Casterly Rock is essentially a towering mountain standing by the sea, hollowed out from within to form tunnels and halls.
In fact, anyone who has seen The Lord of the Rings can easily understand its existence. It is the Lonely Mountain of the A Song of Ice and Fire world.
Dwarves mined gold and gems within the Lonely Mountain, while the early people of the Westerlands mined gold and silver within Casterly Rock.
The dwarves turned the hollowed-out Lonely Mountain into an underground city, while the First Men transformed Casterly Rock, after its gold veins were exhausted, into a grand fortress.
The Lonely Mountain lies near the vast freshwater Long Lake, beside which stands Lake-town. Casterly Rock lies by the Sunset Sea, beside which Lannisport was built.
The Lonely Mountain was occupied by the dragon Smaug, leaving its rightful owners homeless. Casterly Rock was occupied by wights, and its lords were nearly wiped out. Now, it was the dragons' turn to save the city.
However, the owners of the Lonely Mountain and Casterly Rock are fundamentally different. Dwarves love mines, while humans long for sunlight. Thus, the Lonely Mountain has no windows, only a main road and a secret passage, whereas Casterly Rock is filled with "skylights."
If floor-to-ceiling glass were installed in each of these open windows, Casterly Rock could even be disguised as a modern city.
Like a pyramid garden, a "stone garden" was also carved out at the top of Casterly Rock.
At this moment, Dany stood beside a jujube tree in the center of the stone garden, while Bran's red-eyed raven perched on a withered branch.
"This is the layout of Casterly Rock's tunnels and rooms. The blue marks indicate armories, vaults, granaries, wine cellars, and furs. The red marks indicate heavily infested wight zones."
Bran linked his will with Dany's mental power, transmitting a three-dimensional map of Casterly Rock to her.
"How many traces of the Others have you found in the Westerlands?" Dany asked.
"I can only locate several large concentrations of wight forces. There should be Others among them," Bran replied.
After a pause, he added hesitantly, "We're in serious trouble this time. There are no babies among the wight forces, and there are no infant corpses left in the city. Do you understand what that means?"
"Thousands upon thousands of Others?" Dany frowned. "Can babies be turned into Others without a sacrificial ritual?"
"In the bedtime stories of old northern wet nurses, there's often a scene like this: Others ride ice spiders to hunt women, devour infants, and breed terrifying half-human, half-Other offspring.
Of course, not all of that is true, but it does conceal three real secrets.
First, Others do not devour infants; they transform them into Others.
Second, Others can mate with humans and produce offspring.
Third, Others are divided into ranks. Those born naturally possess a more independent will.
When the King of the Others dies, all Others transformed from infants die with him, but the naturally born 'half-human, half-Other monsters' continue to live.
This is also why, after the end of the last Long Night, less than a century passed before a second, smaller Long Night appeared at the Wall.
That was the time when the Lord Commander of the Night's Watch took an Other as his bride.
During the last Long Night, one King of the Others and all their warriors died. The remaining members retreated to the Land of Always Winter, waiting for the next fall of the world."
"The body temperature of an Other is below minus fifty degrees. How can humans avoid being frozen during reproduction?" Dany's lips twitched.
"Probably magic," Bran said awkwardly.
When something cannot be resolved, invoke quantum mechanics. When it cannot be explained, blame time travel.
Very reasonable. Very scientific. Very magical.
Dany silently mocked the thought, then asked, "So you mean naturally bred Others are the strongest, those created through sacrifice come next, and those transformed from abducted infants are the weakest? What about the influence of bloodlines?"
Bran said, "Generally speaking, the nobler the bloodline of the infant, the stronger the magical power they possess after being transformed through sacrifice.
Those created through sacrifice have more complete magical runes than those transformed from abducted infants.
Infants not used in sacrifices instinctively resist the transformation, so overall they are weaker than those created through rituals.
Sacrificed infants of noble blood can become nobles among the Others. Those of ordinary blood become knights, and forcibly transformed infants become common soldiers.
The Other you first fought beneath the Wall was probably equivalent to a count among them, extremely powerful.
In fact, the Others that appeared in the Battle of Winterfell were also of very high rank. They all came from sacrifices by wildlings and the First Men."
Dany nodded slightly, forming a clearer understanding: the Others before crossing the Wall were like the Jurchens beyond the passes in the late Ming era; those north of the Neck after crossing were like the early Qing incorporating Han Banner troops; and those beyond the Neck were like the Qing forming large-scale Green Standard armies.
Bran continued, "Others created through transformation have a relatively high baseline. Once the process is complete, they all possess ice magic and necromancy to raise corpses as wights.
Natural reproduction, however, is not only difficult but also highly unpredictable.
Just like humans, newborns may be strong, tall, short, frail, deformed, or even dwarfed.
The lower limit is very low. Many naturally born Others have no magic at all. Aside from being colder, they are weaker than ordinary humans."
"What about the upper limit? Could naturally born Others have a higher ceiling?" Dany asked.
After a moment of thought, Bran shook his head. "If naturally bred Others were stronger, they could simply choose a king from among their offspring. Why force Benjen Stark?
