The first version of this song was a five-minute instrumental over four channels that I released not long after starting with Modplug Tracker. Like all my work, the song didn't have a concrete subject, and was incredibly basic by any standards, but at the time I thought it was one of the best tunes that I'd ever released.

It's a complex melody that I could only write very basically at the time. I still liked it, though, and made many false starts at updating it to my current style. I think that this time it worked, with the addition of a storyline that wasn't part of the original concept, but that fitted the title perfectly.

The storyline, which will be instantly recognisable to fans of the series it is based on, may seem like a strange choice for the subject of a song, but it turned out to lend itself very well - it's a very dark plot for something which used to be so innocent.

This song was written in the least ordered way I've ever done, with the intro, "And she was born...", compound time section, and "All that was left..." being done first, in that order. Pieces were added bit by bit until the whole story (and the song) was connected.

It hasn't got the usual form that many of my other songs have - there is a recurring theme to it that has been there in all the versions, but there is no strict structure and very little "chorus" repetition. I was divided on how to end it - there was originally going to be another repetition of the chorus at the end of the song, but I never really got it to fit in very well, and I thought the song was long enough already.

With it being the fastest-downloaded release of mine at Modplug ever, I think I finally got this song right. It was finished in the summer of 2004.

The file is of quite low quality - 64kb/s - because the length of the song didn't agree with FA's file size limit. A better version can be downloaded from my music site in my profile.

[Lyrics]

Guardian, tell me the tale of why you're here
Why do you exist, why can you never leave
Alone in a dark place away from the world
Watching from an island above the clouds

We came to the land and we built up our empire
Mighty nation to stand the test of time
The land adorned with temples and pyramids
Standing over the world, the race of mine

Fighting our wars, we took even more land
Until it seemed that the world was our own
Our power so great we never believed that
Anything could break our walls down
Never prepared for the fall of our empire
Unknowing, we lived in greed
Taking all the world for ourselves
And the treasures were our only need

Somewhere far below the earth
Lay the force of the emeralds
Of all the treasures in the world
This one we could not take

And she was born the child of the king
The successor to the throne
And unlike them, their way of war, she wished
The world to be at peace

The shrine was guarded by chaos
A peaceful force within
Befriended by the child
One free from greed and sin

Seven chaos are the servers
Enriched by heart and soul
The seven to be unified
The master of them all

The king lamented the loss of his mother
In despair he led the charge
Prepared to kill his only daughter
And the protector force, the temple's guard

But the chaos was born from hatred
And anger fuelled its soul
Absorbed the force to defend the innocent
And in vengeance, killed them all

There's no mercy that you give
And none you'll be shown
On your hatred I will feed
You will suffer for your greed

The extinction of my race
Before my very eyes
Cast my soul to the emerald
The force and I will never die

Seven chaos are the servers
Enriched by heart and soul
The seven to be unified
The master of them all

All that was left of our world
An island in the heavens
And all that remained of our race
Was waiting for the time to awaken

And I was born the son of the empire
Crystal light fell on my face
I saw and I knew that I must defend
This remnant of my race

Our empire was destroyed by our greed
I was shown it in a dream
And I will remain out here alone
So our empire will never fall again