Chapter 43: The Forged World, The Obsidian Dawn of Reason
The news of potential extraterrestrial contact, delivered with chilling precision by Princess Lyra from the Imperial Ministry of Information and Compliance, did not evoke surprise in Emperor Vorhax, merely a profound, almost serene, sense of affirmation. His Sith spirit, forged in a galaxy teeming with myriad species and interstellar empires, had always found this planet's isolation to be a temporary, almost unnatural state. The fifty-year timeframe until the arrival of these "star-callers" was not a threat, but a deadline – a divine mandate, if such a primitive concept could apply, for the completion of his true work. Westeros had been the crucible; the entire world would now become his forge.
In the decade and a half following his declaration of the Westerosi Empire and the subjugation of the North and Vale, Vorhax had not been idle. While the common folk of Westeros experienced the unprecedented (if terrifyingly enforced) "Vorant Peace," the Emperor's gaze had turned east, across the Narrow Sea. Essos, that vast, fractured continent of ancient cities, warring factions, and forgotten lore, was the next logical step in his planetary consolidation.
His Imperial Edict for the Unification of Known Worlds was proclaimed. The justification fed to his Westerosi subjects was the "Great External Threat," a narrative of an alien menace requiring a united planetary defense. The truth, shared only with his most trusted inner circle – Crown Prince Edric, Princess Lyra, Lord Marshal Brandon Snow, Grand General Gareth, and the shadowy heads of Imperial Intelligence, Lord and Lady William – was his need to transform this entire planet into an impregnable Sith fortress-world, a new heart for a future galactic empire.
The Essosi campaigns were a brutal masterclass in Vorhax's evolved art of war. The Hawk's Armada, now hundreds strong and including steam-driven ironclad warships equipped with advanced firelance cannons, systematically shattered the navies of the Free Cities. Myr, Tyrosh, Lys, Pentos – one by one, they fell, offered the now-standard Vorant choice: swift, absolute submission and integration, or utter annihilation. Most, after witnessing the fate of the first to resist (the proud merchant princes of Myr, whose city was reduced to a smoking ruin before its populace was "re-educated"), chose submission.
The Dothraki hordes that had terrorized Essos for centuries were met on the vast plains not with feudal levies, but with disciplined legions of the Imperial Army, anchored by Obsidian Guard shock troops and supported by mobile artillery parks of his "dragon's breath" cannons. Their charges, once unstoppable, broke like waves against a cliff of Stonefang steel and explosive fire. Vorhax orchestrated a campaign of extermination against the khalasars that refused to yield, while offering the shattered remnants a stark choice: abandon their nomadic ways, settle the newly designated "Imperial Grasslands Prefecture" as farmers and herders under Vorant law, or be hunted to extinction. Many chose survival.
Volantis, the ancient First Daughter of Valyria, with its Black Walls and slave armies, presented a greater challenge. The siege was long and bloody, but Vorhax's superior siege craft, his devastating artillery, and the terrifying élan of his Obsidian Guard marines eventually breached its defenses. The old blood of Volantis was largely purged, its slave soldiers either integrated into Imperial labor corps or, if their discipline was exceptional, offered a path into auxiliary legions. Qohor, with its famed city guard and dark arts, fell next. Norvos, with its bearded priests, followed.
Even the more distant and mysterious lands were not spared Vorhax's attention. Qarth, the ancient city of merchants and warlocks, was blockaded and forced into economic vassalage. Expeditions, led by Brandon Snow or Edric Vorant, pushed into the fringes of Yi Ti, establishing fortified trading posts and demanding tribute. Asshai-by-the-Shadow, that grim, lightless city, was approached with caution; Vorhax sent only his most psychically shielded agents and Force-attuned operatives, seeking not outright conquest (yet), but knowledge of its shadow magic, which he recognized as a distinct, potent manipulation of the Dark Side. Sothoryos and Ulthos remained largely unexplored, their interiors deemed too savage or resource-intensive for immediate conquest, though Imperial fleets now charted their coastlines and established heavily fortified resource extraction enclaves.
By the thirty-fifth year of his reign as Emperor (twenty years after the news of the star-callers, leaving approximately thirty years on his galactic clock), the known world was, for all intents and purposes, united under the Black Hawk banner of the Vorant Global Imperium. It was an empire built on fear, forged in blood, and maintained by ruthless efficiency and an ever-present military machine.
With conquest largely complete, Emperor Vorhax initiated the "Great Leap of Reason," a planet-wide forced technological and societal revolution. His true purpose was to uplift this world's capabilities to a level where they could contribute to his Sith ambitions and meaningfully engage with (or defend against) galactic powers.
Imperial Academies, once confined to Westeros, now sprang up in every major city from Old Wyk to Yi Ti. Standardized curricula, dictated by Vorhax himself, focused on applied sciences, engineering, advanced mathematics (by this world's standards), logistics, medicine, and, above all, Imperial Ideology – loyalty, order, discipline, strength, and the unquestioning veneration of the Emperor as the bringer of order and protector against external darkness. The brightest minds from every conquered culture were identified and conscripted into vast Imperial Research Sanctuaries, vast complexes dedicated to specific fields of study, often built within or near Stonefang's industrial heartland. Here, guided by Vorhax's own off-world knowledge (carefully disseminated as "rediscovered ancient lore" or "Emperor-inspired revelations"), they toiled.
Energy production was revolutionized. While wood and coal remained primary sources, Vorhax pushed for the development of massive geothermal power plants in volcanic regions and advanced, multi-stage steam engines that began to power not just his warships, but also new manufactories and rudimentary land vehicles. He even initiated research into harnessing tidal power and crude forms of electrical generation, though true success in the latter remained elusive without materials and knowledge he could not yet replicate.
