Rise and Fall

Domes of crystal, spires of light reach out
Symbols of attainment once aspired
A quest for knowledge fuelled by love of peace
People never burned by fired of war

The people of the East
Grew tired of peace
Now mistrust and fear
Are new to us here

Storm clouds gather
Mistrust turns to hate
A confrontation none could forsee
Machines of peace melt down for tools of war
One thousand years of peace destroyed

The people of the West
Though war they detest
Had nowhere to run
So the killing began

Three score and four years
Battle raged on high
Once proud and mighty
Prepare now to die
Destroyed by corruption
Pretention and greed
Atlantean achievements
Dispersed as dry seeds
Blown by the winds of change

Long fell the shadows
Across their land now bare
In ruins lay the towers
That crowned an island fair
Laid low in death throes
A race once true and right
Their power now their ruin
Their downfall their might

Narrator: Gathering together the treasures of
their wisdom and culture
The guardians constructed a vast computer
Protected by an awesome and terrible device
Shrouded in a silicate crystalline dome.

The Sentinel
The ultimate keeper of the Peace
Too late to save their own
Put there to guide a future race

Survivor: By my own hand, and the hands of others,
A nation on its knees
No brothers, sisters, friends, lovers,
No mountains, rivers, trees
Forgive us for we know not what we have done

Narrator: And storms raged over the barren wastelands
of the once fertile plains of Atlantis
And the sea crashed upon the shores
And the land crumbled upon itself
The vast dome, the only remaining structure
on the dying continent, shuddered and sank
slowly to the depths of the ocean...