Ambularo per harena
Juxta frigore salmacidus aqua

Vocant me deus
Sed numquam ita sentitur
Humana

Marked for death and horribly maimed
I've suffered its pains, yet rightwise claimed
This holy throne atop the Erthe;
All shall witness a new god's birth

"Blasphemer, deceiver
A perfect fool"
I shall nobly rule
"Whose lies entrance"
This northern expanse

Believe!
This holy land belongs to me
The crown of kings upon my head
Proclaims my royalty.
Accept my gift
And grovel at my knees

Arise!
Monuments to my reign
One thousand years of faceless gods
Replaced by fire and steel

Consume!
And let our might be known
The feeble kings of Erthe and Axen
Are but flesh and bone

Man, who is Erthwile born
Who longs, who tries, who is
Full of strife

How frail is life!
And mine is but a breath
A hopeless Thought

"Who is empty,
Faithless, embittered
And capable of anything
Inconquerable
Yet full of woe"

So I extend my reach
Upon riches
Unfit for unseen gods
And disperse them to my sons

My body is covered with maggots and scabs
My skin, is faded, cracked and dry
And still they proclaim

"Blasphemer, deceiver"
A thief they say
But I have suffered
And I have paid

"All this was
Long ago.
Reap what you sew:
Erthe and Axen,
Flesh and bone"

Marked for death
No sense but a pulse
Neath my fading breath
I'll bear the weight
Chains of my past so full of hate

"King of Erthe"
How frail is life
"Dust and Ash"
How full of strife
"Like aeons past"
And when I die
"Your disease shall never last"
Never again shall I arise

"All this was"
A thief they say
"Long ago"
To dead gods they pray
"Reap what you sew"
I have suffered
"Erthe and Axen, flesh and bone"
I have paid

Words were writ
Long ago
Darkness would claim my throne

Crushing weight
Bearing down
Life traded for a crown

Light reveals
Fertile soil
Stone laid by kings of old

Winter's end
Melting snow
Still I can feel the cold

Ashes rain from skies
And smother Erthen fire
My soul is ever weakened
By winter's cruel disease

Do not reject me

If I should not continue on
Then let me freeze
Freeze again to death
If she will receive me
Then through these gates
I must proceed

Erthe's very womb
From whence all were born
I taste the stench of death

My sight grows sharp
My breath is steady

He hides behind
Monuments to progress
"Lights that blind"

Hail! to the Thane of Thule!
Born of ashes, born to rule!
"We exalt your glory"
And bring from afar riches and
Offerings fit for a king
(You are no king)

Hail! To a foolish boy
Whose Relicry is but a ploy
"Who is falsely burdened"
With the charge of an absent god
You so brutally wronged
Brother, relinquish your crown
(Your time has come)

I have earned the right
I have sacrificed

Years of my life
My dignity and my pride
To bring man erthly light

I come to bear witness
Iron pillars will turn to
Ashes as you fall
Not with splendor
But with a sigh

You think you have suffered?
I've endured things far worse than pain,
I'll make you taste Death

How easily he fell
A hollow empty shell:
Behold your lifeless King!

Sino me vivere, O, carnifex magnus
Let me live! O great tormentor!
For my life is but a passing shadow
My eyes are unable to see
What light may lie beyond this life

Let me make our brief and tortured lives
Seem beautiful and grand
For soon we will turn to dust
You will look upon this Erthe
And we will be gone

God of Ashes, King of Erthe
Given to a strange rebirth
Every man shall to him sing:
"Xanthochroid, our rightful King"

Deus Absconditus
God who is hidden from man

We, disciples of the north
Bring this vile carcass forth
No one comforts as he weeps
Simply drifting off to sleep

And as I watched him writhe in pain
I felt that familiar horror;
Struggling to breath and console my fear,
I realized once again

The true nature of existence.
That awful reality I've tried to forget
Since I was young.

"Deus Absconditus"
The eternal void that awaits us all,
"God who is hidden from man"
Whether Erthwile bound or a Relic like me;

The infinite measure of time and space
Captures each of us for all eternity.

"Deus Absconditus"
No one knows what lies beyond,
"God who is hidden from man"
But it matters not to me

Whether it is a neverending paradise,
A burning pit of fire,
Or a void of non-existence.

Whatever horrors or pleasures
Await us after this life
Will never eclipse the cold chill
Of time's endless decay.

Cold winds
Sting my coarse and blistered skin
Making my return
To a vain veil of time

Dead dreams
Shadows cry out desparately
Can you not remember
Your lost son's name?

Why should I persist?
Wrap me up in shrouds
And let me remain unseen

Trees that grow together
Like father and son
Stand in stark contrast
To my dreadful outcast soul

I wander, forlorn
Disfugured, so sore
Aching from the weight
I bore all those years

I am descending a black mountain
That crumbles beneath my feet
Still, I am looking back

Over barren hills
Devoid of light
I struggle to draw my breath.

Straining my sight
Just so I might catch
A glimpse of a long dead dream

At last, I have arrived
My tired eyes survey this
Cancerous growth

A festering pool of worms
Sickening to behold
Reminding me of what was,
And what becomes of buried dreams

Of reasons, I have but one
To rid myself of pain
Shrouded in black fog
I am beyond death

"For those who seek pleasure and power,
I'll make you beautiful
Beyond your wildest dreams
For I am he;
The one said born of the gods
But I must ask no less a price
To dwell in you"

I, relinquish body, mind, and soul
My leprous skin and broken spirit

I, long to see myself through your eyes
Not with compassion but disgust

Welcome, Death.
I lay my mind to rest
My faults I do detest
At last, I fall

"For those who seek pleasure and power,
I'll make you beautiful
Beyond your wildest dreams
For I am he;
The one said born of the gods,
Long live our king"

Here I'll stay
I shall remain
The air is warm,
The water sweet to drink

And here I'll stay
I shall remain
This wondrous Sound
Envelops me

(Instrumental)

As Erthe's beauty fades
Behind bright, blinding lights
Will I still recall
The smell of the woods,
My home,
The lone and silent elk,
The damp, misty air
The allure of the erthe?

I must posses a mind
Not to be changed by place or time
Not to be poisoned by
The stench of progress

I remember when
I had a brother and a friend
A friend whose struggles
I alone have witnessed

When I saw him there
Crumbling face, empty stare
A great, heaving sigh
I, at last, said good bye

The sky is black with fog
Black with the souls of those who've lost
That fleeting breath which they called life

I step into the mist
Recalling the place she and I lived
Hoping to find some semblance of old joy

But alas her tender spirit
Has gone away at last
For in my most desparate hour
She did not come
No empty blessings
No friendly ghost
To fill me with false hope
Or haunt me with happy dreams
Still I was drunk by the prospect
That she may sit beside me
When my trials were through

I walk along the sand
By the cold, brackish water

"It's hard to remember
The paths we used to take"

It's hard to walk in this thick mud
And I begin to sink.

"Vocant me deus
Numquam ita sentitur
Humana"