Chapter 198 [Vault]

Title - HOTD: The Last Dragonlord | Chapter 3 | Female MC

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[3rd POV]

Flying off with her dragon had been a…interesting experience. With her and her dragons stopping every few hours on islands and lands that she could properly rest at, watching in amusement as they munched on large amounts of fish whenever they could. As they happily flew through the skies that weren’t dark and dilapidated, tainted with dark magics and the aftermath of the doom. 

She was happy to see her dragons enjoying the skies, as they ate something that wasn’t mutated fish from the shores of Valyria. She had yet to spot any sort of ships, which was a good thing, as she wished to at least have Astapor conquered before the Targaryens learned of her. 

She hoped to get a proper spy ring set up quickly, so that she can spread rumors of her being a fake Dragonlord, or something of the sort. That way she won’t have Daemon and Caraxes coming down to her, or something else. 

She was confident in slaughtering any of the Targaryen dragons, but they had numbers, and numbers with dragons was superior to quality, at least, in most cases. 

That and while she was vastly superior in combat, she did not have the numbers that they did, and they (especially Daemon and Rhaenys) had more experience than her. 

Hence she wished to avoid them until she had a proper power base, and then she would let the rumors fly. As by the time that occurs, she’d have her three eggs hatched, and would single handedly have 7 dragons, giving her greater numbers than either the Valeryons or the Targaryens, or at least close to it. 

Flying through the skies, Bale sighed as she glanced towards the distance, a large city in the distance, her dragons high above the clouds so that none could see them. The city was Astapor, and it was the city in which she would begin everything. 

The city that housed the army she needed, and would be the beginning of her great conquest. 

And thus, as she flew past the city, lowering to the ground, she prepared to begin.

[Year 100 AC | The beginning of the Conquest of the Last Dragonlord]

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[An Overview of the next 15 Years of Conquest of the Last Dragonlord]

With her arrival at Astapor, Bale had found that the slavery that poisoned the world was more horrific than she had ever imagined. Children forced to serve from the ages as young as 5, doing horrific, terrible things that no child should ever be forced to do. Child soldiers born to kill and serve, sex slaves bought and treated as if they were toys for men 5 times their age. 

Bale saw the horror of Astapor, and saw the darkness that her ancestors had committed, and it was then that she knew that she would not be like them. She would be better. For there would be no room for Slavery in her lands, in her mind, for slavery was one of the greatest horrors in the world. 

And it was with this hatred for slavery in mind, that she had slaughtered her ways through the “Good Masters” as they had decided upon calling themselves so very long ago.

Her faceless men had been summoned and given the order to kill every last slaver in the city, while she had made a deal with the ones who trained and owned Unsullied, “Trading” her dragon eggs for the unsullied, only to mimic the actions of Daenerys Targaryen, killing the one she took them from moments later with no care for the consequences. 

With her rapid, and out of nowhere attacks, the Good Masters had no chance of responding in kind, as by the end of her 4th night in the city, they were all dead, their heads mounted on pikes outside the city walls to warn all slavers who attempted to retake the city. 

The slaves had been…shocked, to say the least. She had come from nowhere, a woman of Valyrian beauty slaughtering the slavers that had kept them as theirs for so long had freed them. Not only that, but within a moon (a month) she had formed a council that would run the city, and had already begun planning for the future. 

Schools, new trade, new minerals to mine from the nearby mountains, fruits and vegetables that were able to be grown in the harsh landscapes (and through a bit of subtle magic that involved the sacrifice of the Good Masters). 

Her 10,000 Unsullied had been summoned nearby, and joined the 15,505 fully trained unsullied, and the 5,025 unsullied that hadn’t been fully trained. Giving her a massive army of 30,530 soldiers within only a couple of moons of taking Astapor. 

Solidifying her power within the city had been surprisingly easy, with the aid of a council of trusted advisers that formed new trade, which had been easy thanks to the slaves being trained in all the areas needed to do such a thing. 

