as a blade.
Priests kneel to numbers, praying not to change.
They promise no more sorrow, no more ruined skies.
But no more sorrow means no more sunrise.
I have seen the perfect end:
no songs, no sins, no friends.
Just a kingdom clean and dead,
with no one left to dream.
Madness is mercy
when order turns the living into stone.
Laugh with me, darling,
before the silence makes a throne.
Madness is mercy,
a wild heart beating under bone.
If I must be the wound that keeps you free,
then madness is mercy.
Call me monster. Call me fool.
Call the palace cracked in two.
But the cracks let color through.
Order never learned that truth.
Madness is mercy
when order turns the living into stone.
Laugh with me, darling,
before the silence makes a throne.
Madness is mercy,
a wild heart beating under bone.
If I must be the wound that keeps you free,
then madness is mercy.
In a broken realm, the broken live.
That is the mercy I can give.