No matter what the sun may be in other worlds, in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire, it is fire that stands above earthly flame and below the First Flame.
It is a transformation of the embers of the First Flame.
The so-called Song of Light is merely another way of singing the Song of Fire.
Or rather, the Song of Light is the chorus of the Song of Fire.
However, to truly sing this chorus requires a special talent. Even the former masters of the Song of Fire, Sheep Egg and R'hllor, did not possess the qualification to chant the Song of Light.
At the beginning of the world's birth, the Song of Laws opened itself to all living beings without any concealment. Every creature heard it, yet only those with the corresponding destiny could sing the corresponding Song of Laws.
Just like the great painter Qi Baishi and the great scientist Elder Yang, both were "holy spirits" who possessed destiny.
They were born together under heaven and earth, and the Song of Laws freely opened itself to them. Yet Qi Baishi sang the Song of Painting, while Elder Yang sang the Song of Physics.
Even with his destiny, if Qi Baishi had chosen the wrong path, such as studying physics, he would never have achieved in science what he accomplished in the arts.
The same was true for Elder Yang.
The destiny of the Daughter of Light was similar to Qi Baishi's destiny in painting.
One who possessed the destiny of the Daughter of Light could naturally comprehend the Law of Light without relying on the sun.
As for R'hllor, the reason he could master the Song of Light was simply because the sun of this era had been forged from the embers of the First Flame that he had gathered.
And every time a sun is summoned, a deity capable of mastering the Song of Light will be born within the newborn sun.
For example, before the last Long Night, during the long Mythic Era, the Daughter of Light who founded the Dawn Empire, the predecessor of the Golden Celestial Dynasty of Yi Ti.
The Daughter of Light was born within the sun and naturally possessed the Song of Light. Yet whether it was her Song of Light or R'hllor's Song of Light, they were exactly the same, engraved from the same mold: the Solar Forge.
From the beginning of creation to the end of humanity's First Era, every Song of Light came from that dark demon god who burned himself to bring light to the world.
The suns of later ages were all produced by his "Solar Forge."
However, in different eras, the managers and workers of this "solar factory" were not the same.
If the sun disappears, the Song of Light that lives and dies alongside it will also disperse. Yet the will of the world has a particular trait: whenever a Song of Laws disappears, it grants destiny so that the creatures of the world can restore that law once more.
Just like during a world-ending calamity, the will of the world grants the destiny of a savior to someone.
This is the world's mechanism of self-protection.
In the previous Mythic Era, the Daughter of Light united with the Night Lion and gave birth to the divine son, the Heavenly Emperor. In Yi Ti, the Heavenly Emperor established the most glorious empire in the world at that time: the Dawn Empire.
How formidable was the Heavenly Emperor?
During the era of the Dawn Empire, the centaurs and zebra-men had no place at all. The grasslands of the zebra-men and the Sacred Mother Mountain of the centaurs were all territory of the Heavenly Emperor.
No one knows how many years the Heavenly Emperor lived, but the time he ruled the Dawn Empire was no less than ten thousand years.
And the entire First Era of humanity lasted only eight thousand years.
With a Heavenly Emperor so powerful, one can imagine the might of his parents.
At that time, the Daughter of Light was far beyond anything R'hllor of the present era could compare to. Even when the Long Night descended and she herself had already died, her sun still endured for more than ten years.
Although the sun eventually shattered, the process of its breaking alone lasted over half a year, while R'hllor's sun lasted only half an hour. The difference is enormous.
Why was the Daughter of Light so powerful?
To understand this, one must pay attention to another deity: the Night Lion.
Who exactly was the Night Lion?
Excluding Sothoryos, which lacks civilization, the world can roughly be divided into three continents. From west to east they are Westeros, Essos, and the eastern lands around the Jade Sea.
Who is the widely recognized god of death in Westeros?
The Stranger.
What about the continent of Essos?
Essos has many religions. Each city-state and each social class worships different gods of death.
For example, the Weeping Lady, the god of poison and death in Lys; the Hooded Walker worshipped by the poor; the Pale Maiden of the Shallow Moon revered by sailors; the Pale Child worshipped by soldiers; and the Black Goat of Qohor.
Many more deities with aspects of death are known to exist, yet their names and appearances are never revealed.
