16

Chapter 16 Empire

I sacked Tyrosh. It was the first test of my new vassals. Six dragon ships, all equipped and assembled by me took off from Lorassyon. I warned everyone to expect us gone for months. I needed to test them outside the End. If there were any problems I wanted to know now.

The warriors were all amazed at the sun. The sea not being instantly deadly baffled them. Fish were viewed with suspicion. It was pretty entertaining for me.

The assault was way too easy. Tyrosh it seems hadn't recovered at all. If anything it looked even worse than I had left it. Against warriors with magic abilities and enchanted equipment, there might as well not have been any resistance.

I made a point of taking everyone from the city. Tyrosh was to be my example of why you don't upset me. I did look for my siblings, but it seems they left soon after my first attack. At least they survived.

The slaves were freed and offered a place in Lorath. I planned to use them to shore up the populations in my villages. Almost everyone of them accepted. For the ones who didn't, I dropped them off at Braavos. Not my problem anymore.

Everyone else was sacrificed. We left a trail of blood and bodies that stretched for hundreds of miles. In keeping with the elder's traditions I didn't let the warriors know the details. It had way too much potential for abuse.

In the end every warrior who sailed with me received a few boosts to their powers. The rest, and majority, all went to me. Each of my dozen or so abilities, already formidable before, were now devastating in scope. At this rate I wouldn't need a dragon to break an army. I'd be able to do it alone.

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A year passed in the End. The expected baby boom arrived and I began arranging for events to ensure they didn't lose their martial nature. Tourneys, spars, bards, expeditions into the cold and anything else I could think of. Slowly I shaped them into the samurai their armor resembled.

Years went by with me carefully shaping them. Fighting beasts, meditation, endurance training. Becoming a samurai turned into an honor and a hard won one at that. Only they received enchanted equipment. Only they earned the tattoos that gave them powers.

I got lucky with the tattoos. I had control of them since I had made sure to kill all the elders. One of the elder had given me the clue I needed to keep using them. It took time, but in the end it paid off.

You don't need human sacrifices to make the ink. Humans worked the best, but every living thing could be used. Even better, undeath sacrifices worked out especially well. Combined with necromancy ink was no longer a problem.

I implement many of the same policies in Lorath. They aren't as extreme. They also weren't samurai. Eventually though they could be.

I don't have nearly as much control there. But my villages make it as least somewhat possible. I don't want the clans to have too much of a cultural clash when I bring them out. Since I'm mainly using rewards as incentive my policies are very popular.

There are some grumblings from Lorath. Over my policies, my absences, unnatural growth rate and a hundred other things. People are so very ungrateful. It's slight and mainly from Lorath proper. The villages all love me, especially since my policies require me to periodically tour them.

I'm careful with my visits. I always make sure to bring plenty of supplies. I throw feasts when I arrive. I'm polite to everyone. I occasionally help out with my powers. I want royal visits to be something they hope for not dread.

Fortunately my plans I only need Lorath to stay content for a few more years. By then the clans will have grown large enough I can replace everyone if necessary. Lorath is mine now and I'm not about to give it up.

I can see why they are upset. My policies don't favor really favor them. In fact they hurt many of them. I was steering the culture towards warrior leaders. I wanted knights not landlords.

I kept the dragon ships out. They're captained by a few of my samurai. Already they've secured Lorath Bay. I've been questioned several times about the ships and love the fact no one knows anything. I occasionally drop an outrageous rumor just because it's funny. I wonder how the spies that are no doubt present are faring.

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My knowledge of magic grew. The incursions into the frozen wastes in the End allowed me to capture more than one ice spire. The door turns out to be both a trap and a reward. At least for me.

The Black Door. Made from obsidian and dragon bone it's the structure I require to access Shadowbinding. It's one of the most complicated magic systems I've seen even if it is limited largely to illusions. Of course illusions can be terrifyingly real.

It was a pretty interesting selection of spells. I can make glamered items, which are basically small illusions. I can also summon endermen or vexes. I think that's the equivalent of what Melisandre created with her shadow demon baby. If so I'm really glad my powers simplify everything.

The downside is that anything I create also requires health. Worse it didn't heal normally. I must have sat there for at least an hour snacking before giving up. Fortunately health potions do work. I can see why Melisandre drained Stannis to make the shadow.

It doesn't always work in my favor. I can make glass candles, as in the valyrian artifacts. I can't use them though. Or at least not the same way. Instead if I have a map I can use it to scry there. Worse, the map has to be made through my powers.

