>>FROM:@AEGONNER >>TO:@ALL >>RE:ARANEAN LEGENDS | >>TO:@SOME

[northerndragon]

>>TO:@ALL

They have their legends here of the Watcher and the Hunter. What do you know of them?

Has anyone mentioned the King Killer?

--

>>CLOSED TO: PEOPLE WHO ARE IN A LOT OF CONTACT WITH DANY.*

If I fall in the arena, look after STORMBORN. And keep her from retaliating, if you can.

[*This is certainly the group Dany sent her last locked network post out to, but it can also include anyone whose player thinks they'd be included. I tried to make a list and ultimately didn't want to accidentally omit anyone. If there's reason to think either of them would consider your character friendly or a friend, your character got this.

Also, this entire post isn't really on any specific timeline; could be at any point in the last couple of weeks.]

Comments

[northerndragon]

Anything you can recall would be of use. We might hear different stories. Who told you the things you heard?

PRIVATE
I thank you. The same is true — don't fall.
I'm worried about what she'll do if she sees me die. She doesn't do things by half-measures, and I know what I would do if I saw her hurt. I almost did, this last, when she was poisoned. But doing it wouldn't have helped her.

[lonelywar]

The Commander.
I first heard of the Watcher from Xici, and I went on to ask her about what I had been told.
As I remember it, they are both gods, though the Hunter, who was the lover of the Watcher, had once been a mortal man. He recognized a restlessness in the Watcher and feared it, worrying what she might do to sate her boredom and what kind of effect it would have upon everything else. So he began to attempt to entertain her.
For some time he brought her things which kept her attention, but something given to her by night would be something she would be bored with by the morning. So the Hunter made her an offer and a promise: if she would tie a cloth around her eyes to blind her and wait, he would bring her something that would entertain her forever.
One year later, he brings her this final gift, and it is life itself.
As I was told, we are but living, moving pieces in this gift, and the reason why it is often called upon to create and dedicate art to the Watcher is that it is something fleeting and unique, which gives her the most joy to witness. By doing this we please both the Watcher, finally content to witness everything unfolding within this game, and the Hunter, who no longer has to bear the great burden of keeping her solely entertained.

This was the story as it was told to me, the styling of the myth in the way that the Regency and those who were once a part of it might understand it.
How the Araneans see it, however... Their statues depict the Watcher as a young Aranean woman, and the Hunter apparently as some sort of beast.
I have not had the opportunity to ask about this.

PRIVATE
I do not plan to. [haha how ironic]
I would only hope that she would realize the same.
The laws of life and death as we were aware of them before do not hold sway to us now. I shall try to appeal to her reason, for we have already seen that death here is not the end of our part in this war.

[Though death has already had a little trouble keeping you down once before, Jon. You're basically old hat at this.]

[northerndragon]

Aye, all those blindfolded statues, I've seen them, and the beast at her feet. This King Killer is another beast, a dragon, so there must be a woman in his story, too.

But what was there before there was life? That's a puzzle. Things that weren't mortal, it seems. Was she destroying other gods?
For the Araneans, she's in their image, but he's not. Why is that? Is it that way everywhere?

PRIVATE
Death should be the end for anyone at any time. Death is still death — it seems like there would be a cruelty to coming back and dying again and again.

It hasn't happened to you yet, has it? There was a man with us at Valmy, a big man with a long braid down his back, stole a horse from some farm. That was her husband, who she was sold to when she was barely a woman grown. He died then, and he died again for COST, and COST couldn't bring him back. I don't think she'll trust that I'll come back until she sees me.

[WE DON'T TALK ABOUT DEAD CLUB.

We just insinuate and deflect.]

[lonelywar]

The King Killer... I have not heard of this piece of the story. Is it depicted in statues as well?

That was a question I had as well. If the Hunter was once mortal, what sort of mortal was he, if he existed before life itself began? Perhaps it is something to ask the commander or the sergeant, if they have the time to answer.
I am not sure. Perhaps that is what they thought existed before life did?

PRIVATE:
I would agree.
This is a cruel war we fight, in many more ways than one.

I did not meet this man you speak of, though I understand what you mean.
It has not happened to me, though I have been upon death's door more times than I wish. But you are correct. There is no guarantee that COST will be able to revive us, and Daenerys does not seem the one to wait patiently for news for this.

Should what concerns you come to pass, I will lend whatever strength I can toward staying her hand before she can cause too much damage.