For instance, the "Secret God" worshipped by the bearded priests of Norvos.
"Secret God" is not the god's true name. Aside from the bearded priests, even the residents of Norvos themselves do not know who the deity they worship is or what it looks like.
It is a closed church that does not seek followers outside its own ranks.
Another example is the "Shangguan Wan'er" of the Dragon Queen, the dark-skinned girl Missandei.
In fact, she could be considered a native of Sothoryos.
Her homeland, Naath, lies in the Summer Sea near the continent of Sothoryos.
Naath also has a deity, a genuine one: the God of Harmony.
The God of Harmony also presides over the deaths of the people of Naath. Likewise, this deity does not spread its faith beyond the island, and the entire belief system remains closed within Naath itself.
From this, it can be seen that on the continent of Essos there are many gods of death.
But in the eastern lands around the Jade Sea, with Yi Ti at their center, the Night Lion is the universally acknowledged god of death.
In the East, the Night Lion is like the Stranger in Westeros.
Aside from the Stranger, all the gods mentioned above are real, and they often display miracles before their followers.
From this alone, one can see how powerful the dark demon god Night Lion truly is.
In fact, the Night Lion, with the body of a man and the head of a lion, is even older than R'hllor, the Gate God, and the Mother of the Rhoyne. He already existed in the dark age at the very beginning of creation.
Perhaps the Night Lion even witnessed the birth of the very first sun.
The union between the Daughter of Light and the Night Lion was not merely born from love or desire.
At their level, only the pursuit of the Dao is real.
Only advancement in cultivation counts as true benefit.
The Daughter of Light represented light, while the Night Lion represented darkness. Light and darkness, day and night, vitality and death.
Is this not a crude imitation of the Song of Ice and Fire?
That is correct. The Daughter of Light and the Night Lion deliberately enacted a version of the Song of Ice and Fire.
Light is a derivative attribute of fire, while darkness is a derivative of ice. They are not the true creation of fire nor the true death of ice.
It is like a village stage performance where the Michael Jackson of Watermelon Village and the Madonna of East Melon Town perform together.
Even though it was merely a knockoff version of the Song of Ice and Fire, its effect was astonishing.
During the Mythic Era, many gods established divine kingdoms in the mortal world. Yet among them all, only the Dawn Empire of the Heavenly Emperor was the most powerful and the most dazzling.
Even to this day, the world only remembers the Kingdom of Dawn. The other divine kingdoms have left behind only a few fragments of words whose truth is difficult to verify.
Tens of thousands of years later, the Golden Celestial Empire still preserves detailed records of the successive emperors of the Kingdom of Dawn.
How terrifying must such a legacy be?
For gods, inheritance itself holds little meaning. What matters is only the increase of power and the comprehension of laws.
The Heavenly Emperor, the child of the Lady of Light and the Night Lion, possessed both the power of light and darkness in his bloodline, almost like the crystallization of the Song of Ice and Fire.
The Heavenly Emperor and his descendants were like the fire spirit in Dany's hand and Tyrion on the laboratory table. They were both part of the research process and the results of that research.
During this process, both the Lady of Light and the Night Lion gained tremendous "research results."
After performing their imitation of the Song of Ice and Fire for tens of thousands of years, the Lady of Light finally broke free from the original limitations of the Song of Light.
She began to change the templated Song of Light and sang a Song of Light that belonged solely to herself.
Thus, the Destiny of the Lady of Light was born and recorded by the will of the world.
If the Song of Light disappears again in the future, the will of the world can copy the "Destiny of the Lady of Light" and grant it to a Holy Spirit within the world.
If the previous Long Night had never happened, and if the Night Lion had not betrayed her, there was a high probability that the Lady of Light could have used the Song of Light to reverse-comprehend the Song of Fire.
R'hllor sensed the threat but could do nothing about it. The will of the universe simply "prefers the new and discards the old."
This sense of helplessness later became the driving force behind all his actions.
He no longer stayed at home in seclusion, cultivating in silence. He would not allow another Lady of Light to be born.
He also intended to learn from the Lady of Light and the Night Lion.
However, R'hllor did not find himself a wife. The lesson of the Night Lion's betrayal causing the Lady of Light's efforts to fail was not unique. Even in Westeros, two true gods had ruined their partnership as husband and wife, ending in death and loss.
