One of The best Asoiaf fics in my opinion especially when it comes to delving into magic
Words: 169k+
Link: https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/19721
Chapter 1
A pin.
All my fate was hanging on the balance of a pin that was meant to fasten a cloak.
It was a pin made of dragon bone, two pieces, one shaped like a three-headed dragon and the other long and thin. Ironically, the dragon was black as midnight instead of the red it ought to be but the pin itself was the most valuable thing that I owned, far more than any treasures that we could sneak away with from Dragonstone, for with it, I held hope.
It was already too late to take anything else before my exile. I had found myself in this body the night my mother died, the night I was forced into exile along with my baby sister. For all there was, it was too late when I found myself in the body of Viserys Targaryen, Third of His Name, in a World of Ice and Fire where death was so cheap.
That being said, finding myself living the life of Viserys Targaryen was… what led me to decide to use anything I could use, which included more… esoteric options.
I was not the Viserys the First, whose life could be summed up as him being too stubborn for his good. He had declared that his daughter, Rhaenyra would be his heir to the Throne, leading to the worst bloodbath in the history of Westeros that culminated in the extinction of Dragons. All that idiot had to do was marry the Velaryon girl, wed his daughter to the Valeryon boy and maybe have Daemon burn Oldtown on the way to a peaceful and united realm…. the idiot. No, I was not Viserys the First, who inherited the most peaceful kingdom in existence from his grandfather. Comparatively, Viserys the First played the Game on Easy Mode.
I was not Viserys the Second, son of Rhaenyra and Daemon Targaryen, either. That would have been an interesting experience at the least. The Prince who was raised in Lys under the equivalent of House Medici was… without a doubt, the most competent ruler that Westeros had ever seen. Sure, he was a shitty father and his rule lasted for around a year, possibly poisoned by his shitty heir, but he ruled for decades as the Hand of the King, first to his brother than his two diametrically opposite nephews. What was that saying again, "Aegon brooded, Daeron warred, Baelon prayed and Viserys was the one who ruled." The man had single highhandedly held together the Targaryen Dynasty after the Dance of the Dragons when the fools killed off all the dragons that remained from Old Valyria. As an administrator, Viserys II was great, though he was succeeded by Aegon the Unworthy, who had in turn undone the whole stability by causing the Blackfyre Rebellions, but, he was not a horrible option. If the First one played it on Easy, Viserys the Second played the mode on Medium Difficulty.
No… I was neither of those rather nice and comfortable options. I was born as Viserys, the son of Aerys and Rhaella. I was reborn as the soon-to-be Prince-in-Exile, the Beggar King… Viserys the Third… if I lived long enough. A child who lost everything and sold his own sister to what was essentially slavery because he did not have anyone he could trust who could call him out on his foolish decisions. The man who had been crowned by molten gold in the middle of nowhere, never to return to the place he considered home.
As my fate was rather unfortunate, so I had to use any tool that I had access to, including my knowledge of the more obscure side of this world, and my meta-knowledge of thousand other works of fiction… in hopes that George was inspired by some other works in some ways at the least.
The idea I had was a stupid one for all manner of reasons. It was an idea that simply did not even belong to the book series about this world. It was stupid but that did not mean that I would not try it out as every instinct in my body was screaming for me to do it instead.
Given that Daenerys had hatched dragons based on a similar gut feeling, I decided to follow it as well.
So I was, watching the hearth crackle as I held this pin of dragon bone that may have been worth more than the entire treasury of my mad father's, let alone the measly sum we were able to sneak away to Braavos.
The pin was made of Dragon Bone, long and narrow, nearly ten inches and shone as though it was a black diamond. The Maesters thought that the bone had a high iron content which gave its black color. It was possible I supposed, though why it would not rust was a question I could always ask. It was much more likely to be some sort of carbon-based material that was better as a bone than calcium-based ones that belonged to humans, or it could also be that it was magic in the bone that gave it the color and superior properties.
I did not have access to all that knowledge about Magic and the properties of Dragonbone. I knew that Septon Barth had written a book on dragons, yet I had not read it and it was stuck somewhere in the Red Keep of King's Landing, where Robert Baratheon now ruled, possibly popping a stiff one every time he thought of my sister's and mine corpse.
There were still facts that I knew. By weight, dragon bone was lighter and stronger than even steel, though it was best suited to be made into bows. I did not know if anyone thought to make swords out of the material but I knew that Valyrian Steel itself did not contain Dragon Bone, as I recalled George once mentioned. The bows made of Dragon Bone somehow out-ranged any other bow, even Weirwood bows of Westeros and Goldenheart bows of the Summer Isles… which made no sense in any way or form.