Eight thousand years have passed since the last Long Night. Even with low birth rates and survival odds, a great king should have emerged.
But that has not happened. A true King of the Others has never appeared.
It seems the laws of the world are preventing his birth.
Or perhaps only when the Others completely exterminate the living, when the world falls into eternal darkness and cold, and when their race becomes the protagonist of a new era, will a naturally born King of the Others emerge."
"Screech~~~"
"Screech~~~"
A green dragon and a white dragon flew in from the east, followed by five wyverns carrying Valyrian steel knights.
Dany and Bran were not idly standing in the stone garden of Casterly Rock.
They were waiting for the white and green dragons, along with the five accompanying wyverns.
"Begin!" Dany closed her eyes. Drogon leapt into the air beside her, joining his two brothers as they breathed dragonfire, burning the wights along the walls of Casterly Rock.
All three dragons wore Valyrian steel belly armor, making them unafraid of javelins thrown by the "Han Banner" troops.
In fact, there were only three Others within Casterly Rock.
If any of them dared to appear outside the city, Bran would have already detected them and had the Dragon Queen eliminate them.
Although Bran, as the Three-Eyed Raven, was not as omniscient as Brynden, he was still a bug-level scout.
Using him to gather intelligence was far superior to any skinchanger's animal companions.
In localized wars across Westeros, humans actually held an information advantage because of Bran.
Dany favored asymmetrical warfare where her side had absolute informational superiority. She had fought many such battles in Slaver's Bay, so she was accustomed to it, which was why she had brought Bran along as a scout.
"Caw caw caw~~~~~" A chain of raven shadows flew out of Dany's eyes, forming a ring of fire around her.
Gradually, a golden-red cocoon of flame enveloped her body.
Three hundred fire ravens in total.
"Prepare to cover me with your will and provide concealment," Dany said.
"I'm afraid it won't be very effective. Others may not sense it, but the King of the Others certainly will," Bran said hesitantly.
"Do you not understand my situation? Do you think I'm trying to hide from him?" Dany replied calmly.
"Very well." The great raven leapt into the sky. The immense will of the Three-Eyed Raven enveloped all of Casterly Rock, isolating a two-kilometer radius within a barrier of terrifying intent.
It was like forging a spiritual barrier that shielded Casterly Rock, blocking the perception of gods and fate.
Do not doubt it. In Westeros, if the Three-Eyed Raven wishes it, they can deceive any existence, even a true god. For example, when Brynden once invited Dany to cooperate in dealing with R'hllor, the latter was completely unaware before falling into the trap.
"Wind, come!" Dany's eyes suddenly turned azure.
A gentle breeze arose around her, soon swelling into surging winds, then into a raging storm, and finally into a colossal tornado.
In the stone garden of Casterly Rock, a massive tornado one hundred meters in diameter stretched between heaven and earth.
It was clear that as the pillar of wind formed above Casterly Rock, the howling northern winds within a ten-kilometer radius weakened.
Just as the God of Cold draws in frigid air to cast "White Frost," the Dragon Queen drew in surrounding winds to form a controlled tornado.
Power does not arise from nothing. The essence of magic is taking from deficiency to supplement excess. When taken too far, it becomes a forbidden spell.
"Domain…" Bran said hoarsely. "How is this possible? In just one month, you've comprehended the domain of wind?"
"Only a rudimentary form." Dany floated at the center of the tornado, her blue cloak fluttering like a banner.
"I thought you would comprehend the domain of fire first," Bran said.
"I thought so too, but after being immersed daily in the winds of another realm, I had no choice," Dany said, sounding helpless but inwardly pleased.
She had only grasped the rudimentary form of the wind domain two days ago and had never truly tested its power. Now, with this small trial, the results were astonishing.
Previously, she only knew fire sorcery and not a single proper wind spell. Yet once she grasped the domain, she could wield a forbidden spell immediately.
No wonder when she had once pursued the gate guardian for wind magic, the being said it knew none. When pressed, it impatiently told her to focus on the Song of Wind, because with it, spells were unnecessary.
Now Dany finally understood that compared to the "Dao," techniques were merely trivial branches.
"Roar!"
Drogon, Viserion, and Rhaegal took positions at three points along the walls, surrounding Casterly Rock. At that moment, they simultaneously unleashed dragonfire into the tornado.
It was like dyeing a milky-white vortex with streaks of red.
As the flames continued, the crimson deepened within the swirling winds.
"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!" The cocoon of fire around Dany expanded and descended to the base of Casterly Rock, merging with the dragonfire.
Wind and fire combined, the wind carrying the flames deep into the gates at the base of the Rock.
The tornado became like a mass of red smoke, while Casterly Rock acted like a vacuum, drawing in both wind and fire into its depths.
Where there is intake, there is output.
Casterly Rock has many levels, each with open windows.
Now, fierce winds carried black smoke and flames out through those windows, occasionally flinging out burning limbs of wights like torches.
Except for the storage warehouses, Casterly Rock was completely swept through.
(End of Chapter)
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