Beneath the Red Dragon

”Fortress of Freedom, Valeria, such a magnificent city. How many years will it take us to build such a grand city,”

the elderly scholar in scholars’ attire sitting at the long table whispered in admiration.

Half of the Scholars’ Hall, lit by candles and torches, was illuminated by light and the sunlight from the windows, while the other half was shrouded in darkness.

The elderly scholar, seated at the dividing line between darkness and light, had a face difficult to decipher, just like the Scholars’ Hall where darkness and glow coexisted.

”For thousands of years, the Valerians, in all aspects, have been among the world’s top ranks, but I think that soon they won’t be,”

another scholar in the darkness began to speak, ”Although they revere the various sects of gods, they do not believe in the gods and should be punished by the gods, among whom the light of the Seven Gods should also descend upon Valeria.”

Thump, thump, thump.

Sitting at the main seat, the patriarch of the Hightower Clan, who settled on the Westeros Continent during the Age of the First Men, gently tapped the long table, lost in thought.

The most historically ancient and powerful city on the Westeros Continent, Old Town, was controlled by the Hightower Clan.

Although most of the previous patriarchs of the Hightower Clan loved to confine themselves to the high tower to study theology and mysterious techniques,

the vast power of Old Town Academic City was only one of the many tentacles and pawns of the Hightower Clan, who excelled in endurance to control the Westeros Continent.

It is rumored that the Hightower Clan and the ancestors of the Valerians, who built the great Overlord civilization, the Fortress of Freedom, originally came from the same place.

That place is the Yi Lands in the eastern part of the Essos Continent, with its rich, interlaced green farmlands and vast lush rainforests. To this day, the long-bodied snake lizards still roam the jungles of the Yi Lands.

Saffron is the main export product of the Yi Lands, and the Night Lion is the deity of the Yi Lands. The civilization that once ruled the Yi Lands in ancient times was called the Dawn Upper Country.

In ancient myths, the first long night in the world was brought about by the Dawn Upper Country.

The Dawn Upper Country was destroyed in the long night, and the civilization that now rules the Yi Lands — the Golden Celestial Dynasty — was born from the ruins of the Dawn Upper Country.

The Golden Celestial Dynasty is the generic term for the many dynasties that now rule the remote eastern territories of the Far East. To this day, three emperors are divided within the Golden Celestial Dynasty.

The Emperor of the Wei Dynasty, who possessed limited power only within the capital city of Yidu, while the princes outside the capital retained practical control over their territories.

Throughout various periods of the dynasty, they have consistently suffered raids and looting by the Jiugesnai people of the Northern Grasslands, with continuous warfare and conflict between both sides.

Many Golden Celestial Dynasty generals and the three emperors once led armies to suppress the Jiugesnai people, but most had little success.

As the predecessor of the Golden Celestial Dynasty, the legendary Imperial — the Dawn Upper Country — had a vast domain, stretching westward from north to south cutting off the Skeleton Mountain Range of the Essos Continent, eastward to the Gray Wasteland, north to the Shivering Sea, and south to the Jade Sea.

Even the islands within the Jade Sea were ruled by the Dawn Upper Country, whose powerful national strength was no weaker than Valeria’s.

The first ruler who governed the Dawn Upper Country was known as the Human Emperor, an only son of the Night Lion and the Lady of Light.

The Hightower Clan and, on the Valerian Peninsula, the ancestors of Valerians were said to be a branch of descendants carrying the bloodline of the Human Emperor, of the legendary Dawn Upper Country.

And now, the mysterious lands of Yaxia and the Shadow Lands of Yaxia also have cryptic connections with the former Dawn Upper Country and the Golden Celestial Dynasty.

An ancient prophecy in Yaxia foretells that after a long summer, the stars will weep blood, cold will envelop the earth, and the hero Yasol Yai, who once wielded the ’Lightbringer’ to defeat the long night of darkness brought by the Cold God, would be reborn in the land of smoke and salt.

And awaken the demon dragon within the stone.

In the eyes of the Hightower Clan patriarch, there is another interpretation of this prophecy.

Yasol Yai represents the sun, and the hero’s wife, Shanisha, who was once offered as a sacrifice to the Lightbringer, allowing the ’Lightbringer’ to be born, represents the moon; while the ’Lightbringer’ represents the falling star — namely the demon dragon.

The process of awakening the demon dragon by the death of the moon is called the exchange of blood for flame.

His idea draws upon the origin story of the demon dragon.

In the world, there are two legends regarding the birth of the demon dragon.

One of them is the legend that the world once had two suns and one moon, where one moon ventured too close to the sun and was ignited by its intense heat.

That moon exploded in the sky, scattering countless meteors, but those weren’t meteors; they were thousands of demon dragons descending upon the earth, absorbing the sun’s flames, hence why dragons breathe fire.

And in many historical records, not only the Valerians of the Essos Continent owned giant dragons, even on the Westeros Continent, appearances of demon dragons have existed.

Even now, many dragon bones continue to be unearthed in the Shadow Lands of Yaxia and in the far north and far south of Essos.

An ancient rumor from the lands of Yaxia claims that an ancient people first tamed dragons using some kind of wondrous magic in the Shadow Lands of Yaxia, later bringing them to Valeria.

And before withdrawing from the annals of history, they taught the Valerians the secrets of demon dragons.