d share the secrets of the night reveal ...Night will bring no dawn ...s with sad lies and dark skies

the last generation of planet earth ...was a gift from the skies of life-divine or... ...the skies of life divine. ...A glimpse of hope grow inside, a change of tide. ...Answered prayers of survival. ...The offspring of the unknown gods beautifies the aura of this ...The knowledge of the everlasting, ne...lkin in the shadows of death for a lifetim...(The drop of blood from her mout...This day of life, a sacred mome...e princess has come of age, but still the gift of life they ...In the chambers of crimson sleep. ...In this vault of souls to reap. ...e lies in the hands of the shrewd (Harmony...night the enchanted skies were united in a st...the fires of death burn high. ...s mourning the loss of their king. ... you hear the angel of sadness sing... wit...arch for such a man of trust there will be...nd, the incarnation of a king in ...His army of believers was faith... absords the colour of dawn. ...-chosen son, master of the throne he ...The light of day is flowing into...A dark formation in the skies. ...rended to the child of life divine. ... but still no signs of aging. ...she crush the tanks of crystal glass. ...Soon comes the end of all, she watched a ...rranging he pattern of our lives. ...se above this world of you ...Showing its face of hate and disgrace l...sharing this moment of grief. ...The end of their own existence...But their dream of sons and daughters ...But is she of man, made of flesh and blood, or...offspring of the unholy ...opsreach the temple of their majesty. ...maze of slumper far from the light of day. ...The spirit of their beloved king ...of great importance an... the queen the last of the brave ones wand...The loss of troops forced her p...demons is the heart of all evil pos- ...l pray for the gift of breeding. This is a...oul in the chambers of crimson sleep. ...of this infernal maze,..., they are the root of her inhuman forces....Two of the brave ones were...We saw the return of innocence, the symbol of purity we once ...essed with the gift of birth can

