Remove ads

A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

Reader mode
Goldfish said:
Actually, this would be a very fitting and thematic ritual for Elaheh to have already developed. Thoughts, @Azel, @DragonParadox? She could offer it as a simple service in her body mod shop. While the prospective customer is waiting their turn for the Gender Reversal ritual, they could be sitting in a room containing of binders full of potential augmentations she offers. You could come in for a scheduled reversal and leave with wings, digitigrade legs, and a kickass back tattoo.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Probably not, since basic surgery is how Elaheh made most of her money back in Heavens Shore.

Ultimately, the important part is getting enough surgeons who can install grafts to service the demand in the Imperium. Elaheh definitely would not be enough and she would be rather bored with all those pincer-less standard genitals. But if we get enough surgeons, we can just grow the replacement organs on the cheap in Goggossos, transfer them to the hospital and have them grafted on the recipient. Some regular plastic surgery takes care of the rest. That would cost us next to nothing and could be covered by regular healthcare. Heck, the transgender people would even be fertile that way.

Of course, you could still pay premium to have someone like Elaheh do custom work for you.
 
Changing your gender is as simple as taking a level in Psion. Now that's not exactly easy (you'll need a stay in the Flesh Forge, which takes money and influence) but a literal child could do it if they could pay for the operation and retrain their first level into Egoist.
Or if we got easier ways to turn people into Psions.
 
Trans rights never came up because it would never occur to Viseyris that this is something that would need to be legislated. Alter Self, a second level spell can make you any sort of humanoid you like, never mind gender and of course any citizen who uses it still has the same rights they had before. To his mind that would be like asking if someone under a haste spell still has the same rights.
 
Azel said:
Probably not, since basic surgery is how Elaheh made most of her money back in Heavens Shore.

Ultimately, the important part is getting enough surgeons who can install grafts to service the demand in the Imperium. Elaheh definitely would not be enough and she would be rather bored with all those pincer-less standard genitals. But if we get enough surgeons, we can just grow the replacement organs on the cheap in Goggossos, transfer them to the hospital and have them grafted on the recipient. Some regular plastic surgery takes care of the rest. That would cost us next to nothing and could be covered by regular healthcare. Heck, the transgender people would even be fertile that way.

Of course, you could still pay premium to have someone like Elaheh do custom work for you.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

"Elaheh's Bio-Tech welcomes you valued customer. What is it that you require?

"Pincer on my penis."

"Right this way. May I suggest a look at our newest Spring catalog? There's quite a few new 'performance enhancement' in it."
 
Honestly, at this point the only think that worries me about the pacification is the possibility that too much of oir enemies surrender.

We need to exterminate at least some of those Andal houses, as per our bargain with the OG.
 
Shador said:
Honestly, at this point the only think that worries me about the pacification is the possibility that too much of oir enemies surrender.

We need to exterminate at least some of those Andal houses, as per our bargain with the OG.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
IIRC, the OG will settle for Houses being eliminated, in that they lose their names and assets, with their lineages amounting to nothing and their histories forgotten.
 
Shador said:
Honestly, at this point the only think that worries me about the pacification is the possibility that too much of oir enemies surrender.

We need to exterminate at least some of those Andal houses, as per our bargain with the OG.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Hear, hear!

I came here for the rivers of blood and the wailing of the Andals. Those ponce holier-than-thou Knights, their vindictive and treacherous whores, and their spawns.
 
I want to say that human nature is such that there will inevitable be some idiots why fight regardless of how stacked the odds are against them, but if we're expecting Enemy Action then a third party arranging a mass surrender to fuck with out deal with the Old Gods is actually a possibility.
 
DragonParadox said:
Trans rights never came up because it would never occur to Viseyris that this is something that would need to be legislated. Alter Self, a second level spell can make you any sort of humanoid you like, never mind gender and of course any citizen who uses it still has the same rights they had before. To his mind that would be like asking if someone under a haste spell still has the same rights.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
While that is true, there are going to be be people who are going to argue otherwise, maybe because of a general level of intolerance, but maybe from some kind of social conscious reasoning about the sanctity of marriage, regardless of prior legislation. Being told that you've been brought under a law when yesterday something like this happening would never have occurred, much less to your nephew Jimmy who would much prefer to go by Vanessa?

Notwithstanding that you used your influence to get them tuition at a school in Sorcerer's Deep where people would be less intolerant toward them while arguing how the vice and decadence of the East should remain in the East...

