Bal Sagoth
The Power Cosmic (1999)
BAL-SAGOTH
Byron: vocals
Jonny Maudling: keyboards
Chris Maudling: guitar
Mark Greenwell: bass
David Mackintosh: drums
Prologue
In 2104, lithological excavations at the Fourth Mars Colony unearthed
an artifact of unknown, seemingly non-human origin; an icosahedron
of an unrecognized, non terrestrial metallic composition, inscribed with
strange, indecipherable sigils and glyphs.
After long months of intense study, epigraphy experts on Earth
ascertained a tenuous parallel between the unknown language on the
icosaherdon and certain obscure Aztec hieroglyphics, and thus were
able to extrapolate a meaning from the unearthly inscriptions.
The translation spoke of a legendary repository of ultimate knowledge
known as the Empyreal Lexicon... a codex of alien origin said to
contain incredible cosmic secrets; arcane words and psionic waves of
power which were the keys to unlocking a network of
cerebral-transferrence portals linking the myriad galaxies of the
multiverse, and also the means to transcend the boundaries of the
space-time continuum, enabling corporeal beings to travel between
dimensions and traverse at will the unknown realms which lay between
universes, tapping into the limitless energies which permeated the
sidereal fabric of the cosmos.
The translation of the Mars icosaherdon also hinted disturbingly at a
great pangalactic conflict which was waged over the possession of the
codex between the mysterious cosmic beings who had appointed
themselves the keepers of the Lexicon and some terrifying shadowy
foe mentioned only fleetingly in the alien text.
The final battle in this cataclysmic power struggle was apparently
fought in Earth's own solar system, and the Keepers of the Lexicon,
their power depleted and teetering on the verge of defeat, shattered
the codex into a myriad shards, scattering the fragments across the
star system in order to prevent the secrets of the Lexicon from falling
into the hands of their darksome nemesis.
According to the Martian artifact, several fragments of the Lexicon
were hidden on the third planet from the sun, the Earth itself.
One fragment was secreted in ancient Atlantis, another in Lemuria.
Further pieces of the cosmic codex fell to earth in Ys and eon-veiled
Mu.
Still further fragments of the Lexicon were said to have been hidden
somewhere beneath the frozen surface of the bleak moon Callisto,
and on the other mysterious orbs Hyperion and Titan.
Lastly, the alien artifact spoke mysteriously of something hidden
beneath the cratered surface of Earth's own Moon.
Ascertaining co-ordinates from the Mars icosahedron, an expedition
embarked immediately from the Epsilon IV Moon Base and began to
excavate the lunar sphere.
Thus was a veiled warning unheeded, and no one could know what to
expect as the machinations of humankind breached the ancient
surface of the moon's Mare Imbrium....
1. The Awakening Of The Stars
With but a gesture of my incorporeal hand I illumine the heart of a
new-born sun,
Revelling as its searing stellar radiance engulfs my ersatz form.
Gazing out across the limitless, stygian cosmos,
I hear the whispered voice of destiny echoing within the solar winds...
No small task, to awaken a universe from slumber.
2. The Voyagers Beneath The Mare Imbrium
Words gleaned from the Crystal of Memory: From a time beyond
time, we come.
We, who once crested the waves of the great astral sea...
and who now must strive again for the domination of the stars...
Entreaty of the Fourth Moon's Keymaster: Awaken... awaken!
Tellurian sphere!
Awaken! Beckon the moon... Tellurian!
Resurgent... beneath the moon... Ephemeral... Dreaming forever...
The Prime Voyager: Dreaming forever!
Zurra: The great lunar seal is broken...
we are free... free to rule!
It is time... it is time!
The Prime Voyager: For more than ten times a thousand years
have we slept beneath these cratered, lifeless stones...
The Lexicon's crystalline core has at last been reactivated...
We have heard the sighing of a thousand souls...
now at last we shall hearken once more to the siren call of the
cosmos.
Zurra: Fools! The Darklight Portal has grown strong.
Only one moon remains in orbit.
