The Serpent’s Eclipse (The Heresy of Horus)

Lyrics

(Intro)
(Slow, heavy mechanical churning. A deep, synthesized pipe organ fades in, playing a mournful minor key. The sound of a heartbeat—metallic and echoing.)
​(Verse 1)
Gold on the horizon, the Great Crusade’s end,
Twenty sons of starlight, on whom the worlds depend.
At Ullanor the banners fly, the Warmaster is crowned,
But beneath the ceramite, the seeds of spite are found.
The Emperor returns to Earth, a secret path to tread,
Leaving kings as bureaucrats, while warriors feel the dread.
Lorgar kneels in Monarchia, his city turned to dust,
In the silence of the ashes, he trades his faith for lust.
​(Pre-Chorus)
(Tempo slows. The bass guitar becomes a pulsating throb.)
Davin’s moon is weeping...
The Anathame is drawn...
In the lodges of the shadows,
A dying god is born.
​(Chorus)
O, Horus! The Lupercal has fallen!
The galaxy is screaming in the shadow of the wing.
Ten thousand years of darkness for a moment of descent,
The Emperor’s dream is broken, and the veil of souls is rent.
From the Webway to the Palace, the fire never dies,
Beneath the Golden Throne, the King of Terra lies.
​(Verse 2)
Isstvan III is burning, brother slaughters brother,
A virus-bomb for loyalty, a grave for one another.
Then the trap at Isstvan V—the Dropsite of the lost,
Iron, Raven, Salamander—pay the ultimate cost.
Magnus broke the barrier, he tried to scream the truth,
Now Prospero is cinders, and the wolves have lost their youth.
The Ruinstorm is rising, the stars are turning red,
Guilliman builds a second home among the mountain of the dead.
​(Bridge)
(The music shifts into a chaotic, fast-paced industrial breakdown. Heavy double-kick drumming.)
Molech! (The Power!)
Tallarn! (The Iron!)
Calth is drowning in the sun!
The Shadow Crusade marches until the work is done!
The Solar Wall is shattered! The Warmaster is here!
The Palace walls are weeping with the alchemy of fear!
​(Guitar Solo)
(A screeching, dissonant solo that sounds like tearing metal, backed by a choir chanting in pseudo-Latin.)
​(Verse 3)
(The music drops to a quiet, eerie synth pad with a single tolling bell.)
Sanguinius, the Angel, flies into the Serpent’s maw,
A broken wing, a final breath, the ending of the Law.
The Vengeful Spirit shudders as the Master enters in,
To strike away the darkness and the father-slaying sin.
One final blow of psychic light—the Lupercal is ghost,
But the savior is a ruin, a shell for the holy host.
​(Outro)
(The "Golden Throne" theme: a low, constant mechanical hum.)
Interred in gold and circuit...
The God-Prophecy begins...
The Scouring has started...
To wash away the sins...
(Whispered)
The Emperor protects.
The Emperor... waits.
​(The sound of a life-support respirator hissing... then silence.)