The world ends without a tragedy Time is melting into history The sky is falling Voices crying out in desperation Here them calling Everybody, save yourself The world plays its angered sy...

golden leaves fall in the wind, ...'Out of the Great Sea to Middle-earth I am come. ...In this place I will abide, and my heirs, unto the ending of the world'

The war is passed ...You should fetch the plans ...The [ ], the [ ] you see ...Like the sun over the closing door ...aroline, walks down the steps ...So feel the pain, feel the pain ...The Heathen, the Heathen ...Like the Heathen, the Heathen ...From the crowd "Come Children of the Called" ...And in the sect, they hurry around the closing door ...So feel the pain, feel the pain ...The Heathen, the Heathen ...Like the Heathen, the Heathen ...The Heathen... ...Like the Heathen ...Like the Heathen ...God look out for the Heathen ...The Heathen... ...Across the farthest fields ...The night skies are daw...There's a girl in a green dress ...She's huddled by the girl who's crying in the red dress ...Hunger for life in this dying dying ag...Back in Gehenna ...All great plains of the Earth ...Now gather on the wrecked land ...From these horsemen in iron ...You've all turned up ...Now the atmosphere ...The Nephilim ...The time's now happened...And the captured in a mess ...The girl in the shawl ...Crashes to the floor ...Crying: "Open the gates ...To the Devils' hordes" ...See the woman thrive ...In the blood from Heaven ...Burn in banished fire ...See the bloody fire ...Centred by the arts ...Now open up the ground ...See the woman thrive ...In the blood from Heaven ...Burn in banished fire ...See the bloody fire

I learned the golden rule ...am I worth on God's great earth ... am I worth here on earth ...am I worth on God's great earth ...uld feature my face all over the place ...For all the good thing I do ...I might get my name in the hall of fame ...Or even in the book of who's who ...am I worth on God's great earth ... am I worth here on earth ...am I worth on God's great earth

I learned the golden rule ...am I worth on God's great earth ... am I worth here on earth ...am I worth on God's great earth ...uld feature my face all over the place ...For all the good thing I do ...I might get my name in the hall of fame ...Or even in the book of who's who ...am I worth on God's great earth ... am I worth here on earth ...am I worth on God's great earth

