The Chant of Light: The Blight


 * 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 Sun to Heaven
 * And doom upon all the world.


 * Violently were they cast down,
 * For now mortal may walk bodily
 * In the realm of dreams,
 * Bearing the mark of their Crime:
 * Bodies are 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 havok upon all the nations of the world:
 * The first Blight.


 * --From Threnodies 8.