The Ruin of the Sky
B
efore the Scattered Worlds were found
Around a golden star
A quiet bluewhite planet spun;
There lived Omalinar.
A
lordling of the Pyistroph
A joyful one was he
With loving kin and work profound
He lived contentedly.
U
ntil the day misfortune struck
Omalinar and clan
He saw adversity and fear
And turned away and ran.
K
ith and kin abandoned he
And planet of his birth
And lordly station, influence,
And peace, and joy, and mirth.
A
vagabond he soon became
Transgressor of the law
And went about the Pylistroph
Disliking all he saw.
T
he fall of such an able one
Did not unnoticed go
Fellow lordlings sought him out
But he was lost in woe.
T
he darker side of light and life
Attracted him most strong
And strange the paths he chose to tread
He turned towards the wrong.
A
nd sought for power, sought for force
Sought to dominate
Became a lord of knowledge fell,
Became convulsed by hate.
H
e travelled to the Dark One's world
And landed on that sphere
Climbed to the depths of darkest caves
And trembling in his fear,
O
malinar the sorceror
Now faced the Lord of Strife
And raising hands toward the stars
Surrendered up his life.
A
nd life, and hate, and brooding power
Burst from that dreaded plain
Raced through the sky, a single bolt
Of horror and of pain.
T
he Dark One then directed it
And made that bolt to soar
With energies sublime toward
The center of the Core.
A
nd in that center starstuff spun
And wrenched apart did seethe:
A wicked empty hole in space
Where once a star did breathe.
A
whirlpool of disrupted gas
Lit hellish space around
And gravity gone lunatic
The vortex tighter wound.
H
ere where space and time are fey
And Nature hides her eyes
Omalinar's last dying curse
Snarls, and spits, and dies.
G
ergathan's power reaches forth
Driven by its hate
Plunges stars into the hole
Shreds the weave of fate.
T
he vortex answers with a flash
Like Yx's flaming breath
Hellspawn particles gush forth
Carriers of death.
N
o more the Gathered Stars are kind
No more the skies bring cheer
For radiation bathes our worlds
And death for all is near.
O
malinar has brought the doom
Awaiting you and I;
The Lord of Strife at last achieves
The ruin of the sky.
Commentary
From the tenth stanza onward, the song is of incredible antiquity. Manuscripts and printouts survive in the Museum of Worlds on Nephestal, which date from the latter days of the Pylistroph. These contain essentially the same song we have today. Language analysis of these early fragments shows traces of the archaic Coruman which was the original language of the Pylistroph. The events of the song -- a sudden flareup of the central collapsar and the subsequent sterilization of many worlds -- can be dated to the early days of the Pylistroph.
The first nine stanzas were apparently added later, perhaps as emendations of earlier stanzas. Omalinar was an early figure in the legends of many Coruman worlds, although he also appears (as "Ohmahl Inarr") in quite ancient Evellan texts preserved on Nephestal. It is possible that Omalinar was a mythical figure of the Evellan, who was later transferred to Coruman mythology.
The present version of the first nine stanzas dates from approximately the 50th galactic revolution of Nephestal, quite before the development of the Iaranor, when the Daamin were still the only major intelligent race in the Scattered Worlds.