In a very distant future, the last generation of planet earth ...one could be the father, except for ...ild was a gift from the skies of life-divin...The rivers will run, brought to life by the sun, the circle is ... life, destined for all eternity. ...Hail the king! ...chosen not to drain the godsent child, a gi...the skies of life divin...The offspring of the unknown gods beautifies the aura of this ...So they succeed in their quest for con...The knowledge of the everlasting, never-...Cursed to be walkin in the shadows of death fo...more fears for what the years will bring. ...Rebuild the shattered dream. ...Oh, it's a token, the circle is broken. ...slowly fell down to the ...side dried her out. The king's beloved is n...The chosen one felt the time had come to show the world what ...fe, a sacred moment in time, when joy and ...In search for answers ...She was the one worth dying for...Her destiny is in my hands. ...Oh, does she hold the power, is she a blessing from the skies? ...Is this the answer to where the secret lies. ...And in her eyes I see a li...ns have changed and the king is old and wea...The princess has come of age, but still the gift of life they ...In the chambers of crimson...In this vault of souls...The future lies in the hands of the shrewd (Harmony: An...or the earth will die in solitude. ...The darkest night the enchanted skies were united in a storm. ...Unholiness and all that's unblessed appeared in another form. ...ike a raging plague all across the land all women gave birth ...Raped by the wind and forced to bring life to the hundred ...The unholy ones will give strength for all evil to live and ...the fires of death burn...The time has come for the king to die. (Lead ...e world is mourning the loss of their king....In sorrow a new day da...Now the princess is their e...A procession to the chambers where they...Can you hear the angel of sadness si...The princess is too you...In search for such a m...h on desert ground, the incarnation of a king in ...d king, set to rule in the new empire. ...n a mission to save the forsaken ones and to re-light the ...The crowd was confused and divided in two, a battle was a...Set to capture the liar, to forever en...were marching on to the battlefield to set ...The sand absords the colour of dawn. ...The years went by under a blood-red sky, the king still sup- ...press the rebellian lie. ...He is the one, the self-chosen son, master of the throne he ...The sacred child awaken...And the earth was shaking, and the people prayed for t...The light of day is flo...Oh, the sun is stolen. ...A dark formation in the skies. ...Unites the powers in her eyes. ...Her soul's inhaling all the living light. ...Bringing on the dark, eternal night...Gathering evil in all its might. ...Hail, hail the queen! ...She is queen alone in the human zone, dethroned the king unpure. ...The masses were assured...Draining the liar in the crimson water. ...Scream in silence, no one sha...The unroyal king, surrended to the child of life divin...ss youth... amazed, the world was raging. ...A shattered race in this broken land th... like an order from the gods. ...The queen and all the children gathered around the chambers ...where the elder ones are join...in sleep profound. ...In wrath she crush the tanks of crystal gl...The crimson water gushed on to the ground in the unholy mace- ...[She drinks the life-blood from the feebled man. ...es, soul-drained by the vrigin queen. ...Finally given the pleasure to die. ...She aligns the hate inside their h...ghts will make sure all life departs. ...Soon comes the end of all, she wat..."The earth shall fall. The eternal curse is cast on the sands ...se your power. Show the human race you are the ... destroy themselves in hopelessness. ...The people worshiped th...tened and swallowed all her lies. ..."The times are changing,...All those who died with...to the higher ground. ...Eternal detest from the ones left unblessed...ress was your knife in their hearts. ...In her own conceit, a ...The ones who didn't fol...The end of their own ex...In death they had no b...Despite all the faith in their queen they co...What was the reason for this sac...is gained from this great demise. ...After the ordeal we know she has the powers to decieve us all. ...For the king had showed the...gave birth to the sacred one. ...nd blood, or is she the ...offspring of the unholy ...as chosen to unveil the hidden truth. ...The brave ones were gathered, the strongest were sent to the ...After many moons the troopsreach the temple of their maj...They rtied to find the answer but they wer...of slumper far from the light of day. ...The riddle remained una...The queen could read on...the reason for her miss...The highness writhe in anger, her trust ha...The queen was filled wi...The spirit of their bel...of great importance and trus..."The gift from the gods has come to cover the world in dust. ... forces are closing in to your sanctuary. ...The chosen few were sacrificed for the others life. ...They were the bait, they would seal the soldiers fate. ...ive grave, to break the soldiers spell. ...The forces fell into the abyss, never to ris...Towards the queen the last of the brave ones wandered...The loss of troops forced her powers to release the magic ...The palace controlled by demons is the heart of all evil pos- ...sessed by the queen and her unhol..."If we destroy it, the earth will be ours and it...We'll pray for the gift of breeding. T...it is worth all the blood we may bleed. We must close the gate ...ll capture her soul in the chambers of crimson...-place, we searched the ..., to seek our enemy the one to slay. ...We are the ones, we will not o...sioned servant with great knowledge in her secrets, ... her eyes, they are the root of her inhuman...Then she's just the child you thought s...disconnect all her sources.'" ...But they must seal the entry from where all evil derives. ...Two of the brave ones were sent to distract her while the ...saw her enemies for the last time ...We saw the return of innocence, the symbol of purity we...We carried her to the chambers to forever...And now the reborn earth, blessed with the gift of birth can ...see her in this cage ...They captured all her soldiers and fo

The time has come...Let...My heavenly father) the time has come for ...Babylon the Great, has fallen ...Offsprings of the wicked one, crawlin...less these seeds of the Almighty. ...hostility installed in me) Destination of the infamous (burn eter...less these seeds of the Almighty ...u better recognize, the end is comin' ...all in my bones ...youYou're marked by the ...ourselves good-bye/ The ...bites the dust, couldn't live...', got to learn 'em the lesson/ It's tough,...Caught up in your own web/ And i...ieve it) Can see it in front of your face ...can feel it) I hear all the screamin'/ The vision of killin' u...s wicked ones/ It's the end of the world/ Puttin' us all in a coffin/ But y'all ...road (No!) Death is the only way to go, slo...o get us, split us, all within time/ Armage...geddon (armageddon) The end is comin'(The e...ion rollin' over us in murderous ways ...' do? You gon' live the rest of your life ...o you wan' die with the rest of your life, ...;You better get up, the end is comin'! It's...to be outside when the sun no longer shine... lost/ Fallin' from the ground ...we are freedom from the po-po/ We don't nee...nd I hope you catch the first blow ...vin' much praise to the Lord above me/ No o...e that/ I'm knowin' the difference between ...orever/ Who put you all on that level? 'cause the life ... gonna live forever in the Kingdom Peace ...The Maker; he got somethin' for us/ He gave us life, y'all ...And there shall be great earthquakes ...and the sun becomes as black as sack cloth and the moon as blood. ...And the stars of heaven shall fall unto the earth, even as a fi...en she is shaken of the mighty wind. And the heavens ...the heavens will depart...And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men ...and the ship captains, and the mighty men, and eve...all hide themselves in the dens and in the ...rocks of the mountains. And shall say to the mountain and the rocks, ...us and hide us from the face of him that si...upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb, for the great day

