Founding
Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC
"Long has been the path that has led us to this day. Not merely for myself, not even just for those who stand before me, but for this world and even the spheres beyond." The words carried across the hall, every syllable as precise as it was meant to be spoken in the 'courtly dialect' of Sorcerer's Deep, which was not quite Low nor High Valyrian, though understandable by all. Even those lords and ladies who had not paid enough attention to their tutors in their youth understood, and their young children who had not yet been taught the tongues of the east, for they had been offered the gift of tongues, the better to listen to these words and recall them for their children and grandchildren.
"Long have we lived in the shadows of glories long past." The king raised his right hand. "In the shadows of empires fallen long before our birth."
Zherys Naethyreon, Archon of Volantis pondered a life spent in search of the glories and the power of his forebearers, and he pondered too the shadow that fell upon it on a balcony looking out over the City one too bright afternoon. He found that he was glad to have left that life behind and could now turn wholehearted to what may be over what was.
The Dragon King raised his left hand. "In the shadows of heroes that have faded into legend." He swept up both his arms than lowered them. "We were born into an age of waning. An age of fading. Born knowing that this world had become lesser than what it once had been. Knowing that all we would build, all we could ever strive for, would pale compared to the achievements of the past."
Bronze Yohn Royce recalled looking up at the walls of the Main Keep as a boy and wondering how he could ever live up to the history of it. He recalled the first time he had girded himself with armor of bronze and felt nothing but cold metal, disappointment forged anew in the flames of determination for that was all he and his kin had left. That weight shifted on his shoulders for the first time in decades, not gone, never gone, but... changed.
"But no more." These words had been expected, just as a breath drawn in must be breathed out also, and yet all in the hall felt it as though a comforting hand had been laid upon their shoulders.
"On this day, a new age begins. Not an age of stagnation. Not even an age of renewal. On this day, we will usher into a new age of wonders. An age that will not be a mere simulacrum of what came before, but that will reach heights yet undreamed of."
Standing on the steps of the throne scant feet from her lover, her friend and oldest companion, Lya, called the Sage, smiled a little wider. The craft of words was not for her, nor the eye that saw the heart of men, but she heard the truth behind the declaration and she saw the passion of it spark in the eyes of those attending. She had no thrones to conquer, no lands to rule over, and no interest in either, but an age of knowledge, an age of understanding, when all those eyes and all those hands would be set to the task of crafting a future greater and more wondrous than any past age, that she would work to bring about with all her heart and soul.
"From Lonely Light to Sallosh, this world was ruled by hatred and bloodletting, but in their stead, there is now peace. From Thennhold to Gogossos, this world was ruled by chaos and strife, but in their stead, there is now order. From the lowest beggar to the greatest lord, this world was ruled by distrust and betrayal, but in their stead, there is now unity."
Alyneah of House Adjar wondered how many of those who stood at the feet of the throne or looking down from the balconies could hear the Truth below the words, below the passion. When the Dragon spoke of order it was with a power she had heard only before another far older throne, an older Law, akin yet different from the Sultana to whom she owed her oath, as fire is different from stone. This then was the fire that burned clean without the miasmas and foulness of the Efreeti.
"On this day, I swear that through my will, these dreams shall be made manifest. I swear that through my laws, they will be guarded and protected. I swear that through my light, they shall be carried into the darkest corners of this world."
One considered the words of the being before him with the cold precision of his kind, polished through long years of arcane study. The deepest corners of his home were dark indeed and some better left lost. The Other countered that the door unopened from without can still burst from within. The being known to mortals as Riz'Neth found them good and kept his peace.
The crown of Aegon, a simple circlet of Dragonsteel, gleamed with the touch of gold in the light pouring through the windows.
"On this day, I, Viserys Targaryen, name myself Imperator."
As the crown settled upon the emperor's head by his own will, all those who had touched the higher mysteries of the world, no matter the path they took, be it study or the call of blood, faith or the cycles of the distant Spheres, felt it, a breath of fire that forged just as is destroyed, a purpose inexorable, a living heart at its first beat.
Gained A Mythic Rank
"The Age of Waning is no more." The Emperor sat and the throne burst into fire echoing his own. "May the Age of the Imperium begin."
And there was silence then, deep and abiding, reverent and awed. Few had the strength to look away and none wished to. A handful of those present were murmuring softly to themselves.... prayer, though whether to the gods or to the man before them it was hard to say, for divinity is not all of one thing as many thought it, but a thing of slow steps, of gradients and shadows and in that place and that time, the shadow of divinity settled upon the throne and the one who set within it.
OOC: Since this was not really about the reaction of one person or even one group of people I decided to write a reaction from a different person for each major idea of the speech and then end on a more general perspective. The next update will be from Viserys' PoV as he declares war.
