"As The Vortex Illumines The Crystalline Walls Of Kor-Avul-Thaa" by Bal-sagoth

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 splendid
walls  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 a
midnight  moon.  Its  magnificent spires and citadels, built
by generations of
kings  from  the  resplendent  gifts hewn from the ancient
bosom of the sacred
Crystal  Mountains, had oft' times been the bitter envy of
rival emperors, and
many  were  the sieges which Kor-Avul-Thaa had withstood and
repulsed over the
centuries,  for  powerful sorcerers did weave great spells
of protection about
the  dazzling  towers,  and  none  may  have  passed
unbidden through the vast
sapphir ean gates of mighty Kor-Avul-Thaa...

From the Journals of Sage Daelun

[The 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 brand
Could 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 the
Forbidden  Books  of  the First Cataclysm): By Klatrymadon
and Zuranthus, such
ancient  secrets  we  discovered  within  these  sinistrous,
 worm-worn pages,
Etched  with  darksome  glyphs  and  sigils,  bound  with 
fearsome spells, An
eldritch  tide  of  stygian  sorceries  unfettered  by  the 
forbidden Tome of
Shadows...

Now  thunderous  cataclysm befalls the gleaming
Kor-Avul-Thaa (The mystic
gate  stands  open!)  The  Xytaxehedron  held  to the
stars... the incantation
uttered  with  eager  tongues...  (What long-shackled powers
of the elder dark
have 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 with
terror,
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 the
Dwellers in Eternal Shadow,
And upon a horde of winged horrors, brandishing swords of
ebon flame, they
rode 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 did
split  wide  and  bleed  forth such a torrent of horror as
that which assailed
Kor-Avul-Thaa...  One  of those times was the fateful eve
when the moon burned
black  over  ancient  Lemuria, as a legion of ravening
fiends emerged from the
Outer  Darkness  to  visit catastrophe upon that realm...
And the other... the
other  manifestation  of such a staggering cosmic evil is
recorded only in the
ancient  Scrolls  of  the  Third  Circle,  a  dark 
collectio  n of terrifying
blasphemies  which  was  believed to have been burned by the
Order of Kl'aa at
roughly  the same time as the first Tome of Shadows was
discovered deep within
the  Black  Pyramid...  These scrolls speak disturbingly of
visitations to our
earth  by  creatures  from  a  terrible  place  known  as 
the Black Galaxy...
creatures  which  were  able  to  span  the  vast  expanses 
of time and space
separating  our  world  from  theirs  in  their  great dark
chariots, bringing
pestilence  and  carnage whenever they set foot upon the
earth... And yet, the
scrolls  also  speak of the Others, known by some ancient,
long-dead tribes as
the  Travelling Ones... beings who did stand against the
denizens of the Black
Galaxy  and  wage  war with them across the nighted void. It
is said that t he
Travelling  Ones  sailed  the  star-seas in huge silvern
spheres ringed with a
myriad  pulsing  lights,  and  that in a great battle they
drove their shadowy
foes  back  to  the Black Galaxy... but at a great cost...
The Travelling Ones
were  drained  of  their cos mic powers and cast into a deep
slumber, and some
say that they remain here still, hidden in mysterious,
secret places, awaiting
the time of their reawakening. It was ascertained by those
mages who found the
Tome  of Shadows that certain gateways existed linking our
world and the Black
Galaxy,  just  as  maps carved into the stone walls of
ancient tombs displayed
the  pathway  to  the  terrifying  realm  through the
eternal blackness of the
void...  and  within  the  sinister  pages of the dread book
were the arcane k
eys...  the  rites to open wide these gates and give the
dark wanderers beyond
the freedom to roam the earth once again... And the darkling
lords did descend
upon  Kor-Avul-Thaa  to  claim  their  splendid prize, and
enthrone themselves
within the glittering walls...

[The Echoes of the Oracle:]
Not sword, ballistae, nor burning brand
Could 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 become
the  City of Shadows, a sinister fortress of elder fiends
and fearsome beasts,
unleashed by the meddlings of mortals aspiring to dark
thresholds of forbidden
knowledge  and  arcane powe r, a nightmare city shunned and
feared by all. And
not  since  the  sinking  of  Atlantis  was  the  fall  of 
a  realm so sorely
lamented...

[From the Journals of Sage Daelun]

[Lyrics: Byron]
[Music: Jonny and Chris Maudling]