章 48: 29
Chapter 29 Westeros
I may have overestimated Westeros. I expected at least Dorne to last longer than that. They had natural defenses in the form of deserts and they had a fairly large army as well. It's pretty disturbing to scry over there and see enormous swarms almost everywhere I look. At least I already got the Orphans.
Only the North seems to be still intact. Even they are hard pressed through, slowly being pushed out of the Neck. It's only a matter of time for the North though. With the enormous numbers they are generating from the other kingdoms they'll eventually overwhelm them. Of course the cold might stop them. Maybe I should look forward to the fact the Long Night is so close?
It's not like it'll be that bad for me. Examples of my power are spread quick thickly across my empire. Aside from air I could probably maintain their current living conditions even on the moon.
Of course the Wall is still up. Along with all of my defenses. And the zeppelins. But only two. And Icestorm probably doesn't count against white walkers.
I think about recalling them but end up making my way over instead. I recall all of the razorwinds there too. The kingdoms are already falling, their job is done.
I'm not actually sure whether the former tunnels through the Wall are vulnerable or not so I have a plan. I construct large stone castles at each of the seventeen former tunnels. The castles are fairly compact but extend upwards, using the Wall the provide support for it's structure.
I say castle, but it's more a series of elaborate defenses. There are no doors or windows, just arrow slits and murderholes. The core of the castle was an enormous keep, three hundred feet high placed right in front of where the tunnel used to be.
A massive pair of wood gates were set up in front to draw the enemies attention. They weren't actual doors, but were just set into the solid base of the keep. The space in front of it was a killzone with most of the turrets I stripped from the razorwinds able to shoot into it.
I wrap a series of walls filled with skeleton archers around the area about a hundred feet out. They stood a hundred feet, eighty feet and fifty feet high respectively. A moat filled with magma was placed in front of each wall.
I would have kept going, but ran out of advanced golems. Without them to do all the repetitive work I lost interest in the castles pretty quickly. Instead I started refitting the former razorwinds.
I modified the flamethrowers I used in my land cruisers for them. I stripped out most of it, including the pumps. I concentrated on the fuel generator. I expanded what I could and duplicated what I couldn't. For what I was planning I needed a lot more fuel than the flamethrower had ever used.
The result was much larger than I liked. In fact it was so massive that a zeppelin could barely carry it. Good thing that was enough. With my invention the new zeppelins could now pour streams of napalm directly beneath them.
I wanted more than just napalm, but sadly Wildfire really does use magic in the brewing process. I found the recipe in the ruins of King's Landing along with a host of other materials. Sadly the knowledge the Citadel contained pales in comparison to what I still remembered from my first life. I still transported the books back. If nothing else it's that much less I need to write down.
Aside from looting the Citadel and parts of the palace I avoided King's Landing. The books and show both mentioned how badly the place smelled. I thought I had a handle on foul smelling places after living on Planetos for so many years. I was clearly wrong.
It was horrendous. I felt stained just from breathing. I was more than happy to use my new zeppelin's to burn it to the ground. Sadly I was stuck and didn't manage to think of a name for them before I sent them off to the Iron Islands.
It turns out the Iron Islands are actually the most densely populated kingdom currently. Ironically it seems Aegon retreated there then King's Landing fell. Thinking about it, it was the only area safe both from the manticoremen and my razorwinds. I gleefully anticipate his reaction to my new Napalm-class air ships attacking him. After all he's the idiot who declared himself my enemy now. It would be rude to ignore him.
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When I finally do leave Westeros it's only temporarily. In honor of the one place that openly welcomed me without a slaughter I move my capital to Dragonstone. I strip most of Lorassyon and even relocate the End Portal. The end is pretty much restricted to my personal experiments now.
I am finally starting to delegate as well. The oldest of my children are still in the military, but my armed forces are getting bogged down with trite domestic matters. Setting up police forces and governing bodies was vital.
Still, Dhagon has thrown himself into the task of securing what used to be King's Landing. Turns out he doesn't want to settle down and govern a territory I gift him. He wants to prove himself by forging his own domain. He has my full support. Well at least as much as I can spare. At least he isn't craven.
I made it mandatory for any governor to have actual military service. That included my own family. Too many times in history rulers became detached from normal life. They also tend to go soft and hedonistic. I really, really want to try and prevent that. Or at least limit it as much as possible.
