Trying to understand the lyrics of Sleeping in the Cold Below from Warframe

Ah the song from my favorite warframe. The edgiest guys in warframe are ironically the kindest and most supportive.

So here's a very quick backstory on this song: It is sung by Vala Glarios, a Corpus captain who serves Parvos Granum and is embarking on a revenge mission against the Tempestarii Ghost Ship. Vala was the sole survivor of an attack from the Tempestarii, an Old War rescue Railjack, on the Lucretia space station. She drifted for days in her exosuit amongst the fragments of her dead crew, dreaming that her "sisters" were singing, leading her to seek revenge against the ship, now lost to the Void Storms. That's why the song has such a sea shanty vibe to it since technically the Railjacks are ships that sail the sea of stars and the Tempestari was kind of a ghost ship in a way since it was piloted by Sevagoth, a Warframe that can project and control it's own shadow. Basically the Tempestari was a rescue Railjack that was lost during a VOid Storm. Sevagoth commanded it's shadow to continue piloting the ship and continue it's rescue mission, effectively making it a ghost ship. After the quest, Vala is banished to the void, is rescued by Parvos and is put in charge of the Sisters Of Parvos who then become your news rivals much like the Grineer Liches 5:10 I believe this refers to how profit oriented the Corpus are. They WORSHIP profit itself so if you don't make a living, as in if you don't do deal and make money, there will be hell to pay, as in you're dead.

I love that Digital Extremes just made an entire separate section in the quest just so you can enjoy this song while fighting some corpus. You couldn't even properly die so it was entirely possible to just sit there and vibe to the shanty.

3:55 A Granum Crown is a form of Currency that the Corpus treasure, but it's also a vital component in plant photosynthesis (which looks like a stack of coins inside the chloroplast) and is an ancient latin term for grain (so like, a granum crown could be the golden tops of wheat) so it could be interpreted as a double entendre of bury me under stacks of money and also bury me beneath the fields...

“Cold Below” here would be a poetic reference to frozen ice in space. “Sleeping in the cold below” is a reference to frozen bodies floating through space outside the ship.

This song is deeply rooted in the tradition of Newfoundland folk music. The composers, Kieth Power and Alan Doyle (of Great Big Sea) and the lead singer, Damhnait Doyle, are well known Newfoundland musicians. Even though the lyrical themes have been translated into a science fiction setting, it still carries a very strong tradition of Newfoundland work music with it. Sailing the fishing ships in the North Atlantic was an extremely dangerous occupation in pre-industrial times (and is still fairly risky even today). The waters off the coast of Newfoundland are extremely cold and unforgiving. Even in the height of summer, a sailor who went overboard could catch of hypothermia and drown within minutes of hitting the water. Many Newfoundland fishermen never learned how to swim because of this. The famed Newfoundland dog was bred as a salt-water retriever, partly to rescue sailors who fell into the cold North Atlantic, and as a result, those dogs have webbed feet and thick, waterproof coats to protect them from the frigid waters. Even though the phrase "Sleeping in the Cold Below" was coined for this song (as far as I can tell), it definitely resonates with Newfoundlanders. Historically, we have lost many a sailor to the black, frigid depths of the Atlantic.

