Bal Sagoth - As The Vortex Illumines The Crystalline Walls Of Kor-Avul-Thaa Lyrics
Kor-Avul-Thaa... finest jewel in the crown of a realm of sublime glory,greatest city in the Middle Kingdoms, mayhap all the world... Its splendidwalls of shimmering crystal could be seen from a hundred leagues distant,kissed by the golden rays of the sun, or caressed by the ethereal fingers of amidnight moon. Its magnificent spires and citadels, built by generations ofkings from the resplendent gifts hewn from the ancient bosom of the sacredCrystal Mountains, had oft' times been the bitter envy of rival emperors, andmany were the sieges which Kor-Avul-Thaa had withstood and repulsed over thecenturies, for powerful sorcerers did weave great spells of protection aboutthe dazzling towers, and none may have passed unbidden through the vastsapphir ean gates of mighty Kor-Avul-Thaa...From the Journals of Sage DaelunThe Oracle of Kor-Avul-Thaa:The sky rent asunder... black-winged devils surge forth from the void...A maelstrom of crimson fire burns above us... what carnage has thou wrought?Not sword, ballistae, nor burning brandCould e'er these walls aspire to breach,Yet now the city's fall is nigh,As elder rites black fiends unleash.High Lord of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation (Keepers of theForbidden Books of the First Cataclysm): By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus, suchancient secrets we discovered within these sinistrous, worm-worn pages,Etched with darksome glyphs and sigils, bound with fearsome spells, Aneldritch tide of stygian sorceries unfettered by the forbidden Tome ofShadows...Now thunderous cataclysm befalls the gleaming Kor-Avul-Thaa (The mysticgate stands open!) The Xytaxehedron held to the stars... the incantationuttered with eager tongues... (What long-shackled powers of the elder darkhave our conjurings loosed?)By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus, the vortex blackens the stars above,A vast plague of amorphous horrors descends to rend with fang and talon,(As with torrents of blood the crystalline walls run red?)And in the glooming chambers of our shadowed sanctum, we wait, half-mad withterror,To reap the slaughterous harvest which we have sown...The Chronicler of the Cataclysm:And beyond the vortex, the churning black waters of the void did disgorge theDwellers in Eternal Shadow,And upon a horde of winged horrors, brandishing swords of ebon flame, theyrode out from the Gate...And a terrible silence fell upon Kor-Avul-Thaa...The Echoes of the Oracle:The sky rent asunder, black winged devils surge forth from the void...A maelstrom of crimson fire burns above us... what carnage has thou wrought?The Chronicler of the Cataclysm:The Chronicles of Time speak of only two other instances when the sky didsplit wide and bleed forth such a torrent of horror as that which assailedKor-Avul-Thaa... One of those times was the fateful eve when the moon burnedblack over ancient Lemuria, as a legion of ravening fiends emerged from theOuter Darkness to visit catastrophe upon that realm... And the other... theother manifestation of such a staggering cosmic evil is recorded only in theancient Scrolls of the Third Circle, a dark collectio n of terrifyingblasphemies which was believed to have been burned by the Order of Kl'aa atroughly the same time as the first Tome of Shadows was discovered deep withinthe Black Pyramid... These scrolls speak disturbingly of visitations to ourearth by creatures from a terrible place known as the Black Galaxy...creatures which were able to span the vast expanses of time and spaceseparating our world from theirs in their great dark chariots, bringingpestilence and carnage whenever they set foot upon the earth... And yet, thescrolls also speak of the Others, known by some ancient, long-dead tribes asthe Travelling Ones... beings who did stand against the denizens of the BlackGalaxy and wage war with them across the nighted void. It is said that t heTravelling Ones sailed the star-seas in huge silvern spheres ringed with amyriad pulsing lights, and that in a great battle they drove their shadowyfoes back to the Black Galaxy... but at a great cost... The Travelling Oneswere drained of their cos mic powers and cast into a deep slumber, and somesay that they remain here still, hidden in mysterious, secret places, awaitingthe time of their reawakening. It was ascertained by those mages who found theTome of Shadows that certain gateways existed linking our world and the BlackGalaxy, just as maps carved into the stone walls of ancient tombs displayedthe pathway to the terrifying realm through the eternal blackness of thevoid... and within the sinister pages of the dread book were the arcane keys... the rites to open wide these gates and give the dark wanderers beyondthe freedom to roam the earth once again... And the darkling lords did descendupon Kor-Avul-Thaa to claim their splendid prize, and enthrone themselveswithin the glittering walls...The Echoes of the Oracle:Not sword, ballistae, nor burning brandCould e'er these walls aspire to breach,Yet now the city's fall is nigh,As elder rites black fiends unleash...The Brotherhood:By Klatrymadon and Zuranthus, in Kor-Avuk-Thaa, darkness reigns eternal...Nevermore shall the city glimmer, for now the crystalline walls gleam black...Ever black...And so it was that the bedazzling and splendid Kor-Avul-Thaa did becomethe City of Shadows, a sinister fortress of elder fiends and fearsome beasts,unleashed by the meddlings of mortals aspiring to dark thresholds of forbiddenknowledge and arcane powe r, a nightmare city shunned and feared by all. Andnot since the sinking of Atlantis was the fall of a realm so sorelylamented...From the Journals of Sage Daelun
