Playing With Dolls:
A Game of Thrones/Black Rock Shooter Crossover
On Dolls:
Regarding Their Arrival, Their Origins, Their Features, and Their Awakening
It was in the Two-Hundred and Eighty-First Year since the Conquest, during the reign of the Targaryen King Aerys, the Second of His Name, that stars fell from the heavens, and in every place where they struck upon the world, a Doll was found.
In those early days of utter fascination and terror, every man and woman fancied themselves to be a mummer, maester, or even septon, as they told each other so many different stories about the strange women and girls that fell from the sky that even the Citadel, so committed its membership always is to the hoarding of the sum total of all human knowledge, has long given up the task of recording every possible theory as to their inscrutable origins.
The septons and true believers of the Faith once were of two minds regarding the Dolls.
A fair number, if not a great many, feared them to be spawned of every evil from across the world and beyond: Witches from Asshai. Monsters from Sothoryos. Even the dreaded Others from ages past. The ones who led mobs and soldiers to destroy the Dolls would then swiftly discover that they were capable of terrifying power in combat, using their monstrous blades, giant, nightmarish mounts, and impossible bolt-throwers to cut down great numbers of men with greater ease than farmers harvesting their grain.
This idea that they are monsters sent to destroy all humanity fell out of favor, however, when people stopped attacking the Dolls, and they in turn ceased to retaliate, seemingly content to no longer be assaulted. Thus, the septons teach that the Dolls came from the Gods, though they disagree as to whether they came from one of the Gods, some of them, or all of them. The most popular teaching preached by the septons is that the Dolls were a collaboration between the Maiden, the Smith, and the Warrior that was ordered or blessed by the Father so as to test the Faithful's adherence to their laws.
Among the maesters, discussion of where the Dolls came from was put aside in favor of the rigorous documentation of everything there was to be learned of what the Dolls looked like and how they functioned. Every Doll had these in common: They appeared alike as to women and girls on the cusp of womanhood; they had unblemished pale-white or ashen-grey skin; they had metal on their forms in the place of limbs, adorning their heads, and/or in their powerful weapons; they were faster and stronger than any man or creature, being made of some strange, durable materials that function alike to flesh, that heals itself far faster, but also does not appear to grow or change into something new – this applies also to their strange, often scandalous garb, always black or dark grey.
The stories the mummers give as to how the Dolls came to be were largely as swiftly forgotten as they were swiftly made, with only a small number becoming told widely enough that they were recorded.
The Metalsmith in the Moon tells the story of a man on the Moon who worked as a metalsmith to make dolls to play with his lonely and beloved daughter. But eventually, both father and daughter would pass away, and the dolls would leave the Moon for the world below to find other children to play with.
The Toybox of the Gods held the many games and toys that the gods used to entertain themselves and their Faithful in the Seven Heavens. One great collection of dolls used for games of mock battle and dress-up so enamored the Faithful that they asked the gods to share them with those still in the material world. The gods saw merit in the idea, and sent them down. This story, despite its popularity, is considered by large parts of the Faith as to be borderline heretical, if not outright blasphemous.
The Daughters of the Stars spins a bard of how an ancient city of magic, because of the great hubris of its people, was doomed by the gods to destruction by subjecting them to disaster after disaster. The people pleaded with the gods for mercy, and they only conceded to allow the innocent virgins of the city to leave. Two ships were made, one for the boys and men, the other for the girls and women. The ships were set to leave, but then the final disaster of a horde of monsters befell the city. The men stayed to fight, and so they would die, and only the ship of the girls and women escaped destruction, but not without damage. They would repair themselves with their magic with forged metal to repair their bodies, and arm themselves so they would not be helpless, and would drift in the stars in search of safe harbor. And just as soon as they did, their vessel was assaulted, and they tumbled from the stars to the earth.
Whatever disagreements between the mummers, maesters, and septons the one truth of the Dolls to which all agree upon without question is that they are not of this world.
They have been given many different names over the years in the many places they fell, based on the various characteristics they shared. The Free City of Lys called them the Beauties, for although they all had various types and shapes of faces, no one would call any of them ugly, or even plain. The Dothraki called them the Sleepless Warriors, as they had no need to sleep. Indeed, they did not even have a need to eat, nor even to breathe. The cities of Slaver's Bay called them Trinkets, in acknowledgment of their impossibly-crafted metal limbs and weapons.
Here, in Westeros, we call them Dolls, for like the dolls we give our children, they are not human like we are, and are each the receptors of our feelings and imagination.
But most of all, it is because they are among the most important toys that are played with in the permanent contest of politics that many highborn call the Game of Thrones, ever since they began Awakening.
The debate as to precisely when the Dolls began Awakening, which one Awoke first or even why they Awaken at all unfortunately is more poetic or theological rather than rigorously academic, but by the time Robert's Rebellion had ended, all the Seven Kingdoms, and the world at large, became aware of what was happening to the Dolls.
Before, Dolls were divided between those that stayed in place wherever they landed, sometimes allowing themselves to be moved if approached with hostility, or those that wandered about with any discernable direction or purpose.
But then, their eyes, dull and grey, would alight with the brightness of a candle in any color of the rainbow in any shade, from the deepest red to the brightest purple. And they would then begin to speak, their face would express human emotion, and they would begin to act with the agency of a person, to fulfill whatever design they set upon themselves to do.
And as the first Awakened Dolls showed, there is little that can stop them, beyond the power of other Dolls.
The first Awakened Doll to be made known to Westeros was Strength, whose joining in common cause with Lord John Arryn has long since been taken as a sign of the Gods' favor turning from the Targaryens to the Baratheons, especially after her combat prowess forced the Trial at the Trident, wherein Robert and Rhaegar dueled to the death and Robert won.
The second Awakened Doll made her presence known soon after, one Black Gold Saw, who, joined in confidence with Lord Tywin Lannister, would knock down King's Landing's gates, breach the Red Keep, easily overpower the Kingsguard, and slaughter the whole royal family there.
The third Awakened Doll appeared when Lord Eddard Stark and his party, in the course of fighting Ser Arthur Dayne to free his sister Lyanna from the Tower of Joy, were attacked by a Dead-Eyed Doll reacting to the fighting. This Doll, named Black Rock Shooter, fought and destroyed the Dead-Eyed Doll, saving Lord Stark and his compatriot Ser Howland Reed, but not Ser Arthur Dayne. They would also fail to save Lyanna Stark.
These Dolls were but the first. Of the thousands of Dolls whose appearances and locations have been documented by the Citadel and other centers of learning in Essos, hundreds of them have Awakened, each of them granting power and status to whoever they bond themselves to, whether they be kings or stable boys. And with each one that Awakens, the dangers of war, already great before, are magnified to such heights that haven't been seen since dragons last soared through the skies. A truth made plain with the failed Greyjoy Rebellion and the Destruction of Pyke.
But, even as the Awakened become further and further ingrained into the world, constantly reshaping the balance of power everywhere they appear, and making themselves known as individuals, the questions as to the truth of their origins, making, and purpose remain unknown, even to them.
Work written and compiled by Archmaester Perestan of the Citadel
Personal Note: Seventeen years have passed since the Arrival, and the Hand of the King, Lord John Arryn grows advanced in age. King Robert, First of His Name, goes North with his Royal Family, to personally invite Lord Stark to King's Landing, so that they may be at their adopted father's side before his passing, and so that Eddard Stark may take his place as Hand…