The mewling ape-spawned humans have discovered the icosahedron
and the Lexicon's call can once again be heard throughout the stars,
beckoning my ireful brethren to return to the slaughterous embrace of
the fray! We have won! The orb azure is ours... ours to enslave!
The Prime Voyager: You! You who have embraced the insidious
manipulations of the Terran Lords of Chaos...
You who pledged your devotion to our darksome foe...
Be gone from my sight, traitor!
Come, fellowship of weary travellers...
the war is far from won. Cast off the shackles of slumber...
the galaxy whispers our name.
Entreaty of the Fourth Moon's Keymaster: Awaken! Beckon the
moon! Resurgent... enslave the stars!
Zurra: My power is absolute... greater even than that of Angsaar
himself!
I shall crush the Tellurian sphere,
and the flaccid lickspittles who strive in vain to safeguard it!
Yes... The dreaming is over!
Now, let the vengeance begin!
3. The Empyreal Lexicon
The Keeper of the Ninth Shard: So cold are the spaces between the
stars...
For blackened suns are the only legacy of worlds long dead.
Zurra: The key word of Transcendence!
The key word of Transference!
I shall liberate the rightful owners of the Lexicon...
the true rulers of the cosmos!
X'atham-ry'aa! Tha'zai-tonn!
Darker than a score of hells, Wherein astral horrors dwell,
Macrocosmic realms aflame... Prey of fiends that have no name!
X'atham-ry'aa! Tha'zai-tonn!
Darker than a score of hells... Where astral horrors sublime dwell,
Macrocosmic realms aflame... Bow to the gods that have no name!
The Keeper of the Ninth Shard: So cold, at the heart of a frozen star...
Stay thy hand and thy tongue, slave of the Outer Darkness....
Surely you are not foolhardy enough to dare awaken the dire titans of
Z'xulth!
Zurra: Hidden within the blazing core of this sun is that which I seek,
old one.
Do not seek to thwart me,
lest the horrors of oblivion be a balm to your time-addled mind.
Behold the cosmic codex! The tome of the astral abyss!
The Keeper of the Ninth Shard: Such diabolical evil...
sublime macrocosmic malevolence!
Zurra: Fear is the power... Terror is the key!
X'atham-ry'aa... Tha'zai-tonn!
I am replete with sovereign mastery!
The portals to the Outer Darkness yawn wide once more!
They-Who-Lurk-And-Breed-In-Limbo are free!
Kur'oc! Gul-Kor! I have won... bow, yield, kneel! Darken the sun...
Narra, Gorra, Kaasha! I arise... bow, yield, kneel! Parhelion dies...
Narra, Gorra, Kaasha! I can taste the sweet ichors of omni potency
upon my lips...
Let it begin! X'atham-ry'aa j'aiigh! Tha'zai-tonn nax'a-gorrha!
The Keeper of the Ninth Shard: So cold, the spaces between the
stars...
Zurra: X'atham-ry'aa... Tha'zai-tonn...
The Keeper of the Ninth Shard: Such carnage wrought with your
malevolent tongue, dark one...
What unfathomable horrors dwell within the lightless corners of your
cursed soul?
Heed not the voice of the Lexicon... lest its whispers drive you mad!
4. Of Carnage And A Gathering Of The Wolves
Somewhere in the lightless, labyrinthine depths of the Darkenhold
forest...
Voice of the Night: Who are you, wanderer?
Wandering Spirit: I can't remember...
Voice of the Night: The wolves are gathering,
the stars are shifting...
come, join us in the hunt.
The Sylvan Oracle: What arboreal augury be this?
Has the Realm Verdant at
last seen the countenance
of the scourge born of
prophecy?
What is thy scheme,
Zyl-Zyn-Horhuz?
Voice of the Night: Who are you, wanderer?
Wandering Spirit: I have the scent...
Voice of the Night: Gaze into the mists...
feel the earth thawing
beneath your feet. Come,
bring down the prey.
The Sylvan Oracle: The wolves are gathering,
The stars are shifting,
This spectre at the feast,
This nectar of the vine.
Voice of the Night: Look at the power you possess...
See the might which you
wield!
