- Location
- Georgia
Wait does he know how to make valyrian steel? Cause that can make a big difference
The Last of the Dragonlords (ASOIAF SI)
- Thread starter Jevran
- Start date
Jevran
He-Who-Stalks-The-Forums
- Location
- Somewhere
It will come up later.
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
Interesting, this new chapter implies that the purpose of this trip is being seen as an attempt at a new colony. If so, I guess it's why his retainers aren't more sceptical. My guess is that it's not rare, though not exactly common, for families in the motherland to feel the need to gain power away from the traditional structures of Valyria. Probably, some of the daughters of Valyria might have been the successful colonies of ambitious Valyrians.
Most people would just assume rationally that his 'vision' might be an excuse to start his own power base away from Valyria which, successful or not, benefits the mainland. More knowledge of Sothryos or a new colony to claim in the name of the Fourteen Flames.
Furthermore, I like the beginning of exotic diversity you are showing of the new lands. Much potential. Though, it has to be said that Roman Gladiator combat wasn't as out for blood as popular myth would like to portray them. In fact, they are treated more as modern day athletes with sponsorships, high grade medical care and a lot of benefits. Training someone who can put a convincing and entertaining fight while not injuring themselves is difficult after all. Honestly, they are more like professional wrestlers than anything. Here might be different though. So, who knows.
Most people would just assume rationally that his 'vision' might be an excuse to start his own power base away from Valyria which, successful or not, benefits the mainland. More knowledge of Sothryos or a new colony to claim in the name of the Fourteen Flames.
Furthermore, I like the beginning of exotic diversity you are showing of the new lands. Much potential. Though, it has to be said that Roman Gladiator combat wasn't as out for blood as popular myth would like to portray them. In fact, they are treated more as modern day athletes with sponsorships, high grade medical care and a lot of benefits. Training someone who can put a convincing and entertaining fight while not injuring themselves is difficult after all. Honestly, they are more like professional wrestlers than anything. Here might be different though. So, who knows.
williams1996
Alba gu bràth
- Location
- Scotland
Didn't it say earlier he had smiths and masons with him they probably know how to do that and all the magical building bullshit the valyrians had.
Namer
ᵘʷᵘ
- Location
- Bangladesh
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's probably a little premature at this point, but I'll keep it in mind :^
By this time, there have been no less than 5 separate Valyrian colonies on the Sothoryosi mainland, Gogossos being a sixth. Only two on the mainland, Zamettar and Gorosh, are intact in any way. Making colonization attempts at Sothoryos is nothing new, and the Magisters probably assumed he's making another one in order to live up to his maternal legacy or something.
Chapter 6
Jevran
He-Who-Stalks-The-Forums
- Location
- Somewhere
-+-
Chapter 6
Family dinners.
That was an unavoidable reality of life.
Like death. Or taxes.
And just like with the other two, it was something you endured.
And just a day after the three day long festivities at the fighting pits finally concluded, I had to do just that.
This particular family dinner was being held in a second floor dining hall that was graciously provided by Magister Aurion for just this event. It was a massive rectangular hall that with white walls and ceiling, with floor made out of gray stone. We all sat around a massive wooden table that was placed in the very center of the hall. On one side of said hall, massive arched doorways opened into a long balcony and let in both sunlight and a fresh breeze. Slaves dressed in white tunics stood at periodic intervals along the other wall, ready to spring to action at the slightest signal from us. The only entrance to the hall stood at the far end, a pair of double doors that were made out of a dark wood and carved with dragons and other fantastic beasts.
The table itself was piled high with more than a dozen dishes, and as many jugs of wine. There were steaming meat dishes that came from goats, peacocks, cows, and pigs. There was seafood in the form of four difference types of fish, crabs and prawns. There were fruit dishes that were made out of fruit slices that had cut and arranged into flower like patterns. The meat and fish dishes were dipped in different kinds of sauces, while the fruits were dipped in creams and honey.
I sat at the head of the table, with my sister and cousins seated to the left of me, and my uncles and aunts seated to the right of me. Finally, my grand uncle, my grandfather's brother, sat at the opposite end of the table.
All together there were thirteen of us in total.
And some days you needed a secretary to keep track of them.
I had two uncles and three aunts, my fathers siblings. I also had a an uncle and an aunt who were my grand uncle's children, bringing the total number of uncles to three and aunts to four. Fortunately, all of them were married to each other, or there would be even more of us.
Of cousins, I had three. There was Baelon of course, and quite unusually for my family, one of my aunts had given birth to a pair of twin girls who were two years my younger.
"When we will be ready to sail on, cousin?" Baelon began the dinner table conversation as he pulled a plate that held a dozen smoked fish towards him. "I love the fighting pit, but I'm also eager to truly start our voyage!"
From across the table, his mother glared murder at him.
"I would much prefer if we stayed here for a while longer, cousin," one of the twins, Baela, addressed Baelon. I had heard some talk from my aunts about marrying her and her sister to Baelon. Some people get all the luck. "This is a far cry from the mother city, but I believe I'm coming to like Gogossos. They have good sport here."
