Track By Tracks: Xael - The Last Arbiter (2018)


The album is a story with each song outlining the chapter. The story is told mostly from the point of "The Wayfarer."  

1. The Last Arbiter: 
     
I arrived on this alien world with the watchers of Xan seeking the counsel of Tymeer that they would welcome my wisdom and forsake their warfarin ways. They entertained our thoughts and for a second, took interest in our endeavors but it was short lived.        

Upon the chambers of the Tymeer capitol, news came declaring war between the three houses of Tymeer and the colonies of Ezhani Yata Edaa.  It was imperative to quail the feuds of the Tymeer, being that they are the great seat, the “tribunal of the outer rim.”  It's an old world, an odd and barbaric place.     

This world was filled with turmoil, heralded by system of killers, servants to the Masters of Tymeer. And upon us, stalking us, a darkness with intent to kill.     

Above us, warships floated as I left the capitol.  Once again, bearing witness to their idiocy, I am leaving them to their fate for it is now none of my concern.  It is time to go into exile once more, for they will soon scar the planet.    

As I ventured into the wastelands I could hear the war vessels as they tore into the atmosphere. Fools, for their lust of desire erodes them from within.  Leaving the watchers in the city, I will leave them to find purpose for mine is to walk the wastelands aimlessly, wounded not by weapons or hate, but by the pride and desires of the sentient world, hoping to find purpose once more.     

2. Srai "Chained To The Demon of Erring":       

As I walk there is a demon behind me, an entity from antiquity.  It’s chained to me and for this it curses me. I could cut this chain but for some reason I cannot bring myself to do it. For all my shortcomings, I deserve the serpent and so forth it stays with me at all times, lusting for my blood.  Srai it calls itself.       

We are not strangers to each other.  Actually we know each other quite well and for that there is a bond between Srai and I for its cursed with a eternal hunger to ensure that I exist no more.  It wants to kill me but it knows the truth of my immortality.  For this I captured Srai myself knowing it will eventually consume me.  Maybe, in time, my purpose is to change the nature of this creature.       

My years of excess time beyond my nature have broke me in ways, causing my body to collapse losing consciousness, something I simply call soul sickness.  The demon always takes this opportunity to drain me of the life force, but it has yet to succeed.           

3. Watchers of Xan:

Upon my journeys I discovered the three watchers of Xan. Xolotl, a proclaimed god of eastern tribe of Tymeer, I found him far from his world, down the pits of Gorruk.  Upon a mound of bones he sat, king of the dead and ruler of no one, driven far from his lands by the Tymeer Tribunal.  “In an expedition to the odd world of Durmorg Yur in the event known as the “The Serpent Prince Burrows”  

Sorgiem, an apothecary joined me during my voyage to the world of Eiesio.  Now wartorn, Eiesio is home to one of the most advanced species and collection of scientist known for their contribution to the healing arts. It seemed only logical that the Tymeer would seek to conquer their world.    

And there is Tuurm, a reclusive and enigmatic being of sorts.  Tuurm, narrowly escaped his world, fleeing into my ship during my brief visit.  His home world exists in the Arkan rift, the dark world of Vakhul.  Vakhul was the first to rebel against the Tymeer regime and it now it lies in ruins.  For what purpose did the Tymeer have to ravage such a isolated world?      

4. The Wayfarer of Tymeer: 

In the ruins they found me, the watchers whom I left in the city.  It seems they know me better than I gave them credit for.  While the others tended to their personal endeavors I came to an old ruin and there sat what seems to be a young lady.  Wooden chimes gave the air musicality as she sat in a pit of bones.  Curious of her purpose I sat in front of her and she went about her primordial ritual.  I asked “Who are you?”  She gazed upon me and replied, “I am the remnant of your past, don’t you know me?”    

“No, I cannot say I do remember you,” I spoke as I leaned forward to get a better look.  

