Imperial Hymns

[Colonel Mustard]

This is a collection of Imperial hymns I'm going to be writing intermittently over time. Some are rewordings of traditional hymns, while others are written to tunes that exist only in my head (which may, in fact, be scored and recorded at some point in the future). Anyway, the first of these is my own hymn, Gather All the Faithful Round, do enjoy.

And be sure to sing them loudly in the street!

Gather the Faithful

The Emperor calls for you this day
And in his name, you shall obey
There is but one thing you can say
And that is; ‘I shall come!’

So take your rifle, take your blade
His will shall always be obeyed
It is to see the traitor slayed
For you, my lord, we shall

So gather up thy righteous rage
For now it is mankind’s age
We shall shatter heresy’s cage
With blessed wrath and hate

We shall never doubt or falter
Their dead shall be the Emp’ror’s altar
We shall reject the xenos’ halter
And slay all heretics!

And so with his might and grace
We ensure the rise of the human race
We shall never halt our pace
Until we have triumphed

The faithful shall weep joyful tears
As they realise that vict’ry nears
The heretic and traitor fears
The wrath of those who serve!

So gather all the faithful round
As we force the foe to the ground
Our prayers shall make such a sound
As we march ever on!

So have the banners be unfurled
In His name we shall take this world
Into the dark, the foe are hurled
Purged with holy fire!

So take your rifle, take your blade
His will shall always be obeyed
It is to see the traitor slayed
For you, my lord, we shall!

For you, my lord, we shall!

[Geradin]

You manage to keep things interesting as always, Colonel Mustard.

Lovely, lovely work. Though one question pops to mind, did you have any specific anthems/hymn/chants that are in the real world in mind when you have wrote this?

[steffen19k]

It would help if we knew what kind of a tune you were using to sing these in the street.

[Colonel Mustard]

Ooh, crikey, didn't realise there were comments.

Ger: For Gather the Faithful, I generaly worked off a sort of bass-centred theme that slowly rose up a minor scale; the end of the verse is going to be higher in pitch than the beginning.

Stef: I've got a tune in my head, but for Gather the Faithful I don't think it's heard anywhere. I'm afraid you'll have to make the tune up as you go along. Still, the next one you don't have to worry about that.


Battle Hymn of the Imperium of Man (sung to the tune of Battle Hymn of the Republic)

I hath seen with my two eyes that he hath raised his wrathful hand
And he gathers by his side his many armies grand
With his Guardsmen and his Angels he shall triumphant stand
His armies shall not fail

Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
His soldiers marcheth on

The xenos they shall crush and burn with their holy fire
And the heretic and mutant shall never escape His ire
We shall immolate their dead upon a holy pyre
His victory is assured

Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
His soldiers triumph on

All His glorious armies shall not flee or retreat
They shall crush the hated foe beneath their booted feet
And He shall smile His approval from atop His golden seat
For the day shall always be ours

Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
His wrath shall not be stopped

We know that we shall always serve, for as long as we live
And we know that should He ask it then our lives we’ll gladly give
For in death we shall gladly give our ultimate votive
In his name we shall die

Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
We shall gladly sacrifice

And if you doubt and if you fear then you too shall burn
For there is one important lesson that all heretics must learn
If you abandon Him, His wrath’s the only wage you’ll earn
For heretics must die

Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
Glory, glory ave imperator
His triumph marches on

[macko123456]

Nice work, Mustard

[Colonel Mustard]

Thanks Macko.

[Dae]

I tried to read the first one and the tune of Blood on the Risers, and much to my surprise, it kinda worked!

Those are good, if ever you have the inclination I'd like to see if you can make one to that particular tune.

[Colonel Mustard]

I tried to read the first one and the tune of Blood on the Risers, and much to my surprise, it kinda worked!

Those are good, if ever you have the inclination I'd like to see if you can make one to that particular tune.

You clearly haven't heard Battle Hymn of the Republic, have you? Those are both scored to the same tune.

[Dae]

Way for me to look like a fool! Go me!

No, I had never heard of it at all (mistake corrected now)! When I read it in the earlier post I kinda assumed it was some score from some part of the Star Wars franchise. Shows how much of a nerd I am, for "Republic" to only make me think of the Old Republic (though I didn't play the games at all)

[Colonel Mustard]

Shows how much of a nerd I am,

Considering that this is a forum dedicated to (admittedly rather high quality) fanfiction for a universe that is involved around playing dice games with little plastic, metal and resin soldiers, that's really not anything uique here.

[macko123456]

We're all nerds here. You're among friends, Dae.