Chapter 30: The Shadow Grows in Peace, The Seeds of Future War
The years following the Greyjoy Rebellion settled into a semblance of peace across the Seven Kingdoms, a period King Robert Baratheon filled with hunts, feasts, and the steady accumulation of royal debt. For Darth Vorhax, Lord of Stonefang, Crow's Nest, and the Ironborn isle of Old Wyk, this "King's Peace" was merely a strategic interlude, a valuable span of time to consolidate his gains, expand his power base, and meticulously prepare for the greater, foreseen conflagrations that would inevitably follow. By the year 297 AC, nearly fifteen years into his rule, the domains under the shadow of the Hawk were a testament to his inhuman will and terrifying efficiency.
Old Wyk, once a rugged bastion of the Drowned God, was being systematically transformed. Vorhax had crushed the initial, desperate resistance of surviving Drowned Men with swift, brutal force, making chilling examples of their priests. A new, starkly functional fortress, built of black Stonefang iron and local stone, rose from the ruins of Castle Drumm, commanding the island's best harbor. This fortress, named 'Ironscar Hold' by Vorhax, served as his western naval base, garrisoned by a grim rotation of Obsidian Guard and "reconditioned" Ironborn who had chosen service over extinction. The island's meager resources were exploited with ruthless efficiency – fishing fleets were organized under Vorant overseers, seaweed farms were established for alchemical reagents Vorhax experimented with, and any hidden coves that could shelter pirates were either sealed or turned into hidden supply caches for his own fleet. Red Rain, the Valyrian steel sword taken from House Drumm, rarely left Vorhax's side when he visited, its crimson ripples a constant reminder to the sullen populace of the price of defiance.
Stonefang remained the industrial heart of his empire, its forges now producing steel of unparalleled quality in vast quantities. Vorhax had introduced more advanced metallurgical techniques, learned from ancient Sith texts and adapted to this world's resources, resulting in alloys that were lighter, stronger, and capable of holding an edge far beyond even his earlier "Stonefang Steel." He had even begun experiments with controlled demolitions using his crude black powder, primarily for mining and quarrying, though its weaponization was a project he kept under the tightest secrecy. Crow's Nest, with its fertile hinterlands, was the breadbasket of his domain, its agricultural output, managed by Maester Vymar using Vorhax's "rediscovered" advanced techniques, consistently producing massive surpluses that fed his growing armies and filled his coffers through carefully controlled trade.
His military was a force without equal among the individual houses of Westeros. The Obsidian Guard, now numbering close to seven hundred, were a legion of almost mythical dread. Clad in their articulated black plate, their hawk-helms concealing any hint of humanity, they were trained in specialized units: heavy infantry, siege engineers utilizing Vorhax's uniquely designed catapults and ballistae, and a formidable marine corps that had proven its worth in the Iron Islands. Brandon Snow's Wolf Brigade, fiercely loyal Northmen who had found a grim satisfaction in Vorhax's harsh but effective leadership, numbered over two hundred veteran heavy infantry, their savagery now honed by Stonefang discipline and steel. Vorhax's fleet, the "Hawk's Armada," had expanded to nearly fifty vessels, including a dozen large war dromonds, making him a dominant naval power in the southern Narrow Sea and a significant presence in the Sunset Sea.
His family, the facade of Lord Ellys Vorant, continued its prescribed role. His heir, Edric Vorant, was now a youth of thirteen, tall for his age, with his mother's quiet disposition but shadowed by his father's terrifying presence. Vorhax oversaw Edric's education personally when at Stonefang or Crow's Nest. It was a brutal regimen designed to strip away weakness and instill discipline, strategic thinking, and absolute obedience. Edric learned swordsmanship with live steel against hardened Obsidian Guard instructors, studied histories of conquest and domination (carefully edited by Vorhax), and was tutored in logistics, economics, and the art of instilling fear. Vorhax searched for any spark of Force-sensitivity, any sign of the ruthless intellect needed to be a true instrument of his will, but Edric, while intelligent and increasingly proficient in martial skills, remained stubbornly… human. He was fearful, compliant, but lacked the inner fire, the core of darkness Vorhax sought. He was a tool, perhaps a useful one, but not a true successor to the Sith legacy. Lyra, his daughter, now eleven, was being tutored in the "feminine arts" suitable for a highborn lady, but also in languages, cryptography, and discreet observation by tutors loyal to Vorhax. Lady Anya, his wife, moved through their castles like a ghost, performing her duties as chatelaine with flawless, terrified precision, her spirit long since crushed by the cold, alien nature of her husband. She found her only solace in her children, though even that was tainted by the ever-present shadow of their father.
While Vorhax's realm thrived in its dark, orderly way, the Seven Kingdoms under King Robert continued its slow decay. Robert's excesses were legendary – his debts mounted, his waistline expanded, his attention to governance dwindled to nothing. Jon Arryn, the Hand, struggled to hold the realm together, his efforts increasingly hampered by the King's indifference and the insidious influence of the Lannisters. Queen Cersei was a constant source of courtly intrigue, and the Small Council was filled with men whose loyalty was often to their own purses or to other, more powerful patrons. Vorhax's spies, particularly Will, who now managed a sophisticated network from a discreet headquarters in King's Landing itself, kept him appraised of every development. He learned of Jon Arryn's quiet, persistent investigations into matters that made even the eunuch Varys uneasy – specifically, the unusually golden hair of King Robert's children.
