Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon.

Chapter 176 Marwyn

"I let your merchant ship into Dragonstone. I am your guarantor. Please follow me." Although Ser Denzel was not very willing to help Willas as a Dornishman, he was now the guard of Dragonstone and had to obey the king's administrative orders. It was a loss of honor to make small moves in such places. "You have no official visit notification, so you have to follow the visitor process. I will send someone to take you to Government Street and fill out the application through the noble visit channel there."

Everyone new to Dragonstone has to ask: "Access tunnel?"

"You will know when you go there."

Although their ship was allowed to dock temporarily, Denzel only let Willas, Marwyn and two guards land on the island, which was in accordance with regulations. If these people did not get the approval of the castle, they would be expelled from Dragonstone, although Denzel knew that the possibility was very small.

A knight of the Dart family led them into the town, to the so-called Government Street.

Even Marwin was surprised. This so-called government street was different from all the city offices he had seen. It was clean, tidy, well-organized, with each office clearly divided into different places and clear road signs. The most obvious difference from other places was that this street had a wide road surface, which was paved with asphalt and gravel, and the open spaces of various government offices were paved with flat blue bricks and stones. The road surface and land of the entire block looked neat and orderly.

Here, they saw the group of people with the emblems of the families of various territories in Storm Land who had come down from the ship that had arrived earlier than them. These people were all dressed as affairs officials, wearing the emblems of their respective families, and holding notebooks in their hands. Led by someone who seemed to be a supervisor, they were giving a speech in the central square of Zhengwu Street.

A banner was hung in the middle of the square, with the words "Learning Program for Territory Affairs Officers (Phase II)" written on it.

Willas looked at these new gadgets with strange curiosity.

Marwyn suddenly said, "This is some kind of new 'bachelor'. I wonder what those gray sheep in the Citadel will think when they see this?" Marwyn was surprised to find that there was some similarity between Dragonstone's "study program" and the Citadel's training of bachelors. No matter what these "officers" studied on Dragonstone, after receiving Dragonstone's education, they would be labeled with Dragonstone.

Under the system of Westeros lords, nobles and knights ruling the territories, the officials are responsible for managing specific affairs. Marwyn suddenly realized a possibility. In the future, when these officials educated on Dragonstone implement the territorial policies promoted by the lords of various places, they will subconsciously do things according to the methods "learned" on Dragonstone. In this way, although the lords and vassals of various places still have the management rights of various places, the king can achieve a certain degree of political unification in the territory through the officials who implement the specific policies, which no king has ever achieved.

That is, no matter who becomes the lord or feudal lord, when the king's national policy needs to be implemented throughout the territory, the officials who specifically implement the national policy are all people who have been re-educated under the king's "official education" system.

You know, in today's Westeros, it seems that the law stipulates that there is only one king who unifies the entire territory. But in fact, the taxes, commerce, economy, and agriculture on the lands of various lords are completely different. Even if the territories of two lords are only separated by a river or a mountain, the policies of various places will be very different, and they often follow the old rules without unified standards.

If the king wants to regulate the policies of various places by regulating the people who implement the policies, then this king must be someone who wants to do big things.

Marwyn even thought that if the king vigorously promoted such education in the territory, perhaps in the future, as more and more officials with the Dragonstone label were added, the king could allow the military power and status of the lords of various places to remain stable, but could control certain specific affairs in the territory through ordinary officials, such as the Dragonstone king who had been promoting taxes and farming.
Marwyn was a doctor after all, and he quickly realized what could be done by integrating these officials who were in charge of specific affairs in each territory. He couldn't help but be surprised and wondered if the king had such an idea in mind and implemented such a re-education policy on Dragonstone.

Walking along a road that looked smooth and high-end, they came to the so-called Government Street.

Arriving at the so-called reception, there were different levels of reception, and the leading knight led them to the reception area for the nobility.
While waiting for the king's summons, Marwyn could not sit still and went to look at the government affairs column of Dragonstone.

