aelun's "Chronicles of Antediluvia", volum...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 Of Ultima Thule) ...Episode IX: The Obsidian Crown Unbound (The Legions of the Imperium Storm the Cloud-Capped Palisades of Gul-Kothoth) ...(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 Palisades of Gul-Kothoth) ...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-Kothoth beheld ...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 as a weapon of unparalleled destru...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: ...An age of fire, sword and shi...The thunder of the battlefield, ...The clarions call, bring down the wall! ...May the Empire's glory neve...The Wizards of Vyrgothia: ... bejewelled circlet 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...nstant that an army of five score 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 us! ...THE EMPEROR KOORD: It is as I have forseen! Be spry, my sorcerous lackey... join the Iron Phalanx in entertaining these latecomers while I prepare a reception worthy of their audacity! ...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 mind like a mid...pon 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 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 Gul-Kothoth...The Imperial War-Skalds: ...Sundered, the gate of the ancient fortress, ... Now breached stand the walls. ... lo, there and army of five score and ten,...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 which sat bitt...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 ancient Gul-Kothoth...nued in: Episode X: The Shadow-King Reborn

Brothers the battle is raging ch...Sing with us the battle hymns into g...Hail to England the sign of the hammer's our guide...ever we're fighting the world side by side...On a crusade the world we bring...Four Kings of Metal, four Metal K...Death to the false ones, dance o...'Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a king...'Till the blood on your hand is the blood of a king...nd, Austria back to the glory of Germany...On a crusade the world we bring...Four Kings of Metal, four Metal K...Death to the false ones, dance o...Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a king...Till the blood on your hand is the blood of a king...Sound the death tone on our m...Spill the blood of my enemies the oath of a friend...Fight the holy war for the crown and the ring...ircles were made by the blood of the kings...Four Kings of Metal, four Metal K...Songs of true metal we will ...Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a king...Till the blood on your hand is the blood of a king...Sound the death tone on our m...Spill the blood of my enemies the oath a friend...Fight the holy war for the crown and the ring...ircles were made by the blood of the kings...Four Kings of Metal, four Metal K...Death to the false ones, dance o...Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a King...Till the blood on your hand is the blood of a King...Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a King...Till the blood on your hand is the blood of a King...Till the blood on your sword is the blood of a King...Blood of a King, blood of a King

What the fuck, what what wha...I represent the legendary fifth dyn...lated with this hit the whole world awaited...Black thought, the Doug E. most war vete-ran...Crown ruler, soul controller of this lyrical land... my complex pattern of speech is like sex...I mastered the art of makin' you snap the necks...en you fuckin' with the roots...y escape on through the 'net...Straight from the old school, aiyyo r...When you grip the mic it's like c'mon... on you once inside the paint...Yo we drop the funk, and do the shit...like whoever demand the answer...What's the cure for this hip-h...To this avalanche of black snow, rap flo...thinkin' mo', we at the brink of war...With knowledge of yourself, then you're through the first door...So what you think the roots get the world respect for?...The splendid authentic ...dwell, that's where the bomb fell...Explodin' from the imperial en-sem-ble...From the ven-ue to the avenue...Represent the legendary fifth dyn...Represent the legendary with nutt...King of my city, runnin' th...nt, that's if we at war...Runnin' up the steps and lookin' f...Psych, the jury, they're still...I got half of they kids, tied up ...Represent the legendary fifth dyn...Represent the legendary fifth dyn...Represent the legendary fifth kna

ight, a wolf adores the moon...The vanguard of hell is coming soon...The Devil touched the cradle, God gets hi...Son of Satan's coming, to free all the slaves...He grew in a womb of a hell possessed wh...o be a king to give the badness war...Adrian's taking the crown...ance to burn you to the bone...Bodies of the racists are decaying in the sun...er becomes a victim of his power and his h...He's the new faith, the Saviour to the weak...ur oppression, he's the freedom you seek...Adrian's taking the crown...ight, a wolf adores the moon...The vanguard of hell is coming soon...The Devil touched the cradle, God gets hi...Son of Satan's coming, to free all the slaves...He grew in a womb of a hell possessed wh...o be a king to give the badness war...Adrian's taking the crown...Adrian, son of Satan...Adrian, son of Satan...pyright : Lyrics © The Bicycle Music Compa

Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Ain't gonna study war no more. ...I ain't gonna study war no more, ...I ain't gonna study war no more, ...Study war no more. ...I ain't gonna study war no more, ...I ain't gonna study war no more, ...Study war no more. ...a stick my sword in the golden sand; ...Down By the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...a stick my sword in the golden sand ...Down by the riverside ...Gonna study war no more. ...Down By the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...white robe; Down by the riverside ...Gonna study war no more. ...arry crown; Down By the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Down by the riverside ...Gonna study war no more. ...Gonna talk with the Prince of Peace; ... shake hands around the world;

