Threnodies 1
Threnodies 1:4
From the waters of the Fade, you made the world.
As the Fade had been fluid, so was the world fixed.
Threnodies 1:8
And so we burned. We raised nations, we waged wars,
We dreamed up false gods, great demons
Who could cross the Veil into the waking world,
Turned our devotion upon them, and forgot you.
Threnodies 5
The Makes Creates The Fade And The Spirits
There was no word
For heaven or for earth, for sea or sky.
All that existed was silence.
Then the Voice of the Maker rang out,
The first Word,
And His Word became all that might be:
Dream and idea, hope and fear,
Endless possibilities.
And from it made his firstborn.
And he said to them:
"In My image I forge you,
To you I give dominion
Over all that exists.
By your will
May all things be done."
The Golden City
Then in the center of heaven
He called forth
A city with towers of gold,
streets with music for cobblestones,
And banners which flew without wind.
There, He dwelled, waiting
To see the wonders
His children would create.
The Maker Becomes Disillusioned With The Spirits
The children of the Maker gathered
Before his golden throne
And sang hymns of praise unending.
But their songs
Were the songs of the cobblestones.
They shone with the golden light
Reflected from the Maker's throne.
They held forth the banners
That flew on their own.
And the Voice of the Maker shook the Fade
Saying: In My image I have wrought
My firstborn. You have been given dominion
Over all that exists. By your will
All things are done.
Yet you do nothing.
The realm I have given you
Is formless, ever-changing.
The Fade Is Separated From The World
And He knew He had wrought amiss.
So the Maker turned from his firstborn
And took from the Fade
A measure of its living flesh
And placed it apart from the Spirits, and spoke to it, saying:
Here, I decree
Opposition in all things:
For earth, sky
For winter, summer
For darkness, Light.
By My Will alone is Balance sundered
And the world given new life.
Man Is Created
And no longer was it formless, ever-changing,
But held fast, immutable,
With Words for heaven and for earth, sea and sky.
At last did the Maker
From the living world
Make men. Immutable, as the substance of the earth,
With souls made of dream and idea, hope and fear,
Endless possibilities.
Then the Maker said:
"To you, My second-born, I grant this gift:
In your heart shall burn
An unquenchable flame
All-consuming, and never satisfied.
From the Fade I crafted you,
And to the Fade you shall return
Each night in dreams
That you may always remember Me."
The Maker Seals Himself In The Golden City
And then the Maker sealed the gates
Of the Golden City
And there, He dwelled, waiting
To see the wonders
His children would create.
The Rise of the Old Gods
Now, with their Father's eye elsewhere, the firstborn
At last created something new:
Envy. They looked upon the living world and the favored
Sons and daughters there, covetous of all they were.
Within their hearts grew
An intolerable hunger.
Until, at last, some of the firstborn said:
"Our Father has abandoned us for these lesser things.
We have power over heaven.
Let us rule over earth as well
And become greater gods than our Father."
The demons appeared to the children of earth in dreams
And named themselves gods, demanding fealty.
And a mighty voice cried out,
Shaking the very foundations of heaven:
"Ungrateful children! I gave you power
To shape heaven itself,
And you have made only poison.
As you crave the earth, the earth shall be
Your domain! Into the darkness
I cast you! In tombs of immutable rock
Shall you dwell for all time."
Those who had been cast down,
The demons who would be gods,
Began to whisper to men from their tombs within the earth.
And the men of Tevinter heard and raised altars
To the pretender-gods once more,
And in return were given, in hushed whispers,
The secrets of darkest magic.
Threnodies 6
War Between Meromenian and Inghirsh
On the shores of the Nocen, in the lands of Neromenian
King Antoridus girded his people for war. A thousand strong
Carried spear and bow to the East. To be forged anew
And rise on burning wings, heroes of Neromenian.
Mighty were the Inghirsh, who returned numbers beyond counting
To the lands of their fathers, carried on the shields of their kin.
Antonidus demanded victory, and so his many Oracles
Consulted the stars and drank the blood of unclean beasts,
Seeking counsel from the Maker that they might deliver
To their king the lands of the Inghirsh people.