Here is the complete set of Dragonstone tax laws, as well as some policy information and recruitment information. The most bizarre thing is that Marwyn saw popular science about White Walkers and Wights here. It seemed to be a newly posted popular science article, which briefly described the scenes of White Walkers and the resurrection of the dead that the king saw in Braavos, and speculated that White Walkers could not be killed by ordinary weapons, and needed dragon steel and obsidian weapons, while Wights were afraid of fire and were dead servants controlled by the White Walkers with magic. The Dragonstone government called on the country to reserve supplies and food, as well as to reserve more oil in safe places, and at the same time arranged for people to mine obsidian mines to increase reserves and other matters in preparation for a rainy day.

Just by watching from here, Marwyn quickly realized that the king was preparing for a war that might sweep across the land, in the face of a long, harsh winter and even an invasion of the White Walkers.

Marwyn knew the prophecy in the ancient book of Asshai.

"Long Night. A prince was born in a land of salt and smoke, with a star that weeps blood"

But Marwyn didn't believe in any prophecy. He believed more in Gorgon's view of prophecy: "Prophecy is like a cunning woman. She will take your thing in her mouth, making you moan with pleasure, thinking in your mind how sweet, how wonderful, how comfortable it is... Then she suddenly closes her teeth, and your moan turns into a scream." Gorgon believes that this is the essence of prophecy, and prophecy will bite off people's dicks every time.

Having said that…

The prophecy undoubtedly foreshadowed something.

But if the king believed in the prophecy, Marwyn felt that he might not be able to get along with the king. But as Marwyn continued to look, he found a decree in the corner. The king called on the princes and wealthy merchants in the country to donate materials to the Great Wall, because if there are indeed aliens outside the Great Wall, the Great Wall is the first line of defense for the world. The king claimed that he had sent a "hero in the prophecy of the ancient book of Asshai" to stop the darkness according to the prophecy of the ancient dragon god he got from Valyria, but if the hero does not have sufficient materials, it will be difficult for him to play his role.
The Ancient Dragon of Valyria?

Marwyn opened his mouth. As far as he knew, there was no ancient dragon god in Valyria. And before seeing this decree, Marwyn had never thought that the king would cut the hero in the prophecy out of the ancient prophecy, remove the "prince" part, and only keep the "hero" discussion, and try to create a "hero" himself. This shows that the king's view on the prophecy may be more flexible than Marwyn. The king may believe in the prophecy, but he wants to realize it in his own way. Marwyn realized that while the king attached importance to the prophecy, he also had disdain and arrogance towards the prophecy.

And the ancient dragon god?
The Valyrians believed in many different gods, but never really regarded any one god as the true God. Valyria encouraged theism to appease the lower classes and slaves, allowing them to imagine a better life after death. The Freehold promoted religious tolerance in order to keep believers divided and prevent them from uniting under monotheism to rebel.

There is no record of any ancient dragon god in Valyria. According to some scholars, the dragon kings of Valyria used dragons as tools, or more intimately, as companions.

Scholars of the occult have documented that Valyrian magic was very powerful, with powerful wizards accompanying the army to battle, using whips, magic horns, and sorcery to control dragons.

Marwyn had spent eight years in the far east, drawing maps, searching for lost books, visiting wizards and shadowbinders, and even going to Asshai in the Land of Shadows to explore the truth of magic. After returning to Oldtown, a doctor in the Citadel, the astronomer Dr. "Vinegar" Verin, gave him the nickname "Marwyn the Magician".

Even though the Citadel vigorously suppressed magic and the occult, attempting to build a world without witchcraft, prophecy, and glass candles, Marwyn still created the Valyrian steel necklace, which represented that his profound attainments in magic and the occult had reached an outstanding level that no one could refute.