I assumed she was talking about the fighting pit. And yes, the fights had been interesting, if only because of the exotic variety of beasts that had been made to fight.
"And they have elephants here," her twin, Gaela, said distractedly as she wrestled with a crab. "I was told that you could learn to ride one like a dragon!"
I sighed as Baelon reached over to help her with the crab. As he cracked it's shell open for her and she started devouring the crab, I decided to speak up, "It would take months to learn such an art. If we delay here that long we'll sail right into the middle of the storm season. And no matter how strong our ships are, I don't want to risk them in a summer storm."
"It would be a far far better fate than what you have planned for us, Aerion," Aunt Daemona said waspishly as she bit into an orange slice with venom. I could well picture my jugular it its place. "At sea, we will only drown."
"Mother," Baelon said patiently. "This is something we have determined to do. We announced our intent to everyone in the freehold and left mother Valyria. The time for speaking up against the voyage is long past."
Baelon, I love you. You are a total bro, to use the lingo of my old life. You absolutely deserve to have the twins in your bed.
"Would you have changed course if I had?" Aunt Daemona demanded as she attacked a plate of grapes now.
"I would have taken your words into account," I said with long patience. That was even true. Between them, they had a lot of management and political experience, and my grand uncle knew a lot of people. "I will always heed your advice before making a decision that involves the future of our house." However, that didn't mean I would follow said advice. And this one project is the only one I was not ready to compromise on.
"If you had listened to us, then you would have left us in the mother city," Aunt Daemona reached for a wine jug.
Oh believe me, I too would like nothing better than to leave the lot of you in the mother city and bugger off to avoid the doom. But you are my family, and you are my responsibility. I have to do my best to save you, even if you curse my name.
-+-
After that wonderful family dinner where I almost threw myself from the second floor balcony, I went straight to bed, because I had to get up early the next day to go to the slave market.
It was like any other market or bazaar, comprising of a large public square that had been taken up by the stalls of almost a hundred merchants. The stalls were pressed up against each other and created a series of narrow paths between them that anyone entering the market had to walk through. Only instead of the wares found at a normal market, these stalls were filled with slaves, most of them chained to iron stakes driven into the ground, others in actual cages. The stench of unwashed bodies choked up the air of the marketplace, and the smell of piss and shit was right behind it.
Slave markets like this were a staple of Valyrian cities.
A steady stream of slaves flowed into the mother city and from there to the great mines that honeycombed the fourteen flames. There they died within months of arrival, and ensured that there was always a demand for more slaves.
I did not like slavery.
I knew enough from my old life to understand that slavery was evil, immoral, and ultimately unproductive.
But, it was impossible for one freeholder who was not even a dragonrider to change a practice that has been around for millennia.
The Valyrians were completely dependent upon slavery at this point. The freehold could not function without it. Even if the council of magisters passed a law abolishing slavery right now, enforcing it would cause the freehold to collapse.
It wasn't always like this.
According to the epics that told the history of the freehold, once upon a time the Valyrian people had lived without slavery.
Once upon a time, Valyrians worked their own estates and raised their own cities.
Once upon a time, all Valyrians readily donned armor and took up weapons to defend their city with their lives.
When the lockstep legions of the Ghiscari Empire tried to invade the peninsula, it had been such citizen soldiers that faced them down. Went toe to toe with the most well disciplined, well trained, and well equipped army of the ancient world and held them off until the dragonriders could fly in and flame them.
I had heard from a couple of philosophers that the wars with the Ghiscari were the high point of the classical age for the freehold.
After that, it had been a long downhill slide to decadence and indolence.
And the rot really set in after we adopted slavery from the Ghiscari.
All of a sudden, we had slaves to work our fields, we had slaves to work in hour houses, and we had slaves to work in our mines. We had a taste of decadence and the easy life, and just what could be achieved with a workforce that numbers in the hundreds of thousands and could be worked to death and easily replaced.
Of course, with my unique knowledge, I was actually in a position to make a difference on that front. When the freehold went the way of the dodo and everything was in upheaval, I had the opportunity to rebuild things without slavery.
For now though, I had to use the tools at my disposal to ensure my and my family's survival.
"Remember we have to feed them, my lord," Captain Maero said as he followed me as I walked past the slave pens behind a slave trader. "Feeding that many slaves along a long voyage will be impossible."
That was true. I also didn't want to risk any slave revolts by taking on too many slaves. If the number of slaves exceeded the number of freemen, then there was the chance, however slight, that a revolt might overwhelm us. And we would be too far away from any other colonies to call for help.
Not a scenario I ever wanted to risk.
To further make sure that a slave revolt would not happen, I planned to offer the slaves with us freedom once the colony was established. That should remove the temptation completely, and also motivate them to actually help us willingly.
