Episode Transcript
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Birds of Empire is presented by
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active. Hello listeners,
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be advised that this show is an
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immersive audio experience. It may seem like
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sounds are coming from the sides or
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behind you. Listener discretion is
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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
0:57
being seen without it strapped over
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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
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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
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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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breakfast item per box while subscription
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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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And. How does your harper and shoes that
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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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we think will happen But what makes
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our pop culture podcast different from every
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other pop culture podcast hosted by three
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white and mostly straight men. It's simple
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with employed this guy. With
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one swift kick to the head outpaces it
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A good sky, I
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loaded into some. sort
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of us.
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