You know who you are, do
you not?
Wandering Spirit: Yes, I am the scythe in the field at summer,
I am the thunder that
awakens the earth,
I am that which gives the
night air its chill.
Voice of the Night: Who are you, wanderer?
Wandering Spirit: I am far beyond the ken of men...
my gaze shall make the
night tremble!
The Sylvan Oracle: So dour a mien, let all night's fulgors flame.
Behold, the ghost of a king
as yet unborn!
He is the scourge, the
thanatos, the cleansing fire,
the purifying storm...
he is the cataclysm given
corporeal form!
Be wary that your progeny
does not consume thee,
Zyl-Zyn-Horhuz... the Voice
of the Night!
Voice of the Night: Who are you, my son?
Wandering Spirit: Father... I am annihilation incarnate!
5. Callisto Rising
Zuranthus: Earthbound, a star falls to my tongue.
Come to me, Hyperion's child... come to me, spawn of Titan.
Condemned Souls of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation:
Callisto rising! Glory ascendant!
Hearken Zuranthus, kin of Klatrymadon...
your brethren are free once more!
The rogue godling, your brother Zurra,
has cast his virulent majesty upon the cosmos once again!
Begot of the thunder... Spellbinder!
Zurra: Break the sidereal seal, brother!
Open the astral portal! Give me the Lexicon...
give me that which is rightfully mine!
Destroy the guardian-light... Kill!
Zuranthus: Earthfall... the firmament weeps for this fallen star.
The cosmic ebb and flow... Behold my splendour, progeny of Titan!
Condemned Souls of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation:
Callisto rising! Goddess ascendant!
Hearken Zuranthus, kin of Klatrymadon...
on a whim you may devour the luminous sentinel
which binds this crystalline fragment of the Lexicon to bleak Callisto...
Empower your renegade sibling...
free our souls! Bestriding the tundra... Mistweaver!
Zurra: Unfetter yourself, brother Zuranthus...
bestow upon me the shard which I seek...
give me my godhead, or I shall condemn your flaccid essence
to a dimension of unparalleled pain! Kill!
Zuranthus: Do not seek to threaten me, wormcast.
My tenure here is preordained...
and I will suffer your arrogance no longer, little brother.
The power of the Lexicon is not destined
to be possessed by one such as you. Be gone!
Klatrymadon: How bewitching... so poignant in the shadow of death.
Where did you send the renegade whelp?
Zuranthus: Far beyond. In this dimension, velocity itself is no longer limited
by the speed of light.
Condemned Souls of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation:
Bipolar nebula! A falling star! The gate yawns wide above eon-veiled Mu...
Zurra: V'aan-ayth'ultaa, No'maal-pha'guus....
Damn you, Zuranthus... You will pay dearly for this outrage,
I swear it by the blackened maw of the sacred Z'xulth!
Zuranthus: Stray not into my darksome embrace,
lest I grind my jaws on your soul.
Condemned Souls of the Brotherhood of Dark Elucidation:
Spare us your wrath, great one, we beg thee.
Begot of the thunder... spellbinder. Callisto Rising!
Zuranthus: Behold my godhood... and pray!
6. The Scourge Of The Fourth Celestial Host
Uatu: They possess power unparalleled...
ageless, remorseless. Without pity or conscience.
Manipulators of evolution on countless worlds.
Gods of the stars... the Celestial Host!
Norrin-Radd: Zenn-la! (My homeworld, denied me by the whims of Galan of Taa!
I vow that another world shall not be taken from me while I live!)
I beseech thee, great ones... spare this insignificant planet... this earth.
The Living Tribunal: Humankind, behold your creators...
behold your destroyers. Arishem, Exitar... Judge and executioner!
Uatu: They who sow the fields of the stars...
They return to reap the evolution harvest.
Arishem, Exitar... Judge and executioner!
The Infinity Watch: Time, space, soul, mind, reality, power...
Norrin-Radd: I am the last scion of Zenn-La,
Never more to embrace Shalla-Bal.
I was born to soar beyond the stars...
