King of Birds
Semper Eadem
Always the same. The phoenix rises unchanged through fire—identity survives transformation.
The phoenix rises — semper eadem, always the same. Through fire and ash, through death and rebirth, identity persists.
Paradin’s phoenix offered Renaissance readers the promise that some essence survives every conflagration. The flames that consume also purify; the death that ends also begins.
The King of Birds has burned before and will burn again. His sovereignty lies not in avoiding destruction but in emerging from it unchanged in what matters.
Source: Paradin, Devises Héroïques, 1557, p. 89