章 39: 20
Chapter 20 Calm Before the Storm
Once I finished tinkering I had decided to set up a proper spy network. It wasn't so much aimed towards my enemies as it was to help me monitor my empire. It was getting too large for my to just swing by and check up on all the different parts.
It took months. Both to establish all the waystations as well as train the individual spies. Then setting up a chain of command to sort and organize the information coming in. It took nearly half a year before I felt my empire was sufficiently covered. It didn't take nearly as long to start fixing them.
I wasn't subtle. Subtle was for politicians. I was king. I crushed my enemies. And the blatant levels of corruption and neglect clearly meant they were enemies. I had made my laws clear. With how abundant resources were in my empire there was absolutely no need to cheat and swindle fellow citizens.
I guess some people are just naturally pricks. They just don't care about anyone else. Well they care now. They care about being caught by me. About fire raining from the sky and slaughtering them. About having everything your family owns confiscated because you didn't stop a family member.
It was after setting up my spy network I finally created printing presses. Thanks to the samurai training and a few other policies a large portion of my citizens knew how to read. It was by no means universal, but there were usually at least a few in every village. More than enough for me.
I made the printing guild secret. I didn't want anyone to copy it for a good long while. The reason was my newspaper. History was full of examples of how complete control of the media had always made it easier to shape the populace. There was no way I was going to let such an advantage escape me.
The printing guild also helped me start establishing libraries and schools. I didn't make them mandatory, but I definitely wanted to encourage any future scholars. On that note I started to record bits of the information I recalled from my past life.
Obviously I skipped history, but everything else I tried to record. In particular I focus on science and math. Not only were they my favorite subjects, but they also seemed the most relevant. I doubt many people will care too much about fine arts or spanish.
I actually do sponsor fine arts. Well music. I don't really care about the rest. I just don't support music in schools. Music is a leisurely pursuit, equivalent to a trade school or even college in this medieval society.
The bard school I create is pretty cheap and open to all. My past life was filled with an infinite variety of music and I missed it. I'm also paying quite a bit so I have no shortage of volunteers to teach.
As expected there are quite a few musical instruments available. Not too many were actually recognizable from my previous life. I'm grateful that so many of my friends were in band. The experience really help me when I began recreating musical instruments.
I go all out there. Piano, harpsichord, cello, I recreate as many instruments as I remember. I doubt all of them will catch on. Even fewer since I don't actually know any sheet music for any of it. Hell, I barely understand how to play some of them. Still, it'd be nice to be listed historically as something other than a bloody conquerer.
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In light of the uneasy truce the world has settled on I move the last of the clans out of the End. Without an eminent war I don't need the generations to grow up quite so fast. And too many generations of only training will probably hurt more then help my efforts. As it is I'm still a divine figure to them.
They loved Planetos. They grumbled a bit about moving initially, but with my help the transition was very smooth. They didn't grumble too much though. They had all been listening for years about the tales of sunlight, seas and all the other differences. They were all curious.
While a few clans were established on Lorath, the majority went to Sarnor. The people there were really too spread out to mount a genuine defense. The samurai would help tremendously.
They settled in fairly easily. They had to get used to water that didn't dissolve flesh and stone that didn't catch fire, but experience with my powers helped. What really seemed to throw them was the variety of foods. Even with my introduction of new plants I hadn't really had the inclination of importing every plant or spice. I guess I shouldn't be surprised they clung so closely together.
Since none of the clans liked being scattered so far from each other my next project ended up being a gate network. It was very slow. I had to build a fort to protect each relay station. It probably didn't help that I took the time to build a second secret network deep underneath the obvious one I was creating.
The forts weren't small either. Massive towers with reinforced walls filled with archers standing on top of four archways. Each arch led to a large room filled with golems. A small stone wall circled the tower. If anyone passed over it the defenders became hostile and killed everything within a quarter mile. I put up a sign too. Probably still going to kill a lot of idiots, but that's not my problem.
All that just to guard what was basically a magical hallway. Since I was paranoid I built defenses there as well. I haven't had any saboteurs yet, but I'm paranoid. Besides the golems can also keep any pointless arguments in hand.
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it was because everything was going so well that the report caught me by surprise. The Wildlings, the people north of the wall, had declared war on me.
I'm not actually sure what to think about that. They're kind of stuck all the way over there. What are they thinking? What's the point?
It wasn't a horrible thing. Peace isn't good for professional soldiers. So I was actually kind of happy about it. I pretty much arranged to the bulk of my of current samurai into the north. If they wanted a war, that's fine with me. I'll turn the entire north into a warzone.