There's a few notes for context: 1: This is of course a sort of space maritime song and therefore it bears noting how interstellar travel works in Warframe. In essence, it works in a way simular to hyperspace from Star Wars or the Warp from Warhammer 40k. You enter a different dimension or plane of existence in which distances do not correspond to real space in order to take shortcuts. In Warframe, that dimension is called the Void and it's both a source of unimaginable power and dread. Navigation in the Void is extremely difficult, and most ships use so-called Solar Rails in order to traverse the void, a sort of established road inbetween stars that allows normal ships to enter the void and travel along the rail in order to not lose its path. This is also referenced in the last verse ("Today we sail on the solar rail for there's much we just don't know...") 2: The reason why this is important is that there's a special type of ship, called a Railjack. These were comparatively small warships that had their own void drive and were capable of independent interstellar travel, making them incredibly flexible and incredibly terrifying for all those who are faced off against them. Imagine being limited to following roads when someone who wants to kill you can just go literally anywhere, show up without a warning from the underbrush and blow up your car. 3: The character who sings this song, Vala Glarios, who is a member of the Corpus faction, has had a traumatizing experience against a Railjack type ship once. She was working on the outside of a space station in an exosuit when the station itself was destroyed by an enemy Railjack, leaving her to drift in empty space for days, surrounded only by the frozen remains of all her comrades (her "Sisters") who weren't fortunate enough to be wearing space-proof equipment when the station got blasted. This has left her mentally scarred, ridden with survivors guilt and and a burning desire to find and destroy the Railjack responsible. This is complicated by the fact that the ship in question, the Tempestarii has essentially gone rouge after the end of the war, trying to complete it's final task, and is now by all accounts a ghost ship. 4: The Man on High mentioned in one of the verses is Parvos Granum, the legendary founder of the Corpus faction. The golden hand is literal in this case, as he started off his entire enterprise through a theft for which he was punished by having his hand cut off, and which he later replaced with a golden prosthethis. After building the Corpus into a faction the power of influence of which could even compete with the Empire of the immortal Orokin, he was attacked by his rivals and disappeared, long presumed dead. It is later revealed that Granum managed to survive in a sort of temporal pocket in the Void. Shortly before the events of the quest in which this song plays, that temporal bubble is partially breached, and Granum starts trying to re-establish his influence within the Corpus. At the end of the quest, Vala Glarios is banished into the Void by a special weapon aboard the Tempestarii and ends up in the same pocket as Granum who, respecting her obsessive determination, makes her his second in command for his future operations.

I love when games use songs to build their world. With "Sleeping In The Cold Below" it establishes that in the world of Warframe, the Corpus and those with connections to them like the Solaris have a culture of work songs. Reminds me of the function similar to the in-universe Port Sulphur Band from Hunt: Showdown where their songs are written from having experienced the events of the game. Pretty effective at building atmosphere for an extraction shooter.

I love the lore meaning behind this song. The ending being a somber remembrance for the character this song represents remembering her sisters who all died at the hands of a warframe.

For context (not necessary, but I love WF's lore): The 'man on high' is Parvos Granum, the founder of their religion who lived long ago. So it's a religious space shanty of sorts, I guess.

Basically this song is a captain's mental delusion of her "sisters" singing as she's floating through a cloud of her shattered star ship and the corpses of her crew. She kinda turns into captain Ahab but like futuristic space Ahab.

The a cappella group Voiceplay just dropped a cover of that song. They are amazing vocalists with a very theatrical side, and it's stunning.

This song's last verse, with the strings alone is some of the rawest emotion Warframe brings out sometimes. I love this piece to bits as it's the only time I felt bad for the bad guys. To be fair, pirate shanties are symbolic of...well...pirates. Their reputation is obvious, but it's also the everyman, the dock-worker that's brought out in the song. P.S. Please check out the 'Lies of P' soundtrack, especially the piece called "Why". It's a wonderful waltz piece that has a lot of storytelling behind it

Deathly Shanty vibes, with that Pirates of the Carribean's devil-may-care attitude. Cheers Marco!

