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cheli's Legacy lives on at the studio of
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Paulo Peno but of cheli's gold work only
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a single piece has survived the
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centuries yet it is thought to be the
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Mona Lisa of
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sculpture the story of its creation is
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remarkable if only because chelini was
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never as pure as the gold with which he
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worked
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chelini was a
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troublemaker he murdered three people
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and he tried to kill many more he was
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charged for rape he was charged for
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sodomy and he was constantly on the Run
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constantly getting into fights and bruls
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and he was even partial to a little bit
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of theft on one occasion he was accused
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of stealing jewelry
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from the
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pope but there was one king who would
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forgive chelini everything to have him
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at his
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court King Francis the first of France
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was one of Europe's Most flamboyant and
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art-loving monarchs he wanted to make
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his kingdom the center of the
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Renaissance and in 1540 he invited
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chelini to par
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Paris now shortly after chelini arrived
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in Paris King Francis invited him in for
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dinner and he said he would pay him
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1,000 scooty which was a vast sum of
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money at the time if chelini would make
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him a solid gold salt seller now when
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most people think of salt sellers they
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think of objects like this but chelini
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was no ordinary person and he instantly
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set to work on one of the most ambitious
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projects of his
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career he sweated over the salt seller
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for three long
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years but the result of his labors was a
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masterpiece
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cheli's salt Celler is now in Vienna
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where it's being carefully
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restored it's a rare opportunity to see
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cheli's
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Masterpiece just as he saw it in his own
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Workshop
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so this is it the salera and I must say
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it's incredibly exciting to see it in
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this way is you really get an idea of
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how chelini put this masterpiece
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together because it's all in its
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constituent Parts as he would have seen
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them and the two most recognizable parts
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are these two magnificent solid gold
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nudes and on the left we have the god of
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the sea Neptune or Mar and you can
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recognize him from his terrific little
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Trident and next to Neptune would have
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been This Magnificent gold and enameled
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boat a boat that may well have a grumpy
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self-portrait of chelini on the front
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and it was in that boat that King
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Francis would have put his salt now salt
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was an incredibly important substance in
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the 16th century and Francis probably
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got about 10% of his annual revenue from
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Salt tax so it was quite important to
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have it in a great Gold Dish on the
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table now opposite Neptune would have
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been the goddess of the earth known as
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Tera or sedes and she is there squeezing
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her breast which may well be a symbol of
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fund and fertility or just chelini
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having a bit of a joke we don't know but
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she had next to her this absolutely
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exquisite it triumphal Arch and inside
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that Francis would have put his pepper
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now these two figures and these two
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vessels would have then gone on top of
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this unbelievably colorful brilliant
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surface and Neptune would have sat on
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this side which is a more nautical side
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and the goddess of the land would have
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sat on this land section where we can
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see rocks and plants and animals and
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then this would have gone on to this
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ebony base and I must say that standing
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in front of it today I'm just bowled
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over by how brilliant this work of art
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is all the techniques known to 16th
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century goldsmiths and all the
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techniques written about in chini's
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manual all of them are applied here and
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applied with consistent Brilliance and
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he's also responded to all these
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different genres so there's a kind of
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landscape there animal there these two
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great michelangelesque mudes there's
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architecture there's even perhaps a
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self-portrait this is a kind of
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distillation of the whole history of art
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into one condiment
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dish when chelini presented his work to
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the
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king it is said that Francis squealed
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with delight
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so perfect was the piece that Francis
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could barely bring himself to touch
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it but there was one king who would have
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grabbed the salera with both
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hands in the deep dark forests of
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Eastern Europe there lived a ruler whose
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Lust For Gold outa all
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others but his obsession would turn him
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from the Fine Art of the Goldsmith to
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the Dark Art of
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alchemy he was Augustus the strong and
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in 1694 he was made elector of
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Saxony Augustus was something of an
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Outdoorsman he was famed for being able
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to break horse shoes in two with his
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bare hands and his favorite sport was
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Fox to ing a grotesque activity in which
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he catapulted the poor creatures as high
