Storm Kingdom
Storm’s End
18 BAC
The more things change the more they stay the same, Ei thought, as she listened to the stories told by her caretaker.
Seven Kingdoms, for seven kings, each one with different beliefs, mottos and sigils.
The Storm Kingdom was the greatest according to her, but the evidence was to the contrary, as King Argilac, “her father” was having a hard time dealing with both whom he called the “Dornish snakes” and “the fucking reavers”
Uncouth, but then again, it seemed to be the norm in this kingdom, where martial prowess meant more than most things.
Ei would eventually get to learn more about the current situation of this Kingdom, but for now she would just enjoy her new found freedom from the duties of an Archon.
And try not to think about Teyvat, knowing she would drive herself into a depression.
The door was opened while she was musing internally, half listening to Bessie as she continued to tell the tale of Durran Godsgrief.
Her father entered the room, which was a much more common occurrence since the day Ei woke up.
“You are telling her the tale of Durran?” Argilac asked for confirmation, having already heard them through the door.
“Yes, your Grace” Bessie said, her previous energy gone before the King.
“I’ll tell her myself” The Storm King said gruffly, taking hold of Argella and putting her on his broad shoulder.
Ei considered making her refusal known, but the man offered a rather nice vantage point so she stayed herself for now.
The man started talking, telling her the tale of Durran Godsgrief, of how he married Elenei, daughter of the God of Sea and Goddess of Wind. The gods, in their rage, had sent a storm that destroyed the keep Durran built over Shipbreaker’s Bay, while the man had responded by declaring war on the gods.
Brave, but it was obvious that the man in question was lucky that the gods did not just manifest themselves for a battle like she would have done, or his legend would be one of warning against challenging the gods, not bravery and love.
Nonetheless, the tale made her curious. Was the reason she was reborn on this world tied to that legend?
She, the God of Thunder, the Electro Archon, reborn as a mortal into a family claiming to descend from the gods.
Ei focused on “her father”, trying to sense if he had any divine presence, no matter how small after eight thousand years.
Oblivious to this, the Storm King kept telling the tale, mentioning someone called Brandon the Builder, who aided Durran in building his seventh castle.
No matter how hard she tried, she didn’t feel even a sliver of magic resonating from the Storm King.
Perhaps the whole thing was just a story, but she would have to look deeper into it, later.
Soon enough Argilac had deposited Ei back at the nursery, leaving her and the maid alone in the room again.
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Storm’s End
17 BAC
A year had already passed and the only thing Ei could do here was to go and read at the library.
Which meant she had to go and learn how to read and write from Larry, a Maester, a person that was a mix of a teacher for the noble children, a doctor and a personal assistant to the ruler of the castle they were serving.
He had lauded her as a once in a millenia genius, too excited to be disturbed over the fact how mature Argella was and how fast she learned.
Her father had been happy, throwing her up in the air, saying “that’s my daughter!”, laughing heartily all the while.
Which didn’t mean much to Ei, as she was a god and learning to read and write a language was as easy as breathing to her.
Though it wasn’t all smooth sailing, as supporters of her father, mostly people they were related by blood and lords he had grown up with, were saying she was blessed, which made the other faction, those who clamoured to have Argilac remarry, either to one of their own or to a Princess of another kingdom to gain allies, rather displeased.
Ei just shook her head. Some people would always hunger for more power, no matter what.
Her birthday hadn’t been a grand affair. It was an event contained within the Storm’s End, with lords all over the kingdom sending gifts and congratulations. From what she had learned there would be a grand celebration on the day she reached majority with a tourney, but Ei was happy she did not have to spend her time with a birthday party of all things.
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16 BAC
Ei was the one displeased this time.
She had headed out to the training yard to see the martial capabilities of the soldiers of this Kingdom.
She watched for a while, the men were running drills, commanded by the master-at-arms, Rolan Storm, a man with graying hair and a muscled build
He was a harsh man, intolerant of failure, even though they were a necessary part of learning, and drilled the men hard.
Ei had gone to take training sword after a while, though she was stopped by her maid Bessie and a guard, which made her remember the fact she was a child and should be unable to hold a sword.
As such she was indignant when the guard had reasoned “ women can’t carry sword’s Princess, it is a man’s job”
She had considered smiting the man then and there but it was a sunny day with no cloud in sight and a lightning striking the man would be seen as the work of a witch, or something equivalently foolish.
The Electro Archon returned to her room after that, annoyed.
She needed to train to maintain her skills, but going out there and holding a sword no three years old child should be able to, would make people talk.
She wouldn’t be surprised if they accused her from being a witch to a who knows what.
Meaning Ei had to find a discreet way of training.