So from what i understand, the song basically details the life and society of the corpus from how Vala (female singer) sees it. “So it’s into the void now me girls and me boys” The void is a sort of second dimension in the world of warframe, and i believe its meant to be a parallel to starting life, she describes the initial audience as girls and boys, young children who are about to start their lives as adults “From mother’s hand we go” is the representation of growing up, your parents guide you mostly throughout your years until adulthood, where you have to decide things for yourself “We’ll be sailing to the sun till the voyage is done” Is Vala’s way of seeing life and death, i believe the sun is meant to represent another day, so in a way, Vala is saying that she’ll live everyday until she dies accepting her life is complete The reason why vala during the chorus says “sisters below below we’re going where the winds don’t blow” is because the audience is supposed to be the sisters of Parvos, her sisters, only they died, and vala didn’t, its her way of saying “ill meet you again in the afterlife” “Our sailing ship’s for the hard and quick, we roll our load and go, theres a living to be made or theres hell to pay” Is a way Vala describes corpus society, life is hard and difficult and for the corpus, its either you die for profit or die working to pay off debts “Yes we’re bound down to the deep, and soon we’ll all be sleeping in the cold cold below” is a metaphor to say we will all die one day and Vala knows that, the cold below is essentially just death “Theres a man on high with a devil in his eye with a golden hand im told” is describing Parvos before she met him, parvos was a leader of the corpus with a literal golden hand, and a heartless attitude towards fellow corpus, hence why he is a “man on high,” he is a higher power above Vala and her sisters “It can hurt you, it can hold you, he can kick you or console you” also describes Parvos’s view on his sisters, the player makes the sisters of parvos a thing, so when the player doesnt make a corpus member a “sister”, Parvos rejects and insults them, but if the player does make them a sister, he welcomes them with open arms and helps them “Oh sisters you, so wise and true, when its my time to go, wont you lay me down under granum crowns” Is Vala calling to her dead sisters, asking if they’d accept her when she dies, being buried with granum crowns are both a way to prove she died with a prosperous life (as money is absolute value to corpus) and a way to signify Vala is a sister of parvos “Today we sail on the solar rails, for theres much we just dont know, so farewell with a kiss, then it’s vast for the mist” Is Vala’s view of life itself, she explores her world but doesnt know everything about it, so she decides to accept that and live life when it approaches, hence the mist Yeah if you read this far, thank you, this song is really beautiful and honestly a vibe. Love the work Marco!

"There's a living to be made or there will be hell to pay" as I understand it is kinda like a take on 'If I don't do this then things will be worse if I don't' which if you look at it is a play on your take on how 'sleeping in the cold below' is inevitable so sail as far as you can, and work as hard as you can just to make things a little better. After all we are all bound down to the deep and we all will be sleeping in the cold below. (WARFRAME LORE BELOW) The singer is lamenting on how everyone in her crew died and she was left in her space suit floating for who knows how long among the corpses of her sisters (fellow workers) after the Tenno destroyed the space station she was working on because her boss pissed off the Orokin/Tenno. She had nothing to do with the conflict but she had no choice but to work as hard as possible despite knowing that a Tenno could roll through and destroy everything. It's a common theme in Warframe that the Tenno were both bringers of death and well as freedom (see the Leverian in game for proof). Their boss Parvos Granum (the reason why there is a currency called Granum Crowns) was a major economic tyrant who rubbed certain high powered people the wrong way which is why the Corpus themselves hate the Tenno. It's literally a workers song of just some woman who got caught in the crossfire of a conflict she had no say in, she like many others just needed the work otherwise who could provide even with the threat of the Tenno (the walking WMD's that they are) could roll in at any moment. Also the corpus are above not extortion and slave labor to get what they need.

Ah. The song of a PTSD.

Haven't stopped thinking of this song since it came out it's just so good! Also coincidentally released around the time "sea shanties" were popular online iirc! There was a panel with the lyricist (again, iirc) during a past dev event or tennocon where he talked some more about the lyrics - for the "sleeping in the cold below" line, the lore of it was that it started out as being literal - because the crew members would go into cryo-sleep below deck as part of space travel. But over time in the world, the lyric evolved to take on a more metaphorical meaning - of death. It's really cool hearing about how these lyrics are written with this kind of "lore history" in mind too, on top of sounding so rad

I literally just finished this quest a few days ago, and I loved this song. Nice to see you looking at it too

I remember recommending this song a while back in a community post for a music livestream but it didn't get picked, so I'm very happy that it's being shown now!