The Castle

The Sad People built it, so many years and moons ago,
When they fled their Western lands, the lands of stags and does.
When evil spread over that part fo the realm,
And poured forth from their lairs, wearing warshield and helm.

The Days before the Great Castle.

The Sad People, who fled to moor and waste,
who retreated to the mountains, in speed and fear and haste,
Who left the Land of Luringon, and ventured into the wide, open East,
Untamed, full of chaos, full of foul foe and wicked beast.

The Land Before the Great Castle.

They moved around from place to place, without land to call theur own,
Further and further away, from the land they once had known,
They fought the beasts of this land, the bandits and Goorts that dogged their way,
They traversed through wood and desert, by night, by dusk, by day.

To the place of the Great Castle.

Then upon one winter day, they saw a rock a glimmering,
That jut out the coast, pushed into the water shimmering,
And said the Chief of the Sad Ones, "Blessed is this rock that all may see,"
And so they, as one, built upon that rock a castle, the Castle Armathi.

The Building of the Great Castle.

They remembered the structures laid in ancient Luringon, the arches and pillars and carven stone,
How their fore-fathers had polished ivory limestone till it shone,
And so they built their Castle, as a refuge for the weary,
A Fortress for those whose eyes are sad and teary.

The Construction of the great Castle.

Finally, they built their fort, a new capital for a sad and weary people,
that overlooked the sea and land, to see the waters wave and ripple.
The crenellated turrets that shot into the sky and cloud,
A marble-covered fort that darkness cannot shroud.

The Great Castle.

To this day, the Glad People hold this Great Castle by the coastline,
Whose ancient marble reflects and glows and shines,
Who cannot fall to sword nor spear nor bow,
That all that is chaos and disorder cannot know.

This is the Great castle.

And to this day, the castle thus described,
Upon its scutcheon this is inscribed,

"Come, weary and mournful, who hide from the dark and foe of night,

This Castle's gates is open for thee, its walls shine true and bright!

Come, ye who flee from evil and rapine, who search for a land to find refuge in place,

A land that fire and foe cannot raze,

This is the Castle for thee,

A place for the Exiled, built by the Exiled,

This is the Castle for Thee"