100 AC / 55 HA
Third Person POV
"My children were a few hundred years older than Valyria. While Valyria had barely learned how to lay stone, Chroyane had transformed into a bustling city, laying the very foundations of Rhoynish society. The Dawn had ended, and mankind was expanding westward. My presence in western Essos allowed my children to thrive, unfettered from the wars of supremacy being fought in the East. Unfortunately, the very conditions that brought prosperity to my children were also provided to the Valyrians. In a sense, their existence was purer than ours—they were simple goat herders, living in ignorant bliss. Being kin of the First Hero, they were promised protection by all pantheons so long as they stayed in Valyria. This freedom ultimately birthed the Freehold; it birthed their entitlement, their bottomless pride, and their dragons." Mother Rhoyne spoke, her voice laced with the heavy, bitter nostalgia of a time long past.
She scoffed then, a harsh, grating sound. "It was never meant to last." Derision dripped like poison from her words. "Once you have tasted absolute power, no comfort in the world shall ever taste the same to you again. The dragons were power—a power so potent that no natural remedy against it existed in the world. Mythic creatures like the harpy, leviathans, and gryphons had long thinned in numbers, but the dragons... the dragons had only just started their terrifying rise. Years of unchallenged conflict and petty attacks made the Valyrians greedier, more prideful, more fiercely ambitious. They conquered Ghis, and even terrorised the Dothraki into abandoning their domains within Lhazar. As soon as they were satiated with the East, their greedy eyes turned West. My children treated them with open friendship, and for a time, they were allied. But once the Valyrians had conquered the western edges, their eyes turned to the only thorn that remained in their grand, expanding empire. War erupted not long after."
There was a tempest of anger in her blue eyes, swirling with agonizing traces of guilt. "I could not help my children. Gods were unable to interfere in matters not of a divine nature. My inaction left my beloved children weak and exposed against the devastating magics and dragonfire of the Valyrians. In the end, the dragonlords accomplished exactly what they set out to do. When they marched into Chroyane with their beasts and blood mages, I felt the collective, burning pain of my people. I thought that it was at an end. I convinced myself that even if conquered, my children would survive under the cruel rule of Valyria—but they would survive. Nymeria had already departed with the populace of an entire city to evade them, giving me a sliver of false hope."
Her eyes grew hollow, haunted by the memory, as a dark, violent rage began to take hold. The Taint, which she had been holding back, seemed to gauge her vulnerable emotional state, attacking ferociously as the black ooze rose higher against her golden aura.
Hadrian stepped forward, firmly placing his hand upon her shoulder. "Calm yourself. Losing control now would be detrimental to all our efforts." He channelled a stream of his pure, emerald power into her, aiding the goddess in restraining the suffocating Taint.
Mother Rhoyne looked at him, profound appreciation piercing through her grief. "Garin could not accept this agonizing defeat. They paraded him through his own ruined city in a golden cage, while he only wept and prayed to me. Their victorious, mocking parade finally reached the Grand Temple, and they proceeded to enter my sacred halls with him in chains. Garin freed himself for a brief moment running towards my statue and gave himself up as a blood sacrifice to summon me."
Mother Rhoyne's beautiful countenance grew deathly grim. "I answered his call. I accepted his sacrifice. That was my final, most crucial mistake. As soon as I descended into my physical form, the Valyrian blood mages revealed the black stone they carried. They had planned for this, schemed for it in the shadows. The entire remaining populace of the city had been plagued by their foul magics; they had begun growing cracked, scale-like skin. The blood mages acted immediately, all giving their own wretched lives to power the stone and taint me. I was entirely helpless. Nemesis consumed me rapidly, using the mass sacrifices made by the blood mages. They even slaughtered their own dragons to empower him. I desperately used my remaining mana to stop the plague from spreading, but I needed time to cleanse it completely. Time I simply did not have. My end was nigh, so I used all my divine mana to contain Nemesis. The River Rhoyne violently surged, boiling and turning into the mist. I used it as a barrier to contain Nemesis within Chroyane, but I was not able to complete the enchantments before the Taint fully consumed me."
She paused, gasping for a shuddering breath while visibly concentrating on forcing the creeping Taint back down.
"After that, I was trapped in my own mind. I watched myself slaughter my own people and use the ones that survived. I watched as my corrupted hands planted them with the Taint as they turned into the Stone Men, leaving the mist to spread the plague and Nemesis' touch throughout the world once again. Nemesis could not use my physical person to leave the mist, so he began corrupting it, expanding its suffocating influence in hopes of one day reaching out. Garin's corpse was tainted, and he became the Shrouded Lord, while I was violently banished from the physical world back to the divine domain. There, my corrupted self slaughtered my last remaining children. I took solace in the hollow fact that Zahken and Sartan had somehow avoided this fate. I tried to warn them, but the Taint controlled my connection to them to mislead and lure them here. Now, all my kin shall die."
A heavy silence fell over the ruined temple as the weight of her words landed on Hermione and Hadrian. Nobody spoke until Hadrian raised his gaze to see Mother Rhoyne, completely broken again by the retelling of her tragedy.