Westeros, 280 years after the Conquest of Ying, Storm's End, seat of House Baratheon.
Seventeen-year-old Stannis Baratheon sat upon the high seat in the hall of Storm's End. He had neatly trimmed black hair and broad shoulders, his physique was robust. When he wasn't speaking, his face was set in a tight, unreadable mask, devoid of any expression.
He listened as his subordinates and the Stormlands' councilors discussed the details of the upcoming Storm's End tourney. He spoke little, only interjecting to make decisions during the crucial points of the discussion, and he never conceded.
Earlier, a guard had reported that his youngest brother, Wyatt Baratheon, had fallen ill again from eating something unsavory, vomiting and suffering from diarrhea. Maester Cressen, returning to the hall with a benevolent smile, announced:
"He's fine now. He vomited quite a bit, but he should be fine after eating a proper dinner."
Stannis simply nodded at the maester and continued to listen to the discussion, and no one could discern his thoughts from his wooden expression.
His mother, Cassana Estermont, had been sent with his father, Steffon Baratheon, to find a bride for Prince Rhaegar Targaryen shortly after giving birth to twin boys in 278.
The Targaryen royal family had always practiced incest to maintain the purity of their Valyrian bloodline. However, from the time of his birth until his coming of age at sixteen, Prince Rhaegar had no suitable blood relatives. Aerys II Targaryen, the Mad King, could only send emissaries to Essos to find a woman, as there were still many Valyrian descendants with silver-gold hair and violet eyes there.
The fleet sank in a storm on its return journey. News of the Duke and Duchess's demise only reached them when a passing merchant ship rescued a jester clinging to a piece of wood at sea.
Robert Baratheon, the eldest son of the Baratheon family, was adopted by Duke Jon Arryn of the Eyrie when he was a child. He inherited his father's title as Lord of Storm's End and his lands at the age of sixteen, and is now eighteen years old. He's spent the last few years traveling around, participating in tournaments.
Jon Arryn's first wife died in childbirth, and the baby girl was stillborn. His second wife died of illness, and he still had no children. Eddard was the second in line for the Arryn inheritance. Robert's parents were also at sea for a long time, so he adopted Robert Baratheon of Storm's End and Eddard Stark of Winterfell.
After Robert left, he entrusted the Stormlands and the family castle, Storm's End, to his seventeen-year-old younger brother, Stannis Baratheon, as acting castellan. Stannis was also tasked with looking after the two youngest twin brothers in the family, Renly Baratheon and Wyatt Baratheon.
The eldest brother, Robert Baratheon, is currently eighteen years old.
The second brother, Stannis Baratheon, is seventeen.
The third brother, Renly Baratheon, is two and a half years old, the elder of the twins.
The fourth brother, Wyatt Baratheon, is two and a half years old, the younger of the twins.
This is Westeros, one of the original Seven Kingdoms, now the domain of the Lord of Stormlands, the lord of Storm's End, and the four male members of House Baratheon. As for the fourth, who wasn't supposed to exist, he's currently lying in his bed staring at the ceiling after being cleaned by the maid.
House Baratheon now has an extra member, someone who wasn't originally there, and he's Renly's twin brother. There's no need to worry about his future physique or appearance; he has black eyes and black hair.
As a twenty-something-year-old soul, vomiting in front of everyone was incredibly embarrassing. In the future, whenever anyone brings this up, he'll just have to act like a clueless child and play dumb.
Wyatt rolled over in bed and continued to stare blankly.
He was originally a regular young man from the 21st century, went through nine years of compulsory education, went to university, had relationships, worked, and took out a mortgage to buy a house and a car. He didn't want to transmigrate!
He saw the promotional video for The Elder Scrolls VI online, but after waiting year after year, there was nothing. Even if he typed twenty-something letters every day for four years, the file would be several hundred KB, but he was afraid it was still just a new folder.
One day, he talked to a colleague about it, and the colleague said he was also playing The Elder Scrolls V. He had 160GB of MODs all packed up, it was definitely fun, and he'd send it over the internet.
Thinking of revisiting the classics, and as someone who never used MODs or cheats and only played the original games, remembering the crooked smile on his colleague's face when he sent the internet link, he still gritted his teeth and installed it, preparing to learn.
The cloud save was still there. Choosing the old character I'd created, I felt my soul leave my body the moment the game loaded. Then, I was flying through a tunnel filled with light. The concept of time became blurry until, at the end of the tunnel, everything went black, and I was reborn as a baby.
A few days later, I opened my eyes and saw the furniture in the room and various people with different hair colors dressed in medieval clothing, bustling about. I couldn't understand their language, and I thought I had been transported to ancient Europe. I spent my days pondering whether to conquer the Americas or upgrade my technology and become a wealthy old man.