All of that aside, Gogossos was famous for exporting exotic slaves, not skilled ones or good workers. And those were the kind that I most needed for my new colony. And I already had those. No, I was here for a special kind of slave.
"Here you are, lord," the slave trader said as he stopped at a stall where a row of slaves were chained to one of the iron posts driven into the ground. "These are all natives of the continent and speak their language."
"Very good," I said. "Where are they taken from? And do any of them speak any other languages? If you find me one who speaks a civilized language or a translator I will purchase one of them."
"They are from the lands around the river Zamoyos, lord," the slave trader explained. "They were taken during as expedition to Yeen, the empty city."
I blinked, "You go there? Isn't that city cursed or plague ridden?" I knew of that city from both my studies in the freehold and from my old life. It didn't have a good reputation.
"We always avoid that cursed place, lord" the slave trader said. "But on this expedition, we were hired to make the trip by a physician. We only had to go a little ways past our usual path, and he paid well."
"A physician wanted to go to Yeen? Why?" To study what killed the last inhabitants? Well, that would be good to know.
"He is a slave breeder and wanted to study the local peoples and how they have changed over the years by looking at the carvings and statues of the city," the slave trader twisted his mouth. "At the least, that's what he said. What else he did there, I do not know."
Ah.
Slave breeding was also something Valyrians did. They bred slaves with other slaves to create desirable traits the same way animal owners bred their beasts. But that wasn't all. Slave breeding was something even the Ghiscari had supposedly done. Valyrians also mixed sorcery in the process and created far more exotic slaves that no natural breeding could produce.
That art wasn't one that was practiced as often however. Not because Valyrians were worried about committing crimes against nature had anything even resembling human decency, but because this type of work cost a fortune and only the members of the council of magisters and the forty families could afford it. So, the number of fleshshapers was low.
Gogossos on the other hand, had a large number of fleshshapers practicing their craft. It was fast turning into the fleshshaping center of the freehold.
"Speak of the demons, and they will come," I looked up from my tangent at the voice of the slave trader. "There he is now."
I turned to see bald man with Valyrian features walking up to the stall. He was not a tall man or a large man, but had an air about him that caused men to step away from him. He dressed in a crimson robe woven with golden patterns.
"Greetings, my friend!" his voice was reedy but exited. "I wanted to….." he trained off as he saw us, and our escort of armed guards. "Perhaps this is not the time?"
It was pure curiosity that made me step forward.
"Greetings! I am Aerion Melerys. Perhaps we should talk?"
-+-
Chapter 6
Family dinners.
That was an unavoidable reality of life.
Like death. Or taxes.
And just like with the other two, it was something you endured.
And just a day after the three day long festivities at the fighting pits finally concluded, I had to do just that.
This particular family dinner was being held in a second floor dining hall that was graciously provided by Magister Aurion for just this event. It was a massive rectangular hall that with white walls and ceiling, with floor made out of gray stone. We all sat around a massive wooden table that was placed in the very center of the hall. On one side of said hall, massive arched doorways opened into a long balcony and let in both sunlight and a fresh breeze. Slaves dressed in white tunics stood at periodic intervals along the other wall, ready to spring to action at the slightest signal from us. The only entrance to the hall stood at the far end, a pair of double doors that were made out of a dark wood and carved with dragons and other fantastic beasts.
The table itself was piled high with more than a dozen dishes, and as many jugs of wine. There were steaming meat dishes that came from goats, peacocks, cows, and pigs. There was seafood in the form of four difference types of fish, crabs and prawns. There were fruit dishes that were made out of fruit slices that had cut and arranged into flower like patterns. The meat and fish dishes were dipped in different kinds of sauces, while the fruits were dipped in creams and honey.
I sat at the head of the table, with my sister and cousins seated to the left of me, and my uncles and aunts seated to the right of me. Finally, my grand uncle, my grandfather's brother, sat at the opposite end of the table.
All together there were thirteen of us in total.
And some days you needed a secretary to keep track of them.
I had two uncles and three aunts, my fathers siblings. I also had a an uncle and an aunt who were my grand uncle's children, bringing the total number of uncles to three and aunts to four. Fortunately, all of them were married to each other, or there would be even more of us.
Of cousins, I had three. There was Baelon of course, and quite unusually for my family, one of my aunts had given birth to a pair of twin girls who were two years my younger.
"When we will be ready to sail on, cousin?" Baelon began the dinner table conversation as he pulled a plate that held a dozen smoked fish towards him. "I love the fighting pit, but I'm also eager to truly start our voyage!"
From across the table, his mother glared murder at him.
"I would much prefer if we stayed here for a while longer, cousin," one of the twins, Baela, addressed Baelon. I had heard some talk from my aunts about marrying her and her sister to Baelon. Some people get all the luck. "This is a far cry from the mother city, but I believe I'm coming to like Gogossos. They have good sport here."
I assumed she was talking about the fighting pit. And yes, the fights had been interesting, if only because of the exotic variety of beasts that had been made to fight.