The seer peered into me and spoke “You could not save me; you could not save any of us.”  She held forth her hands and they were engulfed in green flames.  In the fire I seen myself, the old me, the guardian of my people. I seen my world pillaged by fallen gods and I could not save them.  I seen my world wiped from existence and I was the harbinger of their eradication from my own arrogance. I could not save them.     

As these thoughts permeated my existence the seer stood and began to encircle where I sat; she then spoke “You could not even save yourself, for you died that day. The man before me is a husk, an empty immortal vessel that has no purpose but to wander aimlessly.”         

Guilt, absolute hate, it consumed me as I stood to challenge her but I was left even more confused as she was no longer there, or here, or anywhere.  Did I imagine this? The demon, sitting ever so entertained spoke, “or maybe there are creatures who find pleasure in taunting you, other than me of course?       

5. I Am Pestilence: 

A storm approaches from the east and our sorrows seem distant as something dismal lurks upon our path. The wasteland has suddenly changed. The air is foul and poisoned with fear and there it stood a vile and especially dangerous creature, one born of the Arken Rift.  Civilizations are woven with artificial and synthetic life and it has happened that such life evolves past its creators but the Ark of Set is a conscious dimension evolved after the ruination of the Setien Empire billions of years ago. Though benevolent in origin it was said to have split due to conflicting ideologies and thus what stands before us, a echo of its division.       

Before us stands the creature of the Arken rift, radiating a dark cloud from its skin.  Emerging from the shadows, the assassin from capitol along with his “Arken guards of Set”. Why would the counsel of Tymeer deal with such vile creatures? The nefarious life-form is here because of them, summoned to end our odyssey.  The creature set its attention on me and so knowing there was no other option began to run to the beast head on.    

The Arken Guards began to attack the watchers along with mercenaries of the counsel.  We were outnumbered.  Even my demon Srai, fearing that it will lose its purpose of killing me itself began to fight, cutting and tearing the hearts from mercenaries.         

The beast of the Ark was fierce for not only was it physically fortified, but it’s very presence incited fear and nihility.  The moment came where it bested me.  My body having a very inopportune “soul sickness” attack allowed the beast to impale me to the ground.  The watchers were overrun and could not come to aid.    

Being physically immortal does not grant me super abilities and for this I can be torn to pieces and burned over and over, each time breaking my consciousness. An immortal body does not mean an immortal awareness.         

With my body pinned to the ground I could only wander to the fate of the watchers when in the distance I could see the seer from the ruins walking into the heart of the battle.  She fell to her knees screaming with an unworldly ferocity.  From Her body a light poured from her penetrating the beast and wounding the remaining mercenaries.  This alone thwarted the Arken guards into a retreat.     

I rushed the wounded creature and with a fierce cut I brought it to its knees.  It was at this moment that time seemed to halt and in the darkness was a moment of purpose.  The obsidian eyes of the creature peered into my spirit and I knew only the nature of darkness.  WIth a fatal cut, I tore from the beast its spirit. Regrouping, the watchers and I stood in counsel to the seer. She explained that she had seen our arrival in a vision and that she had been following us since the capitol.  It was to be known that she was part of a secret resistance, the true order of Tymeer, the seat of the first tribes.           

6. Same Journey, New Purpose:  

The night brought a sense of solace as we tried to regain our moral. Questions plagued me, the connection between the Counsel of Tymeer and the Arken Rift and the assassins from the capitol; something seems quite foul.   

We made camp in a abandoned ruin and it is there the seer revealed her name “Ezia Ayuza” and began to speak.  “Our path lays eastward, to the village of Korbul Val, it is there the wrath of the Tymeer reigns upon the tribes. We must liberate them, give them strength, and make a stand against the insidious regime.” Anger fell to lamentation as she spoke, “for there if but a few of us, our gifts are a responsibility to those who are not endowed with such traits. We must venture to Korbul Val and liberate the tribe.  

