King of The Wall

2021-02-26

Chapter 635 Religious Affairs (Part 1)

A few days after receiving Magister, a wealthy businessman from Pentos, Igor greeted The second group of foreign guests came across the sea from Volantis - not the official messengers sent by Triarch or Prince, but the monks of the Great Red Temple.

Among the crowds of people in the embassy, apart from the auxiliary staff who looked like servants and guards, the main characters were three high-ranking priests of red robe.

The leader is a tall, thin, bald-headed old man with prominent facial features, slack white skin covered with flame tattoos, and his right hand is followed by a dark red hair, skin as white as jade, beautiful and The level of alluring is not lower than Melisandre, but more than half of the elegant "Red Woman No. 2", next to the primestess, is the black man Igor has known - he was sent back to Volantis from Eastwatch a few months ago. Moqorro.

"Your Excellency the agent, please allow me to introduce you." Melisandre, as a side priest, should fulfill her duty of introduction, "This is High Priest Benerro of Volantis Red Temple, R 'hllor's number one—well, once the number one servant, the oldest of the living high priests, and the most skilled in sorcery; this is Jinvara, the chief priestess of the Lord of Light, the best since ancient times Divination and prophet, in charge of the communication between the temples of Red God and overall foreign affairs; Moqorro, the religious advisor of the Mother of Dragons, you have already known him, so I won't introduce more."

After Venerable introduced the guests, she turned to her colleagues of oneself: "And before the priests, is the Night's Watch Legion Lord Commander, the hero who defeated the Others, the Hand of the Queen of the Mother of Dragons, the spokesperson of Lady R'hllor in the world— —Igor West."

The black clothed prime minister looked at the red robe priests and did not speak first. The bald old man and the elegant witch stared deeply at Igor for a moment, confirming that he and the Lord of Light showed an exactly similar face in the flames, and felt that he was surging like a huge wave with a familiar Red God breath, Without any doubts, he slowly lowered his body and knelt down on the spot.

"Lord of Light's most faithful servant, greetings to His Excellency the Admiral."

With hands, knees and head on the ground, the most authentic prostrate oneself in admiration, the devout believers are right The Supreme of the worshiped deity honors this moment and exhibits one's feelings in one's speech . Although Igor was a little uncomfortable to kneel when they met, it was at least much better than the doubts and faults he had worried about before. In case of a thorn, he was asked to "prove that oneself is R'hllor's chosen person", even if he had already If you are prepared, it will really give him a headache.

It is much better to keep the air properly than to mingle with no brains, Igor sighed, and instead of helping him kindly or hurriedly, he bowed his chest and belly carelessly, and then backed up. He started to speak calmly: "Get up, several priests, I am the spokesperson of the world selected by Ms. R'hllor, and my duty is to serve her ideal goal. Speaking of which, I should be a biological brother of a different mother. After such a big gift, There is no need to do it any more, if this rule has existed for a long time within the Red God Church, my suggestion is also to abolish it as soon as possible... Now, let's go into the room and discuss it in detail."

The four red robes agreed and followed suit. Houses, seated in turn.

The high priest is the highest level in the entire Red God sect ecology, but from the perspective of their standing and spontaneous seating order, even among the four theoretically level people, there is still competition. The difference: the bald old man is the first without any suspense, followed by Jinwala, the "diplomat" of the Red God religion, and the last high priests with no special status like Melisandre and Moqorro, there seems to be no precedence between them. .

Thinking about it this way, probably "High Priest" is the rank, and "High Priest" and "Chief priestess" are the positions. The four are high priests only represent the same administrative rank within the Church, but here On the basis, the first two of the high-ranking positions are naturally ranked above the latter two who are only "front-line clerks".

This is a system that has been practiced and practiced for thousands of years. Of course, Igor doesn't want to challenge it because he has a closer relationship with Melisandre. After turning his head, he looked Impermanence. Be the first to bring up the topic.

"I fully understand the purpose of your trip here, but before I begin the conversation among the servants of the Lord of Light, please allow me to discharge the responsibilities and obligations of my mortal position - please Benerro and Kinvara Two high priests, briefly tell me about the changes in the situation across the Narrow Sea, especially Volantis, and the dynamics of foreign policy in the past two years."

