The Day Before Landfall (a poem)

Post » Fri Aug 22, 2014 9:48 am

The Hour of Akatosh (12 am – 1)

Sand falls through the glass

As his ears echo with the Doom Drum.

The Hour of Mephala (1 – 2)

When machinations spin

The strong web of her trap.

The Hour of Nocturnal (2 – 3)

Who gave birth to Darkness

And will receive it back.

The Hour of Arkay (3 – 4)

Who seeing the fullness of night

Turns the Wheel towards day.

The Hour of Meridia (4 – 5)

Hearing the first songs of birds

Haunts the morning watch.

The Hour of Azura (5 – 6)

Whence comes the Dawn

With a promise of Dusk.

The Hour of Dibella (6 – 7)

Paints the skies with hope

To strengthen the weary hearts.

The Hour of Sheogorath (7 – 8)

Who with promise of Red joy

Smiles at the art-that-is-violence.

The Hour of Sanguine (8 – 9)

Who calls men to drunkenness

And forgetfulness in their cups.

The Hour of Kynareth (9 – 10)

Whose lonely song

Laments the lost Children of the Sky.

The Hour of Hircine (10 – 11)

Who is a wolf chasing the sun

And will rend him ere day is done.

The Hour of Namira (12pm – 1)

For dark deeds grow in hearts

Kindled by wrath-rotten Memory.

The Hour of Julianos (1 – 2)

When stratagems of wise men

Place swords in the hands of others.

The Hour of Hermaeus Mora (1 – 2)

Nothing held back, all knowledge

Encircling foes in strangling coils.

The Hour of Boethia (2 – 3)

Nettles, snares, and poisons make

Slaughter a mockery of Justice.

The Hour of Zenithar (3 – 4)

Thence Duty and Labor

Will forge Paradise from this Hell.

The Hour of Clavicus Vile (4 – 5)

When devils sneer and dangle

Baubles of forgotten hope.

The Hour of Malacath (5 – 6)

Flee all; oaths, covenants, and law

Eschewed for the Red pleasure.

The Hour of Stendarr (6 – 7)

Who knows mercy no more

And who forebears nothing.

The Hour of Mehrunes Dagon (7 – 8)

Whose fiery realm now only echoes

The inferno-corpse of Dawn’s Beauty.

The Hour of Peryite (8 – 9)

When Order could yet turn the tide

And stem the rampant disease.

The Hour of Mara (9 – 10)

Who alone weeps for Shor’s dream

And the dreams that could have been.

The Hour of Vaermina (10 – 11)

When, from Quagmire’s cells,

Comes every horror, now flesh and blood.

The Hour of Molag Bal (11 – 12)

For naught is anymore sacred

Save butchery, violation, and Red feast.

This is the hour of darkness

When the moons bear witness

Portents of the cleaving to come

In the silence of Three.

And the Doom Drum sounds…

Doom.

Doom.

Doom.

*

Librarian’s note: From the Folio Dispertitae Dyadem; compiled by Haintabi Suul, Professor of Pre-Exilic Literature, University of New Gwylim. The provenance of the text is unknown but the original manuscript (contained in the Folio) was clearly taken from carbon rubbings. Since its first publication in 6th Era 145 the poem has seen popular use and was recently used in the bicentennial celebration of The Return.

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