"And they have elephants here," her twin, Gaela, said distractedly as she wrestled with a crab. "I was told that you could learn to ride one like a dragon!"
I sighed as Baelon reached over to help her with the crab. As he cracked it's shell open for her and she started devouring the crab, I decided to speak up, "It would take months to learn such an art. If we delay here that long we'll sail right into the middle of the storm season. And no matter how strong our ships are, I don't want to risk them in a summer storm."
"It would be a far far better fate than what you have planned for us, Aerion," Aunt Daemona said waspishly as she bit into an orange slice with venom. I could well picture my jugular it its place. "At sea, we will only drown."
"Mother," Baelon said patiently. "This is something we have determined to do. We announced our intent to everyone in the freehold and left mother Valyria. The time for speaking up against the voyage is long past."
Baelon, I love you. You are a total bro, to use the lingo of my old life. You absolutely deserve to have the twins in your bed.
"Would you have changed course if I had?" Aunt Daemona demanded as she attacked a plate of grapes now.
"I would have taken your words into account," I said with long patience. That was even true. Between them, they had a lot of management and political experience, and my grand uncle knew a lot of people. "I will always heed your advice before making a decision that involves the future of our house." However, that didn't mean I would follow said advice. And this one project is the only one I was not ready to compromise on.
"If you had listened to us, then you would have left us in the mother city," Aunt Daemona reached for a wine jug.
Oh believe me, I too would like nothing better than to leave the lot of you in the mother city and bugger off to avoid the doom. But you are my family, and you are my responsibility. I have to do my best to save you, even if you curse my name.
-+-
After that wonderful family dinner where I almost threw myself from the second floor balcony, I went straight to bed, because I had to get up early the next day to go to the slave market.
It was like any other market or bazaar, comprising of a large public square that had been taken up by the stalls of almost a hundred merchants. The stalls were pressed up against each other and created a series of narrow paths between them that anyone entering the market had to walk through. Only instead of the wares found at a normal market, these stalls were filled with slaves, most of them chained to iron stakes driven into the ground, others in actual cages. The stench of unwashed bodies choked up the air of the marketplace, and the smell of piss and shit was right behind it.
Slave markets like this were a staple of Valyrian cities.
A steady stream of slaves flowed into the mother city and from there to the great mines that honeycombed the fourteen flames. There they died within months of arrival, and ensured that there was always a demand for more slaves.
I did not like slavery.
I knew enough from my old life to understand that slavery was evil, immoral, and ultimately unproductive.
But, it was impossible for one freeholder who was not even a dragonrider to change a practice that has been around for millennia.
The Valyrians were completely dependent upon slavery at this point. The freehold could not function without it. Even if the council of magisters passed a law abolishing slavery right now, enforcing it would cause the freehold to collapse.
It wasn't always like this.
According to the epics that told the history of the freehold, once upon a time the Valyrian people had lived without slavery.
Once upon a time, Valyrians worked their own estates and raised their own cities.
Once upon a time, all Valyrians readily donned armor and took up weapons to defend their city with their lives.
When the lockstep legions of the Ghiscari Empire tried to invade the peninsula, it had been such citizen soldiers that faced them down. Went toe to toe with the most well disciplined, well trained, and well equipped army of the ancient world and held them off until the dragonriders could fly in and flame them.
I had heard from a couple of philosophers that the wars with the Ghiscari were the high point of the classical age for the freehold.
After that, it had been a long downhill slide to decadence and indolence.
And the rot really set in after we adopted slavery from the Ghiscari.
All of a sudden, we had slaves to work our fields, we had slaves to work in hour houses, and we had slaves to work in our mines. We had a taste of decadence and the easy life, and just what could be achieved with a workforce that numbers in the hundreds of thousands and could be worked to death and easily replaced.
Of course, with my unique knowledge, I was actually in a position to make a difference on that front. When the freehold went the way of the dodo and everything was in upheaval, I had the opportunity to rebuild things without slavery.
For now though, I had to use the tools at my disposal to ensure my and my family's survival.
"Remember we have to feed them, my lord," Captain Maero said as he followed me as I walked past the slave pens behind a slave trader. "Feeding that many slaves along a long voyage will be impossible."
That was true. I also didn't want to risk any slave revolts by taking on too many slaves. If the number of slaves exceeded the number of freemen, then there was the chance, however slight, that a revolt might overwhelm us. And we would be too far away from any other colonies to call for help.
Not a scenario I ever wanted to risk.
To further make sure that a slave revolt would not happen, I planned to offer the slaves with us freedom once the colony was established. That should remove the temptation completely, and also motivate them to actually help us willingly.
All of that aside, Gogossos was famous for exporting exotic slaves, not skilled ones or good workers. And those were the kind that I most needed for my new colony. And I already had those. No, I was here for a special kind of slave.
"Here you are, lord," the slave trader said as he stopped at a stall where a row of slaves were chained to one of the iron posts driven into the ground. "These are all natives of the continent and speak their language."