The main problem was the fact that dragon bones ranged at five hundred yards at maximum, while yew longbows of the same shape and draw strength ranged at three hundred based on everything I was able to find out. For all the mechanics of how bows worked, dragon-bone bow had nearly twice the range of normal bows of this world and even out-ranged the modern compound bows of my old world, which I could not explain through laws of Physics.
The only factor that was not accounted for in such an experiment however was the nature of dragon bone… the fact that it was Magic in some way or form. Dragons themselves were by design, too heavy to fly, yet they did. No creature could swallow a mammoth whole and be able to fly without having jet engines mounted to their backsides. Similarly, given that the all physical properties of the two bows were the same, any difference could be attributed to a factor not accounted for by all the laws of physics.
In conclusion, dragon bone had Magic and it was from a Magical Creature.
The next material that I sought out was relatively easy to acquire and one that I was certain had magic as well. While getting access to Weirwood was… rather hard, it was not as impossible as Dragon Bone, nor as expensive. The problem came from the fact that accessing Weirwood in Essos was nearly impossible, though one could get a few smaller pieces that were already formed into an object, such as a box or trinket.
A sliver of Weirwood however was enough to grow more of the material to those who understood the nature of the material.
A proper soil, enough bonemeal to provide sustenance and blood proved to be the key. It was pig's blood that I was able to acquire, as the servants were working to make blood sausages.
A few months of regular supply of blood and bone and the Weirwood had grown to an acceptable size, proving to me that Weirwood Sap was blood for all purposes.
What I really cared about the Weirwood was that it was a Magical Wood. Sure, it also somehow created a pathway to Greensight and it was a potential that I would need to explore, but for now, what I truly wanted was the wood itself.
Weirwood was a hard wood to work with and it was almost impossible to insert the dragon bone into it. A bit of trickery and I was able to instead have the Weirwood grow around the dragonbone instead, the long and thin pin becoming the Core to the Wand of Weirwood.
The mechanics of the process were from the world of Harry Potter, but George had once said that there was no Hogwarts in this world to teach magic, which did hint at a possible connection in terms of Magic. It did not mean that I could not take inspiration from the world of Harry Potter.
In Harry Potter, stronger wands contained cores of Phoenix Feather, Dragon Heartstring and Unicorn Tail-hair except for the Elder Wand, which used Thestral Hair instead. I did not know if Phoenixes existed in this world, Dragon Heartstring required fresh dragons and if I had a fresh dragon, I was going to ride it instead while Unicorns in this world were closer to Rhinos than silvery horses so, that was not really an option at the moment. That being said, there were other alternative sources of Magical Creature parts. Less powerful wands but wands all the same. One of the unique wands that I could recall was Basilisk Horn made the Core of Salazar Slytherin's wand. By all logic, horn a core would work, so it could in theory mean that bone could be used as a core as well.
So I had fed the wood my blood in hopes of binding it to myself. Valyrian Magic was based on "Fire and Blood" and Blood Magic itself was something that I knew to exist in some way or form in this world. It had taken a while for me to realize that I could feel something from the Weirwood itself… a connection that was formed as I fed it my blood. The connection was enough to convince me that this method may work in some way and if it failed, I would still have gained some sort of Greensight from the way I could feel the Weirwood at the back of my mind.
The last step had been to remove it from the pot and shape the roots and branches into a handle, but before I could start carving, the wood itself somehow started moving, not unlike a sunflower, the roots twisting around the trunk, braiding itself into a handle, while the small branches pressing themselves into the dragon bone that was left pointing at the end.
"No Magic left my albino arse." I muttered with amusement, as I watched the wood morph as though it was liquid, becoming an elegant and uniform wand before my very eyes.
So I created a wand, Weirwood, fifteen inches, the handle as wide as a dagger's handle tapering into a fine pointy end. The white wood clashed with the black tip of dragon bone that was sticking out from the last half inch. It was closer to a dagger than a wand for all intents, but that was fine by me.
When I waved the wand, a warm breeze filled the room I was in, and it smelled of Spring. I could not contain the grin that started to stretch over my face.
AN: Not sure about it but, I have been toying with the idea of how closely Harry Potter and A Song of Ice and Fire Magic Systems would be connected and if wands could be used in the World of Ice and Fire. I wanted some Self Insert that explored Magic in this world at a rate that was much more comprehensive and I have been playing around with ideas for a while. Feel free to post any suggestions.