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Roland Lives! (Battle Hymn of the Crimson Nation)

by Governing Dynamics

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For Spintune 9, Round 1 - Write the anthem for a fictional country.

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This is a bit of Borderlands 2 AU fanfic (possibly the nerdiest sentence I will type tghis year), although it works reasonably well as a declaration of independence/rebellion/take-no-more-shit for general purposes, I'd like to think.

(Some Borderlands 2 spoilers follow)

I'll assume that if you aren't familiar with the game want to know the whole plot, you'll head to the Wikipedia page (Here have a link: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borderlands_2#Plot). If you'd rather not I'll point out the important bits.

1) Borderlands 2 takes place on a distant planet called Pandora. A number of interstellar corporations are interested in Pandora due to a rare element found there, as well as the legendary caches of treasure known as Vaults, left there by a highly advanced species sometime in the past.

2) In Borderlands 2 you're a member of a group known as the Crimson Raiders, made up of a ragtag bunch of ex-soldiers, colonists, and terminated corporate employees who are stranded on Pandora.

3) The leader of the Crimson Raiders in a guy by the name of Roland. Aside from being the leader of the group, he was the once that proposed they form in the first place. Although Pandora is a harsh land, the primary enemies of the Crimson Raiders are the Hyperion corporation and their megalomaniacal CEO, Handsome Jack.

4) The home base/hub area in Borderlands 2 is a floating city called Sanctuary.

5) By the end of the game, Hyperion has been mostly wiped off the map, but Roland is killed by Handsome Jack before the final victory.

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The game is pretty much over at that point, but a possible future (and the one my song uses) is that the Crimson Raiders band together and claim the more hospitable parts of Pandora for themselves, with a strict policy of as little corporate involvement as possible.

In universe, the song was written and recorded in a garageas a tribute to Roland, and was taken up as a popular battle hymn afterwards, eventually adopted as the anthem for the country, the Crimson Nation. Sanctuary, being the place the Raiders began (and being rather handily defensible) is the capital.

lyrics

With our boots planted
In the dark Pandoran earth
And our eyes
Turned towards Sanctuary

In our minds
In our hearts there live the ones
That brought us here
Their burdens
We now take up and carry

Mysteries our home still has in store
We take no orders from outside anymore

We stand our ground
A sovereign nation
Unbent to any god or king
Or corporation
Never again will any of them
Dictate how we will live or die
We stand ever ready
Should they try

We stand our ground
A sovereign nation
Unbent to any god or king
Or corporation
Never again will any of them
Dictate how we will live or die
We stand ever ready
Should they try

We stand ever ready
should they try

ROLAND LIVES!

credits

released July 13, 2014
Travis Norris - everything

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Governing Dynamics Kansas City, Missouri

Governing Dynamics is an alternative rock band captained by guitarist and singer-songwriter Travis Norris. The band regularly takes part in Spintunes (spintown.bandcamp.com) and has attracted literally dozens of international fans via layered guitars, immaculate solos, and thoughtful lyrics.

From KCMO through a series of tubes to you.
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