Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 160 God's Will
This was a day a few weeks ago.

The interior of a temple.

A few candles burned along the wall, providing a faint light.

In the temple, everything was quiet and silent. There were soft footsteps scraping against the ground, and a door gently opened and closed.

In the vast empty space, some people were whispering and some were crying quietly.

Even the running water in the temple is quiet.

Countless tall statues stood along the walls, with red candles swaying at their feet like distant, dim stars.

The sound of quiet running water came from a twelve-foot-tall marble statue of a woman. Lifelike tears flowed from her eyes into the bowl she held in her arms, and then slowly flowed from her bowl into a pool with a diameter of ten feet. Under the dim red candlelight, the pool was as black as ink. She was the god of death in a certain faith, the Weeping Woman.

Further on, there was a man with a lion's head sitting on a throne, carved from ebony. He was the Night Lion of Yi Ti. There was a tall horse made of bronze and steel, standing on its thick hind legs. It was the Dothraki horse god who carried the dead. Further ahead, there was a black goat with shaggy hair and the size of a wild bull. It was the black goat of Qohor. There was a hooded man leaning on a stick. His face was blurred under the hood. He was the Stranger among the Seven Gods. There were also many shadows looming in the darkness.
There were a few quiet people sitting on the rows of stone benches.

The scent of the candles in the temple is some kind of strange spice. It smells like snow and pine needles cooked together, which makes people feel inexplicably calm and peaceful.

By the central pool of the temple, a man in a cloak was crying softly, reaching his hand into the water, scooping up a handful of water and taking a sip, then he stood up unsteadily, covered his stomach with his hand, and stumbled toward the wall. He crawled into a hole dug out of the rough stone of the wall, lay down on the hard stone bed, and fell asleep forever.

There are many other hollows along the wall, where many people are buried.

Two priests wrapped in black and white robes and hoods walked quietly by, their footsteps light as if dragonflies skimming the water.

Quiet as a shadow.

Other priests came from tunnels and hidden mysterious paths.

They are nameless people.

They gathered in a room with a dozen tall chairs carved from ebony and weirwood, the ebony chairs with faces carved into the weirwood on the back, the weirwood chairs with faces carved into the back.

The priests were all dressed in black and white robes, and as they took their seats, each one lowered his hood to reveal the face he had chosen to wear that day.

Two acolytes stood in attendance, one holding a large flagon of dark red wine, the other holding a pitcher of water. When a priest raised his eyes or bent his finger, the acolyte would go over and fill his cup.

The priests spoke mostly in the language of Braavos, though sometimes they spoke in Valyrian and the Common Speech, their voices were low but they could all be heard.

When the kindly man arrived, the whispering of the priests continued.

The kind man sat down and took off his hood. There was no face under his hood, only a yellowed skull with a few pieces of skin stuck between his cheeks and a white worm wriggling out of his empty eye socket.

He looked calm, as if dead.

When he spoke, he said, "Valarmorghulis."

The other priests stopped communicating and responded: "Valardohaeris."

The kind man brought up the topic: "In a sense, death is not a bad thing. It is a gift from God to end our desires and also to end pain. Life and death are not determined by anyone. Only the Thousand-Faced God can grant grace. We are his servants. After mortals pray and sacrifice, we will give grace to those chosen by the Thousand-Faced God. The Thousand-Faced God has already chosen him, and our duty is to serve, so we should continue to bring gifts to him."

Someone said: "He has rejected a gift from God. A nobody went to the land of night for this. Thanks to God's gift, the nobody has found his angel."

The servants of the Thousand-Faced God believe that death is a gift from God. On the day a person is born, the Thousand-Faced God will send a black angel, who represents death. This angel will take the recipient's hand and lead them to the land of darkness, where the stars are always bright and shining.

They are priests of the Thousand-Faced God, servants who bless mortals on behalf of the gods and send them to hold hands with angels. They are nameless people.

They were talking about the assassination of Viserys. News had already reached Braavos that a Faceless Man had died, but Viserys was unharmed.

The kind man said, "Giving gifts to those chosen by God is what we are supposed to do. We are God's tools." He was saying that the assassination should continue.

Someone else said, "He would refuse the gift again. The nameless dance with the black angels." He was saying that Viserys was in danger.

"All men must die," the kind man said, "We serve with all our hearts. We serve the Thousand-Faced God. If this is what He requires, then dancing with the Black Angel is the sacrifice He demands."

Someone asked, “Is the devotee’s offering truly enough for the Thousand-Faced God to hear his prayers?”

The kind man calmly responded, “Someone did make the donation, but this is also God’s will.”

The pastors in the room fell silent for a moment, and their false faces looked at the kind man. He said, God's will.

There was only a yellowed skull under the kindly man's hood, and his empty eye sockets gave people a cold and chilly aura. He continued, "Go to the Blesser and he will give you a gift with the Blade of Mercy."

Someone gave the answer: "I will give the gift to this person, I don't know him."

The kind man said, "Black and white."

Another person responded: "I will bring the gift to this person."

As the words fell, the two acolytes and the rest of the priests who were serving nearby left one after another…except for the kind man, and the two priests who gave the answer.

When they were alone, the kind man looked at one of them first: "Who are you?"

The priest responded calmly: "Nobody."

He looked at the other one: "Who are you?"

The other one also replied calmly: "Nobody."

The kind man stood up calmly, put on his hood, and led the two devout priests to a closed carved wooden door in the room. The left door was made of fish beam wood, as white as bones, and the right door was slightly gleaming ebony. There was a moon carved in the middle of the two doors, but the fish beam wood was inlaid with ebony, and the ebony was inlaid with fish beam wood.

