Spears agleam in the dying sun,

The blood is spilled, the battle's won,

From the icy throne of God-King shall rule,

When nine stars kiss the moon o'er Ultima Thule.

[Old Northlander war-song, found in the ancient
scrolls of Volmyr]

The Final Part of Voryn Helmsmiter's Journey
to the Ice Realm: Blood

drips from my frost-encased sword, forming a
crimson blossom upon the ice...

My limbs cold, becoming as one with the massing
snows... my eyes nearly frozen

closed. For how long had we travelled? The
memory grows dim, lost in the

cruel, searing storm-winds. And now, at last...
our quest is at an end. With

the blessings of the elders we began our
journey beyond the great veil of

shadowed glaciers... They spoke of a
prophecy foretold, an ancient and

glorious legacy, A quest for the realm of
legendry lost to man since before

even the Star-Lords descended... Now, only I
survive, my blood spilling to the

ice, turning to crimson crystal upon the
deeply frozen earth. Elder sorcery

crackles and hums all about me, coursing through
the sky, the snow... As grim

destiny approaches with the freezing boreal
gales and this ancient prophecy

unfolds...

[Predication of the Elders:]

Go, follow the witch-lights in the northern
night sky, beyond the great

silvern mountains... Let the sacred
moon-crystal be your guide, beware the

sentinels at the Caverns of Eternal Mist...

Spears agleam in the dying sun,

The blood is spilled, the battle's won,

From the icy throne of God-King shall rule,

When nine stars kiss the moon o'er Ultima Thule.

Swathed in moon-frosts, in icy winds our blazon
flying,

Iron gleaming 'neath the stars, black skies
ablaze with astral fire,

White wolves (like silent spirits) haunt us, ever
northwards, the ice-gem

leads us, glimmering,

Powerful spells entwine the shrine of legendry,
mighty gates of frozen

splendour looming,

When the moon and stars shine as one upon the
snows, the ancient ice-gate

opens, the prophecy is fulfilled!

Towering, ice-encrusted forms lumber forth from
the freezing mist,

(Their eyes shimmering with a fiendish, eldritch
malevolance...)

Our steel is raised against their weapons of
gleaming crystal,

And the virgin snow is rendered crimson by
bloodshed in a searing storm of

slaughter.

(Wounded, dying, my flesh rent by weapons no
human ever forged or wielded, I

am beckoned forward by a strange, alluring force
from beyond the veil of

swirling mists...)

Shadows, images form in the glittering
rune-carved walls of this glacial

chamber,

Secrets frozen within the timeless vaults of
eternity...

The throne of the time-lost ice realm, entwined
in the mantle of such searing

star-born power...

This frozen, aeon-cloaked seat of immortal
majesty... (of an empire forged

long before the vast seas rose in devouring
fury!)

What shimmering swords raised in combat once sang
with the glorious clamour

of steel on steel?

What splendid banners, billowing in the icy
gales, once heralded the march

of these invincible silverclad legions to the
blood-swathed embrace of epic

battle?

The glory of untold thousands of years past...
this ethereal legacy of

mighty Ultima Thule.

The frozen eyes of immortal kings watch me...
such a dark splendour!

The Guardian of Ice and Shadow:

The grim Ice-Gods sleep in these frost-bound
tombs, illumined by the caress

of lunar fire,

And the kiss of star-gleam from the stygian
void...

All is now as was foretold in prophecy, written
in the very ether of empyreal

eternity...

The celestial alignment is night... the
conjunction is at hand!

And nine stars illumine the northern heavens, a
vast cosmic sigil with the

silvern moon at its centre...

Blazing argent light fills the chamber, engulfing
the hewn walls of elder ice,

These ancient carvings in a time-veiled tongue,
(etched into the primeval ice

countless aeons ago, now bathed in diaphonous
incandescence by this storm of

lucent stellar power, their mindsearing meaning
at last becomes known to me...)

their cosmic secrets unfold...

The ice-throne is encased by a shimmering wall of
writhing cerulean flame,

A lambent flame far colder than the frozen
surface upon which it dances...

And then, enlightenment comes, gleaming down upon
my consciousness as the

bright moon gazes down upon this auroral
vista... From my mind is lifted an

obscuring veil, a veil induced by sorcerous
arts, and I realize I have been

merely a vassal of another's twisted will, a
pawn in a game which is entwined

in treachery and malign aspirations to
thresholds of great power. Such a

traitorous web has been spun! The elders of my
kingdom bow in obeisance to the

vile priests of Xothan'kur, and it is their
diseased machinations which have

urged me here, to the very heart of the
far-fabled ice realm... for they seek

to usurp the power of the Conjunction,
stealing the vast energies of the

Ice-Veiled throne and absorbing them into their
own leprous, undead bodies, pe

rpetuating the adoration of their abhorrent
liege for countless ages,

liberating his vile will and enslaving the
realms of the world... Aye, for

generations they have plotted their actions,
and I was the key to this plot,

chosen from birth for this fated journey... for
the blood of the ancient kings

of Ultima Thule runs strong in my veins, and
only once in every aeon may one

such as I stand before the throne during the
great cosmic alignment, when the

sorceries of the ancient Ice-Gods are at their
peak, and rightfully wield this

power unleashed... And yet I vow that the vile
minions of Xothan'kur shall not

prevail... Liberating the fettered power of
the moon-crystal, I sever the

tendrils of their dark conjurings, and their
aspirations are at an end, th

eir spells broken by the very power which
they sought to usurp! The final

vestiges of mortal life flee my body in crimson
gouts, and at last I realize

what the fates have spun for me, and what is
carved in the very ice all about

me... My destiny is at ha nd...

[The Herald of Enlightenment:]

And so, enrob'd by tendrils of starfire and the
raiments of lunar mist,

The immortal liege whose sceptred empire is
eternity,

Sits enthroned and brooding over his dark realm
once more.

The last of my life's blood spills to the ice,
(as star-wrought destiny is at

last fulfilled.)

Swathed in freezing flame...

The mystic wolves of the frost-moon (slowly,
silently) encircle me,

Their eyes are blazing azure, and their fur is
whiter than the sublime snows.

Such power! I am the Chosen... the secrets of the
earth and the stars are

unlocked before me...

I am destined to reign forever... to reign from
the Ice-Veiled Throne of

Ultima Thule!

[Lyrics: Byron]

[Music: Chris and Jonny Maudling]