Stannis Baratheon, on Dragonstone, remained a thorn. As Master of Ships, he had rebuilt the royal fleet with grim determination, but his relationship with Robert was fractured, his warnings about courtly corruption and external threats largely ignored. Stannis viewed Vorhax as a festering wound on the Stormlands, a rogue power whose strength was an affront to royal authority. He periodically sent formal inquiries or "inspectors" to Vorhax's domains, ostensibly to review feudal obligations or naval readiness, but in reality, to search for any actionable evidence of treason. Vorhax met these intrusions with impeccable, infuriating correctness, his records flawless, his defenses formidable but "purely for the protection of the King's Peace in these vital territories."
Vorhax also kept a vigilant watch on the exiled Targaryens. His Essosi agents reported that Viserys, now a young man, was growing increasingly arrogant and unstable, styling himself the "Beggar King" as he hawked his sister Daenerys about the Free Cities in search of an army. Recently, however, a more significant development had occurred: Viserys had struck a deal with Khal Drogo of the Dothraki, betrothing the now nubile Daenerys in exchange for Drogo's vast army to reclaim the Iron Throne. Vorhax received this news with a flicker of cold amusement. The Dothraki were a savage, uncontrollable force. Their introduction into Westeros would create precisely the kind of widespread chaos he could exploit. He subtly ensured that any agents of King Robert or Varys who sought to assassinate the Targaryen siblings were misdirected or met with "unfortunate accidents." He wanted them alive, a sword of Damocles hanging over Robert's increasingly unstable reign.
During this period of ostensible peace, Vorhax found an opportunity to further demonstrate his capabilities and expand his "protective" influence. A series of particularly vicious slaver raids, originating from the Basilisk Isles, began to plague the southern coast of Dorne and the western shores of the Reach, areas where royal naval patrols were infrequent or ineffective. Several small coastal villages were pillaged, their people carried off. When pleas to King's Landing for aid were met with delays and indifference, Vorhax acted.
He dispatched a strong squadron from his growing fleet, led by the Nyx's Shadow and commanded by a grimly competent Obsidian Guard admiral he had personally trained. They hunted the slavers with ruthless efficiency, using superior tactics, speed, and the terrifying effectiveness of his marines in boarding actions. Within months, the slaver threat in those waters was brutally suppressed, several pirate lords were killed, their ships captured or sunk, and hundreds of captives were liberated (most of whom were then "encouraged" to resettle as productive, loyal citizens within Vorhax's own underpopulated coastal territories). While the Martells of Dorne offered grudging thanks (they were still deeply alienated by Elia's murder and Robert's callousness), several lesser lords of the Reach, whose coastal holdings had suffered, openly praised Lord Vorant's decisive action and sought closer ties, offering valuable trade agreements in return for his continued "vigilance." Jon Arryn sent another stern letter from King's Landing, questioning Vorhax's unauthorized military actions in waters far from his own domains. Vorhax's reply was, as always, impeccably courteous, stating he was merely "acting in defense of the King's innocent subjects and suppressing lawlessness where the King's own resources were evidently overstretched."
Vorhax knew, with the chilling certainty of his Force-enhanced foresight, that the true catalyst for the next great war was drawing near. Jon Arryn's quiet investigations into the legitimacy of Robert's children were becoming more focused, more dangerous to the Queen and her powerful Lannister kin. The Hand was treading on vipers.
In his sanctum beneath Stonefang, surrounded by arcane texts and the humming energies of his Sith experiments, Vorhax held Red Rain. The Valyrian steel blade felt like a living thing in his grasp, its ancient magic resonating with the Dark Side. He had learned much from studying its forging, its balance, the way it seemed to almost guide itself in combat. He had even managed, through intense concentration and the application of Sith alchemy, to subtly enhance its already formidable properties, making its edge even keener, its crimson ripples seem to deepen, and imbuing it with a faint, almost subliminal aura of dread that could unsettle even a seasoned warrior.
As the year 297 AC drew to a close, Will sent an urgent, heavily coded message from King's Landing. Lord Jon Arryn, Hand of the King, had suddenly, unexpectedly, fallen gravely ill. His maesters were baffled, his wife Lysa distraught, his life hanging by a thread.
Vorhax read the message, and a rare, predatory smile touched his lips. The timing was perfect. Jon Arryn's illness – or, as Vorhax suspected from the subtle hints in Will's report and his own Force sense of the political currents, his carefully orchestrated poisoning – was the trigger. His death would bring Eddard Stark south, into the viper's nest of King's Landing. It would expose the truth about Robert's children. It would unleash the ambition of the Lannisters. It would set brother against brother, house against house.
The gilded peace was about to shatter. The seeds of future war, so patiently cultivated by Aerys's madness, Rhaegar's folly, Robert's neglect, and the ambitions of a dozen great houses, were about to burst into fiery, bloody bloom. And he, Darth Vorhax, the Hawk Lord, was ready to reap the harvest. The War of the Five Kings, the true crucible for his ascension, was finally at hand.
(Word Count: Approx. 4300 words)