If they last long enough I'll rotate the rest of my samurai there. No point letting any of my troops get rusty. Besides more experience is always a good thing. Although it'll probably be the last tour for many of them. The first generation samurai are getting a bit old. I should probably see about retiring them.
I don't want to even hint at any kind of social security setup. Even welfare doesn't exist here. One of the few things here I agree with. There are charity organizations, ironically many of them run by churches dedicated to me, but no government sponsored charities. No, I'll have to be subtler about how I go about it.
Actually I can just avoid it completely. The Long Night should be starting in four years. I can wait that long. And when winter starts just retire all my samurai with gifts. Keep paying the ones I call up and maybe volunteers.
Looks like I have a plan.
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It didn't take long to find enough prisoners to question that I found out what was going on. They might be fiercely independent, but enough torture will break anyone.
So it turns out the giants really didn't like them being hunted. Also despite how they are treated the Wildlings didn't like me luring away their skinchangers. The last complaint was just a general one about my people stealing all their animals. My opinion was that they could all screw themselves.
The giants might be related to magic. There really wasn't much I cared about on this world. Magic was at the top of that list. So I don't care. Besides I had enough now. I had managed to raise two full generations of my improved giants in the End already. I was already planning on releasing a few groups on Ib.
The wargs were treated horribly overall. The ones that accepted my offer had wasted no time in letting the others know. Sure they had to restrict themselves a bit, but no one treated them badly. Why would they when their king had powers. Hell, even elite warriors could be granted powers. Magic was alive and accepted.
Not taught sadly since I still haven't found a type I felt comfortable spreading to everyone. Although that might change soon. With the wargs had come a single child of the forest. Thorn had began trying to teach me his type of magic in return for my aid against the Night King. I was more than happy to accept his deal.
His magic was odd. I was still trying to get a handle on it and my powers hadn't given me a shortcut yet.
As for the animals, I had already stopped. Most of them had been for my flesh crafting experiments. Didn't really need more since I had stopped. Besides if I started up again it would be with new animals. And the mammoths had been for my giants.
I don't even know why they cared about the mammoths. It's not like the Wildlings hunted them often. Not with the giants protecting them.
Still none of that really mattered. No the real reason for the war was that they had petitioned to join my empire and I turned them down.
Why? Because they had stated that they would only join if they didn't have to kneel. What they meant was they didn't want to have to follow any laws that didn't agree with their traditions. They wanted to be allowed to rape, pillage and kill.
I'm sure they thought they were being clever. Trick me into allowing them to take over my empire. They're idiots. Now that I actually know the reason they declared war I have even less sympathy for them.
If they wanted to ravage my empire I'm more than happy to return the favor. I intend to keep my troops there until there aren't any Wildlings left. I wasn't so vicious as to order them to kill everyone. No my purpose will be served with a much simpler order.
Kill everyone who refuses to kneel.
Children under the age of about five I consider young enough to spare. No one else. Wildlings don't kneel? Simple. They won't be Wildlings anymore.
I'm still not going to let them join of course. That would just cause resentment and problems later on. No, I intend to send them south with witnesses of their kneeling. That way they'll all hate each other and hopefully keep leaving me alone.
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Weeks later I stared the new report. This time it was from the Sarnath region. I probably should start organizing separate states soon. It seems the Dothraki have started using repeating crossbows.
They were clearly based off the Lorathi crossbow even if they weren't the same. Instead of strips of steel they used a horn and wood composite recurve bow. Still it was clearly based on mine.
I'd wonder how they got a hold of the design but there isn't any point. Between spy networks, just bad luck of having one captured and magic there are too many ways it could have happened. I'm irritated I still haven't found a way to block any kind of scrying. Worse I know there is a way since I can't scry past the walls of Volantis.
I'm even happier that I still haven't invented gunpowder. It was all too likely to be stolen and use against me. Guns are one of the few things that can pose a legitimate threat to me. Well, in a few centuries at least.
Of course I have the centuries now.
More children of the forest had arrived. They were drawn to the large grove of weirwood trees Thorn had established. It was actually closer to a small forest. He had been in awe of my ability to grow them so quickly and had wasted no time in carving faces in many of them.
It was with their help that I had finally learned their magic. Of course as soon as I did my powers gave me a new recipe. A totem pole. Now I know my powers are screwing with me. That or the universe has a warped sense of humor. At least it seemed to support my efforts so far. It required weirwood, a giant's skull and unicorn horns to make.
It gave me a really disjointed set of recipes and rituals. Most I couldn't see any use for. One of the exceptions was one to expand my awareness and allow me to sense life. Or in other words I finally got a minimap!
Greenseeing was disorienting. Looking through the memories of the trees was intense and overwhelming, like trying to swim upstream. It was possible, but exhausting.