"Very good," I said. "Where are they taken from? And do any of them speak any other languages? If you find me one who speaks a civilized language or a translator I will purchase one of them."
"They are from the lands around the river Zamoyos, lord," the slave trader explained. "They were taken during as expedition to Yeen, the empty city."
I blinked, "You go there? Isn't that city cursed or plague ridden?" I knew of that city from both my studies in the freehold and from my old life. It didn't have a good reputation.
"We always avoid that cursed place, lord" the slave trader said. "But on this expedition, we were hired to make the trip by a physician. We only had to go a little ways past our usual path, and he paid well."
"A physician wanted to go to Yeen? Why?" To study what killed the last inhabitants? Well, that would be good to know.
"He is a slave breeder and wanted to study the local peoples and how they have changed over the years by looking at the carvings and statues of the city," the slave trader twisted his mouth. "At the least, that's what he said. What else he did there, I do not know."
Ah.
Slave breeding was also something Valyrians did. They bred slaves with other slaves to create desirable traits the same way animal owners bred their beasts. But that wasn't all. Slave breeding was something even the Ghiscari had supposedly done. Valyrians also mixed sorcery in the process and created far more exotic slaves that no natural breeding could produce.
That art wasn't one that was practiced as often however. Not because Valyrians were worried about committing crimes against nature had anything even resembling human decency, but because this type of work cost a fortune and only the members of the council of magisters and the forty families could afford it. So, the number of fleshshapers was low.
Gogossos on the other hand, had a large number of fleshshapers practicing their craft. It was fast turning into the fleshshaping center of the freehold.
"Speak of the demons, and they will come," I looked up from my tangent at the voice of the slave trader. "There he is now."
I turned to see bald man with Valyrian features walking up to the stall. He was not a tall man or a large man, but had an air about him that caused men to step away from him. He dressed in a crimson robe woven with golden patterns.
"Greetings, my friend!" his voice was reedy but exited. "I wanted to….." he trained off as he saw us, and our escort of armed guards. "Perhaps this is not the time?"
It was pure curiosity that made me step forward.
"Greetings! I am Aerion Melerys. Perhaps we should talk?"
-+-
- Location
- Georgia
Alright going good so far
Fabula Amanti
I want a Grimoire, but I got books.
- Location
- Singapore
You know, I can't wait until the OP has an opportunity to say I told you so.
And I see he's taking in some propaganda about why slavery in Valyria is decadent and that the age of citizenship is glorious. Never is it very clear cut in history. It is highly likely even in those ages slavery was a thing. It is an institution of the strong back then. To challenge the Ghiscari they would already have slaves in place not just for fighting but for a lot of other things like working the fields or servants of households. We modern people like to believe we are above it, but really we just have different names for the words slave now.
And I would expect some of his relatives to see the distinction in the future. Some may think he is rocking a millennia old tradition while others see that he is in a way appeasing the lowly ones while not giving up his power over them.
And I see he's taking in some propaganda about why slavery in Valyria is decadent and that the age of citizenship is glorious. Never is it very clear cut in history. It is highly likely even in those ages slavery was a thing. It is an institution of the strong back then. To challenge the Ghiscari they would already have slaves in place not just for fighting but for a lot of other things like working the fields or servants of households. We modern people like to believe we are above it, but really we just have different names for the words slave now.
And I would expect some of his relatives to see the distinction in the future. Some may think he is rocking a millennia old tradition while others see that he is in a way appeasing the lowly ones while not giving up his power over them.
Please continue this story. I want to read more. It would be cool if the SI was able to reincarnate into his decendents(only males preferably)We would then be able to see progress made and come closer to the canon timeline. Whatever you do though,
DO NOT introduce gunpowder!
DO NOT introduce gunpowder!
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I just want one uplifting asoiaf story where the SI gets all exited and know the correct materials to produce gunpowder and think they are going to change it all and when they lit the fuse there is no explosion. By word of god G.R.R. Martin there can't be gunpowder in westeros. If you can expect a dragon that is breaking the square-cube law fly and shadow babies that murder your rivals, why can't they accept that in all the years the alchemists, sorcerers or other such individuals did not discover a way for things to go boom. If I could see SI dealing with rotten smelling ingredients thinking he is going to conquer them all try to make some blackpowder variant and instead of it blowing up, it blows up in his face. That would be a good way to subvert my expectation.
Anyway great chapter as always and thanks for writing these stories.
orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
Iirc there was a story where that was the case and that when the alchemists guild got involved they revealed that gunpowder was a product of Valyrian blood magic and needed blood to work.
Genolution
Hello there
- Location
- [DATA EXPUNGED]
It's called "The Blacks, The Greens, and The Reds" by Leonie46. It's pretty good, all the characters feel like actual people and it has a consistent update pace. She is also introducing the printing press, glassmaking, crop rotation, and some elements of medicine by trying to coopt parts of the maesters, the faith, and the alchemists and her own bureaucracy/the resources of her family.