I think Viserys would have thought about this due to having had it brought up to him in the past at least that there might be people who would want to limit shapeshifters like True Dragons (Amrelath and Relath) or the Fey, and how Viserys immediately accounted for that in laws, not just because it would be impossible to impose that kind of thing against them (and it would go against their nature being part of it) but also because it would be needlessly imposing limitations on the practice of magic in general for mages who learn shapeshifting spells, just the sort of thing we roused against when setting up our institution.

There's also the part where someone brought up how we made it so that the privileges Jaehaerys won from the Faith was now equally going to be applied a cross the realm. In a land where incest might honestly have to be stricken from Faith doctrine, and the Old Gods regularly offered appeasement, in order to officiate such matches.

I honestly wonder how that first conversation Viserys has is going to go. I mean who's going to have the balls to walk up to Viserys and say that he shouldn't have ever been born? :V
 
Interregnum said:
I want to say that human nature is such that there will inevitable be some idiots why fight regardless of how stacked the odds are against them, but if we're expecting Enemy Action then a third party arranging a mass surrender to fuck with out deal with the Old Gods is actually a possibility.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
IIRC, @DragonParadox stated that for every 3 Houses who simply lose their lands and titles, it will count as one despised Andal conqueror lineages being put to the sword.

And that we only needed to really do that to a few more in general, due to all the work we did getting their minds off the subject, but also flipping people like Lord Grafton over to the Old Gods worship.
 
Crake said:
IIRC, @DragonParadox stated that for every 3 Houses who simply lose their lands and titles, it will count as one despised Andal conqueror lineages being put to the sword.

And that we only needed to really do that to a few more in general, due to all the work we did getting their minds off the subject, but also flipping people like Lord Grafton over to the Old Gods worship.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's hard to be hangry when you're busily digesting 10,000+ HD in accumulated sacrifices.
 
Yeah, Viserys knows that some people are going to be stubborn about shape-shifting magic, but it is right there in the law, perceived gender is no bar to marriage. Whether or not one of the participants chooses to use magic to change their shape and into what is up to them.
 
I would say the Vale itself contributes probably at least 6-9 such Houses total we are going to be stripping of their titles. So we're probably fine. Might have to quietly assassinate some people if there's still some grumbling.
 
@DragonParadox Besides 86'ing Andal Houses, don't we still have to humble the Seven?

Don't suppose you're going to be giving us several Celestial-shaped excuses soon?
 
Crake said:
@DragonParadox Besides 86'ing Andal Houses, don't we still have to humble the Seven?

Don't suppose you're going to be giving us several Celestial-shaped excuses soon?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wonder how much "humble credit" we get for bringing worship of the Seven into the Imperium in a non-prominent, perhaps even subordinate role, given the number of other religions and the prevalence of some, like the Red Faith, which we are so much more closely allied with. It's not quite smacking the High Septon with a trout and taking a dump on the steps of the Great Sept, but it should count for something.
 
@DragonParadox, does House Mallister count as Andals? Given their coat of arms and words, it sounds so.

Asking because that's one of the houses I'm expecting to be stubbornly stupid right until the point they are extinct. If not because we favor the Ironborn to some degree, then because we are about to make them bannermen of House Frey of all people.
 
Remove ads
Interlude MXVII: The Devil You Don't Know
  • Threadmarks
    • The Devil You Don't Know ​

    Thirtieth Day of the Fourth Month 294 AC

    Cedric Penrose, the Old Lord of Parchments, looked out his window into a night filled with the panicked shouts of guards, and not without cause. Ever since he got the letter about the 'Emperor's' coronation he had been expecting dragons. He knew a bit of dragons for he had a drop or two of the Valyrian blood in him, more than his son who had counseled surrender and throwing themselves on the mercy of the boy king. Nor would he have been surprised to see young Stannis to try to reason with him one more time into abandoning his brother's legacy. He had not been expecting a great silvery... thing floating above the keep by what could only be sorcery. The wings of dragons were one thing, but this...

    Hanging in the air unsupported by any force save sorcery was something like a great silver fish of the sky, longer than any galleon and no doubt armed with weapons of fel sorcery. Words of sorcery born boomed through the air like onto the voice of thunder from the blue. They were more conciliatory than he had expected given the manner of their speaking:

    By Imperial decree, Lord Cedric of Parchments is hereby ordered to present himself to the Imperator, who rightfully rules these lands, to swear his fealty. He is to bring with him all sworn knights of his house and inform all of his banner lords that they too are ordered to present themselves. His forces are to stand down and to permit full access to all fortifications to the Imperial Armed Forces. Refusal to do so will be regarded as an act of treason against the Realm. If this order is not obeyed within one hour, Lord Cedric will be named a traitor and the Imperial Air Force is authorized to let loose on this fortification until the total surrender of the garrison. In half an hour, the Imperial Airforce is authorized to give one warning shot to demonstrate its capabilities to Lord Cedric.