There has always been a legendary story about the origin of the Faceless Men.

The cult of the Many-Faced God was originally born among the miserable slaves in the mines of Valyria. The slaves in the mines often revolted, and the first Faceless Man was one of the rebels. Some people think he was a slave, some say he was a citizen of Freehold, and some think he was an overseer who sympathized with his slaves. In fact, no one really knows his origins. Everyone only knows that he moved among the slaves and listened to their prayers.

Citizens from hundreds of countries were captured and forced to work in the mines of Valyria. Each prayed to his own god in his own language, but they all prayed for the same thing - relief and an end to suffering.

Such an ordinary and simple thing did not get a response from God.

Until one night, the first Faceless Man awakened and understood that all gods have their own tools, servants who serve them to execute the gods' will in the world. The slaves are crying to hundreds of different gods. In fact, it is the same god with hundreds of different faces - the God with a Thousand Faces. And he is the tool of this god.

After that, the first Faceless Man gave "gifts" to desperate slaves, and later he also gave gifts to slave owners.

There are several points in this story that people tend to overlook.

Why in the Valyrian mines, where it should be easy for a slave to die amidst the lava, fireflies, rubble, and pickaxes, why did he have to pray to the gods for deliverance?
Why is it that the Faceless Men giving "gifts" to slaves is a commendable legend?
The kind man gave a gentle push and the door opened silently inwards.

Led by the kind man, the two devout priests walked inside and the door closed behind them. For a moment, the room was dark and blind.

But they still kept going deeper inside.

At the end of the dark room was a wall of rough stones and a very narrow staircase leading down.

There were no lights, but the kind people and priests still did not make a wrong step.

A chill swept up from underground, like the icy breath from deep underground.

They were completely unaware, and with only light steps they continued down until they reached the bottom of the stairs and entered the deepest darkness.

The place they arrived at was a huge space, with countless huge stone pillars rising from the rough stone floor, two by two on the left and right, extending to the endless darkness in the distance. The cold here was enough to make people shiver. But the priests were not affected at all, and just followed the kind man silently.

Although there was no light source, once the eyes adjusted to the darkness, one could see from the deeper darkness of the walls that, just like the central part of the temple open to the public, those walls were filled with hollows where the dead lay.

Over the years, thousands and tens of thousands of dead have been buried here.

According to the teachings of the servants of the House of Black and White, those who came to the Temple of the Thousand-Faced God to drink water were the black angels who came to find them, and now they sleep here forever. It was the black angels who led them by the hand to the land of darkness, allowing them to sleep peacefully, even though their faces were peeled off and placed somewhere else.

Finally, they arrived at their destination.

A small room that looks like a tomb, with thick stone storage cabinets on the walls.

Here the kindly man climbed the stone steps in the wall and retrieved two crudely made glass cases from one of the stone lockers.

He placed the box on a stone platform in the middle of the room.

Then he took out a huge night-shining pearl from another cabinet.

The dim and cold light of the night pearl illuminated the small room. The light it emitted was dim, but it was enough for people to see the two boxes clearly.

The kind man silently gestured to the two priests to open the box.

So the two priests stepped forward and calmly opened the box.

Inside are two weapons that are obviously contradictory to anyone who knows a little about the mysticism of this world.

Those are two daggers.

The blades were made of obsidian, the so-called dragon crystal. The black glass was smooth and shiny, showing that the blades of the two swords were sharper than steel.

The hilt is made of an unknown black bone, which looks like a dragon bone, but it is not. This bone comes from a creature called a fire dragon worm, and some people say that they are distant relatives of dragons.

According to legend, the Fourteen Fire Peaks of Valyria are the habitat of fire dragonworms.

Whether it is the dragon crystal of the sword body or the dragon worm bone of the hilt, they are both considered to belong to fire, heat, and the element that is completely opposite to cold in the magic of this world.

However, these two swords give people a feeling of coldness and severe chill, so much so that when people touch the swords, they will feel that they are bone-chillingly cold, making people tremble all over.

In addition, the sword was glowing with a faint blue light and had a water-like luster; the hilt was emitting invisible waves, with a faint aura that made people feel inexplicably sad.

Their mere existence is enough to make all those who have studied mysticism but do not know the truth feel that their worldview has collapsed.

They are so contradictory, with the magic of ice and fire, the breath of water and earth.

But such a contradiction is now clearly laid out on the stone table.

According to the Faceless Men, they are weapons given to servants by the Thousand-Faced God in order to grant liberation to those who pray, and they are called Blades of Mercy.

All men are mortal.

All men need to be served.

Temple of the House of Black and White
Kind person
The God of Cold is an evil god who represents darkness, cold and death.

The White Walkers are servants of the ancient alien gods. They are a cold species that lacks human emotions and humanity.

It is difficult not to associate the servants of the Thousand-Faced God with the God of Cold - during training, the Faceless Men will abandon human emotions and only serve the gods. Compared with other sects, they are more like an intermediate state of transformation from human to non-human.

And the servants of the Thousand-Faced God believe that they will go to the "Land of Night" after death, and the House of Black and White stores a large number of intact corpses. Braavos, where it is located, is the land closest to the Northern Wall on the Essos continent.
From this, it can be speculated that even if the Thousand-Faced God may not be the alias of the God of Cold when he was first born, as the moment of the decisive battle approaches, the faith in the Thousand-Faced God has quietly changed with the change in the strength of the source of power of the Faceless Men - the power of the God of Cold is getting stronger and stronger.

So the priests of the Red God would call them "poisoners of foreign gods."

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(End of this chapter)