Guardian's Fall

Usha Al-Irda

In paths darker than ink
And through snows colder
Than many can withstand
One stood for the Balance

Walking alone
As only a Guardian could
No one could share
His burden

Through a desert trackless
Dunes taller than castles
Riding against
The overwhelming odds

Finally to reach
A destination
Thought to be the end
Of his long sojourn

Can you see?
What comes at the end?
Is it Love?
Is it Hate?
Only now can a Guardian stop his own fall...

Only to learn
That what he was told
Differed by far
Than what was truth

A hard choice
An enemy becomes
A friend, and a friend
Becomes an enemy

Finally
His decision made
He walks the path
That he can only walk alone

Shattering the ice
A castle is lost
To the glaciers
And the ice

Can you see?
What comes at the end?
Is it Love?
Or is it Hate?
Only now can this Guardian decide...

He returns, only
to find a shattered
husk of what
remains of his Heart

A Knight falls
By his Hand
A Battle for the
Balance ensues

The Scales tip
And for a moment
Emotion rules
Over Reason

He walks away
Cursed with
What should have
Been a Blessing

Can you see?
What comes at the end?
Is this the bite of Law?
The flames of Chaos...
Only now can the Guardian save us...

Into the very depths of time
Can he walk
Into the very depths of the Abyss
Is his curse
Only now, can he save himself?

The years pass
Another like her
comes to him
Seeks his redemption

Blinded by her
Own love for him
Blinded by his
Own ambition

Into the gates
Of time they fall
And into the trackless
Stretches of the Abyss

A new mission
That calls to him
It's siren call
Lulls his senses

Can you see?
What comes at the end?
Law is not Love
And hate is Chaos
Only now the Guardian is beyond us.

The sands of time
slips by us
The sands of time
Do not slip by him

Asleep forever
It seems for many years
to men of Ansalon
A return impossible

Until an innocent
Is caught in a
Web of Deceit
And Tricked away from safety

And time slips away
The Guardian awakens
But cannot
Save the boy

Can you see?
What shall come?
Can you hear?
What will be?
He is called back into his duty.

Walking Ansalon
Under a guise
of his beloved one
The Merciful Deception

But things begin
To fall apart
Chaos is freed
The Balance shattered

His Truth is seen
And he is called
He answers
And walks from mortal lands

This time, when the
Sands of Time slip past
This time, he closes his eyes
And opens them no more

Can you see?
What has to be?
What is Love?
That you now lay claim to it?

The Sacrifice Given
Is all that stands
Between us and destruction
Only now we remember
A Guardian's Fall


Bard's Note:

This was written in remembrance of the most famous of all Guardian's of the Blue Star– Raistlin Majere. It chronicles, though not in detail, the journey to become the Guardian, his Fall from Grace, and his ultimate rise back again into heroism and his final sacrifice to save Krynn, and all other worlds, from Chaos and the destruction Chaos sought to bring to us all.

The music is a saddened and depressed tune set to the background of elven singers and instruments as the 'otherworldly' quality of the Guardianship was sought to be brought out.

This is the Solamnic Common Translation, however, the truest translation is in Silvanesti 'High' Elven.

It is my hope that even if the chorals and harmonies cannot be reproduced that individual bards can perform the melody with a bamboo wind flute accompaniment.

Usha the Bard