Warging was altered by my powers. It ended up being a helmet enchantment. Simple and efficient. The level of enchantment indicated how many animals you could control.
It was a combination of my powers that most concerned me. Necromancy allows me to posess my corpse, becoming undead. Shadowbinding allowed me to possess others. I could body jump. Even better I could use any powers the body had. I was turning into Orochimaru.
Oddly it seems the Warging helmets changed anyone besides myself who wore them. Actual wargs found their powers much easier to use but lost the ability to use them without one. Samurai lost their tattoos but then could use the helmet. Even normal people could use them, although it exhausted them.
I didn't mass produce them. Instead I started rewarding them to individuals I wanted to recognize. They could pass it down through their family. Of course I didn't want to overlook the clans. Even if most people hadn't realized it they had been supporting me for decades at this point.
I gifted each of them a sword. A combination of several types of magic each one was unique and powerful. I had each clan design the aesthetics and powers of their blade. Seeing the renewed devotion from the clans, it was well worth the trouble. Besides given how small the End was and how closely related they all were, I only had to make around fifty swords.
I also gave each of them a large block of endstone. I planned on restricting everburning materials to myself, but what I gave out was small enough. As a memento of there they came from it would serve as a secondary family treasure.
Since I was already gifting magic items I did grant a single Valyrian steel hoe to each person who established a new village. With that incentive even the Ibbenese started spreading out. They had prior experience with one and definitely wanted more.
It didn't take my long to come up with more items to spread out. Compasses were given out to every ship captain. I'm not sure why normal compasses haven't been invented before, but everyone seemed amazed by mine.
I also passed out clocks. Planetos doesn't have an actual time system. Well it does, but not one I like. Who decided fourteen 'hours' is a reasonable unit of time? Oh, yeah, the insane church of the seven. Which I already don't like since they hate magic.
No I divide time into units of ten. My empire isn't going to be hampered by weird historical quirks. There are ten hours in a day. A hundred minutes in an hour and a hundred seconds in an hour. I had to tweak the length of a second to make it fit, but not by much.
On that note everyone is going to use metric. Or Imperial standard as I've named it. I'm not sure why it was three hundred and sixty degrees before, but a circle is going to be a hundred degrees here. Everything is going to use base ten. At least people here have arabic numbers even if no one knows how they were invented. I really need to get access to the Citadel.
I even give out Valyrian steel rulers and measuring devices to each school. I want to make sure everyone is using the same units. I'm determined to cram standardization down everyone's throats.
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My empire isn't the only place I'm attempting to influence. I crafted entire barrels of bronze and steel rulers and measuring devices, all to be distributed to everyone who wanted one. I even rewarded a captain who smuggled a shipment over to Dorne.
Officially Westeros is still at war. In reality my capture of Dragonstone has neutered them. King Robert has to retake it before he can do anything else. In the last few years though he's lost hundreds of fire ships and another fleet to it's defenses.
Between that and the loss of the Wall the seven kingdoms has never been weaker. The Iron Born are reaving again. They're led by Euron Greyjoy who it seems made his trip to Valyria much earlier than in canon. He found quite a bit there. More than enough to afford to build a new fleet.
Supplies which were shipped by my traders. It's funny how even when I'm not trying I cause problems for King Robert. If he hadn't tried so hard to kill me when I was younger I might even sympathize.
Dorne, while not in open rebellion, is almost as bad. Oberyn has taken to using the skull of the Mountain as a footstool. The rest of the country is too busy making enormous profits by smuggling.
Funny enough the most common item smuggled was food. Dorne was one of the few places I had never managed to get seeds from. Sure I had many of the fruits, but I none of the peppers or a few other spices. Between all of the plants I has spread and the various cultures people had gotten used to having a variety of what they eat. I probably had a bit of influence too since I like sampling new dishes.
Most of the smuggling was arranged through Pentos. Pentos in particular in flourished recently. Without Braavos or Tyrosh nearby Pentos had quickly started expanding their navy. They had also gone back to slavery and were using Unsullied to defend themselves. Without the Dothraki threat they were quickly expanding in every direction.
They were careful to not provoke anyone though. They were currently the center of trade between empires. North they had my empire, now commonly known as the Lorathi Empire. West of course is Westeros. The south was the surprise. My little sister seems to be following in my footsteps.
Daenerys was the leader of an empire calling itself New Valyria. Volantis being part of it was a given. The fact that they managed to get Myr and Lys to join was the shocker. They even had ties to Slaver's Bay although it seems they're not actually part of the new empire.
Little Daeny is a queen now. I should send her a letter.
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