After all, the human heart is hidden within the belly.
R'hllor trusted only himself and also had the ability to rely solely on himself.
As the Fire God, R'hllor sang the Song of Fire. As the Shadow Demon, R'hllor comprehended the death of ice.
Touché!
There was only one problem. His Song of Fire was too primitive and of too low a level. Moreover, his divinity of death and darkness was far inferior to that of the Night Lion, making the Song of Laws even more distant.
He needed to elevate the Song of Fire, and he also wanted to overturn the Cold God.
If he could seize the Song of Ice and Darkness from the Cold God, how far would he grow?
Thus he began to stir up trouble and actively involved himself in the affairs of the mortal world, all in the name of saving the world.
During this time, R'hllor discovered a secret. The will of the world seemed to have begun learning from the Lady of Light and the Night Lion. The savior Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa were also a combination of two opposing destinies: darkness and light, cold and warmth, love and hatred.
This is the opportunity heaven has given me, R'hllor thought excitedly.
He seized the "imitation Song of Ice and Fire destiny" from Azor Ahai and Nissa Nissa. The destinies of darkness, shadow, and death merged into his body, while the Lady of Light's destiny was useless to him and impossible for him to use. It instead became the "battery" of the Lightbringer.
R'hllor had no talent for singing the Song of Light.
Nor did he need the Lady of Light's destiny, because her destiny lay in comprehending the Song of Light.
What R'hllor needed was the Song of Ice and Fire, not the imitation song of light and darkness.
Since he already possessed the authentic Song of Fire, why would he care about a counterfeit?
Moreover, the counterfeit was not a ready-made product.
Even if he fused with the Lady of Light's destiny, he would still need to comprehend the Song of Light himself. If he truly had that talent, why would he go through all this trouble?
He also wished he could learn from the Gate God, sitting at home, enjoying the breeze and listening to songs while elevating the Song of Wind to its ultimate form and even unintentionally comprehending a second song.
Well, before the appearance of the Lady of Light and the Night Lion, R'hllor had already been learning from the Gate God by staying at home and cultivating diligently.
Student R'hllor was very hardworking, very ambitious, and skilled at learning the study methods of top students.
His continuous efforts eventually paid off. During the first Long Night, he gained enormous rewards.
So much so that as soon as the first Long Night ended, he began laying out plans for the second Long Night: Dany and Jon, the bearers of the authentic destiny of the Song of Ice and Fire.
If he succeeded again, there was a great chance he could elevate the Song of Fire to an unimaginable level, perhaps even sing the Song of Ice and Fire alone, become the King of Gods, and completely end the world's fate of decline.
Unfortunately, Dany transmigrated. The Lightbringer that once helped him seize the savior's destiny also became the fatal flaw that cast him down from his divine throne. The sealed destiny of the Lady of Light inside it had not completely disappeared.
In theory, when Lightbringer loses its power, it means the destiny of the Lady of Light has been exhausted. Just like when a phone is not broken but its screen does not light up, it must simply be out of battery.
The cold and ruthless R'hllor could not understand the feelings between Azor Ahai and Nissa. Nissa's soul core went to be reincarnated, while Azor Ahai took her place. After that, the savior "removed the battery," keeping the final trace of his wife's mark so it could remain with him forever.
This would continue until "Nissa's reincarnation" arrived and took back what "belonged to her."
PS: The dark-skinned girl Missandei is a Naathi.
The Naathi, who have dark skin and golden eyes, are also called the "Peaceful People." They live on an island near Sothoryos.
Naath Island worships a butterfly spirit, which they call the Lord of Harmony.
The Naathi believe that this deity is the only true god, eternally existing in the past, present, and future. It was this god who created the moon and the stars, created the earth, and all the living beings that dwell upon it.
On Naath Island there is a type of butterfly that serves the Lord of Harmony. These butterflies can cause outsiders to contract butterfly fever, a plague.
Countless conquerors once tried to conquer Naath Island with blood and fire, yet all of them died of disease.
However, to become infected with butterfly fever, one must remain on the island for a full day.
Therefore, slave-raiding teams could plunder the Naathi living near the coast within that single day.
Missandei was captured in exactly this way and sold to Slaver's Bay as a slave.
(End of Chapter)
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