Chapter 110: Death is the Only Miracle
"Huh?" Ian was somewhat confused when he saw the final note. "That doesn't make sense. Doesn't the world of A Song of Ice and Fire have true gods? Why can we learn magic from different religions?"
Annie didn't answer this question; perhaps in her AI logic, this question was irrelevant to the game mechanics.
After thinking for a moment, Ian rephrased his question.
"Can players learn magic from different religions through system items because the system's power neutralizes the conflicts between these magical traditions?"
"No," Annie answered this time.
"No?" Ian frowned. "So, does this world actually have a true god?"
"The influence of divine forces will be reflected throughout this world, but they will never directly participate in mortal conflicts. As for whether gods actually exist—that remains unknown."
"You're a system AI! How can you not know? Wait a moment." Ian suddenly realized that Annie's explanation sounded remarkably similar to something the original author George R.R. Martin had said! In an interview, when the host asked Martin if gods existed in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, Martin had replied that he didn't know either. So...
Ian fell into deep thought.
Although Annie hadn't given a definitive answer, instead quoting the original author to sidestep the question, the facts that "players can learn magic from different religions simultaneously" and "it's not the system's power neutralizing conflicts between different magical traditions" strongly suggested that true gods most likely didn't exist.
Those called "gods" were merely the wielders or most powerful practitioners of these forces, not their creators.
Then Ian recalled a Braavosi saying: "Valar morghulis, valar dohaeris—all men must die, all men must serve. Death is the only certainty."
He'd once thought this was merely a phrase the Braavosi used to diminish other gods, since they primarily worshipped the Many-Faced God, who embodied death itself.
But from another perspective, could this mean the Braavosi who spoke these words had discovered something profound?
Braavos was a city founded by slaves who'd escaped from Valyria. These escaped slaves came from countless different lands and held myriad beliefs.
Among them were Andals, Summer Islanders, Ghiscari, Naathi, Ibbenese, Sarnori, and even indentured or criminal Valyrians themselves.
Nearly every faith in the known world had converged in Braavos, and the Braavosi built temples for almost every god imaginable.
So who in the world was more qualified than the people of Braavos to judge these so-called gods?
If the people of Braavos attributed all miracles save death to mere sorcery, did that mean all the gods of this world of ice and fire were simply mortals wielding powerful magic—or what might be called... false gods?
Considering this, Ian suddenly understood many things, such as the destruction of the Great Empire of the Dawn and the Valyrian Freehold.
These two civilizations shared remarkably similar fates: both were invincible at their zenith, receiving tribute from all nations, and then inexplicably perished due to cataclysmic disasters.
It was as if the gods feared humanity's greatness and therefore destroyed it.
If the gods were true gods, why would they fear the magnificent civilizations created by mortals?
But if they were false gods, everything made sense.
With this realization, Ian breathed a sigh of relief.
Even though those beings were false gods, possessing power enough to annihilate the Great Empire of the Dawn or the Valyrian Freehold, they were essentially no different from true gods to Ian in his current state.
But Ian couldn't possibly confront them now.
As long as they weren't true gods, Ian wouldn't have to worry about being spiritually bound to the 'deity' of whichever magical tradition he learned—which was definitely an enormous advantage.
Without further hesitation, Ian began examining the magical options provided by the scroll.
First was the Old Gods system. Two selection boxes appeared on the interface:
[Skinchanger: Gain the ability to enter the consciousness of animals or other people and control their actions]
[Greenseer: Gain the greensight (prophetic dreams), enter weirwood trees and gain their vision, and the ability to perceive the past; requires Master-level Skinchanging ability; currently unavailable]
Only one in a thousand people could become a skinchanger, and only one in a thousand skinchangers could become a greenseer. That becoming a "greenseer" through the scroll required maxing out the skinchanger ability as a prerequisite made perfect sense.
In Illyrio's manse—this gilded cage—if he could slip into the skin of mice, cats, or birds, he could definitely gather considerable useful intelligence.
Ian had already decided to use one of the scrolls on [Skinchanger], but he still clicked back to the previous menu.
Since using the scroll allowed him to view all the options, he might as well examine them thoroughly.
The second was the magic of the Faith of the Seven system.
Excuse me?
Had he read that correctly? The Faith of the Seven system had magic?
Even when Ian was most convinced that the gods of the Ice and Fire world were real deities, he'd known the Andal Faith of the Seven consisted of complete false gods—or perhaps not even false gods at all. They were simply constructs created by mortals to maintain social order.
After all, this religion, despite existing in a fantasy world, had never performed a single miracle (not even a fraudulent one).
They claimed their ironworking techniques had been taught to them in a vision by the 'Smith' from the Seven, which sounded absurd. After all, while the Yi Tish of the far East had been using techniques like pattern welding and crucible steel for millennia, the Andals were still using bloomery iron. If the 'Smith' were truly a god, there was no reason his metallurgical knowledge should be inferior to mortals.
Sure enough, when Ian selected the Faith of the Seven system, the pop-up selection box displayed this:
[Scriptures of the Seven and the Art of Persuasion: By upgrading this skill, you can gradually acquire all the holy texts, doctrinal interpretations, missionary journals, and private records of the Faith of the Seven's most successful septons]
The art of becoming a religious charlatan? He called this magic?
But this ability sounded oddly useful, Ian thought with some amusement.
The next system, the Drowned God, wouldn't open, though Ian wasn't particularly interested anyway.
The Drowned God of the Ironborn was believed to be connected to a marine species known as the 'Deep Ones,' creatures that had indeed experienced a period of prominence in ancient times, but were now... inconsequential.
Then there was R'hllor, the Lord of Light—arguably the most demonstrably powerful god in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire.
His red priestess Melisandre had used shadow binding to assassinate Renly and cursed three 'false kings' with blood magic (and resurrected Jon Snow in the show).
His red priest Thoros of Myr had resurrected Beric Dondarrion, the leader of the Brotherhood Without Banners, multiple times through prayer, and had ultimately resurrected Catelyn Stark—the vengeful "Lady Stoneheart"—who'd died at the Red Wedding.
(End of Chapter)
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