Benerro nominated, and obviously understood why Igor would care about this news: "This point, I think Ms. Jinwala will explain it to you, which will be more detailed and targeted."

"Then let me introduce it to the agent." This is indeed her responsibility Scope, the chief diplomat of the Red God sect sat up straight and said with a smile on his lips, "Your Excellency did not say a specific time period, but I havetily guessed that what you care about should be what happened to Volantis after the Queen won the Battle of Meereen. ...and to explain the whole sequence of events, I think it starts with Volantis' decision to go to war with the Mother of Dragons."

...

Volantis is the westward expansion of Valyria One of the first military outposts, it has been the most powerful Free Cities since ancient times. In the Century of Blood after the apocalypse, the Volantis claimed to be the heirs of Freehold, the beacon of the world, and the Commander sleeve of mankind. But how to conquer the world has been debated for hundreds of years within the city-state - Tigers favor martial power, while Elephants favor trade. At first, the war faction prevailed, but after the continuous foreign wars that cost the people and money failed to obtain enough practical benefits, Volantis not only failed to become the master of the world, but even the original government was overthrown by the war-weary people led by Elephants.

In the centuries since, most of Volantis' dominance has been in the hands of the doves - the Elephants, and the Tigers can hold at most one of the three Triarch seats, and sometimes none at all. ...until Daenerys suddenly made big news at Slaver's Bay.

As a "Chainbreaker", she angrily issued a declaration of abolition of slavery, which made countless beneficiaries of the slave system terrified. Under the butterfly effect, she succeeded in suppressing a city-state outside half of the world. The century-old hawks regained enough support, successfully won the two Triarch seats, and organized a huge fleet of expeditions to Meereen.

In the new atmosphere, the Tigers decided to show their strength, but what came was news that the Volantis fleet was completely defeated: the three hundred warships that went to Meereen to attack Daenerys not only failed to complete the mission, but also changed their bodies. Became the Targaryen navy, and spent the next two years "helping the tank" and running the world for the Mother of Dragons... This hit the Tigers who had just breathed a sigh of relief, and there was no political change in the ensuing changes. He lost another seat in suspense and was beaten back to his original shape.

"It's true that Volantis is the master of Elephants these days, but 'anti-war' doesn't mean it's friendly to Queen Your Majesty, tigers and elephants are slave-masters, they just tend to solve problems and enemies The thinking is inconsistent... The three Triarchs unanimously promote an organization called 'city-state union', the only Tigers leader naturally hopes to organize this military alliance to destroy the Mother of Dragons, the two Elephants leaders The hope is to use this alliance as a reliance to press the Queen to make her give up slavery and make reasonable war reparations to Volantis..."

The defeated side asked the victorious side to pay war indemnities, these slave-masters His brain circuit is really incomparable, but this almost arrogant thinking actually shows the power of Volantis from the side - the vitality and heritage of this city-state are still there, and there is still a battle... No, fight against any enemy Hundreds of rounds of power, not to mention that it also has a large number of slave-master allies with the same class attributes that can be drawn across the sea.

If you don't count the Queen's two dragons, the Land Granters and the artillery unit Igor is building, Volantis does have a little more cards in his hand than Queen.

But here comes the question, if Queen does have cards, why not count?
Igor smiled slightly, without commenting, but casually asked the question he was most concerned about: "If you evaluate the progress of the formation of this 'city complex' with 10 points, how many points would you give? ?"

"Two points, at most three points." Probably a habit, Jinwala gave Igor a slight electric shock with her charming eyes, "The three Triarchs have already started to prepare related matters. , and has indeed received the response and support of the city-states, but there has not been any formal high-level meeting of the Ninetowns or the signing of the agreement contract. At the same time, the Great Red Temple has not completely sat on the sidelines, but is doing what it can. Obstructing everything that would threaten Ms. R'hllor's chosen person... In fact, there are still several Nine Cities that still have territorial disputes with each other, and it is impossible for them to be completely united to the outside world, even at the end of the world. It happened."

