Song of the Diadem: Part I

A poem handed down from the age of the old aristocracy, said to be the words of "Dawn Knight" Ragnvindr. It tells of his days as a knight's squire.

I walked every street of Mondstadt;

in the air drifted the scent of misfortune and drunkenness.

I saw the proudest nobles;

I saw the most wretched poor.

Dark alleys like spiderwebs split them in two;

in the dead of night a jingle—that was the shackles on the heart.

On night watch through Mondstadt's streets,

comrades and superiors once shouted:

"We are knights of starlight—lift your heads!

The noble banner among the stars is the way of guardianship!"

But I neither looked up at the stars nor fixed my eyes on the banner;

I simply could not ignore those filthy corners.

The silent sobs of broken peddlers,

the bloody sighs of aging soldiers,

on midnight's dead-quiet streets,

a girl cast off by nobles praying for Barbatos's kindness.

Bleak winds shook the cathedral,

carried grief, and scraped the splendid palace walls.

Every cry of every mother,

every wail of every child,

could etch a crack on the strongest shield,

could bend the sharpest spear.

Those voices made me tremble.

Yet in the tall palaces and castles,

in the grand sanctuaries where the west wind howled…

the ants' groans went unheard.