    The Imperator offers clemency to all who surrender and lay down their arms. To all those who force others to fight and die for them, who hide behind women and children, or who turn on their own brothers in arms to curry favor with him, he offers death.

    So ordered Imperator Viserys Targaryen, may his rule last twice ten-thousand years and more.

    It was to the credit of the armsmen of Parchments that they turned for their orders from the old lord when he showed himself at the window.

    "Wake my son," Cedric said to the equally aged manservant who had been his valet for the past three decades.

    Yohn looked him up and down for a long moment and asked in a manner more familiar than most would have dared presume: "Should I get the silk shirt, milord?" There was no need to say which one. A man of Cedric's age did well to prepare for his own funeral, though he had not planned to rise into the sky before facing a pyre.

    He nodded. He had little cause to believe the pretty words he had just heard. But oh how a part of his old heart wanted to believe for the sake of his kin of not for his own.

    Cortney arrived before the shirt, and the first words to come out of his mouth were as predictable as the tides. "Why, father? Why could you not have gone to the coronation? We could have..."

    "We could have dined in hell tonight in the company of devils," his father interrupted him. Seeing the dismissive look in Cortney's eyes he bristled. "Don't look at me like that, boy. You may be past your fortieth year, but I still recall where the rod is in this keep." His voice softened a touch as he continued. "Do you recall a man named Hama who was brought in judgement before me three months ago?"

    "The charlatan who was using petty magic to cheat at dice?" the younger lord asked, shocked, still giving worried looks to the window. They were supposed to still have time, but could you really trust the man inside the silver shell if man he indeed be?

    In that at least he was wise,     Cedric thought. "The sorcerer. I took him into my service in secret, for who better than a witch to know a witch? I sent him in secret to Sorcerer's Deep. Do you know what he found there, boy?"

    "Devils?" he ventured. On another night he might have been filled with questions and brimming over with shock that his father ha employed a hedge wizard in secret, but now was not the time for sharing confidences. Time was short and growing shorter with each breath.

    "Devils guarding the library open to all and sundry who would donate a book, devil women in particular. They have a name all their own apparently, though I did not care to recall it. They were hidden under a veil, but do you know what one did when she saw that she had been observed under it?"

    "Tried to kill him to hide the secret?" his son tried. "He must have been more skilled in his dark art than I gave him credit for to escape with his life."

    "She smiled and nodded like he was a child who had figured out a helmsman's knot or some other petty riddle," Cedric recounted slowly, giving each word the weight they deserved. "She did not try to stop him when he fled. The Sorcerer of Sorcerer's Deep is making pacts with devils and taking them into his service "

    "What will you do now?" Cortney asked after a long moment mulling over his father's words.

    "Surrender as they say, of course. We have no more chance to killing that thing than we do a dragon, less maybe, for dragons at least are flesh and blood. I would rather walk into a cage of my own free will than force men who have been loyal for decades to choose between treachery and a pointless death."

    "But..." Cortney tried, but his father spoke over him.

    "He will probably find some cause to see me dead, but I'm not much longer for this world anyway. If he is being honest then you will have to figure out some way to live with him. Our House survived Maegor, we will live through this as well..."

    The words 'twice ten-thousand years' hung in the room unspoken. There would have been little point to speaking them aloud. What was either of them to do against such might?

    Upon arriving on the bridge of the Dawnstar they were to receive one more shock in the person of its captain...

    OOC: Here we are, the first keep fallen of the conquest with not a shot being fired. I thought about taking this to a talk with the Archon captain of the Dawnstar, but that would have put this at 2K words easy and I'm still feeling a bit tired. I figured it would be best to be sure I could get this out than try to force it.
     
    Last edited:
  • Threadmarks
    • Goldfish said:
    IIRC, the OG will settle for Houses being eliminated, in that they lose their names and assets, with their lineages amounting to nothing and their histories forgotten.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Crake said:
    IIRC, @DragonParadox stated that for every 3 Houses who simply lose their lands and titles, it will count as one despised Andal conqueror lineages being put to the sword.

    And that we only needed to really do that to a few more in general, due to all the work we did getting their minds off the subject, but also flipping people like Lord Grafton over to the Old Gods worship.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Goldfish said:
    It's hard to be hangry when you're busily digesting 10,000+ HD in accumulated sacrifices.
    Click to expand...
    Click to shrink...
    Ah yes, the benefits of having a solid and mutualy benefitial business relationship with the local divinities instead of all that worship and prayer bullcrap show themselves once again.
     
    Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top