'Ritual spear used by priests of old who were permitted to come among the Deathbirds. The priests became guardians of the birds through the rite of Death, which also serves as an oath sworn to their distant resurrection.' The Death-Rite Priests are an order whose entire profession was the protection of an order older than themselves. The Deathbirds, flame-borne avian giants whose roost predates the Erdtree, required priests who could approach them without being incinerated, and the Death-Rite was the canonical solution : a ritual that consecrated the priest as a guardian by binding their own death to a future resurrection. The priests entered Death the way a sworn vassal enters service.

'A talisman adorned with blue feathers, once used in ancient death rituals. Raises defense when HP is low. The heart sings when one draws close to death, and thus does one cling so tenaciously to life—to render up a death worth offering.' The blue and red feathered branchswords are the Death-Rite's most preserved relics, small talismans the Tarnished may carry in low health, their canonical effect being to raise defence as HP drops. The flavour text contains the rite's whole theology : the heart sings when one draws close to death, and thus does one cling so tenaciously to life, to render up a death worth offering. The Deathbirds the priests once tended now wander the Mountaintops alone, having outlived their entire priesthood by an age, awaiting the resurrection that no one is left to officiate.