Some of us were hesitant, but our morality forsakes us.  We all agreed and upon the morning we would set our path eastward towards Korbul Val.        

7. Apathy of The Immortal:    

Once again we set upon an aimless course into the wastelands of Tymeer and upon me are the memories of my past. Upon my bones is an immortals curse that my flesh will always heal yet my spirit never recovers quite the same.  I have found that I can die and the demon who stalks me knows this.  It knows the wound in my spirit and it feeds on my weakness.  Upon my bones is a relic that grants life eternal but only if life is functional. When my purpose ceases so does the definition of life, thus there is no life to immortalize when the soul breaks and I have found I am very much mortal, able to feel time’s inevitability.       

I sometimes see time in flesh and decay follows it close; it must be an illusion.  Like my own demon, it walks with no definite face.  Encircling its head is a metal ring with pikes that penetrate its skull. It sneers at me as it crosses my path, a reminder that it has no domain on me.  It must be a fabrication, a delusion from my fragmented mind yet there is roams in the distance of the wasteland.       

8. In The Hollows of Pathos:     

I am hollowed, and I exist with no purpose.  The soil is unforgiving as I collapse upon the ground, soulless. I believe this verse is done with me so go ahead demon and break what's left of me, exert your singular purpose for mine has long gone.         

I can feel the demon hovering upon my body, excited that it may finally kill me.  It paralyzes me and sits upon my chest, mocking my existence.  Time finally sees me and I welcomed the chance to leave this plane, yet from afar a beam of light struck my old friend the demon as I drifted from consciousness.     

And there she was, in a great azure light her eyes filled me with essence, my lady of the stars.  For the darkness shrouded the horizon, here she was in great eminence.  I could see my demon staring from afar as she took me into her arms.       

As I stood to ecstatically greet her, I was greeted by emptiness.  She was neither here nor anywhere. I sat amongst the ruins bathing in my sorrows as the seer approached me.  She, along with the watchers of Xan could sense my wound.  Aiding me once more with purpose we carry on.        

9. Traversing The Distant Past:

I know her, I have seen her before.  It was so long ago but I remember her.  After I left my planet, my body mangled from the catastrophe of my world, there she was on the freighter that found my body. I was broken then too, yet she was there to tend my afflictions.  The crew of the freighter was frightened that my body would survive such a catastrophe, little did they know that time does not see me for I am cursed as a stain to this dimension.  They feared me yet there she stood, unfazed by hear-say.  Upon docking, she housed me, took me as hers and for a moment I forgot the tribulations of my past.  

In the night I left, leaving her to sleep.  She did not deserve me, deserve the weight of my past and I could not bear to know that time knew her name.  She would die “as time does” taking away once again any artifact of purpose. It was not long after that my demon found me, a old acquaintance from a world now gone. Yet here she is, saving me once more.     

10. Secrets of The Third Tribe: 

We arrived to the village of Korbul Val and yet no sounds persist beyond the wind.  It was barren and devoid of any visible life. Before us stood a great obelisk, a way-point for a grand facility. Confused my eyes consulted the seer.  She ushered for us to enter the facility.  Though hesitant we entered ever so diligently, on guard for the unexpected though the unexpected seemed to have found us first.    

There were no soldiers, no tribesmen, only the darkness, illuminated by the faint glowing incubators.  Along the walls were pods and in these pods were filled with lifeless bodies.  Upon closer inspection a sense of shock began to radiate from the watchers, especially the Chieftain god Xolotl as to his disbelief was relics identifying them as the lost tribes of the east, the tribes of Xolotl.  A confound anger filled xolotl. I quickly confronted Ezia. “What is this” I expressed with great demand. Her eyes filled with sorrow as she spoke. “Here are the tribes of the east, the remnants of a failed experiment.”         

“What do you mean a failed experiment” I exclaimed.   “They were used to test out a weapon against all sentient life” the seer expressed with grave remorse.

