Gifts for the Sun - Chapter 44: THE DREAMING RAVEN IV

Title: Gifts for the Sun

Author: SaramirizianLoungeJacket(me)

Rating: Explicit

Language: English

Length: 143k words

Status: Ongoing

Link: On AO3

Summary: What lies on the other side of the Sunset Sea? Only the drowned and the sharks - or so they say. Yet, from that western horizon three ships now emerge, bearing weapons of dragonglass, and flying the banners of an Empire from across the waves...

With the northern kingdoms hemorrhaging lives and the dragon across the Narrow Sea spreading her wings, none take notice of a few imperial envoys offering promises of gifts to the southern Houses. Some among these welcome the strength of new allies, but others are unsettled by the dark omens these envoys bring: prophesies of pagan gods, magic that manipulates blood and bone, and stories of deathless warriors that consume the living.

In this way a new people arrive seeking a foothold in this New World - searching for something they are sure the Westerosi can give them.

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So my Dreaming Raven chapters are mostly there to hook into the larger canon going on and sort of to keep track of the timeline - what is happening when and where. That's what this chapter is, though it also ended up being a little about how non-human animals might view the magical elements of ASOIAF, in particular, the dragons and the skinchanging. In previous chapters I've mostly had the raven observe the human politics even though she clearly has some magical biz going on, but I can see now how other birds (or other animals? idk if I wanna do a whole animal farm thing, maybe they end up only being able to understand ravens and half-understand nearish species) thoughts on these things might prove fertile ground here.