Book VIII: The Song of Fire and Storm

 

Chapter One – The Rise of Khal Jhago

Far across the grass oceans of Essos, a new threat stirred. The scattered khalasars of the Dothraki, once fractured into endless feuds, now rode under one banner: that of Khal Jhago, the Stallion Who Mounts the World reborn.

His strength was not only in his sheer numbers—though his horde was said to number in the hundreds of thousands—but in his cunning. Unlike other khals, Jhago had no interest in raiding only; he sought to conquer and rule, binding the khalasars with blood oaths and the promise of plunder.

Word reached Rygoros of burning cities at the edges of the Dothraki Sea. Envoys spoke of walls pulled down, caravans slaughtered, and Essos trembling beneath hooves.

For the first time since the Long Night, the Empire faced a mortal enemy not of ice, but of flesh and fire.

Chapter Two – The Call to Arms

In the Imperial Throne Hall of Rygoros, Emperor Richard Baratheon summoned the Imperial Council.

  • Prince Aegon Targaryen, Grand Governor of the Eastern Realm, warned of the threat spreading too swiftly for local forces to contain.

  • Prince Randall Baratheon, Lord Chancellor, argued that diplomacy was useless—Jhago would bow only to the sword.

  • Princess Rosalia Baratheon, co-commander of the Order of the Golden Sun, demanded the chance to lead the armies eastward.

  • Duke Eddard Stark, Governor of Starkland, counseled caution, reminding all that the Empire must not be left undefended.

Richard listened, then rose, his violet eyes blazing.

“The White Walkers tested our night. Now the Dothraki test our day. We will not falter. The Empire will meet them—not as scattered kingdoms, but as one.”

The order was given: the Order of the Golden Sun would march east. Dragons and wyrms would fly again, not against the dead, but against the greatest horde of men ever seen.

Chapter Three – Storm and Fire Unleashed

The armies gathered like thunderclouds. Half a million soldiers clad in golden armor marched across the Narrow Sea, war elephants shaking the ground, engines of war creaking with deadly promise.

Above them soared dragons: Caesarion, Drogon, Rhaenyr, and others. At their side writhed the firewyrm Verman, tamed by Richard in the flames of Valyria, a living mountain of fire.

On the grassy plains, the Dothraki rode to meet them. Wave after wave of horsemen darkened the horizon, the air filled with the pounding of hooves and the screams of war. At their head rode Khal Jhago, a giant of a man, his braid trailing to his knees, his eyes burning with the fire of destiny.

It was the beginning of the War of the Dothraki Sea—the last great test of Richard’s reign, where the fire of the Empire would clash with the storm of the horse lords.

Chapter Four – The Broken Sea of Grass

The Empire’s Swift Victory

The clash that had promised to be long and bloody proved shockingly brief. The Order of the Golden Sun, disciplined and armed with Valyrian steel, smashed into the Dothraki hordes with terrifying precision. Dragons darkened the sky, unleashing firestorms upon the horse-lords, while the firewyrm Verman tore open their lines in a fury of flame and smoke.

The Dothraki, who had for centuries broken cities with their sheer speed and ferocity, found themselves broken in turn. The Empire’s cavalry matched their swiftness, its elephants trampled their charges, and its engines of war rained fire and stone. Within weeks, the great horde of Khal Jhago was shattered, its warriors scattered across the endless plains.

The war that might have consumed years ended in a season.

The Division of the Dothraki Sea

The vast grasslands were divided in the aftermath.

  • The Western Half fell under the direct rule of the Empire. Here, Richard decreed the establishment of four new provinces:

    • Province of Sarnor, named for the ancient kingdom destroyed centuries before by the Dothraki.

    • Province of Easterland, mirroring the Westerlands across the Narrow Sea.

    • Province of Duncania, named in honor of Richard’s late father, Lord Duncan Baratheon.

    • Province of Essaria, a reborn city-state that once stood as the Tenth Free City before the Dothraki’s ruin.

  • The Eastern Half of the Dothraki Sea remained under Dothraki hands, but under military occupation by the Order of the Golden Sun. No khal could ride without Imperial sanction, and the proud horse-lords who had once enslaved others were themselves reduced to slavery.

The Enslavement of the Dothraki

It was a cruel irony that the riders who had long pillaged and enslaved others now bore chains themselves. Emperor Richard decreed that the Dothraki would labour to restore what they had destroyed. They rebuilt the cities of Sarnor brick by brick, raised the fallen towers of Essaria, and were set to work constructing a vast fortification:

  • The Wall of the Great Grassland, a monumental barrier designed to mark the western border of the Dothraki Sea and protect the Empire’s new provinces from further raids. Built of stone, fire, and sweat, it rose mile after mile across the open steppe, its foundations laid by the very horse-lords who had once brought terror to Essos.