The Citadel allowed him to exist. On the one hand, of course, it was his bloodline that played a role. Although Marwyn didn't want to admit it, bloodline was useful even in a Citadel full of stubbornness, gray sheep, and poor old guys with age spots on their hands. On the other hand, even those who hated magic wouldn't dare to let this subject be discontinued so easily.

Of course, Marwyn had always kept a low profile and blocked many hidden arrows with his own vigilance in private. But he was not trusted and was excluded.

Then again, according to Marwyn's knowledge of occultism, the dragon was most likely a creation created by Valyrian pyromancers using blood magic. The Valyrians were so arrogant that they despised the gods, so how could they worship their own creations and tools as gods?

unless
Marwyn turned his gaze toward the castle of Dragonstone.

Even the most powerful sorcerer in Asshai did not deny the existence of gods, although Marwyn had doubts about this, because in many cases, the so-called miracles and magic gifts from gods could be mastered through learning.

There are many believers in R'hllor in Asshai, who firmly believe that shadow magic and fire magic are gifts from the Lord of Light. But Marwyn does not believe in R'hllor, but he has learned a lot of fire magic and black magic using shadows.

Marwyn spent eight years in the East, witnessing the medical arts of Asshai, the warlock magic, the childbirth songs of the Moon Singers, the herbs and potion knowledge of the Far East, and exploring the flesh and bones beneath human skin. He also worked with warlocks to study the secrets of the human soul that all occult scholars want to explore.

Even though Marwyn did not believe in God, there were some mystical knowledge that could not be explained except by God. Some difficult and special magic was easier to learn and master for those who believed in God than for those who did not. There were also many records of so-called gifts from God that could only be mastered by the most devout pastors and priests.

During his travels in the East, Marwyn had seen the beliefs of countless gods, some of which had special powers, but most of the time those powers were useless. For example, he had seen an island tribe that would sacrifice living people to the gods of their island, using the blood of the sacrifices and special chanting methods to worship a strange flower that they claimed was given by the gods and whose pollen would cause hallucinations to bloom at a specific time. The local islanders would have sex when the flower bloomed, believing that the children conceived at that time would be blessed by the gods.

Marwyn stayed there for a while after the pirates killed a pirate captain in revenge, waiting for the flower to bloom naturally. However, the flower quickly withered as the islanders died. Marwyn tried various ways to cultivate it, even using the flesh and blood of the islanders, but failed to stop the flower's unexplained and rapid unnatural withering until it became completely extinct.

Let’s just assume that it was a gift from the “gods” that the islanders believed in, but what’s the use of that?
The most powerful "gift" of God that Marwyn has ever seen is probably the priests of the Red God.

But he still couldn't believe that there really were gods in the world. He only thought that it was an excuse made by the priests, a conjecture they made without being able to grasp the essence. The evidence was convincing textual research that the Dragon Kings of Valyria believed that all beliefs were equally false. They did not believe in a "true god", but they once mastered powerful magic and sorcery and dominated Essos for thousands of years.

But now, the king who deliberately linked himself to the heritage of Valyria is quietly spreading the word of a god that did not exist in Valyrian history, the Ancient Dragon God.

Marwyn couldn't help but have many complicated thoughts and his imagination ran wild.

"It's over!" Marwyn was daydreaming when he suddenly heard the captain of Willas's guards, who had just arrived, exclaimed, "It's over. His Majesty the Dragon King does not plan to attack King's Landing in the next stage." It turned out that he saw the king's views on the blockade of King's Landing on the bulletin board and realized the king's attitude towards King's Landing.

A very simple idea, if the king’s next goal is not King’s Landing, where will it be?
King Targaryen already owns Dorne and the Stormlands, and can easily mobilize tens of thousands of troops to fight for him. They have even heard that the Golden Company is under the command of the Dragon King, and he also has dragons.

Looking at the policies pursued by the king, there is no doubt that the king wanted a rich and fertile land that could support his greater plans.

If the captain of the guard had any brains and military judgment, he should have realized that the king had set his sights on the fertile southern border.

(End of this chapter)