Lorassyon is converted into the new giant refuge. I worked hard to restore their race and don't see a point in wiping them out. It's more than large enough for the remaining few dozen I left. Since they were larger than the previous race I had to modify the labyrinth. Instead of five levels, they only had three. Each was very spacious enough, which should prevent claustrophobia.
I wanted to place a few of the giants back in the north and maybe skagos but the days are getting colder and storms are getting common in that area. I have no doubt that the long night is coming. No sense giving the Night King more troops.
Back in Essos things are progressing nicely. My defensive measures are proving successful and the borders are secure. To keep my troops from stagnating I'm actually expanding.
It's very slow going. The troops clear out an area and then builders and golems follow behind and build fortifications. New troops cycle forward and it repeats. The were helped by the giant golems I deployed to the front. Since I was replacing the giants I had previously made, I harvested most of them.
The giant golems were heavily armored and great help in pushing forward. Still not enough for large scale deployments, but perfect for this. If it continues long enough eventually the southern half of Essos will look like a honeycomb from above.
It won't though. Too many enemies still. Deep Ones raiding, the remains of Westeros, the mess with the Yi Ti empire. It's probably my fault somehow that the civil war has escalated so far. I'm pretty sure that in the books they didn't field insanely large mummified creatures against each other.
Seeing multiple places fielding undead during the day is really annoying. I really can't figure out what I'm missing that keeps me from doing the same.
And then of course there is Ghis. The new empire is rapidly becoming a problem. I had hoped the manticoremen would weaken them. That wasn't working at all.
I also may have helped them out with the seeding ghost grass everywhere. With how it drives out almost everything else the manticoremen have less to feed on. Smaller numbers means the legions have a much easier time defending their territory. Worse, smaller villages and even bandits do fall so everyone is flocking to the protection offered by the legions.
Not only has Meereen been rebuilt all of the former territory from Lhazar has been incorporated into the Ghis Empire. Worse they came up with a very clever tactical decision. They created a creature that feeds exclusively on ghost grass.
The creature, which I fully intend to copy, resembled a highly modified goat. It has long silky fur, ivory horns and breeds quickly by laying clutches of large leathery eggs. I'm actually very impressed. The problem is the goats aren't really being used to feed their people. Instead they're being used to raise beastmen and worse, manticoremen.
Metal has always been a problem in primitive societies. Many armies in Essos still used copper weapons. Those included the Unsullied. It's one of the reasons I hadn't really worried about Ghis. That was no longer the case. Harvesting the parts from the manticoremen they weren't having any problems equipping every soldier. I really hate smart enemies.
The ghost grass also seems to be converting the Red Wastes. The former desert is quickly being converted into prairie by the plant I carelessly scattered across the continent. Qarth is already expanding north and with my luck will end up joining forces with Ghis.
Still, even combined I should be able to handle them easily enough. Sheer numbers won't be enough. It will still take at least a year or two before they can march against me. Even ignoring my military branches I'll have at least a dozen or so more land cruisers finished by that time. I make a note to reinforce Bayasabhad. I don't need them contacting Yi Ti and getting their own gigantic war beasts.
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While I did send reinforcements and supplies down to Bayasabhad, I realized I was approaching the situation from the wrong angle. Yi Ti was currently in a civil war. That meant there were two sides and at least one of them might be willing to ally with me.
I approached the Orange Emperor first. He was a former general attempting to conquer his country so was much more likely to be willing to deal with a foreign power. It also helped that he was already losing. He just didn't have to infrastructure to continuously produce the giant war beasts that the Azure Emperor did.
The deal we struck was tentative and no doubt he felt that he had thoroughly ripped me off. I only received a single maegi, even if a high ranking one, and he would train a single apprentice for five years. I doubt they intended to teach the apprentice too much.
None of that mattered though when I saw him set up. A large gold incense burner that looked a bit like a miniature temple was central to his set up. It was placed right next to a very elaborately decorated sacrificial altar. One touch and a new recipe was unlocked.
The magic system was odd. It was built around animation. Much like the golem crafting rules in fact but more detailed. In fact it most resembled building a character for a game. Still, I got what I wanted from it.
Husks weren't true undead. They were animated bodies that just happened to be made from flesh. Puppets would have worked just as well. Pretty anticlimatic to be honest. Even the war beasts were a let down. They weren't undead either. Just more puppets. Giant and very detailed but still puppets.
