{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/posts/archspire",
  "path": "/posts/posts/archspire",
  "publishedAt": "2020-03-11T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "Seven Crowns and the Article Introduction\n\nThe story goes like this:\n\n> | In an age of dark and boundless riddle\n> | An artifact of reflective glass was discovered\n> | And brought to a King of eld, encroaching irreversible decrepitude,\n> | During a laborious search for any and all demented fruits,\n> | Bearing any unknown wonder or remedy for timely death,\n> | Above or below the broad aberrant land that which he ruled over.\n> |\n> | Then uncertain of its hidden wisdom,\n> | The artifact was unearthed,\n> | And with haste, taken to the kingdom\n> | Where it gained control.\n\nThese are the opening lyrics to Archspire's \"Seven Crowns and the\nOblivion Chain\".  Throughout three albums of excruciating tech death,\nthis band tells a sprawling, disjointing multiplex of a story.  It's\nnot always easy to discern what's going on in the lyrics to one song,\nlet alone piecing together every piece of the puzzle.  But it's\nintrigued me, and this article is me trying to do just that.\n\nI'm starting with \"Seven Crowns...\" because, near as I can tell, this\nis where the story starts.  I'm going to quote every lyric as I go\nthrough annotating with my interpretation of what it means.  Partly\nthis is because I admire the flow and wordsmithing of Archspire, and\npartly so that you can double check all of my inference work.\n\nLet's start with the quote above.\n\nEssentially, there's an old, dying king in the dark ages, and his men\nsearch for _anything_ that might help him.  They search the land and\nevidetly dig down into caves, and they find this reflective glass\nartifact.\n\nBefore we move on, there's two interesting notes here: this story\ntakes places \"in an age of boundless riddle\" and in \"an aberrant\nland\".  Taken together, I think this firmly places the tale in a\nfantasy world, rather than having any pretense of historicity.\n\n> | The glass proved to be most abnormal,\n> | Even more so then where it was first found.\n> | For this living mirror was discovered nesting\n> | Deep within the dank dark bowels of an ancient well,\n> | Below an army's worth of old boiling blood.\n> | Entrenched amidst a windy maddening maze of sand dunes,\n> | In the great blistering dead black desert.\n\nHere we are given facts and hints about the mirror's true nature.\nIt's a \"living mirror\", and somehow, it was \"nesting\".  (I'd like to\ntake a moment to point at the subtlety of this line.  It's an exemplar\nof weird horror technique; to describe a mirror as \"nesting\" is\nunsettling, it almosts fits but not quite, an uncanny valley\nmetaphor).\n\nFurthermore, the mirror was found within an ancient well (PUT A PIN IN\nTHIS),^[Editor's note: I never got around to it, but this is obviously\na reference to The Mimic Well that shows up in a track in the next\nalbum.] below a lake of blood, below \"maddening\" sand dunes, below\nblack sand.  None of this is directly relevant to the nature of the\nartifact (although one wonders where the blood came from, and one\nwonders what is wrong with the dunes), but it sets the mood\nwonderfully.\n\nNext we get the real meat of the story:\n\n> | As the king received this treasure from the netherworld,\n> | Immediately he could sense\n> | The power that it held was not from earth.\n> | Reflecting with imperfection as if it was imitating.\n> | First only what stood before it,\n> | Then whomever it desired.\n> | Yes - it had desire.\n> | It would cast the king with obsessive reprise,\n> | For this was a mimic, not a mirror.\n> | The glass was very much alive.\n\nThere's not much to unpack here, it's remarkably clear.  It's worth\nlingering a moment on the delightful image of a mirror \"reflecting\nwith imperfection as if it were imitating\".  (This illuminates a more\ngeneral fact of writing, small details breathe life into a fiction.)\n\n> | Becoming of many as each reflection came to life.\n> | The dilated pupil of the mirror started dripping liquid.\n> | Leeching out from its maternal well was the first duplication.\n> | Tearing through its keeper,\n> | Fiercely ripping out the retinal membrane.\n> | Born ripe in slime,\n> | Summoned from its slumber with inherent malice for man.\n> | Cloaked in black embryonic fluid from an ominous cosmic womb.\n\nPut a pin in that third line, where it describes the mirror as a\n\"maternal well\", and the fifth line, about \"ripping out the retinal\nmembrane\", and the last, regarding the \"black embryonic fluid\".\n\n> | Hypnotized in awe and wonder\n> | As one by one, they crossed over.\n> | Replicants from beyond.\n> | Blood lust...\n> | As the deathless ringers arose.\n\nI am only going to ponder that first line, \"hypnotized in awe and\nwonder\" --- is it describing the replicants?  Would be an interesting\nnote of characterization if so.  I believe it is, because the keeper\nwas \"torn through\", and I doubt anyone who witness that would feel awe\nand wonder watching more cross over.\n\n> | The artifact grew roots,\n> | Planting itself into the castle's centre.\n> | Burrowing its living venom deep into our planet's core.\n> | Drilling the portal into oblivion.\n> | Birthing spawns from evermore.\n\nThis is our first look at the true power of the artifact.  Here's a\nhint: it's not just a mimic.\n\n> | Mutations from parallel dimensions,\n> | Then conspired against the King.\n> | When his six reflections had crossed over\n> | Their transfer linked the realms together.\n> | Creating a chain of worlds\n> | That although remain separate,\n> | Share a new born centre.\n> | The centre of this link is the endless pit into oblivion.\n> | The infinite and non-linear chamber of Kairos.\n\nThis line raises a question: is oblivion synonymous with Kairos?  Or\nwas Kairos created as a side-effect of or in parallel with digging the\npit to oblivion?\n\n> | The King was bound and cast into this pit\n> | By his evil duplicates.\n> | The infinite hells created by his deepest fears,\n> | Torment him endlessly in a moment of frozen time.\n\nPut a pin in this \"moment of frozen time\".\n\n> | Sacrifices to the pit were necessary\n> | To restore the rightful order,\n> | Ending the King's reign.\n\nThis line is confusing.  Is the rightful order rule under the six\nclone-kings? But weren't they described as \"evil\" and full of\n\"inherrent malice\"?  Or do the sacrifices keep the replicants at bay,\nwhich either way ends the king's reign?\n\n> | Seven crowns and the oblivion chain.\n\n~~now roll credits~~\n\n> | Six, seven and nine.\n\n> | We are the six, with you we are seven.\n> | The artifact and the portal make nine.\n> | This revelation of sacred numerology\n> | Is the key to unlock a life without time\n> | When these numbers align then the gates will open.\n\nIt goes without saying that these numbers crop up again.  Once more,\nplease remember this mention of time.\n\nAnd we wonder, what gates are these?",
  "title": "Struggling to Decipher Archspire"
}