aelun's "Chronicles of Antediluvia", volum...Episode I: The Fall of the Shadow-King ... & III: The History of the Great Wars ...des IV-VI: The Rise of the Imperium ...est for the Trinity of Might ...t Gul-Kothoth, Then Dark Sorceries Shall Enshroud The Citadel Of The Obsidian Crown (recounted on the second Bal-Sagoth album; "Starfire Burning Upon The Ice-Veiled Throne Of Ultima Thule) ...nbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisades of Gul-Kothoth) ...sode XI: The Battle of the Nine Armies (The War of the Crown) ...and the Dissolution of the Imperium ...nbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisades of Gul-Kothoth) ... resplendent armies of the Imperium assembled before the towering cyclopean walls of ancient Gul-Kothoth. It was some time before the billowing dust cloud raised by the massed arrival of the vast imperial host settled, ultimately dissipating as the shadows of dusk descended. With nightfall, the imperial army's countless torches, braziers and cookfires illumined the dark plain before the fortress like a coruscating sea, painting the stygian heavens the colour of flame. And the high summer's night passed swiftly. At length, the dawn approached tentatively, and with the first signs of the newborn sun etching its promise upon the skies, the martial preparations commenced in earnest. A brief and perfunctory exchange between the Imperial Herald and the fortification's Watch Commander held no surprises, and the Emperor's banner was duly driven into the seared earth before Gul-Kothoth with a chilling finality. Vast siege engines and powerful ballistae were hauled inexorably into position, alongside a battery of katapelte and petrobolos. The one hundred thousand strong Imperial Frontier Army, having planted their regimental blazons into the arid soil, waited with a disciplined patience born of never having met defeat in pitched battle or siege, the dreaded Imperial War-Leopards straining noisily against their iron-link leashes to the rear of the cohorts of conscripts and auxillieries. The pitiless Iron Phalanx and their Lord Militant Commander had assumed position at the head of the army's Alpha Wing, polished swords, spears and poll-axes reflecting the glow from the myriad torches and braziers which still burned about the Imperial Host. And behind them were drawn up the legendary Legion of the Ebon Tiger, Pride of the Emperor, the infantry and cavalry famed throughout the Great Northern Continent, personal regiment of the feared general Baalthus Vane. True to their martial reputation, the six thousand strong Legion were inscrutible in their jet black armour, their sable banner billowing in the chill breeze which skittered over the plain. And finally, astride his azure-shaffroned warhorse and surrounded by his elite guard, the silvern-armoured Emperor Koord himself studied the precipitious gates with a disdainful scrutiny. At the Emperor's right hand was the renowned Swordmaster of Kyrman'ku, an eastern bladesman of preternatural skill and the most revered and expensive mercenary in the Imperium. At his left, the infamous Ogre-Mage of the Black Lake brooded silently, swathed in a stygian cloak and fuliginous cowl and exuding an aura of implacable malevolence which unerved even the bravest of the Imperial troops. The Emperor had deemed the services of these two nefarious renegades pivotal to the execution of the Final Campaign, for they alone had knowledge of the mysterious arca...ades, the defenders of Gul-Kothoth beheld ...gin the final stage of this campaign with the rising of the sun. This war which has raged for decades shall finally be decided here, before the hoary walls of ageless Gul-Kothoth. The Imperium's last and most glorious victory is at hand. The procrastinating sybarites of the bureaucracy have been threatened and bribed into compliance over this venture. This more than anything else is why I have deigned to grace this final battle with my Imperial presence, even against the advice of the Grand Vizier and the sage counsel of the Seers. ...nfidence is but one of the many foes a general must face upon the field of war. Today, the precepts and maxims of the Imperium shall be tested, and we shall see whether the velvet glove of diplomacy or the iron gauntlet of conquest has proved...THUS VANE: The days of the feudal suzerainties are long gone, my liege. The Imperial Military Council is the only entity fit to govern the dominions. The fall of Vyrgothia shall today render the truth of the Imperial Mandat...atched to the Court of the Over-King has warned that the Vyrgothians may have recovered one of the artefacts comprising the fabled Trinity of Might; the legendary Obsidian Crown itself! In the hands of a skilled thaumaturgist, it is said that the Crown may be used as a weapon of unparalleled destru...tre! Feh! The power of the Trinity is but a myth! No antiquated trinket weilded by a religious fanatic will prevail against the Legion, sire. Our steel is proof against such diabolism! Behold! Gul-Tryarch has fallen, Gul-Azlaan has been given to the earth, Gul-Nomedes is naught but smouldering rubble, and soon we shall surge over the shattered remnants of Gul-Kothoth's renow...t the final chapter of our legend be writt...An age of fire, sword and shi...The thunder of the battlefield, ...The Wizards of Vyrgothia: ... bejewelled circlet of night, Crown of the Elder King, ...at last the Trinity of Might, the Sceptre,...hapter 12: The Fall of Gul-Kothoth ...shed upon the field of battle. Colossal stones, firebrands and howling iron-tipped missiles rained pitilessly down