[Part I] Time stands still in these ancient halls Only the castle itself can tell what it keeps Dark are the secrets between these walls hidden in shadows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps ...

Time stands still in these ancient halls Only the castle itself can tell what it keeps Dark are the secrets between these walls Hidden in shadows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps Where is the mo...

Time stands still in these ancient halls Only the castle itself can tell what it keeps Dark are the secrets between these walls Hidden in shadows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps Where is the mo...

Only the castle itself can t...Dark are the secrets between the...ows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps ...Where is the morning ...where is the sun ...the sunrise is gone ...Where is the morning ...where is the sun ...the sunrise is gone ...ck in our time goes the legend ...of a sorcerer so old ...He drank the blood of the virgin to be reborn...So spoke the wise ...of the day when the sorcerer will rise ...The sorcerer is cheating on time...Cursed be the sun ...the women will weep for...In the name of his magic s...Only the cry of a child echoes in the dark ...as the stars are passing b

Only the castle itself can t...Dark are the secrets between the...ows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps...Where is the morning...Where is the sun...The sunrise is gone...Where is the morning...Where is the sun...The sunrise is gone...ck in our time goes the legend...Of a sorcerer so old...He drank the blood of the virgin to be reborn...So spoke the wise...Of the day when the sorcerer will rise...The sorcerer is cheating on time...Cursed be the sun...The women will weep for...In the name of his magic s...Only the cry of a child echoes in the dark...As the stars are passing b

Only the castle itself can t...Dark are the secrets between the...ows of death, while the sorcerer sleeps...Where is the morning...Where is the sun...The sunrise is gone...Where is the morning...Where is the sun...The sunrise is gone...ck in our time goes the legend...Of a sorcerer so old...He drank the blood of the virgin to be reborn...So spoke the wise...Of the day when the sorcerer will rise...The sorcerer is cheating on time...Cursed be the sun...The women will weep for...In the name of his magic s...Only the cry of a child echoes in the dark...As the stars are passing b

h my army is beyond the grave ...My name is Zarok the sorcerer ...Unaware of the magic it beholds ...May the demons fall before ...Like the wheat before the sharpened scythe ...You may have won the battle now ... I shall surely win the war! ...My name is Zarok the sorcerer ...Unaware of the magic it beholds ...Now on to take over the world ...My name is Zarok the sorcerer ...Unaware of the magic it beholds ...My name is Zarok the sorcerer ...Unaware of the magic it beholds

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 s...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 ent...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 slain, ...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 ...LTHUS 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...urable 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

Sorcerer ...Who is the master ...In the middle of a snow dr...Sorcerer ...Show me the high life ...In the middle of your drea...The lady from the mountain

Sorcerer ... Who is the master ... In the middle of a snow dr... Sorcerer ... Show me the high life ...who found lady from the mountains ...who found lady from the mountains ... Lady from the mountains

Sorcerer ...Who is the master ...In the middle of a snow dr...Sorcerer ...Show me the high life ...who found lady from the mountains ...who found lady from the mountains ...Lady from the mountains

Sorcerer ...Who is the master ...In the middle of a snow dr...Sorcerer ...Show me the high life ...who found lady from the mountains ...who found lady from the mountains ...Lady from the mountains

"With the eyes of a fool", he..."You see the state you're in, ...Blind to the dangers and dismay ...That wipe the innocent smile away...From the face of a laughing ...iting till you make the first mistake, ...The Joker then replied,...e you learned it on the way, ...Oh, you are the fool, not I." ...me that if you feel the need, ...I'll get wet but in the sunshine I'll be dr...oth are right" said the sorcerer, ...Though the stars are out, not one of us knows the way

Sorcerer ... Who is the master ... In the middle of a snow dr... Sorcerer ... Show me the high life ...who found lady from the mountains ...who found lady from the mountains ... Lady from the mountains