The general situation is basically the same as Igor's judgment. Illyrio is really just bluffing. Igor put down his slightly raised heart and casually admired the beauty of Jinvarana and Melisandre: the witches What a wonderful group of people - they can not only precipitate the maturity, intelligence and self-confidence brought by the years, but they do not leave any traces of time on their bodies. If it is not for the chest, there is the same ruby chain that seems to be standard...

The same primestess, the one in front of him not only looks more stable and elegant, but also speaks more coherently and logically than the other one, why is she able to hold an important position in the Great Red Temple while Melisandre has to travel overseas for business, the answer It's obvious.

"I have to apologize to the agent here first." High Priest Benerro, who had been invisible for a while, suddenly came back online, "It stands to reason that Lord of Light is the first time since splitting heaven and earth apart. The official human representatives are elected, and all the high-ranking priests in the Great Red Temple should come to meet and meet with the ceremony, but now the Great Red Temple is fighting against the Volantis authorities in various fields, relying on the extensive advantages of the followers of slaves and civilians. Barely holding on and not collapsing, I really can't pull away all the high-ranking priests and leave an empty rear..."

"Oh? Why is this."

Listen to the old man's meaning , there are actually more high-ranking priests in the Great Red Temple, I don't know how many, what is the ratio of males and females?

Oh, I will have a roster later, this is a powerful force in mystic, and in some aspects, its role is far from being replaced by artillery.

"Mother of Dragons was able to bring down the Volantis fleet almost completely on Meereen, the presence of the dragons and her army's victories in land battles were the most important reasons, but the Volantis fleet was at least able to escape. The reason why they did not disperse in a hurry, but surrendered completely, the uprising of the Lord of Light believers among the lower slave oarsmen and sailors was a big part of the uprising. Even before the war started, our school has always opposed and resisted the Meereen Use soldiers to build momentum for the destiny of the Mother of Dragons, and at the same time use the convenience of missionary and various ceremony to place and train personnel within the army to prepare conditions for possible future uprising opportunities." Jinwala took over the boss. "This move is in response to the order given by R'hllor in the fire. Of course, I will not ask for credit and reward to Queen Your Majesty, but the buried chess pieces will be sent in advance in the Volantis fleet uprising. The fact that it was in use, while allowing Mother of Dragons to obtain a huge fleet, also completely exposed the relative position of the Red God sect and slave-masters, which made the Great Red Temple suffer from all-round suppression and intrusion by the Volantis authorities recently. Rarely, the three Triarchs of the Tiger and Elephant parties cooperated with each other, working in unison to purify the religious attributes within the Volantis army, excluding Red God believers, and doing everything in devotion and taxation, material supply and so on... The Great Temple has become a An isolated island in the great city-state of Volantis, precarious."

"Usually in trouble, we would turn to the Lord of Light for help and guidance through fire divination, but now the Lord of Light no longer answers our calls and request..." Benerro complained with a sad expression, "I came here specially with the chief priestess for this trip. In addition to seeing the agent and witnessing the Divine Vestige, we actually came to ask for help. I also asked the agent to convey the dilemma of Church. Your Majesty R'hllor, please remember our many years of loyal service and once again drop the divine decree and help!"

Seven points and three points, but no malice.

It is probably true that the Volantis ruling authorities want to destroy the Red God sect. After all, no one can tolerate the existence of collaborating forces inside, but if the big Red Temple really has no resistance, it will be reduced to an isolated island. How could it be possible to organize a huge embassy of dozens of people to go out openly? As for asking oneself to pass on the news to R'hllor... Most of them are just trying to use words to deceive some information when they dare not question the authenticity of oneself's identity.

Igor is not angry, let alone exposing it. In front of him may indeed be a few people who have lived for dozens or hundreds of years, but when oneself is the real Red God agent, they Not the enemy of oneself.

"What is the point of bothering Ms. R'hllor about this trivial matter? She has pointed out a clear direction and laid out a clear mission for me. And I have also already made a clear statement on how to complete the sacred mission on my shoulders. With a bold idea, the next thing we will talk about is this..." Igor remain calm and composed while handling pressing affairs slowly said, "If the plan can be smoothly implemented, whether it is the desperate situation of the Great Red Temple, or The Queen's lack of control over the Seven Kingdoms will be solved simultaneously, and it will no longer be a problem that plagues us!"

——

(end of this chapter)