ections from within the confines of Grimm's...n 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... take place before "The Dreamer In The Catacombs Of Ur") ...From the expeditionary journ...The heat here is damnably 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 entirety. ...Working from the geometric calculations which I prepared before our arrival here, I have studied 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......What oblations to the grim 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...dent Surid, heeding 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? Does the silent watcher at Giza even now descend from its granite dias to once more stalk the shifting sands on c...The alignment of Cheops...onic lore concealed in Khufu's imperious m...By the erudite tongue of Herodotus, I have found the answers, ...e secrets inscribed in the ancient Coptic papy...The Pyramid's legacy co...The Theban guardian ris...The Silent Watcher stalks, behold the Sentinels of Karnak...e. I understand 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! ...crets once known by the forgotten peoples... ancient Atlantis... time-lost Lemuria... Hyperborea, Ultima Thule, 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 cat...(From the pyramids of Egypt, to the ziggurats of Sumeria, my grand journey of enlightenment must continue. Praise the Ancients!) ...The Keeper of the Ancient Lore of Ur:...Hearken 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 Gate must not be opened. You dare not awaken the Dreamer! ...The lore of Babylon inscribed in stone as old as Atl...s now compell me to the ziggurats... ...In a waking dream, 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 Bal-Sagoth al

Episode I: The Fall of the Shadow-King ...Episodes II & III: The History of the Great Wars ...Episodes IV-VI: The Rise of the Imperium ...Episode VII: The Quest for the Trinity of Might ... 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 O...Episode IX: The Obsidian Crown Unbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisa...(here recounted on the sixth Bal-Sagoth album; "The Chthonic Chronicles...Episode X: The Shadow-King Reborn ...Episode XI: The Battle of the Nine Armies (The War of the Crown) ...Episode XII: The Great Rebellions and the Dissolution of the Imperium ...The Obsidian Crown Unbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisa...Chapter 11: The Siege Begins ...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 arcane rite known as The Words Which Unfette...ime-worn palisades, the defenders of Gul-Ko...THE EMPEROR KOORD: General Vane, we begin 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. ...hall enjoy watching the Ebon Tiger bloody i...THE EMPEROR KOORD: You should not call in your falcons before the hunt is done, my loyal servitor. Overconfidence 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 the more effective tool...BAALTHUS 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 Mandate se...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 a...BAALTHUS VANE: The Shadow-Sword! The Obsidian Crown! The Ebon Sceptre! 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 himself shall stand before thee in shackles! ...THE EMPEROR KOORD: Indeed. At any rate, I have been blessed with foresight enough to prepare a contingency should the foe fulfil that fearful potential which has been weighing heavy on my mind. But now, the sun rises! Let it begin! Let the final chapter of our legend be written! Give the word! Raze Gul-Kothoth to the ground! ...The Imperial War-Skalds...The thunder of the battlefield, ...The clarions call, bring down the wall! ...May the Empire's glory neve...The Wizards of Vyrgothi... of night, Crown of the Elder King, ...Unfettered at last the Trinity of Might, the Sceptre, the Sword and the Ring! ...Chapter 12: The Fall of Gul-Kothoth... 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. ...At length, 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...re and ten, bearing the Obsidian Crown, arrived upon the field of battle. ...Chapter 13: The Wizards Do Battle ...THE SORCERER: 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 breached... the Black Crown is upon...THE EMPEROR KOORD: It is as I have forseen! Be spry, my sorcerous lackey... join the Iron Phalanx in entertaining these ...THE SORCERER: By your c...At once, 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 mi... 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 words they uttered....Until at last, with the armies 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 Gu...The Imperial War-Skalds...Sundered, the gate of the ancient fortress, ... Now breached stand the walls. ...Behold! The Obsidian Crown. ...Embattled, the wizards, their weap...Untramelled, the circlet, the Prime-Sorcerer slai...The Crown's peerless power, the Emperor's bane, ...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 ...BAALTHUS 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 us! Onward, my Legion! Alpha formation, banners high! Glory to the Emperor! Into the foe! Show them the Tiger's claws! ...THE LEGION: Never quarter, never mercy, never retreat! Praise the Emperor! ...THE EMPEROR KOORD: My sorcerous thrall has fallen, but he has bought us time 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... Speak the Words Which Unfette...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 stygi...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 a...nued in: Episode X: The Shadow-King Reborn

always aiming into the sky. ...'Cause in this great big universe ...We're the stars on earth ...See the man, over there. He...I like the Leo. Check his styl...When the night is good and c...I hear the whisper in my ear ...If you follow the northern Star ...e are stars. 'cause in this great big universe ...We're stars on earth. ...e are stars. 'cause in this great big universe ...You believe in me [Repeat: x4]