And the Maker gave them signs and portents
That no victory was theirs to claim.
The First Dreamer
But among the king's Oracles was one, Thalsian, who sought counsel
Not from the Maker of the World, but from a demon of the Fade.
And he returned to his king with its tidings.
Antoridus Turns Away From The Maker
If Antoridus would make burned offerings of oxen and horses
And swear that he would follow the Maker no more,
The demon would grant him the lands of all the Inghirsh people.
So Antoridus sought the best oxen and horses
And made burned offerings to the demon. And he turned his back
Upon the Maker of the World.
Conquest of the Inghirsh
So did the demon gift to Antonidus victory
Over the mighty Inghirsh, and they who had held forth
Against ten thousand spears were laid low
And their people were made chattel, and their lands claimed
In the name of Neromenian.
War With The Planasene
The power of Neromenian grew sevenfold.
And with it, Antoridus's heart grew hard. And he looked
Upon the lands of the Planasene to the south, and said:
"There upon the plains I see a land of plenty.
The branches bear fruit until they bow to the ground,
And sheaves of wheat go to rot, forgotten, in the fields."
So once again, in the lands of King Antoridus
The people of Neromenian girded for war. Seven thousand strong
Carried spear and bow to the South. To forge anew
The land of plenty in the name of the king.
In the lands of the South, on the banks
Of the River Pnemoix, the people heard the croaking of ravens
And were afraid. They cried out to their king, Damertes,
To save them from the coming storm.
Damertes Consults His Oracles
The king of the Planasene, sorely troubled,
From amongst the wisest of his people gathered
A council to prepare for the arrival of the enemy.
And the sages went forth and looked to the stars,
Drew water from the sacred River Pnemoix,
With hope that the fate of Inghirsh might not be shared.
And the Great Blade of Heaven revealed
An attack would come in secret, from the East.
And the Swift carried with it news that the men of the North
Would set the fields of Planasene alight before them.
And lo, the sages returned to their King Damertes
And girded the warriors of Planasene with talismans
Carved from serpentstone and anointed their brows
With the waters of the sacred Pnemoix,
And sent them forth to battle with Neromenian.
Damertes decreed that all the men and women of the kingdom
To the fields of the East journey with vessels drawn
From the Sacred Pnemoix. And for three days and three nights
They anointed the fields that the river's blessing
Might keep the fires of the dragons' children at bay.
The Armies Clash
On the eve of battle, the armies of Antoridus raised their voices
In praise to their demon gods for their victory to come,
While the armies of Damertes called out in supplication to the Maker.
No darkness could hide the fears of Planasene,
No star could outshine the sureness of Neromenian.
As the sun rose, the armies girded themselves,
And the dragons' children put flame to the fields of Planasene,
But the sacred Pnemoix protected them, and they did not burn.
The army of Antoridus, seven thousand strong, raised their bows
And a terrible thunder rang out, and the sky went black with arrows,
And though they raised their shields, a rain of death fell
Upon the Planasene, whose blood anointed the fields.
A mighty cry of rage went up from the army of Damertes
To see their brothers and sisters struck down.
And the army of Antoridus answered
With the thunder of spears beating shields.
And the soldiers of the demon charged,
Spears thirsting for the blood of the Maker's children.
And the army of Damertes readied their shields.
The righteous stood before the armies
As a boulder stands before a tide:
Unshaken, rooted there by the Maker's Hand.
And the demon's soldiers broke upon their shields
As a wave breaks upon the shore.
As the sun set upon the fields of Planasene,
The armies of Neromenian had taken no steps into the lands of the faithful.
But the fields ran red. And great were the lamentations of the living
For the countless dead of Damertes.
Damertes Forsakes The Maker
In the deep hours of the night, King Damertes sought
Counsel from his sages, for he knew
His army could not withstand another day against the dragons' children.
And the wisest sages of Planasene consulted the stars
And found nothing.
In desperation, King Damertes turned
To pagan soothsayers, saying:
"Find me a demon with the strength to counter Neromenian's."