Uatu: And lo, the Exterminator,
the Destroyer of Worlds,
the Purifier of Galaxies...
Norrin-Radd: The edge of oblivion beckons...
(the blood of countless billions stains these silvern hands...
but I must... I will endure!)
I am the protector of this world! I wield the Power Cosmic!
(Behold, from the Realm Eternal my ally speeds to lend his might
and the power of his Uru hammer to the fray!)
Arishem, Exitar... Judge and executioner.
I shall scatter your atoms to the four cosmic winds!
The Infinity Watch: Time, space, soul, mind, reality, power.
Hail Arishem! Hail Exitar!
The Star-Gods have returned!
Norrin-Radd: The vast sea of stars stretches into infinity before me...
I am the last scion of Zenn-la, Never more to embrace Shalla-Bal,
I was born to soar beyond the stars.
"Paradise unearned is but a land of shadows."
"The Scourge Of The Fourth Celestial Host" is based on
characters created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
7. Behold, The Armies Of War Descend Screaming From The Heavens!
The Disciples of Zakumakura: Since before mankind hurled himself
squamously from the sea we have awaited
the awakening of great Zakumakura!
Now... the Dragon-King shall at last rise to claim his earthly throne!
Cast your gaze to the firmament and know fear,
for His forces fill the sky!
Behold, the armies of war descend screaming from the heavens!
The Order of Kl'aa: Your legions will fall as wheat before the harvest blade.
The long aeons of tyranny are at an end...
now, let the Ninth Millennium begin.
The Disciples of Zakumakura: The Ritual of Ascendency is complete.
Now is the time for trenchant steel and the massed throng of battle!
Cry havoc! Crush them, kill them, destroy them all!
The Invocation of Zakumakura: Kaiju, Dragos, Gojira! Kaiju, Dragos, Gojira!
The Disciples of Zakumakura: You have lost the game, fools of Kl'aa!
Your attempts to thwart our will have come to naught!
You are guilty of dire crimes against His Ophidian Majesty!
The charge is high treason against the empire...
you will bear this punishment with praise on your lips!
The Invocation of Zakumakura: Zakumakura Es-iaah! Zakumakura As-aaoh!
The Order of Kl'aa: High treason against the empire...
Bah! A thousand curses upon the coils of Zakumakura!
The power of Sentinel Omega shall be brought to bear against you!
The Disciples of Zakumakura: Invoke the Dragon-King...
and let the great serpent rise to devour the world of men!
Hearken... he rises, he rises at last!
Behold the celestial majesty of Great Zakumakura!!
We are all entwined within the coils of the great galactic worm!
The Aspirant to Sentinel Omega's power: Elemental disarray...
chaos beyond the Tellurian cloudscape!
The galaxy burns! I am the receptacle of the ultimate power...
the power of Sentinel Omega...
I am the vessel of his greatness! I am the One!
The Disciples of Zakumakura: The galaxy is their battleground...
the stars are their arena! Let mankind despair in the knowledge
that this day did see an end to his insignificant dominion...
and the birth of a new era of glory for the servitors of the Dragon-King!
Sentinel Omega: I feel it... the omniverse exists within me!
Every molecule in my body is ablaze with cosmic fire!
I have forsaken my humanity forever...
I, who now walk with the gods amongst the endless stars!
8. The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies Of Mu
Zurra: The Callisto shard denied me!
I have been cast across the myriad intersecting tendrils
of the great web of space and time...
And now, I gaze once more upon the orb azure!
I have given proud Atlantis to the sea,
shattered ancient Lemuria beneath my fist,
and razed the arrogant spires of Ys to gleaming rubble...
Now, a crystalline fragment of the Lexicon
awaits me here in this primitive land... this realm of Mu.
The High Priest of Mu: He is here! The one spoken of in prophecy!
The death of all there is!
The Children of the Telluric Nexus shall safeguard
the shard of illumination.
Zurra: This is the end of your world!
I shall remake all creation in my image!
The Chief Cultist of Zurra: You have come, master.
We, your loyal servitors have waited a thousand years
for you to bless us with your divinity!