Materials science saw breakthroughs. The secrets of Stonefang Steel were refined, alloys strengthened, and new ceramic composites developed for armor and construction. Vorhax even began experiments, based on fragmented Valyrian texts and his own Sith alchemy, to create materials with unusual energy-conductive or resistant properties.
Manufacturing was transformed. The concept of interchangeable parts, assembly lines powered by steam or water, and precision machining (using tools Vorhax designed) led to the mass production of everything from agricultural implements and textiles to standardized weaponry and the components for his new technologies. Westeros and parts of Essos became dotted with vast, often grim, Imperial manufactories.
Communication was a priority. While ravens still flew, an Imperial Telegraph Service, utilizing optical semaphore towers built on every significant elevation, now connected the major prefectures, allowing for the swift transmission of Imperial decrees and intelligence reports across continents in days rather than weeks. Vorhax also pushed his researchers to perfect wired telegraphy, and the first intercity lines were being laid between Vorantgrad and Stonefang. Crude radio-wave experiments were underway in deep secrecy, with Vorhax himself guiding the research based on his fragmented memories of galactic technology.
Transportation saw similar leaps. Imperial Highways, superior even to Valyrian roads, now crisscrossed Westeros and were being driven deep into Essos. His new Imperial Navy boasted steam-and-sail hybrid ironclad warships, their hulls of Stonefang iron, their cannons capable of shattering any wooden ship or coastal fortification. Basic railroads, with steam-driven locomotives, were being constructed to link major mining centers to industrial hubs and ports. Vorhax had even established a secretive Imperial Aeronautical Division, experimenting with massive war-kites, steerable dirigibles filled with lighter-than-air gases (another alchemical discovery), and even very primitive glider designs, hoping to achieve air superiority, or at least, aerial reconnaissance beyond Nyx and her kind.
Military technology, of course, saw the most dramatic advancements. Rifled, breech-loading firearms were now standard issue for the Obsidian Guard and elite Imperial legions, replacing crossbows and longbows. His "dragon's breath" cannons were more numerous, more accurate, and fired a variety of projectiles, from solid shot to explosive shells and even canisters of alchemical fire. Personal armor for his elite troops incorporated advanced ceramic plates. The concept of combined arms warfare, utilizing infantry, artillery, and his new mobile forces, was drilled into his generals.
Medicine and agriculture, fields Vorhax had focused on from his earliest days, were now Imperial sciences. Advanced sanitation systems were implemented in major cities. Imperial medicaes, trained in standardized techniques emphasizing hygiene and empirical observation, established hospitals. Inoculation programs against common diseases (developed through brutal, accelerated research) were slowly being rolled out. Genetically superior crops, developed through meticulous cross-breeding and selection, combined with continent-spanning irrigation projects, ensured the Empire's vast population was fed, creating a further surplus that fueled its growth and military might.
This forced-march into a new technological age was not without its societal costs. Ancient cultures were systematically dismantled or forcibly assimilated into the monolithic Vorant Imperial model. Religions that did not preach obedience to the Emperor were suppressed, their temples repurposed or destroyed. The common man and woman lived lives of unprecedented security from war and famine, but also under a pervasive system of surveillance, control, and absolute obedience. The Obsidian Guard were the omnipresent enforcers of the Emperor's will, their justice swift and terrible. Fear remained the bedrock of the Vorant Peace.
Emperor Vorhax, now appearing as a man in his timeless prime despite being nearly seventy by Westerosi reckoning, ruled with an iron hand from his newly completed Obsidian Spire in Vorantgrad, a structure of black metal and volcanic glass that pierced the sky, a monument to his power and alien intellect. Red Rain was always at his side, now practically an extension of his own being, its crimson glow subtly enhanced by the Dark Side energies he had channeled into it. His search for Force-sensitives across the globe had yielded a handful of promising children, now sequestered in a hidden academy on a remote island near Stonefang, where he personally oversaw their indoctrination into the ways of the Sith. None yet showed the potential of a true apprentice, but they were a beginning.
Crown Prince Edric, now a man approaching sixty, grey-haired but still formidable, served as the Supreme Commander of the Imperial Legions of Westeros, his loyalty to his father absolute, his own children now adults serving in high Imperial posts. Princess Lyra, her intellect as sharp and cold as Valyrian steel, was the true power behind the Imperial Ministry of Information and Compliance, her spies and enforcers weaving a web of control across the planet. She was, in many ways, more akin to Vorhax in her cunning and ruthlessness than Edric had ever been.
As the fortieth year of Vorhax's Imperial reign dawned (leaving approximately a decade on the galactic clock), a courier arrived from the Imperial Deep Watch Observatory in the Mountains of the Morn in far eastern Essos. The message was stark: the anomalous energy signatures of the "star-callers" had intensified. Their fleet, still impossibly distant, had executed a major course correction and a sustained burn, dramatically increasing their velocity. The projected arrival time in the Westerosi star system had shortened from ten years to less than three.
Vorhax received the news in his private meditation chamber at the apex of the Obsidian Spire. Three years. The leisurely pace of planetary consolidation and technological uplift had to become a frantic, desperate sprint. The "Great External Threat" was no longer a distant justification for his rule; it was an imminent reality.
He looked out over his Imperial City, a sprawling metropolis of ordered streets and stark, functional architecture, a city that pulsed with the power of a world forged in his image. He had made this planet his own. Now, he would make it his shield, and his sword, against the coming storm from the stars. The true test of his Sith power, his Imperial edifice, was about to begin.
(Word Count: Approx. 4400 words)