Alazzaar the First

Original Release Date: 05/18/4454

Wishing for immortality and being immortal have been proven to be two entirely different beasts. To experience time unimpeded and witness the rise and fall of it all, to be the stone foundation of the long, long ago and the soothsayer of the future has its benefits (admiration, endorsements, and the occasional game show appearance). However, the loneliness, the fear of losing loved ones, the boredom of it all ripple beneath each step, reminding the immortal that time means nothing and that someday they will be the only ones left in a barren wasteland. Vampirism was an inconvenient form of this (though it required the afflicted to consume blood quite regularly), but, most uncommonly, the one we affectionately call Alazzaar the First stumbled upon his powers by accident. A tinkerer of alchemy and chemistry, his years of wizardry attempting to create gold from dirt left him famished and with a beard of glittering yellow, and unknowingly gifted him with immortality. He knew not which mixture, potion, or cure-all he had ingested to defy the Universe, but as his King and Court slipped away, the kingdom rapidly changing and modernizing, he knew something was wrong. He checked under his eyelids, beneath his arms, the crack of his rear, but he had aged little since the moment he had conjured this power. At first, he attempted to commit evil acts, terrorizing the countryside of Holmyaard IV in the Totelian Star System with dragonfire and black clouds of malevolent electricity. But the anger subsided quickly (how long could one truly enjoy subjugating a single people?), and he fled to the distant valleys alongside the Chrysopoeia River and humbled himself as a simple farmer. Decades passed, and marriage, children, bad soil, famine, and desperation left him emotionally crippled. In a fit of sadness, he trashed his modest home until the taut string of a bow sang a strange melody as it slid across a metal tool before snapping with a lingering omen. That single note awakened a sense of purpose in Alazzaar, and his days of tinkering were suddenly upon him once more. Alone again, he awoke the forms of alchemy and chemistry that he had perfected hundreds of years prior and crafted a series of wooden instruments fused with the hum of electricity, produced when he activated a pedal at his feet that powered a portable generator on his back. With purpose and a renewed energy for life, Alazzaar worked tirelessly for nearly a century on his magnum opus: Chronicles of an Immortal. No longer shying away from his immortality, it became the album's central theme, charting his loneliness, his exhilaration, and the uncertain future of living forever. Tinged with static electricity buzzing like a jittering bass guitar, he descends into the depths of dungeon synth and pulls listeners up to the surface for cleansing choruses of light and hope, only to drop us once again into the morality of immortality. Somber and, dear Audionauts, silly, there are dance epics of days around a communal campfire, but always lurking in the background is the sense that these moments will only ever be captured in memory, no longer real to those who experienced them. Tragically, Alazzaar did not anticipate one aspect of his condition: immortality works pretty well, unless someone decides to take your life. During a live performance at Holmyaard IV's famous dive bar, The Dungeon, a lone assassin took to the stage and blasted the musician with a wand of malice, engulfing him in flame and ending what had been a promising career serenading the masses. The killer was arrested on site and revealed to be a former apprentice of Alazzaar's who had similarly been stricken with life everlasting, leading to his mental decline into insanity. With the former alchemist laid to rest, Chronicles of an Immortal suddenly brought on a new meaning: life, no matter how long we live it, has a purpose and can, and sometimes will, be cut down before we hit our stride. Be thankful for the time you have, dear Audionauts, fill it with tasty beats, and remember, these are the good old days.

Side A

1. Gold Dust

2. A Dimension Beyond The Living

3. Fast > Forward

4. The Rage of Fire and the Death of the Blackest Light

Side B

1. In A Word, Peace

2. Armillary Sphere

3. Unlimited Millenniums

4. Esotericism