What is thy bidding, o' mighty and omniscient Zurra?
Zurra: You dare address me?
I was ancient when your ancestors
were naught but protoplasmic slime!
The Chief Cultist of Zurra: In the sweltering swathe of Zurra's sword!
Kill, kill, kill! 'Fore the matchless might
of Zurra's wrath! Die!
The High Priest of Mu: The storm comes.
On the katabatic winds rides ravening doom.
Yasa-mega... Yasa-giga... Yasa-tera!
May Klatrymadon preserve us!
The Keeper of The Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies Of Mu:
And be it known to the Children of the Telluric Nexus,
that the day of the Great Purification is at hand...
as it was written long ago, in the Thirteen Cryptical Prophecies.
Become one with the shard, progeny of the Nexus...
embrace its power... embrace the glory of immolation!
Zurra: Mankind, how ignorant thou art.
Yes, death glides silently on gossamer soft wings,
but her touch is harsh!
The Prime Voyager: Your folly ends here, Zurra!
The Empyreal Lexicon has been made whole...
and its power is lost to you forever!
The foe has been cast back into the Outer Darkness,
but your treachery must not go unpunished!
Submit to our judgement or face eternity in the limbo of Z'xulth!
Zurra: I would sooner suffer damnation a thousand times
than bend the knee to you! You and your sublimely arrogant ilk,
who strode the primordial surface of Pangaea
and watched with disdain as life evolved in the boiling oceans...
You have won nothing! My power is born of Chaos...
it sustains me and courses blackly through my ersatz veins!
Now face the true potency of the power you seek to destroy,
and behold in awe the true nature of the universe!
The High Priest of Mu: Ascent to ecliptic! Mu and Poseidonis!
The Chief Cultist of Zurra: The Emperor commands... Uroboros to rise!
The High Priest of Mu: Ascent to ecliptic! Mu and Poseidonis!
The Chief Cultist of Zurra: The Emperor commands... Uroboros to rise!
The Chief Cultist of Zurra: In the sweltering swathe of Zurra's sword...
kill, kill, kill! 'Fore the matchless might of Zurra's wrath...
die! In the sweltering swathe of Zurra's sword...
die, die, die! 'Fore the matchless might of Zurra's wrath...
(Bless us with your withering touch, o' great one...
may the earth tremble at your tread
and may your ireful gaze bring purifying cataclysm
to the debauched hives of mankind's iniquities!)
Zurra: Ah, the Alpha and the Omega.
As all life was created from Chaos...
so shall it be DESTROYED!!!!!
Epilogue
Xerxes: Such devastation, master...
A mighty civilization destroyed in the blinking of an eye...
decimated by the madness of a rogue demi-god...
Altarus: Indeed, my young apprentice.
Ancient Mu was annihilated utterly...
cast to the same shark-haunted grave as would
one day embrace Atlantis, Lemuria...
and even proud and noble Hyperborea.
Xerxes: And what became of the treacherous one...
the Chaos-dog Zurra?
Altarus: He was consumed by his own darksome power, young Xerxes.
A splinter of his consciousness was returned to the
prison beneath the Mare Imbrium,
while another echo of his being was dispersed
along the filaments of the space-time matrix
to a period before the first battle in the War of the Lexicon was even fought.
The primary facet of the black-hearted Zurra was condemned
to a limbo of such unimaginable tortuous magnitude,
that it made the horrors endured by dread Angsaar himself
seem like naught but a lover's caress in comparison.
Xerxes: Such power as was wielded by Zurra corrupted his heart, master.
His quest for the Lexicon was not a desire
born of the eternal search for cosmic enlightenment,
but rather of a vain hope that such elucidation
would allow him to understand the horrors which blighted his own immortal
soul...
Altarus: You may yet one day understand
the intricacies of the sidereal web, young apprentice.
Come... the mists once again cloud the great cosmic eye,
and the vista darkens for today.
But rest assured, my youthful neophyte...
there are many more stories in this vast, eternal saga yet to be told...
All lyrics copyright 1999 B.A. Roberts
Lyrics in plain text format
