It’s another musical Monday — but it’s also Memorial Day here in the U.S..  I considered posting some reality-relevant music, but that always smacks of politics and I’d rather not open that door here.  This blog is about my story-world, after all — not the real one.

With that said, I have a lot of soldiers as characters, and my favorite — and a generally popular guy — is former Lieutenant/current Captain Sarovy.  So I figured I’d share the songs that have defined his arc so far.  Most of my characters have a particular singer/band that represents them for me, and Sarovy’s is VNV Nation.

Circa Book 1:

VNV Nation – Precipice, from the album Reformation 01.  Synthpop.

The hope of my redemption
is such that I believe that I am free
To confess would bring me no salvation
for I alone hold the power to forgive me

Of my acts, I will admit, I’ve no pretensions
I’ve no regrets for all the things that I have done
My faiths, to me, are as foundations
None has the right to judge my soul but me

There is no going back
No quarter now remains
No return for me, no sanctity
A single chance prevails
The lands behind laid waste
No doubt, no amends to make
at break of day
until the light fails
march ever on

Great are the paths of our creation
that have been made for the brave to see
The fools who would condemn our existence
are as lands to be vanquished and seized

Lieutenant Sarovy, as he was in Book 1, held bitterness and resignation over his long-ago exile, and was a hard-minded and sometimes harsh man.  He did as he was ordered, but held principles higher than those of the Crimson Army around him, which occasionally made him act against his superiors’ intentions, if not their words.

Circa Book 2:

VNV Nation – Kingdom, from the album Empires.

Our domain, this kingdom come
Now godless lands whose ways are lost
Without the strength to carry on
All values lost, all virtue none
Did you think you’d be saved
By burning flags to cleanse yourselves of shame?
Or are you afraid, are you afraid,
As you stare back at your face?
Or are you ashamed, are you afraid,
By destroying what the gods once gave?
Do you think that you’ll be saved?

And I believe that we’ll conceive
To make in hell for us a heaven.
A brave new world.
A promised land.
A fortitude of hearts and minds.
Until I see this kingdom’s mine,
I’ll turn the darkness into light.
I’ll guide the blind.
My will be done until the day
I see our kingdom has been won.

No more the servants of the weak
Devoid of thought or light to seek.
I’ll leave no walls, no stone unturned.
Every tower must be razed
To the dust from which it came.
And none will be spared, no remnant saved.
And are you ashamed, are you afraid,
Of the gods and idols that you have made?
Do you think you’d be saved
By the gods and idols you have made?

None will be saved.

Book 2 brought now-Captain Sarovy into increasing conflict with the conquered local populace but also internally, as he learned more about his own side’s doings.  Still, he was staunchly Imperial and operated with the Empire’s goals in mind — or at least what he thought were the Empire’s goals.

Circa Book 3:

VNV Nation – Gratitude, from the album Automatic.

It is not love if love is cold to touch
It is not belief when there’s nothing there to trust
Could not submit, would never bring myself to heal
Determination grows as each truth’s revealed

Torn and repaired just to endure it all again
Without a reason for my place in all this pain
Though well-concealed, the scars they just compound
Until there’s nothing left of what was my former self

My god
Look at what we are now
Without regret for all the things that we have done

Thank you for all the doubt
And for all the questioning
For all the loneliness and for all the suffering
For all the emptiness and the scars it left inside
It inspired in me an impetus to fight

For the conviction, for the purpose found alone
For the strength and courage that in me I’ve never known
And if it seems to you that my words are undeserved
I write this in gratitude for whatever good it serves.

Sometimes I wish that you could see me now
In the rightful place where I knew that I belonged
Sometimes I wish that you might someday understand
And close a chapter, and lay to rest the past

But nothing would change, we made the best of what we have
For we are measured by the actions of our lives
We bide our time, let the future unfold
Like immortals in great legends to be told

My god
Look at what we are now
Without regret for all the things that we have done

Thank you for all the doubt, and for all the questioning
For all the loneliness and for all the suffering
For all emptiness and the scars it left inside
It inspired in me an impetus to fight

To all who stood with me when we stood as one
Thank you for guiding me, for bringing me home
And if it seems that I’m obliged to say these words
I write this in gratitude, the least that you deserve.

Book 3 brings Captain Sarovy a good deal of introspection and some stark revelations, causing a tonal shift in his theme music.  I shouldn’t say more, only that this song is most appropriate near the end of the book.