Thanks for the recommendation. The first chapter literally does what I want it to. Can't wait to read the rest of it over the week. Anyway hope you have a great week too.
Chapter 7
Jevran
He-Who-Stalks-The-Forums
- Location
- Somewhere
-+-
Chapter 7
"Here it is, lord," Doctor Saemon gestured grandly. "My humble workplace."
Doctor Saemon was the physician that I met at the slave market, and his workplace was a large rectangular hall that was cluttered with tables, blackboards and assorted stuffed animals and skeletons.
It also smelled of dead things and stank of blood.
There were incense burners scattered around the hall that were doing their best to combat the stink, but it was a loosing battle.
Lucky for me, I was well used to this kind of unpleasantness by now.
"All right," I carefully started to breathe through my mouth. "Show me what you have found."
"If you will step over here, lord?" Doctor Saemon bustled over to a table where a large rectangular glass case rested. Within lay the corpse of a man that bore the features of a native from the isle of toads, half floating inside a clear liquid that I could not identify. His torso was cut open from crotch to throat, and his internal organs were clearly visible through the glass.
"Do you see, lord?" Doctor Saemon skirted around my ever present guards and stepped right up to the corpse on display. "If I may ask, how well versed are you on the mortal body? How much do you know of healing?"
"I spent time training with a physician, " I said. "I never finished my training, but I can patch up a wound and I do understand how a body functions."
"Excellent!" He beamed at me. "I knew you were a man of learning as soon as I saw you! If you trained with a physician, have you dissected a corpse by chance?"
"I have," I hid a wince.
Valyrian physicians are some of the best in the world. They understood the human body at a level that was almost comparable with a doctor back on Earth.
Of course, that was mostly because they had so many test subjects to work with.
The Valyrian medical professionals used slaves as study aids. They dissected their bodies to study their organs -and sometimes the slaves were even alive during this process- , they tested medicines and cures on them, and they used them in breeding experiments.
As a result, medical knowledge has advanced far beyond what one would expect from such a primitive world.
We understood sterilization, we understood disinfecting, we understood why a proper diet is important, we had what I suspected was a potent antibiotic, and we understood how most sicknesses worked.
We might not understand just why somethings were necessary – the freeholders didn't know about germs for one- but the crude version of scientific method we used did give us results.
And that was without counting the magical additions to the art.
"Excellent," while these thoughts ran through my mind, the doctor produced a wooden stylus and pointed out the throat of the corpse, the stylus tapping on the glass above it. "Do you see something strange, lord? Something you didn't see the last time you studied a corpse?"
I frowned, "It looks like the average jurgular."
"Look closer, lord," he tapped the stylus on the glass again. "See? There!"
I peered at it, "A flap of skin?"
"Yes!" Doctor Saemon grinned, giving me a full view of his too white teeth. "That flap of skin is not present in the throats of other corpses. Only the natives of the Isle of Toads have it!"
"Alright," I nodded. "What is it?"
"Do you know that beasts like the lizard lion have a flap of skin just like this in their throats, lord?" Doctor Saemon adopted a lecturing tone. "When the beast dives under the water, this flap of skin closes, sealing off its throat and the path to its lungs. Normally, only beasts who spend time on both land and water have this in their throats."
I blinked, "Are you saying that this man…..?"
"Yes!" He grinned again. "This man has this feature. And so do the other people native to that island. But that isn't all!" he tapped at the glass above the hands and feet of the corpse. "See? Between their fingers and toes? Webbed like a frog! Again, no other race in the world has this feature."
"Fascinating," I said, and I was telling the truth. I knew that something was off with those natives, but I didn't know that it went this far. "Do you have a theory as to why this is only found with these men?"
"I do, lord," the doctor nodded enthusiastically. "But I would like to show you one more thing before I disclose it, If I may?" at my nod, he bustled over to a stuffed figure that stood upright on a wooden stand. "This is one of the natives that lives deep inside Sothoryos, one of the so called Brindled Men."
I stared.
It looked like an eight foot tall neanderthal. The face was just slightly ape like, and there was a lot of coarse black hair on the things body, so much so that it almost looked like the fur coat of a beast. The name brindled man no doubt came from the patterns on that hair.
"And this is a skeleton from the same race," Doctor Saemon gestured towards a skeleton that hung from wired on the ceiling. It was even more apelike that the stuffed corpse. Too long arms, ape like skull, and hunched over spine.
"Alright," I said. "Two races that are clearly different from the normal mortal. You obviously have a theory, tell me." I had a theory, but I wanted to see if his conclusion was the same as mine.
The doctor bowed, practically quivering with excitement, "Lord Aerion, I believe that these two peoples are not descended from the same stock other mortals are. I believe that they have an ancestor that was…...other than human!"
I nodded, "So the race of man all shares a common ancestor, but these two races are descended from something that wasn't human. Most likely some kind of ape for the brindled men, and a…...toad for the other one?"
