The words of vengeance and revenge ...The Gods have watched him day and night ...g through this land of no return ...A sword in his hand.And his eyes they burn ...Through the woods and snow ...For the valley of death ...teel at side.Powers of thunder ...The Gods with me ride ...ere this world ends and the shadows begins ... my Sword.Forget in fire and ice ...Come out of darkness,you best of Hel,face me ...Out on this field of moonlit snow ...And watch your four eye...This is a moment of glory or death... ...ng my sword.May the Gods be with me ...gh the vast portals of Hel ...And the dead beast`s wo... my Father was told of a hall way above th

I am the god of slander ...n among the highest gods ...I take the forms of many ...I am the reason of betrayal ...These are not deeds of evil ...I am the god of slander ...Mockery is my state of being ...God of slander ...In the end of day I'll lead my children by fire and ice ...art chaos among the gods

ou who see the past and all to be ...ee one eyed old man.Of yee our elders told...ave been since land and sky was one ...And if you really knows...About the future and some of the past. ...And you thirst fo knowl...who treads the road of pain. ...And this very night you...And the gods have told me to tea...I possess and know. ...And hough me eye no lon...d held out in front of me, ...And I see you riding up...Which the speed of the winds and endurance unold ...And you wield a sword of steel forget in fire an ice. ...And the cry of a warrior you sound...And victory is in our e

iry safe inside the fire ...Inside the fire ...And they'll torment her...And no more gods ...Under the ice you will believe ...Under the ice you will be free ...And no more gods ...It's all dead and gone ...And still the tyrant's ...King of terror ...And no more gods ...Under the ice you will believe ...Under the ice you will be free ...And no more gods ...Just get out of my way ...And no more gods ...Under the ice you will believe ...Under the ice you will be free ...And no more gods ...Under the ice you will be free ...And no more gods ...And no more gods

Slick as grease and cold as ice ...In this age of utter madness ...And ending life before ...ies are both bought and sold ...Blaze of glory and crucifix ...TV-preachers and dirty tricks ...Beware of the dagger ...the twilight if the gods ...And legislation protect...And he who was wrong bu...Even the gods of countless religions...Of degeneration becaus...Run from this fire ...the twilight if the gods ...(Twilight of the gods) [Repeat:

ll some information and ressurect you ...from the mentality of fool in this. ...We come away and chop the heads of these snakes ...eachin a high state of nirvana ...But want to chop and imitate ...Hand picked Gods ...reakin from bondage and white garments ...Watch the Gods be real ...What makes rain and hail, snow and earthquakes? ...ught girls was made of sugar and spices ...And splatter your gall ...ar beyond the stars of William Shatner ... deport on my speed of thought ...Isle of the King ...iac barbarian, sort of Romanian ...ve stepper grandson of Nefar ...The rest of ya'll heffers, thim...c when I wreck shit and smile ... till your air drip of snot ...First encounter of Hell, is facin Grym...And barb wire, steel me... issue for invasion of your brain tissue ...And have the whole worl...r lyrics be on face and astrophysics ...e mic like Brooklyn fire hydrants in the sum...Of ice, fire, and water ...With the type of poem ...I'm better than all of that!

run from the sound of rowing oars ...Out of the mist ...agon's head is grim and red ... gift to the mighty Gods ...lds are raised, the Gods are praised ...The legend tells of a man that fell ...From grace of his baptised king ...rned that's met his fire ...es burn with flames of ice ...To take the lives of the deceitful ones ...To tell of meeting his fire

Born unto fire and passion ...Rebellion and rage were all she k...Staring boldly at fire ...with majestic eyes of ice ...ting for the honour of her countrymen ...Adventure now a way of life ...a call from the gods and the hunt goes on ...each village and land on his way ...with her weaponry and skill full mode ...stand by and watch her victory ...ting for the honour of her countrymen ...Staring boldly at fire ...with majestic eyes of ice ...ting for the honour of her countrymen

White hair and red eyes ...the king of the island ...Elric of Melnibon ...he's ruled by the gods ...the scale of the universe ...Before the end of the fire his yourney starts ...he's the Saviour of our time ... dark sword cold as ice ...for the soul of everyone ...And time ? time is stan...Hail to the king of Melnibon ...he's the Saviour of our time ...blade of dark will rise ...gods devine

I hate your Gods people who breed on...nd believe us Chord of Souls ...nd between us Chord of Souls ...And I hate your country, And I hate your world ...I hate your Gods people who breed on...Lord of Souls ...nd between us chord of souls

"My line of work is considered ...And there are others, t...Ammo and artillery, clock a ...attery, for assault and battery ...y colors the silver and black ...m rules on my shirt and I'm deep in this ga...mber, I'm strizzled and sacked and saucy off smack ...Ammunition and big faces mothafuck...Nickatine and Saafir, Sizzaline i...Walked out of court doin major br...Hot heavy and ready ...Write to the gods like it's legendary...heck it, load me up and then cock me back ...I ain't one of these bitch ass nig... be high that ain't fire that you spittin ...ke crook get cooked and burnt ...And baked the fuck up i...I ain't one of these bitch ass nig... be high that ain't fire that you spittin ...ke crook get cooked and burnt ...And baked the fuck up i...ma leave this nigga ice dripping ...And mothafuckas get dee...under the Astroturf of some shit ...And stab your ass in a

