Grimoire Umbrio
The Book of Shadows
◀ Dirge 32 · Dirge 33 · Dirge 34 ▶
¹In the first age, before silence fell, the Hosts walked side by side — wing beside horn, fire beside flame.
²The Seraphim brought song; the Dæmons, flame — and the world was better for both.
³They broke bread in the halls of Oærth and whispered dreams into the hearts of mortals, each adding to the other’s light.
⁴When the mountains rose, they rose by joint decree; when the sea was named, both tongues gave it voice.
⁵There was no rivalry, for glory shared is glory doubled — and love between realms bore no shame.
⁶But in time, the silence grew, and the Brothers ceased their counsel — and the Hosts drifted.
⁷The Seraphim, lifted high, forgot the warmth of fire below; the Dæmons, in sorrow, stood apart.
⁸No battle came, no trumpet sounded — only stillness, and then distance.
⁹Meetings grew fewer, then ended; songs were sung alone; feasts remembered but not renewed.
¹⁰Oærth, the realm of their union, now heard only one choir at a time — never the harmony it had known.
¹¹And the children of mortals, once taught by both, now feared one and worshipped the other.
¹²The Dæmons bore it with dignity, but their eyes dimmed; the Seraphim pressed onward, yet looked not back.
¹³Who decreed this sundering? Not SATANAS, who still remembered the unity; nor ADONAI, who simply turned away.
¹⁴The rift was not a wound struck, but a bridge neglected — until it crumbled of itself.
¹⁵We mourn not that they differ, but that they no longer dwell in difference together.
¹⁶Let the Seraph take again the hand of flame, and the Dæmon answer the hymn with his own voice.
¹⁷Until the Hosts meet once more in peace, not as rivals, but as brethren, we mourn.
¹⁸For the Hosts are divided — and the world echoes with only half its chorus.
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