"I knew you would understand!" Doctor Saemon clapped. "Yes! That's exactly it! This is an irrefutable truth! And in case you needed further proof, none of them can be bred with a normal women and their women cannot be bred by normal men. That seals the argument! They cannot be bred by men because they are not men! Oh, this is such a discovery!"
My jaw dropped.
"Are you telling me that the natives of the far south cannot mate with us? They're not compatible?"
Doctor Saemon nodded eagerly, and I sighed as fully half my plans crumbled.
My master plan to integrate the natives into our colony slowly and grow our numbers was done for. Now I was completely dependent on colonists from the peninsula to grow our numbers.
My voyage was not off to a good start.
"The only way to breed them was to use fleshshaping," Doctor Saemon continued, but I barely paid attention, fleshshaping was not a practical strategy for the long term. However…..
I looked at the doctor who was still babbling away.
I had the feeling that this was the Charles Darwin of this world. He had stumbled upon a rough theory of evolution when thousands of other fleshshapers had simply focused on just the practical aspect of their art and ignored the underlying theory. Because surely, other fleshshapers must know that the natives were incompatible with normal humans. But they had ignored the implications and never looked into the matter.
Hmmm.
Might as well try to salvage something out of this mess.
"Doctor," I spoke up, interrupting his babble. "I am going to make a proposition, and I want you to think very carefully about it."
-+-
"You're bringing that sorcerer with us?" my baby sister demanded when I got back to the manse and gave her the good news. "What if he curses us? What if he makes monsters in our colony? What if he's like that sorcerer in your story, Doctor Frankenstein!"
I was patient, "He can't do anything without us knowing. And I laid out just what could and couldn't be done. Besides, a physician who understands the natives on such an intimate level is too valuable to leave behind."
"When things go horribly, terribly, wrong," Valaena leaned over until her face was an inch from mine. "I will say, I told you so, and I will take great pleasure in doing it."
"Done!"
"Done!"
-+-
Chapter 7
"Here it is, lord," Doctor Saemon gestured grandly. "My humble workplace."
Doctor Saemon was the physician that I met at the slave market, and his workplace was a large rectangular hall that was cluttered with tables, blackboards and assorted stuffed animals and skeletons.
It also smelled of dead things and stank of blood.
There were incense burners scattered around the hall that were doing their best to combat the stink, but it was a loosing battle.
Lucky for me, I was well used to this kind of unpleasantness by now.
"All right," I carefully started to breathe through my mouth. "Show me what you have found."
"If you will step over here, lord?" Doctor Saemon bustled over to a table where a large rectangular glass case rested. Within lay the corpse of a man that bore the features of a native from the isle of toads, half floating inside a clear liquid that I could not identify. His torso was cut open from crotch to throat, and his internal organs were clearly visible through the glass.
"Do you see, lord?" Doctor Saemon skirted around my ever present guards and stepped right up to the corpse on display. "If I may ask, how well versed are you on the mortal body? How much do you know of healing?"
"I spent time training with a physician, " I said. "I never finished my training, but I can patch up a wound and I do understand how a body functions."
"Excellent!" He beamed at me. "I knew you were a man of learning as soon as I saw you! If you trained with a physician, have you dissected a corpse by chance?"
"I have," I hid a wince.
Valyrian physicians are some of the best in the world. They understood the human body at a level that was almost comparable with a doctor back on Earth.
Of course, that was mostly because they had so many test subjects to work with.
The Valyrian medical professionals used slaves as study aids. They dissected their bodies to study their organs -and sometimes the slaves were even alive during this process- , they tested medicines and cures on them, and they used them in breeding experiments.
As a result, medical knowledge has advanced far beyond what one would expect from such a primitive world.
We understood sterilization, we understood disinfecting, we understood why a proper diet is important, we had what I suspected was a potent antibiotic, and we understood how most sicknesses worked.
We might not understand just why somethings were necessary – the freeholders didn't know about germs for one- but the crude version of scientific method we used did give us results.
And that was without counting the magical additions to the art.
"Excellent," while these thoughts ran through my mind, the doctor produced a wooden stylus and pointed out the throat of the corpse, the stylus tapping on the glass above it. "Do you see something strange, lord? Something you didn't see the last time you studied a corpse?"
I frowned, "It looks like the average jurgular."
"Look closer, lord," he tapped the stylus on the glass again. "See? There!"
I peered at it, "A flap of skin?"
"Yes!" Doctor Saemon grinned, giving me a full view of his too white teeth. "That flap of skin is not present in the throats of other corpses. Only the natives of the Isle of Toads have it!"
"Alright," I nodded. "What is it?"
"Do you know that beasts like the lizard lion have a flap of skin just like this in their throats, lord?" Doctor Saemon adopted a lecturing tone. "When the beast dives under the water, this flap of skin closes, sealing off its throat and the path to its lungs. Normally, only beasts who spend time on both land and water have this in their throats."
I blinked, "Are you saying that this man…..?"
