Unintentionally Immortal

Held onto the same place for centuries.
Then she wandered for a hundred years more.
This journey could not be explained to me.
She searched high and low, ahead and before,
She searched, untethered to a time and space.
Time, a circle; past, present, future, now.
More in the past than elsewhere know her face,
And more faces than memory allows.
After me there will be more, and more blood.
As long as she wanders and doesn’t stay,
There will be no waves of foes like a flood.
To this day, her name, mystery remains.
She’ll no longer humor my inquiries.
Being Immortal Unintentionally.

It of this Horrid Swarm

Introduction: For those unfamiliar with Magic: the gathering and its lore, the following is a brief retelling of some part of the main events in the Eldrich Moon storyline. Emrakul is the most powerful of three eldrazi titans; the other two have already been destroyed by the Gatewatch. She was worshipped as a god on the world she was previously imprisoned, the inhabitants having forgotten over a period of thousands of years what she actually was. Each of the three titans bend reality and effect the world in certain ways, Emrakul does this by corrupting and mutating all living matter, transforming it into her twisted brood.
I’ve intended this piece to be written from a bards point of view, perhaps a retelling many years after these events have unfolded. The accompanying card images are those from the game that have inspired this poem. I love the game and love the lore. I hope you enjoy this one as it was a fun write. 🙂 

It of this horrid swarm and the sanity that it does encroach,
From within to burst forth; from a smaller one it grows.
It may be said to be of forgotten gods and their reproach,
Evident of the many in its wake; the corpses below.

The ancient mother brings the Mockery and the Deep-Fiend,

And such as those that ride as one to prey upon the uncorrupted.

The swarm of horror that’s gone before, by any can be seen,
How their forms become confused and then convoluted.
All of sanity, all coherent thought gone.
From the ancient mother nothing is hidden,
Her cultists sing an unrecognizable song
That pulls, and from the blind eternities she’s bidden.

There are few able to fight them, these are the ones who watch.

This swarm of horrors spells the end of this world soon,
But if they succeed and their plans remain unbotched,
The swarm will be defeated and their mother will become imprisoned in the moon.

Note on the artwork: As I was unable to contact the appropriate parties for permission on using the preceeding artworks, I request that Wotc or other owners of said art not to c/d me. 🙂 However should the owners of aforementioned art so desire I will respectfully remove said artwork/images. That being said, I do not believe I have used the card art out of context and am just a fan retelling a story in my own way. 🙂

Waiting for the Universe to Die

She has passed through the gateway,
And she has won herself a shadow.
Through the cosmos that lost day,
In its oceans, in their shallows.
The knowledge there, the thirst to slake.
In her search for solace now alone.
Darkness follows, darkness takes.
There is a chill down in her bones.
A chill that says: “No darkness waits!”.
In these dark days she contemplates,
Her shadow grants her pause.
No waiting darkness, no saving light,
Remembering the shadows cause,
And cursing the gateway of the night,
And its fathomless cosmic beyond.
Temptation and promise of such knowing,
Such as none should know or respond.
She grasps and holds it closer,
Fully aware of the cost imposing.
By now she’s seen a hundred lives,
In the future, a hundred more.
The gates shadow is her soul deprived,
Does she curse that open door?
Outliving the stars themselves
She’ll curse her greatest blunder.
Just you ask her and she’ll tell.
It would have been better were she torn asunder.
Tired of living and praying for death,
Praying for death, though she can never die,
Onward with eternal breath,
With her shadow the ever prying eye.
From that fateful gate the shadow of immortality did rise,
She knew not then the price
With a second chance would despise.
She, forever on the shore of that cosmic ocean lies,
Waiting in the shallows for the universe to die.

This piece is about a cosmic traveler, who discovers a mysterious artifact, represented here by the gate, that grants omniscience and immortality in exchange for her soul. No longer being able to die she wanders the universe watching it slowly decay around her as she waits for the end of all things. Her only hope for rest being that she too will be unmade at the end of time itself.

No More

He was in the moment, and the moment is gone.
There in a place he doesn’t belong.
So much fighting outside rages,
But not yet set in histories pages.
The choice is his and his alone,
Will he watch quietly from his throne?
Or stand and act to save his land,
His home falls no more!  It stands!
This choice made him who he is now,
Here with sober mind and furrowed brow,
Regret is now longer required,
He forgets why, but these days have expired.
Now stepping forward with a new found hope,
He’ll see home again, with the wait he can cope.