Marwyn actually brought a glass candle with him. Testing confirms it's me. His glass candle does the same thing for me. Still, at least it lets me keep an eye on my villages.

Other than my experiments though only one recipe is of real use. Brain in a Jar is basically a piggy bank for energy. I stick it next to a harvester and when I need energy, break it. Energy pours out and I can collect it. It can't hold as much as I do, but I can place multiple jars at each harvester. Enchanting has become infinitely easier now.

Even better shadowbinding has unlocked new options for my golems. The materials were interesting, but largely not that useful. Well, except maybe diamond. Looking at their stats, diamond is even better than Valyrian steel. Ok, so diamond dragon golems for later.

The important thing though is the head. I can now create an advanced golem head. I now have smart golems!

Well, for a certain definition of smart. They can reason and learn, but they aren't very clever. Overall I'd say they were about as intelligent as a child of maybe five. They can reason and make decisions, but abstract or complicated concepts just confuse them.

So sadly not a replacement for people. Still, maybe I'll unlock something later on. At least it makes it easier to automate my farms and harvesters.

More importantly, they are able to operate my devices. The can use chests, furnaces and everything else I create. They even have an inventory. It's small, only five spaces and doubles as their hotbar. It's still incredibly useful.

Even more so with my production of shulker boxes. They're essentially chests. But they don't dump out their contents when moved. They can also be stored in an inventory while full.

The best part about them. It turns out shulkers are breedable. The annoying silverfish that grow in chorus trees? If they infest a purpur block it turns into a shulker.

Shulker shells aren't only useful for boxes. They're incredibly strong, even more so than dragon scale. The armor my samurai wear are all made from shulker shells. It's wasn't easy making the first set of armor for the recipe. I can see why they never tried working with the stuff before. Now I just personally gift each samurai with their own set.

The armor itself is a work of art. I got the dragon age inquisitor helmet I wanted although it was modified to fit their armor. The majority of the smiths then worked together to design the rest of the armor. They outdid themselves.

I couldn't wait to see the reaction to seeing my samurai. And they were clearly mine with their dragon themed armor. The natural royal purple color from the shulker shells just made them more impressive.

The black door sadly was the only real loot in the ice spires. Even they weren't worth it since I obtained the recipe. The skeleton sitting on the throne was a pain to fight. He would go invisible, create illusionary duplicates and fire ice bolts that slowed you down.

If the tree got disturbed fruit fell and then you had endermen also attacking. The only reason to kill him was the dragon buried underneath. If he was still around he ended up riding the dragon while it was attacking.

The only reason I kept taking down the ice spires is they didn't seem random. The further out you went the more common they became. They also seemed to very slowly drifting towards the center. Drifting despite being locked in a solid sheet of ice.

Well, that and the ice dragon. More skulls were nice. Not to mention it's breath. Like normal dragons it's breath had an odd effect on endstone. It made a small patch of mist that slowed you down if touched. It could also be bottled and used in brewing.

Ice dragon breath has the odd effect of delaying a potion. It basically takes the potion an hour to actually kick in. I wasn't sure if I really needed it since the obvious use, poisons, weren't something I cared about. Still, hoarding habits from gaming still apply so I'm collecting as much as I can.

I've been pretty far out now and have yet to find anything besides the ice spires out there. While the End is incredibly useful, it's just as depressing as it's name.

I have done my best to change that. Besides food and light I've introduced other things. My latest change is pets. They actually had pets before me. The problem was that they were endermites.

Enderimites are not pets. They're giant black rats with glowing purple eyes. They can be trained, barely, to act as attack dogs. They're only good point was that they hated endermen.

I introduced a variety of pets. Several were accepted, but none more than the little valyrian. The little monkey was positively adored by everyone. When I asked why they said it reminded them of me. I'm not really sure how to take that.

Speaking of pets. Saath has the weirdest one yet. Spiders. Giant spiders a meter across. True they're useful as guards. And they make silk and venom. And chitin. If I didn't have my spider harvesters I'd probably be all for raising them. As livestock.

But pets? How can they think of giant spiders as cuddly?

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Shadowbinding is not the only magic I learned. Moqorro had set up a small temple to R'hllor. When I checked it out the shrine gave me a recipe. Surprisingly blood altar gave me access to blood magic and not fire magic.

Blood magic doesn't really seem to be an actual type of magic. Instead it seems like an alternative method of using magic. Sacrifice people or animals to generate mana. For me it was still just energy, but I could actually see Moqorro directing it.

It seems they sacrifice things to generate the energy to cast since they don't have any of their own or any way of collecting it. Sadly blood magic didn't come with a bunch of abilities. Instead it lists every ritual and recipe I've unlocked with my other types of magic.

