The Awakening of the Stars - Bal-Sagoth

Reverie on the Ascension Mandate:

With but a gesture of my incorporeal hand I illumine the heart of a new-born sun

Revelling as its searing stellar radiance engulfs my ersatz form

Gazing out across the limitless, stygian cosmos

I hear the whispered voice of destiny echoing within the solar winds…

No small task, to awaken a universe from slumber

Words gleaned from the Crystal of Memory:

In 2104, lithological excavations at the Fourth Mars Colony unearthed an

artifact of unknown, seemingly non-human origin;

an icosahedron of an

unrecognized, non terrestrial metallic composition, inscribed with strange,

indecipherable sigils and glyphs.

After long months of intense study,

epigraphy experts on Earth ascertained a tenuous parallel between the unknown

language on the icosaherdon and certain obscure Aztec hieroglyphics,

and thus were able to extrapolate a meaning from the unearthly inscriptions.

The translation spoke of a legendary repository of ultimate knowledge known as

the Empyreal Lexicon… a codex of alien origin said to contain incredible

cosmic secrets;

arcane words and psionic waves of power which were the keys to

unlocking a network of cerebral-transferrence portals linking the myriad

galaxies of the multiverse, and also the means to transcend the boundaries of

the space-time continuum, enabling corporeal beings to travel between

dimensions and traverse at will the unknown realms which lay between universes,

tapping into the limitless energies which permeated the sidereal fabric of the

cosmos.

The translation of the Mars icosaherdon also hinted disturbingly at a

great pangalactic conflict which was waged over the possession of the codex

between the mysterious cosmic beings who had appointed themselves the keepers

of the Lexicon and some terrifying shadowy foe mentioned only fleetingly in the

alien text.

The final battle in this cataclysmic power struggle was apparently

fought in Earth’s own solar system, and the Keepers of the Lexicon,

their power depleted and teetering on the verge of defeat, shattered the codex

into a myriad shards, scattering the fragments across the star system in order

to prevent the secrets of the Lexicon from falling into the hands of their

darksome nemesis.

According to the Martian artifact, several fragments of the

Lexicon were hidden on the third planet from the sun, the Earth itself.

One fragment was secreted in ancient Atlantis, another in Lemuria.

Further pieces of the cosmic codex fell to earth in Ys and eon-veiled Mu.

Still further fragments of the Lexicon were said to have been hidden somewhere

beneath the frozen surface of the bleak moon Callisto, and on the other

mysterious orbs Hyperion and Titan.

Lastly, the alien artifact spoke

mysteriously of something hidden beneath the cratered surface of Earth’s own

Moon.

Ascertaining co-ordinates from the Mars icosahedron, an expedition

embarked immediately from the Epsilon IV Moon Base and began to excavate the

lunar sphere.

Thus was a veiled warning unheeded, and no one could know what to

expect as the machinations of humankind breached the ancient surface of the

moon’s Mare Imbrium…