While we scrambled to make sense of what our eyes witnessed, from the shadows a figure emerged, one that I was quite familiar with.  Sen, the master of the counsel stood before us and so forth the full might of the Arken guards of Set.    

I could see the lamentation upon the seer’s face.  Guilt lay upon her posture and it was then I realized there was a premeditated exchange.  Tears poured from her as the guards confronted us.  There was a silence, only filled with disdain from the watchers as their eyes burned upon the seer in disbelief.    

I realized we were overpowered but in a single moment of hope I lashed forward striking down the nearest guard but I was not surprised to feel a blast of energy tear through my chest as the other guards pinned me to the floor with their staffs.  Srai, leaped upon them, tearing into them but a new weapon was used, suspending Srai in time itself.    

They seized the watchers in the archaic of ways.  They lashed them, bound them; I could hear them curse the guards as they were dragged away.  Even the young Rei was not excluded, betrayed by her own teacher.    

I awoke in a dark pit, chained to a wall and bound a magnetic shield.  The others were taken beyond my sight.  The shackles are unbreakable and it seems this pit will be my home for quite some time. Trust, the most elusive of concepts, and an illusion of self gain and for this weakness I have damned us all.    

Chained beside me was a soldier from the colony of Katheir from the planet Vakhul.  Its name was Asmokul and in our mutual oppression it revealed to me the astonishing truth of Tymeer, a truth that runs deeper than Tymeer regime, one that bleeds into my past and will reshape our future.        

11. Harvesting The Elder Genome  (Part One): 

Asmokul was captured during the raid of the planet Vakhul.  As a slave to the masters he learned many things yet he fell out of the graces of the masters and was imprisoned.  His story goes:  

“The sky holds many mysteries and upon the dark planet of Vakhul, such a mystery fell through the atmosphere to the soils of the Nabaktu Etaesh colony.  The entire planet watched as it streaked through the sky emanating a profound glow.  They were yet to know the danger that would unfold form this event.    

It was a body, the shell of a lifeless creature foreign to their archives. How organic tissue could survive atmospheric entry perplexed them greatly.  Still wilding pieces of its armor, the bones were made from elements not known the Etaesh. Scientist from all over the planet flocked to examine the body and what it revealed shocked them.  In examining its DNA they found more mystery than answers. What is certain is that its genome connected the entirety of the organic world, a helix which in its complexity was also the foundation for all living things archived.         

The armor, the organic composition, the genetic studies all pointed to the realization that they had in their possession the body of an ancient elder, a celestial architect known as an Atai.  According to archives, the Atai were the first sentient organisms to aid in the propagation of the organic world though there is limited data on such a topic.         

This was thought to herald in a new age.  Advances in technology, social evolution, economic advances, such a finding would change their role as a species though it would take a considerable time to gather such data.  Unfortunately there time of revival was short lived, for the Tymeer Empire invaded their world.         

Tracking the anomaly, led by the master Counselor Sen, the Tymeer regime laid waste to the planet, retrieving the elder corpse. The planet lay in ruins and the Tymeer set forth in their conquest.    

Yet the worst was yet to be revealed.  Sen, the master counselor was not from tymeer, not even from our dimension. Sen was the avatar of the the Ark of Set, the fragmented dimension created eons before modern civilization, the remnants of the artificial intelligence of a now extinct Setian Empire.   Sen came to Tymeer and beguiled the counsel with its wisdom. Eons of evolution displaces any artificial physicalities.  To them, Sen was a god.         

What is the next step in evolution for a creature like Sen?  When the artificial life seen it fit to construct its own dimension, it done so in benevolence. Yet conflicting ideologies split the dimension. Sen, believed organic life to be parasitic to the universe and sought to correct this by erasing organics. Such is his mission and he found his tool, the genome of the fallen elder, a gateway in altering the very foundation of life itself, path to godship.    

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