The Rise of the Black Emperor

When the glow was gone I found myself wanting
To be granted some silence, be rid of this haunting
To be taken away on the crest of a wave
To be given a way to be free of the grave

I became the chemist, I sought transmutation
Creating devices which destroyed my nation
I cared not for gold, it was Iron I'd need
To create a bridge between man and machine

When the bishop got word he began the crusade
Luddites in garb marked 'The Christian Brigade"
But by the time they arrived, I'd completed my work
and waited for them in a swamp midst the murk

I appeared to them as a God among Men
Veins of black oil, the raw strength of ten
I tore out their eyes, I severed their spleens
Just as they'd done to my fellow machines

I followed their trails to the capitol city
I burned down the courthouse, I killed without pity
Women and children, my ex-countrymen
By the time I was done all that lived were the wrens.

It brought me great pleasure to see the look in his eyes
As I cornered the bishop who'd incited these times
Of dread and of war against the Man against death,
Of the cutting of ties, the cessation of breath.

When I finished with him I returned to my home
To begin the creation of mechanical bones
My vocal chords proved incompatible things
So they were replaced with a system of strings

Man's body's a curse for machines to pity,
I call arias of static from the roofs of this city
With a voice like the hiss of guitars' metal strings
I can whisper these secrets of my metal things.