Bigger than the air I breathe ...Deeper than the ocean deep ...Higher than the stars above you are...Brighter than the blazing sun ...Louder than the screaming crowd ...Stronger than the power of death you ...In the Heavens on the Earth ...Who can know the mind of God? ...To tell of your great name ...Your love can melt the hardest heart ...our words can bring the dead to life ...terrify yet welcome in ...Your glory echoes all around the world ...In the Heavens on the Earth ...Who can know the mind of God? ...To tell of Your great name ...Take the world ...In the Heavens on the Earth ...Who can know the mind of God? ...To tell of Your great name

Seek ye to invoke the Lord of Dreams, to know His divine will via the dreamscape, to have power over His minions, to unlock the secrets of the deep? Enscribe ye the great seals 'neath the horned moon, when the black stars of the chaosphere spin in trine, prepare ye a supplicant, and offer up olibanum, storax, dictamnus, opium and the incense of Zkauba, in the shadow of the sacred trilithon that overlooks the endless sea... ...The Deep Ones knoweth Thy secret name, the Hydra knoweth Thy l...these words (and by the sign of Kish), I su...Great Old One, hearken to...When the stars align in the Chaosphere, then the time of awakening s...In Thy tower they have...O' great Lord of the Deep, awaken from t...And there fell a great star from the heavens burning, ...Older than the Sphinx or Babylon. ... lord and master of the great abyss! ... know Thy will upon the earth..." ..."Grant me the power to still the waves that I may he..."In his house at R'lyeh...kingdom shall cover the earth!"

ing roads that test the firm nerve ...une or fatal behind the blind curve ...The engine oil purr lig...Speed work through the earth make your motor go ...Identities in crisis and conflict...Grapes of wrath in a shapely glass ... tolerance to raise the tax ...You ain't safe from the danger jack ...ay before they made the map ...at somethings wrong earth's spinnin' outta co... someone get God on the phone ...Between the greenhouse gases and earth spinnin' off its ax...re doin' back flips the natural disasters ...Its like 80 degrees in Alaska you in trouble if u not an...t hard to tell that the conditions is drast...Just turn on the telly check for the news flashin' ...Lost in translation or just lost in traffic ...e I'm workin' while the boss relaxin' ...They sell drugs in the hood but the man he move the medicine ...d its hard to claim the land ...When my great great great grands were shipped...Until we learn that the world don't turn right ,we all oughta the scatter though

Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...Who has chased away the moonbeams? ...ed a blanket across the sky? ...Who will sing in celebration ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ... will put an end to all this sadness? ...Who hears the Earth that cries beneath the burning rain? ...All truth reduced to pi...The accident remains the same ...Great Spirit come Oh - Always the same ...Great Spirit come Mm, sai...obbery and evil and the stealing ...From the body and the mind for the healing ...Of the spirit and the pride and the will and the will of the land ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...other, I must share the seed ...The Fate of Nations and of all their deeds ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...Great Spirit come, Great Spirit come ...The will of the land ...Great Spirit, Great Spirit come ...The will of the land ...Ooh, we'll sing in celebration ...Ooh, we'll sing in celebration ...Ooh, we'll sing in celebration, celebr...Sing in celebration, now now now now Sing in celebration

y lives on a street in a city ...And they're all inside a country wh...n a planet known as Earth. ...And the Earth is a ball full of o...e spinning silently in space. ...And living on that Earth are the plants and the animals ...And also the entire human race. ...It's a great big universe ...And we're all really puny ...About the size of Mickey Roon...and a sun; we think the Earth's the only one ...Across the interstellar voids ...In a panoramic trillio...And still it's all a speck amid a hund...In a galaxy we call the Milky Way. ...les from one end to the other ... just a fraction of the way. ...that stretch across the sky ...And still the universe extends to...YW D : It's a great big universe ...And we're all really puny ...About the size of Mickey Roon

The ending of December ...Somewhere in the forest ...The snow was three feet...A cabin with the light on ...A woman said, "In my home ...You can't bring in your war ...There's peace on Earth on Christmas Eve" ...And they sat by the fire and they talked all night long ...In the middle of a great war it's so hard to...There's peace on Earth on Christmas Eve ...Later in the evening, footsteps in the night ...The woman went outside ...You're welcome here in my home ...There's peace on Earth on Christmas Eve" ...The soldiers all were frightened ...The woman said, "You're...Part of the human race ...Tonight we're all just family ...And they sat by the fire and the talked all night long ...In the middle of a great war, bitter enemies...Found peace on Earth on Christmas Eve