At least it gave me options. While no where near as powerful as the power rail turbines I invented, animated constructs could be much much smaller. It could easily be enough to kick of a magitech version of the industrial revolution. I just need to start training more people.
Looks like I'm going to be creating a new military branch. Sadly my Artificers will have to wait at least a generation. Almost everyone who can be spared for military service is already training in one of the branches already.
I kept my end of the bargain. I promptly shipped him all the supplies we had agreed upon. I was fairly certain he was going to piss me off eventually and would end up conquering Yi Ti in a few years however. Still, the fewer enemies I had to fight right now the better.
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Time seems to have slowed to a crawl.
It's not that I have nothing to occupy myself with. It's what fills my time that eats at me. Almost none of it is used to actually rule my empire. I have fairly competent ministers and governors in place and everyone knows they're in danger. Only the idiots are still maneuvering and they're getting executed as fast as I can find them.
Since every branch of my military is dependent on equipment only I can create I'm stuck crafting and enchanting all day. Tactically it makes sense. No one can raise an army against me in secret, but getting everything started is exhausting. Even using the End I'm barely keeping up.
My family occupies most of what is left. I don't take them into the End with me often, reserving it for special occasions like namedays. I try to teach them what I can, supplementing what the learn from their tutors. I want them to know how to rule well after all.
Often I have an audience silently hanging around to learn as well, although they know better that to interrupt my time with my family.
I devote any leftover snatches of time to slowly progressing with my newest project. Seeing as how it looked like Ghis or Yi Ti may be my next threat I developed two new land cruisers. The first I named the Arc Hammer.
It was fairly massive being sixty feet long and forty feet wide. It was much lower since it mounted an elaborate pair of perriers on top.
The Arc Hammer was designed to serve as artillery so the perriers were enlarged until they resembled trebuchets. They were also made from valyrian steel and crewed by golems. Between animation charms and the golems it could easily out range a normal trebuchet. Extra large quivers provided the solid iron rods that served as it's ammunition.
Probably influenced by preconceived notions of what constitutes an artillery battery I almost built six of them. Thankfully I realize how over the top that was and stopped with two. Considering each Arc Hammer mounted a miniature arrow storm ball turret on each side I doubt I'll ever need to deploy together. Even though I did skimp a bit on the armor, the four sets of tracks means it's faster than most of the other designs.
My next project went in the opposite direction. It was meant specifically to be deployed in large groups. It was a combination of my land cruisers and the crawlers I had used previously. The vehicle was a tracked platform with a single tower mounted on top.
Compared to my previous designs it was unimpressive. Barely twenty feet long and fifteen feet wide the base platform was only five feet high. The tower, which stood twenty feet high, barely had any armor at all. Even what armor it had was all made from steel.
The tower was made from heavy scaffolding with thin sheets of metal forming a shell. Within the tower were dozens of skeleton archers welded into place. Each archer faced an arrow slit fitted with a simple shutter.
The advantage though was it was the first type of land cruiser that was mass producible. Everything about the Thornholds were completely independent of my unique powers. Sort of.
Sure most of it was made with the help of my powers, but they were all independent of me at this point. The materials were all generated from metal founts. The archers were all summoned with reliquaries. Even the animation was done with through the censer. But none of that required me to be there. It was all self sustaining.
Sure what magic was being used was currently reliant on me, but unlike my powers the magic needed to build these land cruisers can actually be taught. I don't trust it to just anyone though. Even if none of my children have inherited my powers I can still leave them a legacy of power.
Every child of mine is taught the basics of several branches of magic as they grow up. While not all of them took too it, enough did that I feel confident the knowledge won't be lost when I pass on. As a compromise between the various cultures legal adulthood is set at fourteen in my empire. Every child of my mine is offered a dragon egg at that point.
So far only my oldest son, Dhagon, has reached that age, although he has delayed hatching it until he completes the samurai training. I've tested all of my children already and all of them are resistant to fire so the hatching ceremony shouldn't kill any of them.
I had even started having scribes following behind me so I can dictate notes and snatches of lore I want recorded I don't want to forget. I feel a bit sorry for anyone who attempts to piece them together into coherent memoirs though. At least I'm no where near as bad as Tolkien was.
Shipping the Arc Hammers back to Essos was a nightmare and until I had more maegi the Thornholds were bottlenecked. Still they were amusing diversions. At least until I got the reports back from the north.
White Walkers had been spotted.
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