According to Within Temptation vocalist Sharon den Adel, "the lyrics of 'The hand of Sorrow' were inspired by Robin Hobb's 'The Farseer Trilogy'. It is the tale of FitzChivalry Farseer. The thing which inspired us was the feeling of being torn between your own dreams and higher goals in life and the sacrifices those goals take to achieve them. What also runs through this story are moral questions like 'is violence appropriate, just when it can prevent more violence."
