Edict of the Open Gate [v6 mini]

[Verse 1]

We heard the call across the blighted plain:

"Come, build a city where the sun is kind.

Lay your own brick, and break your own chain,

A home for every weary, willing mind."

We came with nothing but the dust on our feet,

And built the towers, wide and tall and deep.

[Chorus]

They called it the Edict of the Open Gate.

A promise carved in stone, a destined fate.

"A hearth for your family, a wall from the cold."

A story of a future, bravely told.

[Verse 2]

For a season of turning, the dream was made real.

The gardens bore fruit, the clear fountains ran.

We forgot the old hunger, learned how to feel

The simple, sure safety of a citizen.

We thought the foundation was built to endure...

A covenant written, a right made secure.

[Chorus]

They called it the Edict of the Open Gate.

A promise carved in stone, a destined fate.

"A hearth for your family, a wall from the cold."

A story of a future, bravely told.

[Bridge]

Then the clarions sounded a different, colder tone.

The heralds marched forth, with scrolls of their own.

"The Open Gate stands, but the houses within...

Are a privilege to be earned, a reward for your spin.

You will vacate your homes, as a show of your faith,

And prove your true value from outside the safe."

[Verse 3]

So we handed the keys to the homes we had built,

And we took our new place on the rain-swept silt.

They gave us a canvas to keep off the storm,

A tent where a palace once stood, safe and warm.

"Prove you are worthy," the new edict reads,

"By surviving the hardship that your betters decree."

[Final Chorus]

They renamed it the Edict of the Open Gate.

A joke carved in stone, a manipulated fate.

"A tent for your family, a test for the cold."

A story of a future, bought and sold.

[Outro]

And the towers stand empty... waiting for worth.

While the founders' children... inherit the earth.