"Yes!" He grinned again. "This man has this feature. And so do the other people native to that island. But that isn't all!" he tapped at the glass above the hands and feet of the corpse. "See? Between their fingers and toes? Webbed like a frog! Again, no other race in the world has this feature."
"Fascinating," I said, and I was telling the truth. I knew that something was off with those natives, but I didn't know that it went this far. "Do you have a theory as to why this is only found with these men?"
"I do, lord," the doctor nodded enthusiastically. "But I would like to show you one more thing before I disclose it, If I may?" at my nod, he bustled over to a stuffed figure that stood upright on a wooden stand. "This is one of the natives that lives deep inside Sothoryos, one of the so called Brindled Men."
I stared.
It looked like an eight foot tall neanderthal. The face was just slightly ape like, and there was a lot of coarse black hair on the things body, so much so that it almost looked like the fur coat of a beast. The name brindled man no doubt came from the patterns on that hair.
"And this is a skeleton from the same race," Doctor Saemon gestured towards a skeleton that hung from wired on the ceiling. It was even more apelike that the stuffed corpse. Too long arms, ape like skull, and hunched over spine.
"Alright," I said. "Two races that are clearly different from the normal mortal. You obviously have a theory, tell me." I had a theory, but I wanted to see if his conclusion was the same as mine.
The doctor bowed, practically quivering with excitement, "Lord Aerion, I believe that these two peoples are not descended from the same stock other mortals are. I believe that they have an ancestor that was…...other than human!"
I nodded, "So the race of man all shares a common ancestor, but these two races are descended from something that wasn't human. Most likely some kind of ape for the brindled men, and a…...toad for the other one?"
"I knew you would understand!" Doctor Saemon clapped. "Yes! That's exactly it! This is an irrefutable truth! And in case you needed further proof, none of them can be bred with a normal women and their women cannot be bred by normal men. That seals the argument! They cannot be bred by men because they are not men! Oh, this is such a discovery!"
My jaw dropped.
"Are you telling me that the natives of the far south cannot mate with us? They're not compatible?"
Doctor Saemon nodded eagerly, and I sighed as fully half my plans crumbled.
My master plan to integrate the natives into our colony slowly and grow our numbers was done for. Now I was completely dependent on colonists from the peninsula to grow our numbers.
My voyage was not off to a good start.
"The only way to breed them was to use fleshshaping," Doctor Saemon continued, but I barely paid attention, fleshshaping was not a practical strategy for the long term. However…..
I looked at the doctor who was still babbling away.
I had the feeling that this was the Charles Darwin of this world. He had stumbled upon a rough theory of evolution when thousands of other fleshshapers had simply focused on just the practical aspect of their art and ignored the underlying theory. Because surely, other fleshshapers must know that the natives were incompatible with normal humans. But they had ignored the implications and never looked into the matter.
Hmmm.
Might as well try to salvage something out of this mess.
"Doctor," I spoke up, interrupting his babble. "I am going to make a proposition, and I want you to think very carefully about it."
-+-
"You're bringing that sorcerer with us?" my baby sister demanded when I got back to the manse and gave her the good news. "What if he curses us? What if he makes monsters in our colony? What if he's like that sorcerer in your story, Doctor Frankenstein!"
I was patient, "He can't do anything without us knowing. And I laid out just what could and couldn't be done. Besides, a physician who understands the natives on such an intimate level is too valuable to leave behind."
"When things go horribly, terribly, wrong," Valaena leaned over until her face was an inch from mine. "I will say, I told you so, and I will take great pleasure in doing it."
"Done!"
"Done!"
-+-
Jevran
He-Who-Stalks-The-Forums
- Location
- Somewhere
Explain please? Do you mean it feels exaggerated and over the top? And is it a good feeling or does it need change?
Chojomeka
Behold! QUEEN MONKE!
Amusingly as noted over in SB the Sistermen and some of the small folk of the Crackclaw Point have webbed hands and feet. I also wonder how Saemon would react to both the Ibbenese and the natives of the Thousand Isles. Finally I hope that Freeholder Aurion decides to stay in Qohor instead of trying and dying in his attempt to reclaim Valryia.
I don't really see a reason why he couldn't still do just that. Recruiting brindled men is still possible even if they cannot interbreed with the colonists. It just means there will always be two distinct populations that can never truly merge.
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orwellianorator
Yoshikage Kira did nothing wrong.
- Location
- Morioh Town
I'm liking the story so far. It seems less high stakes and more enjoyable to read than a lot of other SIs in the fandom, I just wish these chapters would come quicker. 
The plan was to do the roman thing. Conquer the natives, and in time make them pure valyrians by breeding with them. Pretty enlightened for a valyrian noble.
With 2 distinct populations there will always be a distinct population as first class citizen and a second class citizen. The brindled men would never move from second class citizens.
Anything else is what is called "Heresy" both for him and for the valyrian colonists. His plan probably is to be Valyria without its evil. This demonstrate that Valyria culture is seeping into his worldview, morality.