And ride with us young ...with the angels of the night. ...And join with us please...Breakfast with the gods. Night angels serve...with ice-bound majesty. ...in a cup of silver liquid fire. ...and light the old Valha...of Thor's trusty hand ...in the desolation of Valhalla. ...And join with us please

I know a lot of times, it seems lik... always keep faith, and always look forward...u got the attention of all the fellas so t...get your first car, and make doe ...ot a part time job, and the man callin your...16 and getting hit this dr...And it's ...You turn no fire till you lies, tell...ake, child killin's and rape ...My harts lyrics and my spirits through you body and soul ...le weed smoke, time and thought ... you, about my life and what I been through...st friend, to drugs and gats ...y lady but your son and I was runnin the bl...I went hot summers and cold winters, wit no dinner and-a ...Freezer full of ice ain't nothin nice ...And I never cream in my...I had to work and run wit it, have fu...Mini battles and war stories, bitche...ev' cause he payed, and plus he from the ya...do the unbeliveable and talk the sweatest g...And see more doe then s...And I ain't tryin to ge

within the confines of Grimm's Hold Sanita...ition to Tiahuanaco and the Peruvian jungle I shall duly tell him of the catalyst which compelled me to those cursed black vaults in ancient Ur, should Hildebrandt allow me another visit. Yes... Giza, Karnak, Thebes... I see them now once more! In the grip of a waking dream, I walk those restless sands again. Egypt... here my journey began, and here I took the first steps towards destiny... and damnation. ...er In The Catacombs Of Ur") ...peditionary journal of Doctor Ignatius X. ...amnably oppressive, and all day the omnipresent sand has been whipped up by an impudent wind, making progress all the more difficult. At dawn, I pinpointed the location of the Great Pyramid's secret chamber which my old friend Professor Caleb Blackthorne and his benefactor Lord Blakiston had discovered several months previously, but ingress to its concealed depths was denied me by a partial collapse of the age old edifice's stone ceiling. Excavation is evidently impossible, lest more of the mighty tomb come crashing down about us. At any rate, Blackthorne has studied the incredible inscriptions within that hidden alcove exhaustively, and in truth my own interests lie elsewhere in this desolate sand-flayed landscape. The traditionalists believe that, in keeping with Egyptian tenets, only mundane things such as new air shafts and ever more ornate sarcophagi are yet to be discovered deep within the tunnel networks of these cyclopean monuments. Feh! If only they knew the true extent of this great cosmic puzzle! They are as fools who view a tapestry in a darkened room by the light of only one candle, seeing only small sections illuminated one by one, and refusing to recognize or connect the darkened and unseen areas to the...udied the alignment of Cheops, Chefren and Mykerinos. It is as I suspected. Tomorrow, I leave the the imperious and hoary mausoleum of Khufu and seek answers within the Great Temple of Karnak... ...im chthonic deities of the ancient world were once offered solemnly beneath the stygian skies of this sweltering place, I wonder? What sublime power awaits the aspirant, the querent who dares seek answers in those shadowed places where men of lesser fortitude fear to gaze? Blackthorne often berates me for what he calls my preoccupation with the arcane, the occult, the sinistrous lore of the chthonic... he insists no good will come of such delving into nighted realms. Ha! The path to elucidation is seldom devoid of thorns, the road to knowledge rarely free of perils! I seek enlightenment, and by the erudite tongue of Herodotus, I may have found it! Ancient tradition of this land has long spoken of strange flashes of light emanating from the depths of pyramid passages and temple catacombs. Over a thousand years ago the Arabs wrote of the transient walls and hidden chambers of these monuments; of secret doors moved by an unseen force and of implacable sentries who guarded the secrets of the temples with dour tenacity. What I found this evening gives credence to all that and more. Is the lore which I discovered carved into the ancient stone of Karnak's temple the next fragment of the cryptic conundrum which I have dedicated my life to solving? The Coptic papyrus states that, upon the walls of the pyramids and the temples were inscribed the mysteries of science, astronomy, geometry and physics; inscriptions of unknown peoples and lost civilizations whose lore was carved into the stone to preserve it from the ravages of the great deluge. The surviving knowledge of long forgotten ante...eeding the warnings of his priests, erected certain repositories of long forgotten knowledge to withstand first a great flood, and then an all-consuming fire which was prophesied would come from the sky. Masoudi, in the tenth century, described automata; titanic guardians of stone and metal which were placed to guard the treasures and the entombed lore, and which were tasked to destroy all those deemed unworthy, all those who dared enter the chambers unbidden. I see them! The hoary sentinels of Karnak unfettered! Rising from their sandy tombs to smite the intruder, the raider and the interloper with righteous fury! And what is this... was there once a glimmer of life within the sightless stone eyes of the Theban guardian...The alignment of Cheops, Chefren and Mykerinos revealed,... the erudite tongue of Herodotus, I have f...ehold the Sentinels of Karnak! ...now the true nature of that knowledge which was revealed to me deep within the shadowed confines of Karnak's timeless temple. Telluric energy, harnessed by the ancients... triggered by lunar rays and solar radiation, channeled to impart static charges to rock strata and lines of natural power running through the earth. Neuro-electric energy generated, developed, creating light, separating inertia from gravity! And what more? The fourth state of matter, forged countless millennia ago in the hearts of burning stars... fettered, channeled, for creation and destruction! The secret of the great monuments of the ancients! Yes, secrets... answers. A rogue celestial body passes inside the orbit of the moon, becoming a captive of the earth's gravitational field. The world tilts upon its axis, its revolution slows, the planet shifts farther from its parent star... one of many such cataclysms. Asteroid strikes, floods, firestorms, the sky swathed in a veil of darkness through which the sun's light cannot pass, great ice-ages enshrouding the globe. And what is this? The forces of evil, of chaos... servitors of the sinister gods of the universe... manifesting upon the tellurian sphere? What dire agents of malignity were unleashed upon mankind? Bringers of carnage and destruction, pestilence and decay! The Z'xulth!...ule, utopian Atland and its enduring legacy. Fragments, memories... descendants... the Incas, the Aztecs, the Maya, the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Britons, the Frisians, the ancient Sumerians. Yes, it is clear to me, like a diamond worked to perfection in the skilled hands of a master craftsman. The sigils and glyphs I beheld carved into the ancient stone of Karnak (which I somehow understood implicitly), the visions I experienced within the temple, it is all quite clearly compelling me to the next stage in my grand voyage of enlightenment. According to the inscriptions, the truth, the key, awaits me within the ziggurats of ancient Sumeria. I hear the call of the ancients, beckoning me to that aeon-veiled place across the unforgiving sands. We shall depart at once. I feel sure I shall find that which I seek between the two rivers, at the place of the seven cities. Yes, I shall surely meet my destiny within the mystery-haunted catacombs of ancient Ur... ...(From the pyramids of Egypt, to the ziggurats of Sumeria, my grand journey of enlightenment must ...The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur: ...ken to the warnings of the Ancients... tread softly those sacred and unforgiving sands. Do not break the seal of the seventh city! ...The Chief Cultist of Ur: ...The lore of Babylon inscribed i...Glyphs and sigils now compell ...am, I hear the call of the Ancients. I shall find that which I seek between the two rivers, at the place of the seven cities... in the Catacombs of Ur! ...(For the outcome of Doctor Ignatius Stone's expedition to Ur, see "The Dreamer In The Catacombs Of Ur" on the fifth Ba

