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be advised that this show is an

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advised as this content is intended

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for adult audiences only. Cue

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code presents Birds of Empire season

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2 created by Jason

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Liu. Never

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being seen without it strapped over

0:59

the heaving mountain of his chest.

1:02

Worn to sleep, to bathe,

1:05

to pray, and of course

1:07

to kill. The

1:09

marks of the sacred elk so carefully

1:12

etched into the iron when

1:14

fresh from the forge now

1:16

replaced by a new language

1:19

written by the weapons of his

1:21

enemies' blades and scratches

1:23

and teeth and skulls.

1:27

Roick could feel the armor now

1:29

hovering behind him, hung

1:31

from a set of antlers and artisan

1:34

had turned into a weapon rack. He

1:38

wondered where the young man was now.

1:41

So many had been lost as

1:44

the rams pressed them from all

1:46

sides, demons in search of the

1:48

relics that they longed to possess.

1:51

Roick looked around the table

1:54

at what remained of his captains. The

1:57

look upon their faces reminded him of

1:59

his children. children at feeding time,

2:01

and he smiled. It

2:04

startled the warriors so much that one of

2:06

them tripped back on his heels at the

2:09

sight of his leader's teeth. The

2:12

priest came to bless them all. Roic

2:15

moved his mouth in time with the

2:17

prayer. All

2:20

praise be to God. His

2:22

children live within us. Keep

2:25

watch that we might one day be

2:27

free. His

2:29

elk held at their bodies

2:31

were temporary vessels for their

2:33

sacred spirits, which they

2:35

believe have been imprisoned there by

2:37

the shadow king, a

2:40

jealous demon who longed to be like

2:42

them, longed to

2:44

have their purity and ability to

2:46

travel freely through the clouds and

2:48

beneath the waters. The

2:51

tale goes that he made three

2:53

shapes from the clay and

2:56

trapped their people's spirits within them,

2:59

creating the first human form.

3:03

At the time of their death, plain

3:05

elk believed that their

3:08

spirits broke free from the clay

3:10

and moved back into the great

3:12

fields of Alden, where the goddess

3:14

of pain and suffering could not

3:17

enter, a place

3:19

so bright that

3:21

no shadows could follow. It

3:24

was hard to imagine the moment that

3:26

the war began. Hard

3:29

to believe that there was a day upon which

3:31

there was no killing, where

3:33

the groans of the wounded didn't fill

3:36

the air. Hard

3:38

to imagine a day that was

3:40

made up of so many small

3:43

worries different in scale and subject

3:45

and importance instead

3:47

of one singular terror. Roet

3:51

became lost in this daydream,

3:55

this imagining of a world where every

3:57

one of his people was

3:59

not united by a thrumming nightmare

4:01

that they could not wake from.

4:05

He reached into the forgotten corners

4:07

of his old life and pulled

4:09

up a memory that felt

4:11

like a story from a different age. All

4:15

nine of his children around

4:17

the table his father had carved as

4:19

a wedding gift. His

4:22

wife had her forehead pressed

4:24

against the hair lines of

4:26

the twins, giggling some secret

4:28

language while Roeg struggled to

4:30

carve the festival rose. He

4:33

was using an old axe that his

4:36

grandfather gifted him. It

4:38

was the only sharp edge he could find

4:40

but it turned out to be duller

4:42

than the boulder's curve. His

4:45

oldest teased him as he sawed the

4:47

blade over the meat. Father,

4:50

it seems this rose is harder

4:52

to kill the second time around.

4:55

Everyone burst out laughing

4:58

as he lost grip of the axe. It

5:01

plunked down in the center of

5:03

the oak and flat handle pointing up

5:06

toward the sky. As

5:08

he chased his son around the table,

5:10

the little ones demanded, Roeg

5:12

changed himself into an ogre, which

5:15

he always did when they asked.

5:18

Rowing, screwing up one

5:20

eye, he stumbled along

5:22

after their squealing. The

5:26

next day, in the quiet after

5:28

the killing, he wept. The

5:31

grass was stained crimson, his

5:34

breath was shallow, at some

5:36

point his armor had been cut from his

5:38

shoulders. Only

5:41

the sigil of his people upon a

5:44

thin cloth covered his

5:46

torso. Blood

5:48

had glued his hand to his axe

5:51

handle, the very one from

5:53

that day around the table, its

5:56

edge now sharp as the

5:58

razor of dawn. As

6:01

the rams approached, they

6:03

asked if he had any last

6:05

honors before the spear shattered the clay

6:08

of his body. He

6:11

stood, growled

6:13

strangely, screwing up

6:15

one eye and stumbled toward them

6:17

with a smile that haunts their

6:20

lore to this day. No

6:23

longer a man, Roet

6:25

died an ogre, but

6:27

lived forever. Original

6:53

score and composition by Darren

6:55

Jensen. Music editor Will

6:58

Tindy. Supervising sound

7:00

effects editor and sound

7:02

designer Randy Torres. Audio

7:04

engineering by Sarah Ma. Assistant

7:08

engineer Alex Chalk. Casting

7:10

director Chrissy Furelli. Script

7:13

supervisor J.C. Hines. Production

7:16

legal Christina Bulbrook and Lindsay

7:18

Keel. Production accounting

7:21

Pyn Chen Lu. This

7:23

podcast was recorded under a sag

7:25

after a collective bargaining agreement. Birds

7:27

of Empire is a Q code production. Sound

7:30

recording copyright 2024 by Q code media Inc. Birds

7:36

of Empire is presented by HelloFresh.

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Use code BIRDSFREE for free breakfast

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for life at hellofresh.com/birds free. One

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you're in a relationship, single

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or recently heartbroken, you

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could be navigating some tough

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stuff and it

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really Can be. Challenging to. Do

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this on your own. We

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all need help swear relationship

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very specifically. I love life.

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I am Julien and each.

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Week. Oh my goodness, Julian on

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the Ice Years is And who

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district in a relationship? How to

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build a stronger sense of self?

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And. How does your harper and shoes that

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are per. Learn how

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to start making. Change today. And.

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Search for Julian armored wherever

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you're listening now. I'm

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joe them and objects and Bailey but

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I'm sure show and with a host

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of baseless speculation about dusk with three

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what and mostly straight friends look at

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upcoming movies, tv shows and other pop

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culture events and basically speculate a what

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with employed this guy. With

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of us.