When stars were young, and forests new,

and air was clean to breathe;

the world was full of magic and light

like none have ever seen.

Mankind lived in contentment,

alongside other things;

Lovely were the works of the earth,

and clean ran mountain springs.

My folk lived in the woodland,

fair and tall and proud.

We worked our magics beneath the trees,

and sang our songs aloud.

The dwarves, beloved neighbors,

lived in the near hills.

Delving into the land itself,

to satisfy their fills.

This, the old world, what once was,

came to pass at a time.

But now its naught but a memory,

in a fading mind.

Bred to mankind was selfishness,

bred to the dwarves was greed.

Bred to the elves was arrogance,

and left alone we grieved.

Discord filled the calm night airs,

suspicion the daytime shadows.

Arrows filled the still blue skies,

and blood spilled in the meadows.

The dwarves, once kind friends,

took to the mountain’s feet.

We the elves were denied the woods,

so sent ourselves beneath.

For hundreds of years we lived,

in silent secret and shadow.

Our hearts grew dark with anger,

our thoughts became shallow.

We denied contact with the lesser folk,

those who had taken our wood.

Our songs became chants off fury and rage,

and we craved the taste of their blood.

In nights of darkness where no eyes could see,

we would steal into the night.

We slaughtered those who once denied us,

the gratifying, beloved light.

Then we’d retreat once more to our blackness,

for alas then when the sun would rise;

we’d hiss and we’d spit for we could not withstand,

the light when it reached our eyes.

For a thousand more years we hid,

and wars reigned over our heads.

When we came up once more we found

our old dwarven neighbors were dead.

Mankind ruled with an iron fist,

destroying and razing with hurry.

In each elven heart that was blackened and soiled,

there stirred a lustful fury.

Vengeance was ours for the dwarves and ourselves,

who had all been terribly wronged.

This world was ours once more for the taking,

to us it rightfully belonged.

In the blackness of some evil night,

we dressed in armor and took up blades.

We marched out to some great mortal kingdom

and began the merciless raids.

Not one did we leave alive,

not woman, not man, not child.

I must admit that in our anger,

we’d gone unforgivably wild.

Our thirst for blood was quenched,

our enemies we skinned and hung.

We rejoiced in the darkness of night,

at last we had won!

A shock came to us as the sun rose that day,

so frightened we could not react!

The bloodlust had made our eyes blazing fires,

and the shadows had made our skin black!

The tall lovely folk of the woods,

we were no longer them.

Some hideous monsters that fed from flesh,

was what we were then.

Yet we found little horror,

in what we had truly become.

Satisfaction still lingered,

for at last we had won!

But some mortal army came on us,

in the light of some awful day.

And with them came a great wizard,

and as I ran I heard him say;

“What you once were has been broken,

and what you are now is not right.

You run from those who were once friends,

you run from the life giving light!

You cannot live here among us,

your presence has been a great cost!

Run now but you cannot hide,

for the old world, the old world is lost!”

Then fires shot from his fingers,

and elves withered in the flames.

The rest of us were captured,

and it is those of us who remain.

The wizard cast a horrible spell,

and in the likes of ghosts he made us.

Then waving his hand he smiled,

and then at last he bade us;

“Forever will you walk the earth,

in the vessels of those you hate.

Immortality forsaken as of now,

live as those you abominate!

When your mortal vessel dies,

you shall simply possess another.

The elven spirit remains,

but a human body is your cover!”

Then we were cast away,

and born as mortals are.

Under new moon and new sky,

under new sun and star.

And so we live on still,

though I find at a terrible cost.

Forever and ever his words will ring;

“The old world, the old world is lost!”

And so as a mortal being,

with memories of lives once lived,

I weep because I know;

The old world, the old world is lost!