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into the air as possible and on one
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particularly gruesome Day contest
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Augustus and his friends tossed
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687 foxes
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533 hairs 34 Badgers and 21 wild cats to
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their deaths
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here in Dresden the capital of his
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kingdom is an equestrian statue of
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Augustus
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himself and they call it the golden
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Rider
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here is Augustus the strong looking like
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some ancient Roman Emperor gazing out
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over his Great Eastern European
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Kingdom and you know I think it's a
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rather fitting Monument to him because
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there was nothing that Augustus wanted
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more than to be seen as one of the great
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rulers of European history up there with
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Justinian as great as king Francis and
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he knew that the secret to achieving
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that ambition was gold
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among augustus's barok palaces that
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still dominate Dresden today are more
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relics of his
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Reign and one of them is an
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extraordinary golden
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work a fantasy vision of the glittering
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Court Augustus aspired to create
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this immodest piece was created by
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augustus's favorite Goldsmith Johan
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melor ding
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linger it took him seven years to make
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and it depicts the court of the great
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Mogul Emperor orur
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Zeb he was augustus's contemporary and
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reputed to be the richest man in the
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world there are
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132 exotic
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CES dingling used over 5,000 precious
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stones and of course lavish quantities
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of
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gold but this was the closest Augustus
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could get to such
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Splendor and as he gazed on it how
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envious he must have
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be but Augustus would hatch a plan a
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dark plot to fill his
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coffers with unlimited amounts of
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gold it was
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1701 when in one of his many castles
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Augustus got wind of an extraordinary
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rumor somewhere deep in Prussia a
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teenager had gone and achieved something
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that no one had ever achieved before
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something that many people thought was
00:10:48
actually completely impossible and
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something that finally seemed to bring
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Within Reach augustus's dream of
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unlimited gold
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Frederick buter was a 19-year-old
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Alchemist and he had apparently
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performed the miracle of
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transmutation turning lesser Metals into
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glittering
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gold at one of these demonstrations he's
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supposed to have transmuted a number of
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silver coins into an ingot of pure gold
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now that kind of news cannot be kept
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secret Augustus wasn't sure whether to
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believe it or not so just to be on the
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safe side he had buter kidnapped and
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thrown deep into the dungeons beneath
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his
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castle history is scattered with
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examples of Alchemists who ended up on
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The Gallows being executed because they
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seem to have really thought they could
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could attain
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transmutation and then of course they
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couldn't actually live up to
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that it was here in this network of
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subterranean Chambers underneath
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augustus's castle that butg go was sent
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the doors were bolted all the windows
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were bricked up and inside but G labored
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day and night to manufacture the gold
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that Augustus wanted so
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badly burer finds himself between a rock
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in a hard place uh he's being watched
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all the time at some point he's going to
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have to produce something that will
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satisfy his captor so really this must
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have been a desperate time for burer he
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had to think about um how to escape with
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his
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life to keep the Noose from his neck
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bergar would have used every trick in
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the alchemist's recipe
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book take all of the AFA said black
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feces or black
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dragon and spread them on a marble or
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other fit
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Stone and put into the one side thereof
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a burning
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coal and the fire will glide through the
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feces and consign them into a color
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very glorious to
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behold but this color was as close as
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augustas would ever come to the
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alchemist's
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dream after 12 years of imprisonment
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buter of course had failed to conure up
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a single Speck of
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gold only some sycophantic poetry saved
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him from The
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Gallows but Augustus had one golden
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object that perfectly captures the
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failure of his Grand
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Ambitions it's a sun mask that he rather
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liked wearing at his many balls and
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pageant
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now one of the most remarkable things
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about the mask is dingling modeled it
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precisely on augustus's features so by
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looking at the mask we can kind of see
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what Augustus the strong actually looked
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like one thing I'm particularly
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surprised by is how small and chubby his
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face
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was but for me this isn't really about
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reality it's a fantasy