It was useful, but disappointing. I was really looking forward to exciting new magic. It wasn't all bad. One of Marwyn's scrolls actually served to give me a ritual that I could only use with the blood altar. I'm pretty sure that means I don't have the base structure to practice that type of magic yet. So it's not completely useless.

The worst part was Moqorro refused to teach me any of the rituals he knew. He said they were sacred and meant only for true believers. Which probably means priests.

Speaking of priests, quite a few priests of R'hllor have been showing up recently. They aren't doing anything either. No proclamations, no preaching beyond their usual. They're just there. I wonder if I'm getting paranoid.

Almost wish they would do something. It'd be a good excuse to interrogate them all for any rituals they have. For now I'll wait. I've already sent messages out promising rewards in return for even hints of new magic. I'm determined to get the most use out of the blood altar.

While I did want individual spells what I wanted the most were more forms of magic. I had noticed that each type of magic unlocked new options for golems. Besides intelligence I really wanted a version that could fly. The shadowbinding gave me a harpy body, but it could only glide like an elytra. Since it was much more fragile and I still couldn't make an airship, it wasn't very useful.

Many of my previous tasks involved magic and they had finally started being completed. It was disappointing to find that my powers already taught me more about shadowbinding and warlock arts than any of the practitioners they found. Although the hints I heard about Stygai made me want to visit.

In a strange twist many of the practitioners ended up wanting to stay and study under me. I refused of course. There was no way I was going to condone widespread use of such magic. It would do a lot more harm than any benefit a few casters would grant me. Now if I can just find a type of magic that doesn't involve blood or death I might actually open a school.

Other quests have started being completed and I now have a small herd of unicorns. I'm not really sure if they're magical, but I vaguely remember some mention of them vanishing along with dragons. I'm not taking any chances so I'm actively breeding them in the End.

In a few generations I should have enough to start seeding them throughout Essos. They're fierce, tough and agile. They should have little trouble flourishing anywhere.

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Between ruling the End and Lorath I don't have a lot of free time. The majority of what I do have is invested into a single project. I'm creating a route to Valyria.

No matter how much I offered no one accepted any size reward to explore valyria for me. It was regarded by everyone as no better than committing suicide. Accept I know it's not. One of the ironborn manages it in the story so I know it's possible. I just can't convince anyone else to try.

So since I can't send anyone I'm going myself. I'm not about to sail there. Not only am I not willing to put up with the potential problems as last time I now have responsibilities.

I could miss a few weeks from Lorath. Maybe. But the End was still in the first generation of my rule. Being gone months or even a year? Not a chance. All my social engineering could collapse at any point. I need to wait until it had the weight of tradition behind it before I feel safe.

Since I can't sail I'm going by land. I'm building a chain of waypoints, deep underground and following the Rhoyne river. They're connected by gates and when finished will allow me to cross Essos in minutes.

It's a bit slow since I'm actually periodically building full waypoints. Fifty meters deep and completely self sustaining. Each one was a full bunker complete with Nether portal. Sadly I can't travel through the Nether.

I tried at first. I almost died. The gates shoot you out five kilometers out. I ended up on a tiny island in the middle of a lake of lave. I was also surrounded by ghasts. Never again.

At this point I'm building what I call relay stations. Basically an underground room just large enough to hold the pair of gates and a few emergency supplies. Only every twenty stations is fleshed out into a waypoint.

Following the river eventually reminded me of a few things I had read and allowed me to piece together a few more. The ancient Rhoynar had fought Valyria. They were famous for their use of water magic. The descendants were also currently in Dorne or are Dornish.

Either way that's another lead on more magic. Better Dorne shouldn't be too hostile towards me. I might just be allowed to hire some of them to teach me. Well, if they still have any water magic. They didn't use any in the books.

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I recently attempted to conquer parts of the Nether using my samurai. They were impatient and wanted action and I didn't want them to grow complacent. I figured even if they can't build they can protect me.

It should have been easy. The samurai had incredibly strong armor. Everything was heavily enchanted. They had powers of their own.

It was a disaster. Even with fire protection enchantments the Nether was scorching hot. Water evaporates almost instantly, drying out everything. That much was fine. The real problem was how it drained everyone.

It was like in the minecraft game. Everything used energy and you ended up hungry. Except it ins't physically possible to eat fast enough to keep up with how fast you get hungry in the game. Everyone except me starved to death within an hour.

Looking at their shriveled up corpses I'm reminded of how dangerous magic can be. Maybe I should be more careful?