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 ...Episode VIII: And Lo, When The Imperium Marches Against 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) ...he Great Rebellions and the Dissolution of the Imperium ...nbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisades of Gul-Kothoth) ...And so the mighty and 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 this awesome force ranged against them and shuddered, not with fear, but with an awful and night-cold anticipa...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...THE EMPEROR KOORD: And yet I am vexed, for as you well know, the sorcerous emmisary I despatched 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 renowned walls! The Vyrgothian Alliance shall crumble when these gates are breached, and the Over-King himse...t the final chapter of our legend be writt...An age of fire, sword and shield, ...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, the Sword and the Ring! ...hapter 12: The Fall of Gul-Kothoth ...And so it was that a terrible and inestimable carnage was unleashed 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 exchanged by the combatants, isolated skirmishes raging upon the ramparts, men blade to blade and clarions bellowing embattled defiance. For seemingly inumerable hours the sanguineous battle raged, with no quarter asked nor given between the bitter ancestral foes. And the gates held firm...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 surged into the Vyrgothian Alliance's last and most renowned stron...And it was at that fate-steeped instant that an army of five score and ten, bearing the Obsidian Crown, arrived upon the field of battle. ...ER: By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus! They come! They come, weilding 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! ...nce, the far-feared and martially renowned Iron Phalanx wheeled to face the newcomers, 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 midnight tide, and stood firm against ...And upon that arid field of war, the sentinels of light and shadow spoke to eachother in tongues dormant since the Third Moon fell burning from the heavens, and not sweet were the ...es poised to clash, and with dusk painting the sky a deep crimson exceeded in its vibrancy only by that bloody rubicund hue which stained the battlefield below it, the Emperor's mage fell, and 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...And lo, there and army of five score and ten, ...Dark magicks and havoc, now red carn...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...S VANE: 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... enough to riposte! And General Vane's mettle may 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...And so, it began... the two pivotal players in the Emperor's plan, the two key figures in the Imperium's contingency, stepped forth to fill their most vital of roles in that grand theatre of carnage which now ran unchecked on the field of battle. ...The Ogre-Mage and the Swordmaster began to utter fearsome words in a tongue which was ancient ere the gleaming stars shifted upon the fathomless 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 stygian void. It wa...And it was in that oddly immeasurable 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