Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 10 · Dirge 11 · Dirge 12 ▶

¹Once did His fire blaze across the bounds of HÆL and light the skies of Oærth with equal splendour to the stars.
²He spake, and the Dæmons were stirred with joy; He walked, and the stones of Oærth remembered His tread.
³Yet now, the embers burn lower, though the coal is not spent; the heat is hidden, and the light withheld.
⁴Not for lack of strength, nor for want of will, but for the wounding of spirit that no flame may cleanse.
⁵For SATANAS, who shared creation, now standeth alone upon His throne, and speaketh not His brother’s name.
⁶He sendeth forth no wrath, but looks instead to Oærth with a sorrow deeper than shadow.
⁷The Dæmons behold their Lord, and they grieve not for defeat, but for the dignity of quiet suffering.
⁸No horn was shattered, no kingdom cast down — and yet something broke that no smith may mend.
⁹He who once kindled laughter in the Causeway now sits in contemplation, and His silence thundereth louder than war.
¹⁰The Seraphim ascend, crowned with chosen light, and SATANAS turns not away, but burns inwardly with a love denied.
¹¹O Lord of the Deep Flame, why doth Thy heart hold still, when the song of Oærth faileth?
¹²We, Thy faithful, would raise Thee up, yet Thou answerest not with fury, but with stillness.
¹³Shall the fire flare again, or shall it fade in noble restraint, the last witness to the sundered bond?
¹⁴The halls of HÆL remain whole, and the power of SATANAS undiminished — but His joy is veiled, and His laughter still.
¹⁵Not rage, but sorrow rules His gaze; not vengeance, but memory binds His brow.
¹⁶We mourn not that the Seraphim rule, but that SATANAS no longer walks beside Them.
¹⁷Let the day come when His fire is not restrained, not in wrath, but in rejoicing.
¹⁸Until then, we weep by the red-glowing coals, and sing of the Diminished Fire.


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