Inspirational Lyrics

[Clovenhoof]

analogous to the "movies" thread.
I like to take songs or poems/ballads as inspiration, maybe not so much for a single adventure (though I also have done that now and then), but usually rather to flesh out certain aspects of the world.

What's particularly suitable for a mythological approach would be the songs of Therion. This band has covered many mythologies from all over Earth, Babylonian, Greek, Norse, you name it.

A song about Atlantis is not missing, either:

The Crowning Of Atlantis

Circles on the surface
Speak of the ancient who fell from grace
Through their use of magic
They became a legend of old days.

Waters of the Dream world
Show pictures from the Land of Before
A continent of dream
That you could watch on a foreign shore.

From the tales of Solon
To the depth of astral memory
The legend of Atlantis
Will appear from the Great Old Sea.

Dive into the abyss
To find the lost luciferic crown
And put it on the head
Of the ruler of the sunken town.

In the Crowning of Atlantis
Memories will rise from the hidden stream of consciousness
(Zodee-en ten Par-geh)
Up to the surface of the sea.
(Sod-ar teh Buh-zod-deh)
Atlantis bear once again the Crown of Drakon To Agharti
(Har-geh Ah-na-na-he)

[...]

There's also a song about Lemuria. And many others, maybe I'll post one or two later.
Okay, your turn.

 

[Krushnak]

i have the Therion cd with that song on it, pretty good. the music i take most of my inspiration from is Manowar, Hammerfall and alot from Amon Amarth.

Where Silent Gods Stand Guard - Amon Amarth

The last head falls to the ground
No one is left alive
They thought that they could take me down
But it's not my time to die

I wipe the blood from my sword
And slide it in my belt
This is the sweetest of rewards
The best rush I have felt

Ten men are dead by my feet
I smell their streaming blood
And I smile, cause it makes me...
...makes me feel so good

They were crawling on their knees
Begging for their pathetic lives
Now their souls belong to me
As well as their eyes

Each man has something that I crave
I eat their steaming eyes
And drink their blood to make them my slaves
At Oden's feast in afterlife

I bring the skulls to my shrine
Where silent Gods stand guard
Soak them in blood and in wine - A sacrificial ritual

One thousand heads are on display
Collected through years of thirst
Macabre trophies from my prey
Picked clean of flesh by Oden's birds

I am - I am - A wolf in human shape
I am - I am - A predator with flaming rage

I'm a wolf in human shape - Every man is prey
A predator with flaming rage - Blood is in my trace

I will die with sword in hand
And then my seat's secured
When Oden calls from golden hall
He will greet me at the door

- this gave me the idea for a single session adventure where the pc's encounter a hermit berserker in the mountains of the northlands and have to fight for their lives and if they survive they discover his cave filled with skull trophies. he might be under a sorcerous/demonic compulsion to kill or the warrior might just be psychotic.

 

[Brass Jester]

Check out the British group Ten:- Gary Hughes has written loads of fantasy-inspired lyrics (and the music really rocks!)

Example: Ten Fathoms Deep
There where the sea meets the dark brooding sky
Blown by the wings on the mystical ocean
Cross the abyss of a dream locked in time
Lost in the mist with the secrets the ocean keeps
Ten fathoms deep

She hails as the storm rips,
Cutting her way through spray and mist,
She sails where the ghost ships
Perish on such a night as this
Prow dive as the west wave,
Shatters its edge across the keel,
Up high as the crest spray
Buries the seal in tides of steel, the storm rages on…
As the waves command, this ship is damned,
This pious sea, the sky degrees what has to be…

There where the sea meets the dark brooding sky
Blown by the wings on the mystical ocean
Cross the abyss of a dream locked in time
Lost in the mist with the secrets the ocean keeps
Ten fathoms deep

Fork lighting, the whips tail,
Lashing the decks enraged and cruel
Hot knife through the mainsail
Shapping the brittle mast in two,
Now fatally wounded,
Broken and drenched in silent tears,
She climbs for a last breath,
Surfacing once to disappear and rest down below…

Till she sails again, this ship condemned
To tragically relive the scene for eternity…

There underneath where the lost sleeping lie
Draped in the wreath where the grave never opens
Rest in the peace where the brave never die
Bury the beast with the secrets the ocean keeps
Ten fathoms deep

There where the sea meets the dark brooding sky
Blown by the wings on the mystical ocean
Cross the abyss of a dream locked in time
Lost in the mist with the secrets the ocean keeps
Ten fathoms deep

The latest CD features a tale of ancient Rome, the chronicles of Narnia, a ghostly story set in France etc.