And they reached into the darkest realms of dream
And found one who promised Damertes
To turn aside the spears of Antoridus
If he would forsake the Maker and praise only her name.
So, in the hours before dawn, King Damertes cursed the Maker's name.
And he burned offerings to the demon, and praised her
That his lands might be spared.
And as the sun rose upon the fields of the Planasene,
The armies of Antoridus fell to the ground
Afflicted with boils and racked with pain.
And they cried out in fear, and fled back to their own lands.
And from that day forth, the Maker's name was spoken no more
In the lands of the sacred Pnemoix.
Threnodies 7
Threnodies 7:10
And as the black clouds came upon them,
They looked on what pride had wrought,
And despaired.
Threnodies 7:11
The work of man and woman,
By hubris of their making.
The sorrow a blight unbearable.
Threnodies 8
No matter their power, their triumphs,
The mage-lords of Tevinter were men
And doomed to die.
Then a voice whispered within their hearts,
Shall you surrender your power
To time like the beasts of the fields?
You are the Lords of the earth!
Go forth to claim the empty throne
Of Heaven and be gods.
In secret they worked
Magic upon magic
All their power and all their vanity
They turned against the Veil
Until at last, it gave way.
Above them, a river of Light,
Before them the throne of Heaven, waiting,
Beneath their feet
The footprints of the Maker,
And all around them echoed a vast
Silence.
But when they took a single step
Toward the empty throne
A great voice cried out
Shaking the very foundations
Of Heaven and earth:
And So is the Golden City blackened
With each step you take in my Hall.
Marvel at perfection, for it is fleeting.
You have brought Sin to Heaven
And doom upon all the world.
Violently were they cast down,
For no mortal may walk bodily
In the realm of dreams,
Bearing the mark of their Crime:
Bodies so maimed
And distorted that none should see them
And know them for men.
Deep into the earth they fled,
Away from the Light.
In Darkness eternal they searched
For those who had goaded them on,
Until at last they found their prize,
Their god, their betrayer:
The sleeping dragon Dumat. Their taint
Twisted even the false-god, and the whisperer
Awoke at last, in pain and horror, and led
Them to wreak havoc upon all the nations of the world:
The first Blight.
In the absence of light, shadows thrive.
There in the depths of the earth they dwelled,
Spreading their taint as a plague, growing in number
Until they were a multitude.
And together they searched ever deeper
Until they found their prize,
Their god, their betrayer.
And down they fled into darkness and despair.
Those who had been cast down,
the demons who would be gods,
began to whisper to men from their tombs within the earth.
And the men of Tevinter heard,
and raised altars to the pretender gods once more,
and in return were given, in hushed whispers,
the secrets of darkest magic.
But it was not worship the false gods craved.
They urged the magisters to ever-greater depravity,
rewarding them with power and more.
Arrogance became a great caged beast in the lands of Tevinter,
an emptiness that consumed all and could never be filled.
To satisfy its hunger, the mage lords, at the goading of their gods,
assaulted the Golden City, heart of all creation,
to take the Maker's power for themselves.
With magic born of mingled blood and lyrium,
the Tevinter broke into the Maker's House.
But the promised power did not await them there.
The moment they entered the city of the maker, their sin poisoned it.
What had been golden turned black,
and violently they were flung from the world of dreams back into the waking world.
Twisted and corrupted by their crime and their magic into monsters,
they fled underground,
unable to bear the light of day.
The first darkspawn.
Threnodies 12
Threnodies 12:1
Those who had sought to claim
Heaven by violence destroyed it. What was
Golden and pure turned black.
Those who had once been mage-lords,
The brightest of their age,
Were no longer men, but monsters
Threnodies 12:5
All that the Maker has wrought is in His hand
Beloved and precious to Him.
Where the Maker has turned His face away,
Is a Void in all things;
In the world, in the Fade,
In the hearts and minds of men.
Passing out of the world, in that Void shall they wander;
O unrepentant, faithless, treacherous,
They who are judged and found wanting
Shall know forever the loss of the Maker's love.
Only Our Lady shall weep for them.
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