The city had begun to boom by the time she had went on to take Meereen. She had skipped Yunkai, for Meereen was far more powerful than Yunkai, and was more important for her conquest of Slaver's Bay, which would be renamed into the “Bay of Tyraxes” after her mothers family, 

Meereen stood absolutely no chance against her faceless men, the 30 thousand unsullied that stood outside their walls, and her own actions on the inside. And like Astapor, it had fallen in only a few days, with only a few casualties on her side, much to her own anger, as she didn’t like seeing her men die, but knew it was an inevitability. 

Like Astapor, the “Great Masters” of Meereen had all been wiped out, with their heads shown off on pikes outside the city just like before. 

Unlike Astapor, Balegelle knew that she couldn’t get rid of certain aspects of the city that were ingrained into its very existence, the largest of them being the Fighting Pits. So, instead of completely ridding them, she banned the usage of children and the unwilling within (except for criminals) and made it a lot safer. 

This had caused some grumbling, but that stopped once she had promised to improve upon the coliseum in which they fight, while also honoring their traditions, as long as it did not involve the unwilling and children. This had gone a long way with the people, and had functionally stopped a lot of rebellion. 

With the conquest of Meereen, Bale had also had Whorehouses opened in order to help the pleasure slaves that couldn’t find work, the men and women that needed some…time off, and bring more visitors to her cities. The laws and rules regarding these whorehouses were VERY strict, and were under personal protection by city guard members that were to be trained strictly by the Unsullied, and ex-fighting pit members who now had joined her armies, increasing the size once more. 

It was with Meereen that her trade began truly boom, as with her magic, she was able to find large amounts of Copper, Iron, and even gold. While also using the surroundings to grow more crops for new forms of wine, lots of wheat, and all sorts of animals, primarily goats. 

With Mereen under her rule, she had also begun to develop her naval assets, beginning the production of ships for what would become her trade fleet. Said trade would soon begin to spread to the Free Cities, and eventually beyond. 

But for now, Balegelle had focused on conquering the last major city in the area, Yunkai. 

Yunkai proved to be rather easy to conquer, easier than Astapor or Meereen, and had fallen in a single day unlike the other two. With the city being the true beginning of her Whorehouse spy ring that would expand around Essos and even Westeros in the future. 

Yunkai had yet again, quite a few deposits of minerals like gold, copper, iron, and a few more, all found through magic, something that she had continued to practice over the 9 moons since she had begun her conquest of the three cities, and ended the conquest. 

That time period had been dubbed as the “9 Month End of Slaver's Bay”. 

Although she had Yunkai, Mereen, and Astapor under her rule, Bale had spent the next year conquering the remaining smaller cities in the area. Mantarys, Elyria, Tolos, Hesh, New Ghis, Lhazosh and Kosrak. 

All of them had been conquered in the next year and a half, with New Ghis being the most important of them, thanks to them being turned into a true port city for trade, and an important location for her navy fleet in that half of Essos. 

It was through New Ghis and their soldiers, the “Iron Legions” who had proven to be VERY adept fighters, almost on par with the Unsullied. These Iron Legions, especially the veteran members, would begin to train other fighters that wish to join her army for her future conquest, improving the total quality of her army. 

With the conquest of those cities, Bale had spent the few moons cementing her power in them, before moving to the next parts of her conquest. 

Port Yhos, Qarkash, Greater Moraq, Lesser Moraq, Vahar, the Isle of Elephants, and Qal. Each of them being islands and cities near Qarth, the last of them were fortified with Qartheen Harbor cities, due to it being an important island near Qarth. 

Qarth itself had been able to do nothing as she basically controlled the Jade Gates at this point, an immensely important area of trade that would make her a shit ton of coin thanks to taxes and trade. And it was through her control over this area, that Qarth had lasted only a fortnight before it too fell to her. 

In only a total of 4 years, she had conquered Slavers Bay, Qarth, and a majority of the islands in the area, all but controlling trade in that part of Essos. And it was through this that her trading fleet had officially begun to spread throughout the world, and her power was beginning to gain notice. 

And she hadn’t even revealed her dragons yet.