upon the hero-hewn walls of Gul-Kothoth. Vast and serpentine cracks appeared in the ancient cyclopean edifice, and hundreds of warriors, both attackers and defenders, perished in the fray, either crushed beneath the ceaselessly assailed testudo, hammered to crimson pulp by the merciless storm of unforgiving stone, or burned to blackened husks by the nightmare onslaught of flaming quicklime and saltpetre. Scaling ladders raised and repulsed in turn, storms of razor tipped shafts...ngth, the mightiest of the Empire's iron-hooded battering rams, dubbed The Bringer of Woe, was brought to bear upon the besieged fortress, and, with the shadows of dusk lengthening upon the field of war, the centuries old Primary Gate of Gul-Kothoth was finally sundered amidst an earsplitting cacophony of shattering oak and iron louder than any storm-born thunderclap. With the rending of the mighty gate, and vast fragments of the ancient walls yielding, buckling and crashing to the blood-sodden earth, the Imperium's forces breached the defenses of Gul-Kothoth and sur...nstant that an army of five score and ten, bearing the Obsidian Crown, arrived upon the field of battle. ...eilding the Circlet of Night! The dire warning issued to me as I stood before Vyrgothia's Master Wizard has been proved no idle boast! The citadel's spells of containment breache... a reception worthy of their audacity! ... and at the command of a decurion, a volley of armour-piercing shafts screamed skywards to rain down mercilessly upon the foe. And even as this transpired, the Emperor's Prime Sorcerer, emissary of the Imperial Court and master of those arts which speak to man in narcotic dreams from the darkest and most silent places, summoned forth that black potency which lay entwined in stygian tendrils within his mind... an ireful power born of they who writhed upon the shores of Pangaea before man's progenitors ever erected their lofty spires to the restless skies. And yet Vyrgothia's Master Wizard, unrivalled Arch-Mage and adept of that lost Eastern order who journey beyond the boundaries of time and space upon those nebulous wings born of the sacred Azure Lotus, rose to meet this power which lapped at the periphery of his mind like a mid...pon that arid field of war, the sentinels of light and shadow sp...the aeons-old might of the Obsidian Crown was finally brought to bear against they who had breached the walls of ancient Gul-Kothoth...Sundered, the gate of the ancient fortres... lo, there and army of five score and ten,...Dark magicks and havoc, ...Like the prow of a blood-hungry vessel of war rending the waves of a midnight sea, a luminescent blade of shrieking cerulean light lanced from the legendary black circlet locked tight within the gnarled hand of the Master Wizard, and clove mercilessly into the glorious ranks of the Imperium. And all who were touched by this ruinous arc of coruscating radiance knew no more... Men and beasts reduced to blackened husks, charred shells of smouldering ash, lifeless effigies which toppled to the seared earth to be dissipated by the whispering breath of the wind. Again and again the ravaging radiance smote the ranks of the Empire, leaving a noisome charnel-pit of nightmare in its crackling wake. The forces of the Imperium were plunged into a howling vortex of disarray, and, faced with the unthinkable prospect of defeat, the unprecedented first routing of the Emperor's glorious army began to become a grim reality. Yet for all the unparalleled carnage which had erupted about them, there was one regiment of Imperial troops for whom the taste of fear was bland compared to the sharp tang of rage which sat bitt...E: By all the gods of war! Stand fast, hounds of the Imperium! 'Tis true... steel is no use against this ignoble magical trickery! But if our souls are bound for the Pit this day, we'll damn well take a few of these bastards with...y yet turn the tide of war back in our favour. Now, let the final act be played out! I call thee forth, Ogre-Mage of the Black Lake! I call thee forth, Swordmaster of Kyrman'ku! It is time! Now, I charge thee, for the glory of the Imperium... Spe...ll their most vital of roles in that grand theatre of carnage which now ran unchecked on the field of battle. ...homless countenance of the distant heavens, words which in truth were not words, but rather a resonant key which would aspire to unlock a dire power which had reposed shackled since the fall of the legendary Shadow King himself, whose ebon circlet's power they even now sought to thwart. The incantation they gave voice to in the midst of that sanguineous turmoil which engulfed them was not so much heard by those within earshot as perceived, sensed as a vague disturbance in the fabric of reality, as fuliginous ripples on the surface of a hitherto still and placid pool, growing ever larger and more far reaching; an unnerving and unnamable sense of change which insinuated itself into the mind of the listener and suggested with a cold and disturbing quasi-certainty that something of preternaturally ineffable magnitude was transpiring, as surely as a festering and gangrenous corpse would split to spill its noisome gore. And as that maddeningly implacable incantation reached its resounding climax, a momentary silence enshrouded the battlefield, swathing the vista of chaos in an aura of noiselessness more pure and untainted than the tranquility of the boundless and s...le instant that the dark and peerless power unfettered by those grim pseudo-words finally, ultimately, made itself known before the sundered gates of ancient Gul-Kothoth