The roughest toughest bumboclaat bad man from out of Jamaica...ck we move yuh head crown...From a war man a freak...Start war...k fi move your head crown...k we move your head crown...Dem a try take me crown...t we move your head crown

p-Hop been dead, we the reason it died ...'t see ourselves as the boss ...The Jewish stick togeth...When they crown you - and you rise ...Now some of these new rappers g...e a Daddy Kane line the fastest ...Some of you new rappers, I ... anythin' to get in the game, mixtapes, you...ossed in a pit full of unfortunate vocalis...in' different parts of Nautilus ...Still came five on the charts with zero au...The lane was open and y...When they crown you - and you rise ...Now niggaz got the studio poppin', it'...The live-in-the-park sound, versus the studio state of art sound ...We on the charts now; from Br...If I want that or the whole world to peep...kin' his career out of dissin' ...Peace to the strugglin' artists ...When they crown you - and you rise

el a phoenix inside of me,...I am ready for the road less traveled,...Standing on the front line when the bombs start to fall...I can see the Heavens,...But I still hear the flames calling out ...I can see the writing on the wall,...At the end of it all,...light that's inside of me,...ng fast into a bolt of lightning,...ne spark will shock the world,... strength to handle the pressure,...But that's the price...Standing on the front line when the bombs start to fall...I can see the Heavens,...But I still hear the flames calling out ...I can see the writing on the wall,...At the end of it all,...At the end, at the end,...Heavy is the head that wears the crown, ...Don't let the greatness get you d...Heavy is the head that wears the crown, ...Don't let the greatness get you d...I can see the writing on the wall,...At the end of it all,...I can see the writing on the wall,...At the end of it all,...At the end, at the end,...At the end, at the end,

during the war that took place in ...the brightest of the star lost his precious crown ...son of dawn lost the crown in the end. ...searching it in the sky and the earth. ...it's the cup of graal they will fin...it's the crown of the star from the sky. ...ts bring it back to the king. ...emerald crown. ...visit the interior of the earth ... purifying you find the stone. ...find the crown of lucifer, ...watch the glare of emerald ...and drink the wine of the graal ...roses of the venus star ...and dewy drops of emerald ...is the way to illuminate ...the secret path of achmardi.

For a moment of bliss ...In the passion ...The spirit's left alone...Swept away with the tide ...(Swept away with the tide) ...Through the holes in my hands ...(Through the holes in my hands) ...Crown of thorns at my side ...(Crown of thorns ...Drawing lines in the sand ...You can hear the virgin weeping ...For the savior of your will ...Your castles in the air ...And the fantasies you're se...Are the crosses you bear ...Swept away with the tide ...(Swept away with the tide) ...Through the holes in my hands ...(Through the holes in my hands y...Crown of thorns at my side ...(Crown of thorns at my side) ...Drawing lines in the sand ...Have supper with the aliens ...And fight the war alone ...Enlist the den of thieves ...In the stream of consciousness ...In the wreckage of our wake ...For the hope we couldn't sa...The anguish we survive ...And the mysteries we nurtur...Are the fabrics of our lives ...Swept away with the tide ...Through the holes in my hands ...(Through the holes ...Crown of thorns at my side ...(Crown of thorns at my side y...Drawing lines in the sand

The great silent mirror...Under the stars and the moon ...Sounds of galloping horses ...On clouds of lightning and thund...To scorch the earth for many gene...Called the holy war ...A white horse on the clouds of death ...A red war horse to end all wa...The doctrine of hatred ...The first born of the dead ...A crown rider with arrows a...Lakes come from the one called death ...Blessed are the dead ...A white horse on the bowels of death ...A red war horse to end all wa...The synagogue of Satan ...The first born of the dead ...A crown rider with arrows a...Lakes come from the one called death ...Blessed are the dead

ight, a wolf adores the moon...The vanguard of hell is coming soon...The devil touched the cradle, god gets hi...Son of Satan's coming, to free all the slaves...He grew in a womb of a hell possessed wh...o be a king to give the badness war...Adrian's taking the crown...nce, to burn you to the bone...Bodies of the racists are decaying in the sun...er becomes a victim of his power and his h...He's the new faith, the savior to the weak...ur oppression, he's the freedom you seek...Adrian's taking the crown...Adrian, son of Satan...Adrian, son of Satan...pyright : Lyrics © The Bicycle Music Compa

And Father Time was the blame...He ain't spittin' the same...When I walk in the room...d to kick me out in the rain...I'm beyond the gold grills...I elevated the game...Launched the greatest label...In the history of rap...It's time for war...It's time for war...It's time for war...It's time for war (Uh, yeah)...It's time for war...It's time for war...It's time for war...It's time for war (Check it)...It's time for war...I'm back from the dead... hunger deep inside of me...All the blood that I shed...I have swallowed the bread...You see, I'm the undisputed...King of all hip hop...And switched the style around...Some of y'all didn't pick up the phone...And this is the beginning...Of a new era in rap...LL Cool J, feel the impact...The crown looks wrong on your...It's time for war...It's time for war

ell them a you have the healing...w yuh mi stretch to the ceiling...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wa inside a y...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...ell them a you have the healing... make me stretch to the ceiling...True, I'm the doctor I'm nuh actor in the business this is the factor...If a the world to mek yuh sp...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wah inside a ...'Nough wah fi war but mi know mi offi...Mi a wife material the rest a them a just ...Give mi the loving mak mi ball...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalk line...ell them a you have the healing... make me stretch to the ceiling...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wah inside a ...Mi love the dimple wa yuh got...ature rise and in a the bath a wa we drop...y mi wa yuh tell mi the fact

ell them a you have the healing...w yuh mi stretch to the ceiling...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wa inside a y...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...ell them a you have the healing... make me stretch to the ceiling...True, I'm the doctor I'm nuh actor in the business this is the factor...If a the world to mek yuh sp...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalkline...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wah inside a ...'Nough wah fi war but mi know mi offi...Mi a wife material the rest a them a just ...Give mi the loving mak mi ball...road wa tek weh yuh crown...Gi mi the bubble and drew the chalk line...ell them a you have the healing... make me stretch to the ceiling...You are the girl who brought the joy in my world...A love the woman wah inside a ...Mi love the dimple wa yuh got...ature rise and in a the bath a wa we drop...y mi wa yuh tell mi the fact