The Ruin of the Sky

B

efore the Scattered Worlds were found Around a golden star A quiet bluewhite planet spun; There lived Omalinar.

A

lordling of the Pyistroph A joyful one was he With loving kin and work profound He lived contentedly.

U

ntil the day misfortune struck Omalinar and clan He saw adversity and fear And turned away and ran.

K

ith and kin abandoned he And planet of his birth And lordly station, influence, And peace, and joy, and mirth.

A

vagabond he soon became Transgressor of the law And went about the Pylistroph Disliking all he saw.

T

he fall of such an able one Did not unnoticed go Fellow lordlings sought him out But he was lost in woe.

T

he darker side of light and life Attracted him most strong And strange the paths he chose to tread He turned towards the wrong.

A

nd sought for power, sought for force Sought to dominate Became a lord of knowledge fell, Became convulsed by hate.

H

e travelled to the Dark One's world And landed on that sphere Climbed to the depths of darkest caves And trembling in his fear,

O

malinar the sorceror Now faced the Lord of Strife And raising hands toward the stars Surrendered up his life.

A

nd life, and hate, and brooding power Burst from that dreaded plain Raced through the sky, a single bolt Of horror and of pain.

T

he Dark One then directed it And made that bolt to soar With energies sublime toward The center of the Core.

A

nd in that center starstuff spun And wrenched apart did seethe: A wicked empty hole in space Where once a star did breathe.

A

whirlpool of disrupted gas Lit hellish space around And gravity gone lunatic The vortex tighter wound.

H

ere where space and time are fey And Nature hides her eyes Omalinar's last dying curse Snarls, and spits, and dies.

G

ergathan's power reaches forth Driven by its hate Plunges stars into the hole Shreds the weave of fate.

T

he vortex answers with a flash Like Yx's flaming breath Hellspawn particles gush forth Carriers of death.

N

o more the Gathered Stars are kind No more the skies bring cheer For radiation bathes our worlds And death for all is near.

O

malinar has brought the doom Awaiting you and I; The Lord of Strife at last achieves The ruin of the sky.

Commentary

From the tenth stanza onward, the song is of incredible antiquity. Manuscripts and printouts survive in the Museum of Worlds on Nephestal, which date from the latter days of the Pylistroph. These contain essentially the same song we have today. Language analysis of these early fragments shows traces of the archaic Coruman which was the original language of the Pylistroph. The events of the song -- a sudden flareup of the central collapsar and the subsequent sterilization of many worlds -- can be dated to the early days of the Pylistroph. The first nine stanzas were apparently added later, perhaps as emendations of earlier stanzas. Omalinar was an early figure in the legends of many Coruman worlds, although he also appears (as "Ohmahl Inarr") in quite ancient Evellan texts preserved on Nephestal. It is possible that Omalinar was a mythical figure of the Evellan, who was later transferred to Coruman mythology. The present version of the first nine stanzas dates from approximately the 50th galactic revolution of Nephestal, quite before the development of the Iaranor, when the Daamin were still the only major intelligent race in the Scattered Worlds.

The Hemminale

Hemmin Daaveren Ketahensel Table of Contents

The Maak'datq Song Cycle

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