Eorzea's Scottish Bard Band

Materia DC

The Highland Lassies is a Materia-based FFXIV bard band dedicated to promoting the art of Scottish trad music. With a unique repertoire of Celtic jigs, tribal music, cèilidhs, piobaireachds and many more, the Lassies' songs are guaranteed to soothe your weary soul or stir your inner warrior spirit.

About Us

Hailing from all over Eorzea that can legally count as Scottish (Limsa, Ishgard, Il Mheg), the Highland Lassies are led by the kilted femroe Valorye MacSiolesean who's also the band's piper. The Lassies specialise in various Scottish traditional musics (or 'trad', for short) that you will seldom find anywhere else in Eorzea. Tavern jigs, Celtic music, strathspeys, reels, piobaireachds, tribal music, a wee bit of orchestral, these are just some of the songs they would play!The Lassies' trad music is perfect for anyone looking for an authentic medieval tavern experience, chill and rustic cafe vibes, or for anyone wanting the thrill and adrenaline rush before a raid! No matter the vibe you seek, the Lassies will always be there to say "Gie it laldy!"

Meet The Lassies

Click to find out more about them!

About Yours Truly

I am a solo octet performer from Australia multiboxing these eight Lassies on my laptop to deliver performances. As this takes up a lot of resources on my poor laptop, I am always welcome to anyone seeking to collab and do performances together.My niche for this band is Scottish trad music, especially folk and tribal, and I create all my performance pieces by transcribing existing versions of these pieces on Youtube, occasionally doing minor arrangements of my own. In the future, I may even look into creating Irish jigs and more traditional folk music in the Celtic world.If you'd like to learn more about the kinds of music I perform, please feel free to reach out to me!

Uailearuidh MacSiolesean

Valorye MacXiloscient

Band Captain | Lead Piper

Origins: Northern Ishgard

The lead bagpiper of the band, Valorye's piping is famed in Eorzea for having "the fastest itchy fingers" in the realm. She is also famed for her endurance, with her piobaireachd solos sometimes lasting up to twenty minutes.Born Vaileryn Xiloscient in Northern Ishgard, she adopted a new name and a gaelicised surname for herself, inspired by the local Gaelic language of the faes of Il Mheg, in order to attune more to her calling as the realm's piper.

Miarie "NicÒran" Teineflòre

Mialee Tinnefleur

Violinist

Origins: Ishgard

Originally a violinist born to Ishgardian nobility, Miarie was more accustomed to classical waltz music favoured in nobility parties. With the Lassies, she soon discovered how wonderfully violin blends in with the bagpipes, flute, clàrsach, and drums, and promptly joined Valorye in forming the band. She is now more used to playing jigs and folk tunes and is an indispensable part of the band.

Gaillea "NicBàird" Dùn-Draghain

Gaelia Dundragon

Flutist

Origins: Lower La Noscea

Born to a peasant family in the outskirts of Limsa, Gaillea always had her hands full trying to tend to the crops and livestock her family owns. The only family luxury was a flute said to be gifted by a famous bard aeons ago, which Gaillea would play every time she gets bored from tending the cows. A chance encounter with Eilidh, Valorye and Miarie would see her offered to play with them in a troupe, which Gaillea quickly accepted.

Caitrìona "NicSeinn" NicTatha

Katriona MacTay

Violist

Origins: Il Mheg

When Caitrìona first met Valorye and others from the Source, she could hardly say a word in Eorzean after having spent almost her entire lifetime with the fae. Conversely, the rest of the Lassies had to learn the fae's local Gaelic language in order to communicate with her, to varying levels of success. They also communicated through music, and Caitrìona's prowess in the viola made her and Miarie a powerful viola-violin duo.

Leareis "NicCèilidh" NicCluaidh

Laerysinn McClyde

Piper

Origins: Sharlayan

The newest addition to the band, Laerysinn was a Sharlayan researcher who came to Eorzea in her research of the musical cultures of the realm. Her forays led her to an encounter with Valorye and the Lassies, and she was immediately captivated by the duality of music - both soothing and stirring.Laerysinn requested to join the Lassies, where she was placed under Valorye's direct tutelage. She quickly picked up on the bagpipes and brought pipe music to her home city, where it soon gained popularity with a Sharlayan people that is shedding its isolationist image.

Eilidh "NicGàidheal" Mac Gath-luain

Ellype MacGallon

Lutist

Origins: Limsa Lominsa

Born and raised an orphan on the derelict parts of Limsa, Ellype became a famed lutist in her own right in her home city. Yet after hanging out with Aedeag, she now prefers using the lute to complement Aedeag's clàrsach harp to produce an ever-magical melody that cannot be reproduced on their own.