The Rise of New Provinces

Under Imperial rule, the grasslands bloomed anew. Traders from Westeros and Braavos opened routes through the rebuilt cities, the Sarnori bloodlines scattered by conquest returned to reclaim their homes, and Essaria once again stood proud under the Empire’s banner.

The golden sun banners flew where once only khalasars had ridden, and the people of Essos spoke in awe of the speed and ruthlessness with which the Empire had turned the tide.

The Ignored Threat

Yet beyond the Dothraki Sea, another power stirred. The cities of Yunkai, Astapor, and Meereen, bound together as the Empire of New Ghis, railed against the Baratheon dominion. They declared Richard’s conquest an abomination and promised to resist the West’s advance.

But in Rygoros, Richard dismissed them.
“Let them bluster,” he told his council. “They are no threat to us. Our banners fly over the heart of the grasslands, and no wall of slaves will withstand the storm.”

And so, the Empire looked away from Slaver’s Bay, its eyes fixed instead on securing its new dominions.

Chapter Five – The Last Reign of the Storm Dragon

Consolidation of the New Provinces

The four provinces carved from the grasslands—Sarnor, Easterland, Duncania, and Essaria—did not merely exist on parchment. Emperor Richard ensured their firm integration into the Imperial structure:

  • Governors were appointed from both Westeros and Essos, chosen for loyalty to the Crown rather than birthright. These governors were bound to the Imperial Council in Rygoros, giving the new lands representation equal to the ancient provinces.

  • The Wall of the Great Grassland rose higher each year, a symbol not only of defence but of Imperial permanence. Dothraki slaves laboured under the watchful eyes of the Order of the Golden Sun, while Imperial architects restored ruined cities into thriving hubs of trade.

  • Essaria, once a ruin, gleamed again with marble walls and bustling markets, a jewel of Imperial vision.

  • Sarnor, long a graveyard of kingdoms, now blossomed with returning descendants and settlers from Westeros, who intermarried and rebuilt under the Empire’s laws.

By the time Richard’s armies withdrew their banners from the grasslands, the people there no longer looked to khals or horse-lords for leadership—they looked to the Golden Sun of the Emperor.

The Twilight of the Storm Dragon

Decades passed. The conquests slowed. The Empire of Westeros and Western Essos reached its greatest extent, unchallenged and prosperous.

Emperor Richard Baratheon reigned for sixty years, the longest in Westerosi history, surpassing even the Old King Jaehaerys Targaryen. His violet eyes and long black hair, once a storm’s fire, turned to silver streaked with white, but his presence never dimmed. To his people, he was still the Storm Dragon, the man who united kingdoms, broke the Dothraki, and cast down the Night King.

At his side, until the very end, stood Empress Daenerys Targaryen, the Silver Queen, Mother of Dragons, and beloved Empress of the realm.

The Legacy of Empress Daenerys

Daenerys’s reign as Empress was as transformative as Richard’s wars. While Richard expanded the Empire, Daenerys healed it.

  • She was the voice of mercy on the Golden Throne, tempering Richard’s fiery judgments with compassion. It was she who secured laws that freed countless children from slavery, rebuilt ruined villages, and extended Imperial protection to the poorest of subjects.

  • As the Mother of Dragons, she maintained the dragons’ place not as instruments of terror, but as guardians of the realm, soaring over provinces to remind all of Imperial unity.

  • She was revered across the Empire not only as the wife of the Emperor, but as the “Empress of the People.”

When Richard passed, she was elevated to Empress Dowager, still seated in the councils of Rygoros. Her wisdom guided their son Daemon Baratheon, the Crown Prince now crowned as the Second Emperor of Westeros. Daemon listened often to his mother’s counsel, for though the storm of conquest had passed, the Empire required the steady flame of governance.

In her final years, Daenerys lived to see her children grown, her grandchildren born, and her legacy endure. When she died, it was not in exile or alone, but surrounded by her blood, beloved by her people, and remembered as the Eternal Mother of the Empire.

The Passing of Richard Baratheon

At last, after sixty years upon the Golden Throne, Emperor Richard passed peacefully in his sleep, with Daenerys and their children by his side. His reign had begun in fire and war, yet ended in peace and triumph. Across Westeros and Essos, bells tolled, banners dipped, and even the Free Folk lit pyres to honour the man who had once united them against death itself.

The chronicles would name him Richard I Baratheon, the Storm Dragon, the First Emperor of Westeros, whose reign reshaped two continents.

A Dynasty Eternal

  • The Golden Throne passed to Daemon Baratheon, eldest son of Richard and Daenerys, who became the Second Emperor of Westeros.

  • The Empress Dowager Daenerys continued to advise him until her own passing, leaving behind a legacy of compassion, justice, and unity that became the soul of the Empire.

Thus ended the tale of fire and storm, not in ruin as with so many dynasties before, but in a legacy of strength, mercy, and enduring peace.

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