The battle's lost...The army scattered in d...The king is dead...Who'll be the one to follow?...No man worthy of the throne...Break the spell, you son of a... our land, guide us the way...Give us back the glory we once had...The knights of the round table...To lead the Britains...Berawed, was left the nation...He's the eyes of the war...He's the force of the law...He's the eyes, he's the ears...The sorcerer supreme...He's the eyes of the war...He's the force of the law...He's the eyes, he's the ears...The sorcerer supreme...Must solve the quest of time...The grail is the salvation...Hail the king...Heed the dragon's fire...From the deepest agony...Break the spell, you son of a... our land, guide us the way...Give us back the glory we once had

We hit the dark rooms at the dying of the light...The day beginning with the coming of the night...I list the promises I've given...The world's at forty de...n bottles wait upon the bar-room shelf...And the world takes the rest...Alcohol gives the hand that shakes a ...Alcohol is the scorpion in a lucky...Nothing's the matter...Alcohol is the angel's kiss upon y...Alcohol is the sorcerer's apprenticeship...Alcohol is the parachute that neve...Alcohol is the jacket that you can...Alcohol is the searchlight and a n...Alcohol is the answer at your fing...Alcohol - the casino where you ca...Alcohol gives the hand that shakes a ...Alcohol is the scorpion in a lucky...Alcohol is the jacket that you can...Alcohol is the searchlight and a n...Alcohol is the answer at your fing...Alcohol - the casino where you ca...Alcohol is the angel's kiss upon y...Alcohol is the sorcerer's apprenticeship...Alcohol is the parachute that neve...Alcohol is the jacket that you can...Alcohol is the searchlight and a n...Alcohol is the answer at your fing...Alcohol - the casino where you ca

Yeah!!! That's the beat right there. ...ulating May 5 2000 the nine planets'll be ...The arrival of the prophet in the cockpit ...Of a starship the size of the Hale-Bopp comet ...min soon" poster on the side of it ...dn't get trapped in the Earth's gravity ...s like Chip Fu from the Fu-Schnickens ...Hear the wild wolf growl ...iled for miles from the ground to the clouds ...Interrupt the cipher unannounced and you'll get punched in the mouth ...With the southpaw southern f...ll your lip and get the Bubba shrimp ...Back the tougher shit. What ...When I throw the ????? flask in my h...lammable liquids in the lab explode ...et stabbed with all the flyin glass ...Watch the nigga choke to deat...want to battle?" is the type of question yo...ugher task. See who the fuck'll last ... a solderin iron up the ass ...and is quicker than the eye ...Quicker than the 5 speed Jamiroquai ...I dedicate this to the wise. Dedicate it t...You can't deny the offerin's an offer ... glow with aurora's the spark of light ...With the torque of a Porsche...Look at all the stages I been on. All the songs that I spit o...In the wristbones from gri...Like the nation of Islam wit...ike Vietnam fightin the Vietcong ...re soldiers to even the odds ...ll. Attach y'all to the back of my horse ...d drag y'all across the motherfuckin asphal...aise my arms like a sorcerer and cast a fireball into the ...The raw shit. Call my reinforcements, the four horsemen ... draw a line across the stage pulpit ...Black Rob at two in the mornin ...Call the news, I'll kill you...Fuck the soft shit and fuck ... cause my album was the bomb, shit ...You fuck 'em in the ass, then you give ...an Canibus, where's the evidence? ...You need to shut the fuck up cause your ...You thought you was the only nigga that cou

The song he sang was su...So the saying goes ...Some said he was a sorcerer ...But he was the stealer of souls ...The lord of Chaos reaps...The dream will soon tur...The lord of dragons, El...Waiting for the moment to arrive ...To drink the very essence of sou...e did not know that the sword he'd hold ...The truth, the shadow of the sword will hide ...growing restless of the life he's sown ...owers of sorcery to the test ...The drugs he takes to k...To find the sword and gain more...ake his move before the dream turns sour