latelenovela #309 - Chapter 43: The Past of Valyria (Part 2)
#309 - Chapter 43: The Past of Valyria (Part 2)
Even more terrifying, endless darkness shrouded the entire mine, with fierce and frightening fireworms frequently appearing within. Once these monsters were encountered, the slaves would be instantly engulfed in raging flames, ultimately leaving behind hardly a complete corpse, only charred and carbonized remains.
Despite such harsh and cruel conditions, the miners continued to dig deeper day after day, countless lives perishing in the process. However, the greedy and selfish slave owners were indifferent to this, their eyes only on the endless flow of wealth. As for those slaves who had lost their ability to work, they were even more cruelly and mercilessly thrown into the red-glowing, gloomy abyss beneath the earth, left to fend for themselves.
These suffering slaves came from all corners of the world, with different racial backgrounds and religious beliefs: Andals, Rhoynar, Qohorik, YiTish, Asshai'i, Ghiscari, Summer Islanders, and more. They prayed to their respective gods, all pleading for the same thing: release from their suffering. To the gods, this was an extremely ordinary little thing, yet no god answered them.
Until one night, in the red darkness at the very bottom of the volcano mine. The first Nameless One had an epiphany, and he bestowed a gift upon some desperate slaves. That gift was—death. For slaves trapped in the underground mine, living in despair day and night, death was a merciful release.
"All men must die, all men must serve."
No one knew the true identity of the first Faceless Man. Some said he was a slave, some said he came from the Free Fortress, and some even said he was originally a sympathetic overseer. But that didn't matter anymore. As the Faceless Men organization began to grow, hope spread in the mine, and the Faceless Men led the slaves to revolt. They could disguise their identities and move in and out of the mine.
Eight hundred years ago, they exploited the conflict between the Valyrians and the Asshai fire mages, successfully forging an alliance. With the help of the fire mages, some of them escaped the mine. Led by the Faceless Men, they subverted the rowing slaves, seized control of a fleet, and secretly established Braavos in the north.
Also established was the Iron Bank, initially founded by sixteen men and seven women, most of whom were Faceless Men. They used their powerful force to ensure that the interests of the Iron Bank were not violated. The House of Black and White and the Faceless Men organization, with the financial resources of the Iron Bank, rapidly developed and grew to the point where they could threaten royal power.
Over the centuries, the Iron Bank and the Faceless Men used capital and military deterrence to infiltrate every corner of Braavos. As for the Sea Lord, who was publicly elected, he was just a puppet on the surface.
The real power behind Braavos was the Triumvirate: one representing the Iron Bank, one representing the House of Black and White, and the other representing the invincible fleet. Naval commanders, Faceless Men, and the Iron Bank were secretly indistinguishable from each other.
There was also a shocking secret: the Doom of Valyria was also related to these guys. After the existence of Braavos was revealed to the world, the Faceless Men spent nearly two hundred years laying out a plan, infiltrating the garrison, guards, and slave population of the Fourteen Flames, and secretly collecting a large number of wild dragon eggs.
They allied with the Lord of Light's church, injecting the holy power granted by the Lord of Light into the dragon eggs, with the aim of hatching a batch of dragons that would obey the church. A large number of Faceless Men, dressed in black, threw thousands of dragon eggs infused with holy fire into the volcano on a dark night.
But to everyone's surprise, their actions caused extremely terrible consequences. The super volcano zone around the city of Valyria, including the Fourteen Flames, was awakened within a radius of one hundred and fifty leagues. The mountains cracked like eggs, and the rivers, lakes, and seas boiled! Flames, ashes, and smoke erupted from the ground like fountains into the air! Hot lava fell, so that even the dragons soaring in the air were incinerated.
The earth fell apart, and the sea surged back! In just a few hours, the greatest city in history became history.
This disaster tore the entire peninsula in half. The northern part formed the Sea of Sighs; the central area became hot, becoming the Long Summer Land; the southern part sank and was submerged by the sea, emitting poisonous vapors and smoke, and was called the Smoking Sea.
To this day, this area is still considered a land of demons under the shadow of doom. No fleet that dares to enter the coast has ever returned alive, and no sailor dares to approach the ruins of Valyria.
The Doom of Valyria had a profound impact on Essos. Except for the Targaryen family and the Velaryon family, none of the old nobles of Valyria survived. (The Celtigar family were lower Valyrians and not even considered nobles.) Many technological and magical secrets were also lost, and no one could forge Valyrian steel again.
Although there were accidents, the result was unexpectedly good. The collapse of the empire left a huge power vacuum, and the Free Trade Cities fell into more than a hundred years of war and turmoil, known as the 'Bleeding Century'.
Braavos, in alliance with other city-states, shattered Volantis's ambition to rebuild the empire and dominate Essos, and completely defeated Pentos in the war, achieving a true rise and becoming one of the leading forces in western Essos. It also used its financial tentacles to infiltrate various city-states, including various regions of Westeros.
After listening, Liu Yuan's heart could not calm down for a long time. He realized that behind this seemingly prosperous Braavos, there were such huge conspiracies and power struggles hidden.
As for why the Red God Church would participate in the mysterious actions of the Faceless Men, with some memory fragments of the Green Prophet, he could also guess some of it. The bodies of R'hllor and the Old Gods were suppressed under the Fourteen Flames. Only by inducing such a world-destroying disaster could the seal above be loosened and more divine thoughts and power be released.
Liu Yuan pressed his palm on Placido's head, and with a burst of force, his head exploded like a watermelon. Then, he took out a palm-sized iron key from his arms. This was the key to open the Iron Bank's vault. To his surprise, the material was actually Valyrian steel.
According to the method Placido told him, he opened the mechanism on the wall, and a deep passage appeared, leading directly to the underground vault.
The Isle of Weavers, this island located in Braavos, is arguably one of the city's largest slums. The streets here are low and chaotic, like a maze pieced together from countless broken blocks. Every narrow alley is filled with an atmosphere of despair and poverty, and the homeless people struggle to survive on this land like ants.
Arya, draped in a tattered sheet found from nowhere, huddled tightly in the shadows of a street corner. In this place, stray children like her were everywhere, all orphans abandoned by fate. At this moment, Arya silently put a small piece of jerky into her mouth, chewing carefully. She knew that her current physical condition urgently needed to replenish energy, because the poison hidden in her body was ruthlessly eroding her health.