oking towards other skies ...Until the dawn ...Yeah burn until the dawn light ...Dark and wondrous ...Until the dawn ...Yeah burn until the dawn light ...Yeah burn until the dawn light

oking towards other skies ...Until the dawn ...eah, burn until the dawn light ...Dark and wondrous ...Until the dawn ...eah, burn until the dawn light ...eah, burn until the dawn light

The strangeness of awakening...e first proud beams of light...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...At our atmospheric skies...Hymns of loss are heard...Praising the last of days...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...ears all the weight of mountains...On this last day of light...Out of its lair

The strangeness of awakening...e first proud beams of light...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...At our atmospheric skies...Hymns of loss are heard...Praising the last of days...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...ears all the weight of mountains...On this last day of light...Out of its lair

Dawn of light lying between...Chased amid fusions of wonder...Colored in pastures of chance... leaves cast spells of challenge...Dawn of thought transferred...Of days under searchin...Revealing corridors of time provoking memo...A picture of distance...Dawn of our power we amuse...Dawn of love sent within us...Colors of awakening among the... follow, only tunes of a different age...For the freedom of life everlasting...dered for the light of day...hrough the curtains of liquid into sun...orld had filled the skies... through the rhythm of moving slowly... over glory to sons of old fighters past... over glory to sons of old fighters past...part chased flowers of the dark and lights...Of songs to follow and...And know of cast round, you seekers of the truth

The strangeness of awakening...e first proud beams of light...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...At our atmospheric skies...Hymns of loss are heard...Praising the last of days...The dawn will never come...The charge of cosmos...ears all the weight of mountains...On this last day of light...Out of its lair

On days of gray ...You are blue skies ...You're my blue skies ...Seems the dark has no end ...we walk on in light of the truth

Before the hours of doom approaching li...Before the hour of doom's approaching ...And the dark gods awaken into th... the flowing course of time a greater hono...found on the shores of my country...Matching gold of the sky...gain after the ring of fire...ind this is the end of violence...ain after the reign of terror ...The skies are proclaiming the...wind after the ring of fire ...The moment of never on this froze...ain after the reign of terror ... recover the garden of life ...wind after the ring of fire ...The bond of the goddess guards ...wind after the ring of fire ...The skies are proclaiming the...ind after the reign of terrord ...e inside us on this dawn of night ... arrive, the cracks of doom roll by ...Under the spell of darkness or light ...Guide the rings of the sun, now we are...ory in the sunlight of union above and bel...Sacrosanct lords of the skies, revere the queen of remorse ...Wielding the signs of grace, the signs of faith ...ry, in the sunlight of union we stand!

Lost in a cold dark garden alone ...sweet blossom bloom of madness ...Skies filled with savage ...Like the dawn of creation ...A day of confronting reality...That dark satin veil, pierced...Fiery coals of desire ...Like the eye of God watching ...The dark satin veil pierced ... as thin as the web of a spider

l me what you think of me...l me what you think of me...s me is the thought of my own...The thought of you just reeks with...heart is the symbol of the trinity...m floating in a sea of doubt when it comes...seems as though all of my thoughts are now...hit it with a stick of bamboo...I grin as the era of the selfish fades... I'm looking at the skies through a pair of dark shades

Through the lands of the slain ...Through the dark night and through t..., raise the cannons of war... ...Of the ones who stands...From the victims of life and of war ...Through the dark night and through t..., raise the cannons of war... ...No more hope of freedom ...The dawn of a new day ...As hatred fills the skies...

Over the moor of mist and through valleys of fate...Of re-emerged figments of imagination...In the pearly gates of dawn...On the astral feed of minds... steals the thought of man...In the wake of man we see...Enhance the value of life...d words on the page of man...In the presence of the moon...Tells a story of a world...Legend tells of a yesterworld...A dream scape of strange light...Transcendence of the soul...All by the sign of the moon... burn in the errors of our ways...oise, and the stars of silver are twinklin...ons fallen from the skies...Like the flow of a stream...eep is just a shape of destiny...Weak sunlight of dawns to come,...ning in a landscape of dreams...Landscape of my dreams...Dim reflections of the pale...A shade of gray in