Speaking of dragons. In those four years, her three dragon eggs hadn’t remained unhatched, and had in fact, hatched after some time. Each of them cracking to reveal their forms, forms that had rapidly grown through magics involving sacrifice of others to induce stronger growth, which she did by sacrificing a LOT of slavers to strengthen her 7 dragons. 

Her new dragons were known as:

Elaenax, the Pink

Balenax, the Crimson

Tyranax, the Odd

Each of them had grown well at this point, and from her own estimations, were likely around the size of Meleys, Rhaenys Targaryen's dragon, who was far from the size of someone like Vhagar, but was still quite large. 

During the four years, she had yet to reveal her dragons to anyone but her most trusted members, the council of each of her cities knew, but only after they made blood oaths to not betray her, an oath that could not be denied, for if it was, the Gods themselves would punish them, and that was quite literal. 

She hadn’t brought the dragons out just yet, so that she wouldn’t have to deal with the Targaryen’s. She wanted to conquer the lands she wanted first, and then show off as much as she wanted. It was for this reason that she flew no banners, not yet. 

With Qarth conquered, the Warlocks within were bound to her will, after she had officially created the Crystal Blood orb, binding them and their bloodlines to her, making it so that they could NEVER betray her. It was a bit…of a grey area, but they were horrid little things, but powerful ones that would do better on her side than dead. 

Each of the competing guilds within Qarth had been merged into her own trade group, giving her dozens more ships, more connections, and a hell of a lot more political power throughout Essos. There were large amounts of gold in the mountains near Qarth, and spice trade was big there too, giving her even more wealth, as she had also conquered the islands in the Cinnamon straits, which was named after the cinnamon spice that could be made there. 

With Qarth conquered, she spent the next year cementing her rule in the area, as well as also conquering the nearby cities of Bayasabhad and Samyriana, both of which trained women to be soldiers instead of men, with the women being quite skilled in battle at that. They were good additions to her growing Kingdom, as they would be used for trade routes with Eastern cities. 

By the time it was 106 AC, Bale had finished her conquest of the farther Eastern areas of Essos that she was interested in, and was now looking West, most notably, a city that was not that far from her primary seat in Mereen. 

Volantis

Volantis was one of the most important cities in the entire world, and one of the most powerful. It was the second most powerful of the free cities, with only Braavos surpassing it in might. They had hundreds of war galleys/ships meant for war, was financially on par with Braavos themselves, and was a huge city in slave trade. 

It was also a key city for her desire to conquer other major cities, as with their war galleys in her fleet, she would effectively be untouchable on the seas, especially once her dragons were added into the fray. 

In order to conquer the city easier, she first had to go through it’s nearby towns (that were more akin to cities in size, with some of them being larger than the likes of Kings Landing and Oldtown). The towns of Selhorys, Valysar, and Volon Therys.

The three towns were near Volantis, and needed to be conquered in order for her to safely conquer Volantis without any huge problems. And thankfully, it seemed that they weren’t that difficult to take, her faceless men and other assassins doing most of the work for her, as she conquered the three of them all within 3 days of one another, flying to each city on dragon back high above the clouds. 

Volantis was…a complicated city to conquer. Massive, strong, and incredibly important, too important to lay siege to or anything of the sort. 

But, it would seem that she had people on the inside that wished to aid her, besides the spies that had infiltrated the city at her order. 

The Temple of the Lord of Light. 

The Followers of R’hllor had aided her in the conquest of the city. Because as it turns out, they had seen her in the fires of the temple, seen what she was to accomplish, seen visions of her importance to the world, and seen that she would either conquer the city through a peaceful way as she had, or through fire and lightning by her dragons. 

The Triarch’s of Volantis didn’t last another 3 days, before they were all brought before the slaves that they looked down upon so much, and beaten to death by the very slaves they beat themselves. 

Volantis, a city untouchable by most, had been conquered by a woman that was only 23 years of age. By a woman that was the blood of Valyria, by the last Dragonlord. 

With Volantis conquered, her trade had boomed to an entirely new realm, and she was officially making so much coin that she didn’t know what to do with it. So, she began to reinvest it in many different projects. 

New schools, whorehouses, new roads, repairing old buildings and walls, upgrading and repairing ships, better gear for her soldiers, and more. All of this was put into motion only a few moons after the conquest of Volantis. 