I ate, drank, relieved myself, and slept. By the time I was one year old, I could walk and talk. Then I discovered that the language spoken here was the Common Tongue. I lived in a castle called Storm's End. The older brother I had seen a few times was the master of the place, Robert Baratheon. My second brother, Stannis Baratheon, always had a stern face. Sleeping in the small bed next to me was my twin brother, Renly Baratheon. That's when I realized I had transmigrated into the world of Game of Thrones and not ancient Europe. And my name was Wyatt Baratheon, someone who didn't exist in this world originally.
Although this world was low-magic, it was truly high-risk. Although knights were overflowing with honor, many people didn't care about martial ethics and specialized in poisoning and sneak attacks.
I had watched the Game of Thrones television series before. The Baratheon family was a textbook example of inviting disaster. One of the seven great houses even produced a king, but later, they all died, leaving only a bastard.
It was incredibly dangerous! I calculated my birthday. I was born in 278 AC, the same year as Renly. My eldest brother, Robert, died in 298 AC at the age of 36. My third brother, Renly, died in 299 AC at the age of 21. My second brother died outside Winterfell in the North; the exact year was unknown. So, I might only have about twenty more years to live. I had to flap my butterfly wings!
Then, like other transmigrators before me, I tried various methods to find my golden finger. A month later, while the maid was holding me and looking at the stars, my golden finger finally activated: the Skyrim system.
However, the Skyrim world and the Westeros world had merged into one. The system now only had skills, magic, and dragon shouts; all the items from the game were gone. The two worldviews clashed with their respective rules, and the game system was somewhat incomplete. But being born into a noble family with black eyes and black hair, and still having half a system, was already a golden start. Thinking about the older generation of transmigrators who only had a pair of pants and had to eat sweet potatoes to survive, I should be content.
Time shifted back to the present. After shakily getting out of bed and eating dinner, Wyatt had his new handmaidens escort him to the top of the castle tower, claiming he wanted to look at the stars. After the afternoon's events, the previous handmaidens were punished, and now the new ones were utterly devoted to guarding him.
Storm's End was built on a cliff's edge. The main structure was a colossal, circular tower, its towering height visible from miles away, seeming to pierce the sky. It housed a library, granaries, barracks, armories, a banquet hall, and numerous rooms for the lord's retinue. There was even a special room on the top floor for raising ravens. In times of war, the tower could temporarily accommodate thousands of people. However, the side facing the sea had no windows.
Outside the tower was a massive wall. The wall was exceptionally tall and smooth, thick enough to accommodate four horse-drawn carriages side-by-side. The area between the wall and the tower contained stables, kitchens, blacksmiths, training grounds, and gardens. There was also a secret passage leading to the sea below. Storm's End was arguably one of the Seven Kingdoms' most impregnable strongholds, short of a fully grown dragon's attack.
Wyatt arrived at the castle's rooftop as the sun began to set. Looking down from the battlements, he saw the castle's lands. A grand road led away from the castle gates. Near the castle were various stone-built workshops, residences, inns, brothels, restaurants, and shops. In the distance, around an open space, carriages were transporting construction materials. Workers were preparing to build a jousting arena and various grandstands. The Storm's End tournament, organized by the dukes of the Seven Kingdoms, would be a grand affair, so preparations began early.
The sky gradually darkened, and lights flickered on in the outer residential areas. For Wyatt, who had seen the prosperity of the 21st century, it was only comparable to a small town of the future.
One side of the castle overlooked the sea, called Shipbreaker Bay. Stormlands, Shipbreaker Bay – the name suggested many ships had met their end there. But today, the sea was calm, and the weather was good, allowing for stargazing. The handmaidens spread a blanket on the ground, letting the young boy lie down to watch the stars.
Lying on the blanket, gazing at the starry sky, even though it was an incomplete system, the benefits were clear: he could always feel his life force, his physical strength, and he was aware of the presence of magic and his ability to perceive it.
The system still gained experience the same way as in the Elder Scrolls games, by practicing each skill to increase it. Every three skill level-ups granted a free point, which could add 10 points to an attribute or be used to increase a skill level again.
When he channeled his magic, there wasn't the grand, starry sky interface of the Elder Scrolls V game's skill point system in his mind. There were no red, green, or blue bars, no experience bars, just a few dry lines of text.
Name: Wyatt Baratheon
Age: 2 years, 4 months
Attributes (Average for adults is 100): Health 50, Magicka 100, Stamina 50.
Physical Skills (Max level 100): One-Handed Weapons 5, Two-Handed Weapons 5, Block 5, Archery 5, Light Armor 5, Heavy Armor 0.
Magic Skills: Destruction 0, Restoration 0, Alteration 0, Conjuration 0, Illusion 0, Alchemy 4, Enchanting 0.
Lifestyle: Speechcraft 15, Lockpicking 5, Pickpocket 5, Sneak 5, Smithing 5.
Free Points: 19
Talents: Dragonborn, Broken Item Space, Magic Affinity.
~~~~~
The tourney at Storm's End was originally held in 277 to celebrate Robert's sixteenth nameday. Here, it is set in 280.