Her first thought had been the Plain of Euthymia, but there was no Shogun for her to put her consciousness into and making a puppet of her capabilities with the current level of metallurgy this world possessed would take too long.
Thinking of alternatives, Ei considered something else, something Aether had shown her.
His Serenitea Pot, a realm inside a teapot, which had allowed her dear friend to build a home for himself. The problem was it was made with the Adeptus Arts of Liyue and beyond some records she had no information on the said arts.
She would have to start from scratch.
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15 BAC
Ei was diligently working on her own pocket realm and combined with her knowledge of the Plane of Euthymia she had made some headway.
Thankfully she did have a lot of free time, besides her studies with Maester Larry, but those were rather short thanks to her learning speed.
But all was not good with this life of hers. Turns out, holding a sword wasn’t the only thing women weren’t allowed to, but rather one of many on a list too long.
It would be easier to recount what women were allowed and expected to do, coming down to a rather short list of managing a household, giving birth to heirs and pleasing their husbands.
Ei had almost considered going out to beat some sense into the men of this Kingdom, and the rest eventually, but humans were notoriously stubborn and would be resistant to that kind of forced change.
Meaning she would have to employ other means to change this society for the better.
Why couldn’t the Storm Kingdom be more like Dorne? For all they claimed the Dornish were untrustworthy, they at least weren’t misogynists.
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One problem Ei faced was paper and writing utensils of all things.
The paper she had requested was rough and coarse and her writing utensils?
Just a quil.
Not even a brush.
Meaning Ei was unable to write down her ideas for reviewing or drawing when she ran out of paper or her quill broke, costing her valuable time.
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14 BAC
Ei had done it. She had created a realm, similar to the Teapot, though she opted to use a painting, as nothing else felt quite right.
Rather than have several islands like Aether’s teapot did, her realm had a single large island covered with a flat grassland with a starry night sky and a fullmoon, named the Painted Realm.
The greatest difficulty Ei faced was the materials.
She had used ink infused with a sliver of her divine power while painting the island, but had an extremely hard time finding anything magical enough to stand her powers.
Commonly used paper was out of question as the ink would just burn it. Ei searched out a magical alternative to this, which led her to discover magic in this world was lacking, contrary to how many women seemed to have been accused of witch’s craft. But in the end, weirwood trees seemed to be the best, and probably the only option she had, so she went to the godswood in the Storm’s End.
In hindsight, she should have done it earlier.
The trees with ashen bark and blood red leaves standing there watched her, as she had watched them. She touched the one in the center, with the solemn face and found herself in a void of smoky darkness.
“You are a god of nature, yet not one of us” the voices spoke, sounding like the rustling leaves of a thousand trees.
“I am Raiden Ei, the God of Thunder and Eternity, the Electro Archon. I greet you in the name of peace” she had responded. She didn’t want an unnecessary fight after all.
“We shall see” the voices responded, before she found herself in front of the tree again.
If they weren’t ready to speak she wouldn’t force them.
But Ei made sure to be gentle while cutting pieces off the weirwood tree.
She turned the weirwood branches into paper, and it resulted in an ashen white sheet with red lines like that of veins spread all over it.
It lasted a week before the paper went up in flames, her elemental energy eventually igniting it and turning a weeks worth of painting, ink and effort to ashes.
Paper from Weirwood trees had at least proven to be capable of containing her powers, even if it was for a while, which gave Ei an idea.
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Taking a sapling from the Weirwood tree she visited last time, Ei began the long process of infusing it with Electro, starting with small amounts and increase it over time as the tree grew.
Due to her divine energy, the tree grew rapidly, standing larger than it’s brethren in the Godswood, two months after Ei had planted it.
When she was done, the ashen white bark of the tree had turned to a deep bluish purple, and the blood red leaves were light purple, crackling with Electro energy.
Interestingly enough, the face that had appeared on the tree was hers, though that didn’t stop Ei from harvesting the tree as she needed it.
The rest was simply a matter of space manipulation.
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Ei couldn’t help the smile that blossomed when she entered the Painted Realm for the first time.
Now, she had a place to do as she wished without people telling her what she could and couldn’t do.
Her first order of business was solving the paper issue, by designing and building a paper making machine.
As she did not have a forge yet, Ei used wood, only using iron and steel for the most critical parts.
Naturally, it was a success, but perhaps a too great one, because she now had several really tall stacks of excess paper that she had no idea what to do with.
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Ei had no idea selling paper would bring that much silver into her pockets, but at least she could use it to buy the necessary materials to build a forge instead of having to explain to her father why she needed it in the first place.
Future visits to Weeping Town was in order.