Qohor, Norvos, and Lorath had all fallen in the next three years. With her desire to conquer growing more and more, as her dragon blood demanded of her. Her fleet of ships grew more and her dragons did as well, with even the smallest of them being nearly the size of Meleys, while the largest was now nearly 50% larger than Balerion the Black Dread and was still growing. Each of her three starter dragons were all nearly his size now. 

During all these years, she had not ignored her own training, and had continued to work on her various arts, primarily magic, swordsmanship, and forging. It was through this forging that she had started “The Forgery” a school that trained blacksmiths for her cities, and was the primary reason why her army now had high end gear. 

It was after the conquest of the smaller cities of Morosh and Saath that she had begun to fly her dragons into battle. Especially once she had begun to interact with the Dothraki, a force that she both wanted in her armies and disliked. 

She wanted them in her armies for their incredible skill for they are better than any rider in Westeros, and are likely the best riders in the world. They were also many in number, and were immensely skilled fighters that would do well in her armies, with there being so many of them, roughly 500,000 of them in total, only 200,000 of them being soldiers and the rest being women. 

It was due to this that she had finally begun to ride upon her dragons against the Dothraki, and had begun her great conquest of the Khalasars. 

For four years she had traveled throughout the Dothraki sea, slaughtering Khalasars and assimilating others, quickly becoming the one that they had revered as the “Khal of Khals” and the “Stallion that mounts the world”. Even though she was a woman, they seemed to believe that she was still a stallion, for she was better than any Dothraki in combat. 

By the time she had turned 30, she had a Khalasar of well over 125,000, and had conquered Vaes Dothrak for herself. The rest of the Dothraki, the 75,000, had been those that resisted the changes she wished to make, and had been…purged. 

They now served as her primary cavalry in her army, and even trained her other soldiers in the art of riding. 

It was at this point, after she had officially conquered the Dothraki for herself, that the news of her conquest had officially been allowed to be released, as the entirety of Essos began to hear rapid news about her conquest of Slaver's Bay, and several other cities like Qarth. 

And soon after that, sightings of her dragons became more and more common, as she began to move to the seas, purging her territories of pirates, either by offering them places in her navy for those that deserved it, or wiping out the others and stealing their ships and riches.

For the next two years, up until she had turned 32, she had dealt with various attempts at stopping her conquest, of attacks by minor cities that had trade with the ones she had conquered, but they soon found themselves conquered by her dragons, as she proudly showed them off, as well as her banners that now were portrayed in all the cities that she had conquered. 

[This but the red is black and the black background is red]

It was during this time that the unknown ruler of these cities had become known as the “Ruler of the Dragon Lands of Essos” as all her territories soon became more and more famous as mass amounts of slaves that were fleeing from the cities that still practiced it, began to flood to them, increasing her trade more and more while also requiring her to build upon the cities, increasing the sizes of them, improving the security, and more. 

But finally, after 15 years of conquering lands and building her power within Essos, her dragons growing as her own personal skill grew to new heights, Bale had received something that she had been waiting for. 

A letter from King's Landing

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That’s the end of the chapter!

So yeah, unlike Leandra, Balegelle is going all out not caring even a tiniest bit about holding back. Her armies number at around 200-300k, but she can’t realistically field that amount because of the way Essos is set up, the need to protect her own lands, and stuff like that. 

Current lands conquered: Slaver’s Bay, Qarth, Qohor, Volantis, Morosh, Saath, Norvos, Lorath, Greater Moraq, Lesser Moraq, Isle of the Basilisk, Port Yhos, Qarkash, Isle of Elephants, New Ghis, Vahar, Qal, Vaes Dothrak, and several other islands and minor cities in those areas. 

She also has conquered all cities that were under those major cities like Volantis and Lorath. Power wise she’s one of the most powerful individuals in the world, but Westeros still is stronger than her, without using her dragons at least. She has 7 dragons, all of them fully grown and still growing, albeit slower and slower the bigger they get. 

Love interests are Laena and Rhaenyra.

Anyways, have a good day!