Aedeag "NicCeòlmòr" NicOidhche

Aedean MacKeyer

Clàrsach Harpist

Origins: Il Mheg

The clàrsach harp is a fae invention uniquely different from the harps that humans use. Aedeag was one of the rare harpists who were directly taught by the fae to play one. She, however, was the first to discover magical synergy of the clàrsach with the lute, viola, bagpipes, flute and drums, and has quickly taken a liking to playing jigs and cèilidh music in taverns.

Mirelainn "NicDrumma" Dùn-Arlaidh

Myralon Dunnerly

Lead Drummer

Origins: Il Mheg

The lead drummer of the Lassies, leading the band in most of the tribal music played. Her small stature belies her ability to shred any drum that she comes across and stir the hearts of men to battle. It is also a lesser-known fact that dwarves (read: lalafells) generally do not suffer from hand tremors from playing the drums too much as other races normally do.

Collection

Each category arranged newest first

* = with lyrics

Celtic Tunes & Folk Ballads

Tribal War Music

Rock Music

Pipes & Drums Band Music

Strathspeys, Reels & Jigs

"Solo" Piping

Solo piping will still require at least a duet to replicate both drone and chanter.

Contact Us

/tell:
Valorye Macsiolesean@Ravana (Materia, OCE)
Vaileryn Macsiolesean@Marlboro (Crystal, NA)Discord:
Void of No One (@voidofnoone)

As I am based in Sydney, my local timezone is AEST (GMT+10) or AEDT (GMT+11) depending on the month. Check on Google to see which one is in use at any time.My Discord DMs are open 24/7 and I will try to respond within 24 hours. /tell availability is subject to my in-game time.

Extras

Some extra insights into the creation of this band, motivations and other interesting tidbits.

Motivations of creating this band

I've had my Scottish phase that started in 2020 when I started playing D&D during lockdown. I made Valorye McXiloscient the high elf who grew up in a Dwarven village, and because she would have been exposed to mostly Dwarven culture, I had to research into how to pull off a Scottish accent to properly roleplay her. This was all before I started playing FFXIV in 2021.Consequently, I got a wee bit in too deep with all things Scots and fell in love with many niche bands like the Whistlebinkies, Clann An Drumma, Clanadonia, and singers like Iona Fyfe. When I heard about the ability to perform music in FFXIV, imagine how excited I was thinking about all the songs I could play!I started in 2022 by creating solo pipe music pieces for Valorye, mostly by downloading midis of traditional folk songs already existing online. However, they all sounded bad and needed a lot of editing to sound reasonably good in-game. My entire motivation was because I have not found any existing midis online for the niche I'm into, and soon I found myself going into music editing, even as I was going in with zero musical background and experience!One thing led to another and soon, I found myself training up 7 more characters and unlocking performance for all of them, and soon I was recreating songs from the likes of the Whistlebinkies and Clann An Drumma. Pretty soon I was experiencing the joys of performing octet jigs and tribal music in the world of Eorzea!Now, with the formation of this band with support from many peers in FFXIV, I feel even more committed and motivated to create more Scottish music for the people. In the future, I may even look into creating Irish jigs and more traditional folk music in the Celtic world.

The Laird's Crannog

Opened by the band captain Valorye, the Laird's Crannog is a Scottish-themed pub venue with an open stage for all bards of Eorzea. The Lassies is the resident band of the Crannog, and chances are you might find the Lassies performing there when the pub is open!

Recreating the bagpipes in FFXIV

Bagpipes are not part of the list of instruments available in FFXIV. And so it took me a lot of trial and error to figure out the perfect bagpipe sound.I've since found that the bagpipes can be reproduced by a combination of Oboe for the chanter and Horn or Tuba for the bass and tenor drones, though this would no longer be a solo effort. The bagpipe chanter range for the Oboe is between G#3-B♭4, while the drones can be recreated with the Horn or Tuba constantly pressed down on B♭3 or B♭4 depending on the desired vibe. Since FFXIV limits note durations to 8 seconds, they must be re-pressed after they expire, so this is automatically worked into my midi pieces that include the pipes.Another type of bagpipes, the smallpipes, can be reproduced using the Clarinet for the chanter and the Tuba for the drones.

Valorye MacSiolesean's Tartans

I've tried creating my own tartan designs for Valorye, taking into consideration that she's an FFXIV character. There's a website online called Clan.com that has a tartan designer function allowing you to create and experiment with your own tartan design. Click on each tartan to see what they each are.

The tartan design is based around the three colours of tank, DPS and healer, rotating them to have the base colour represent each of FFXIV's three roles. In fact, the background of this website uses one of these three tartan designs! Can you guess which one?

Special thanks to

  • The Pocketeers FC for kickstarting my passion for bard performances

  • All the friends I've met on FFXIV that made me discover all the various bard scenes around the world

  • Serah Rose for suggesting Valorye comes from Northern Ishgard

  • Shaundel for the wind-up bagpipes minion mod which I've been using extensively for gposes