Skip navigation
Library

Red Eagle's Song

Author: 
Varana Tappo
(Transcribed from the oral tradition by Varana Tappo, Imperial Scribe serving the Longhouse Emperors.)
 
Remember, remember, child of the Reach
Faolan's bloody story
Remember, remember, child of the Reach
Red Eagle's final glory
 
Shrieking eagles cried his name
As he rose from mother's womb
A child born with the blood-elk's eye
Whose rage spelled diamond's doom
 
Despair, despair as Hestra came
South-born hag of White-Stone Tower
With bands of iron spears and shields
She turned the king-hearts black and sour
 
He warred and howled as seasons passed
Slaying the Empire's daughter and son
But Reachfolk fell by arrow and spear
Till clan-friends he had none
 
At last he traded his Eagle's heart
To the ravens who covet our power
In his breast they planted the briar seed
That grows from the corpse's flower
 
Thousands fell to his flaming sword
As the blood-sun rose and set
Despite the bite of a hundred arrows
He fought till death he met
 
Let all remember Faolan's rage
For it dwells in the heart of us all
Any who covet the sacred Reach
Will suffer our spears and fall!