Disclaimer I don't own a song of ice and fire or any of its characters, all I own are my OC's.
Dran's POV
After storing everything I had collected and harvested from my search for a predator I could skinchange into.
I decided it was time to investigate the knife that I let soak in my blood while I was away. As I drew closer to the stone Basin my anticipation grew, wondering if I successfully enchanted the knife or if it was just a useless stone soaking my blood for a few days.
When I looked into the stone basin all I saw was some old decomposing blood as I reached into it I pulled out the knife. It was stained a brownish red color from the blood but I could see no other visual changes, so I decided to test and see if there were any physical changes.
I grabbed the other knife made identical to this one and brought them both together sharply, with a loud crack of stone hitting stone I brought them closer to my eye to examine if any damage had been done to either of them.
Sadly as I looked they were both chipped and the chip in the one I had carved was slightly deeper than the one I had not, making this experiment a failure.
But I was not truly disappointed, after all it was my first try so I brushed away the slight disappointment and decided to try again.
After spending a few days in my cave making knives, amulets, and many other small Stone objects that were large enough to carve runes into.
After spending days making all of these objects, made of stone Dran decided that he had spent enough time crafting all of the objects he would use for his experiments with ruins.
While knowing the process he used the first time did not work he did not totally discard it, but instead tried it again and tried many other different ways and techniques all in the hope of finding a way in which he could infuse something with magic.
Dran tried many different techniques, from the first way he did it, to the use of a ritual circle all the way to sacrificing one of his goats and slitting its throat over some runes.
But after days of trial and error he finally succeeded. In the end it was something obvious if he had thought about it. The problem was that he wasn't speaking, his intent, nore focusing on what he wanted to happen.
Dran was simply carving a bunch of different runes and throwing some blood of it hoping something would happen but if that was all there was to enchantments then there would be thousands of enchanters and sorcerers.
No to successfully use magic Dran needed a combination of things first and most important was to have magic in your blood or a source of magic. The next most important step is knowledge to use said magic, third is the intent in which you use the magic and last but not least the skill to use said magic.
If you miss even one of those details the magic seems to fail or using it is almost impossible. In all but a few cases such as getting change ring or having prophetic dreams such as being a green tea or having dragon dreams examples being the three Ida Raven or Denny's the dreamer are both examples of a prophetic dreamer in the world of a Song of Ice and Fire they both have prophetic dreams and use them to their own advantage.
Dran's POV
from what I can tell there are three main categories of magic. those being instinctual magic, heritage magic, and language magic.
an example of language magic sometimes referred to as blood magic is most widely used is Essos,and before the coming of the Andles the first men also use language magic heavily examples being Storms End,many other ancient first men strongholds, and some houses like the Royce's of Rune Stone enchanted there armor and swords with runes. The children of the forest also used first men runes as well as their own language the True Tongue, the language of the children of the forest, in which they sing the songs of the earth. it is more than likely that the True Tongue is the first language. because before the first men ever came to Westeros, the children of the forest had lived there for thousands of years. The only other civilization that could claim that they were even close to that age is the "Great Empire of the Dawn". Situated roughly where YiTi is now.. it being the oldest civilization which has records of it actually existing. second runner up would beThe Old Empire of Ghis, the theory is that the first men came to Westeros through the Arm of Dorne sometime around the beginning of the The Old Empire of Ghis. but all of this is besides the point, with all of this knowledge I can make the more than likely true assumption that the True Tongue was the first language.
The second example of heritage magic is magic bound to a specific species or bloodline, examples of this being the children of the forest and the magic that they sing into the world, is something only they can perform. Another example of this are the Weight Walkers,Cold One, and there many other names. Having the power to control ice and cold along with their ability to control the dead is something only they can do on such a scale. and an example of a bloodline heritage would be the dragon Lords of Valeria, while all of their abilities were more than likely bound to their bloodlines through sorcery, they have a very high affinity for fire, blood magic, and dragons. The only other group of people with that much magic in their blood would be descendants of first men Kings like the Starks, Blackwood, and most other ancient houses in the north. instinctual magic is more along the line of magic that is difficult or impossible to control, it can manifest with anyone with magic in there blood, examples like the Starks dreaming through the eyes of their direwolves or random prophetic dreams or prophecies.and while skinchanging is an instinctual from of magic it is one the only forms of instinctual magics that one can learn to control. Then there is language magic. arguably this area of magic is the most powerful, there is elemental magic, runic magic, ritual magic, and spell-chanting magic. The reason that this type of magic is so far ahead in most cases to other forms of magic is because with these other forms of magic you have to be born with the talent to do so. but with language magic it is something you can learn as long as you have even a fraction of magic in your blood it is possible to learn so there has been thousands of years of research into this area. Since the other forms of magic have to be born with the talent to use them it makes it much harder to improve because you have to either learn of your own or find someone who did and learn from them and with them being so rare, making most practitioners of first men magic ammeters at best. and the only masters of their craft have been alive longer than should be humanly possible like the Ghost of High Heart, and the Three-eyed Raven, why you could somewhat consider Vermeer sick skins a master of skin changing compared to the three-eyed Raven he's like comparing a normal Warg to himself.
With all his trials and errors he began to improve his technique and learn from his mistakes. the thing that helped him improve the most was learning the reason he could not activate the rooms, which was obvious in hindsight with all the stories Manga and Anime Duran had red and watched in his past life it should have been obvious that there was more to Magic than having Magic and chanting a spell or carving rooms. So drain decided to Simply take a break and theorize why through all his attempts he had still accomplished no magic, and after hours of theorizing and coming up with ideas and discarding them just as quickly you thought back to all the literature he had read in his past life. thinking of all the fantasy stories he had read, which contained Magic in its story. and he came to a conclusion there was one thing that always came up that being emotions and intent when using Magic. like famous book series like the Harry Potter series or all the Witcher books and even somewhat in The Lord of the Rings trilogy, they all had something in common strong emotions produce a greater effect when casting Magic
So with that knowledge Tran started to attempt to enchant with rooms again and after several days of experimentation he finally succeeded. it was a simple stone in which dram carved ruins of resistance protection and cold carving them in a way in which he hoped would protect or give slight resistance to the cold after carving the rims he poured his entire Focus on the intent of prediction and cold and sliced a small cut on his forearm, as the blood weld up on his arm he brought it over the stone and let the blood that had welda ripped onto it focusing on the intent. using his slight anger and frustration to sharpen his Focus he then began to chant words in the old tongue, he had earlier contemplated what he should chant. Grand decided to make it as simple as possible, they were words of protection, the Heat of a warmer fire and resistance against the biting cold. After he finished speaking, which took no longer than a minute. he decided to rest and test all the objects he had tried to enchant the next day. as drain awoke in the morning he felt slight anticipation and some anxiety over whether or not he had succeeded, but signing that doing anything now will not change the past he simply got up fixed himself a hearty broth with some meat that had been dried earlier in the year to regain some strength, after all the blood he had dreamed from himself and well not being a fatal or very harmful amount it would weaken him over time if he did not maintain his strength. After eating his meal, he walked to the area of Eastgate in which he had been experimenting with rooms he walked by a relatively large pile of broken and discarded attempts. after all he had been attempting to learn to use rooms for a few months now,
Grand walked up to a large flat stone that he had his goats drag into the cave a few weeks earlier so he would not have to keep crouching on the floor to work. there were eight objects Made of Stone sitting on the large flat stone there were two simple flat stones slightly rough but not jagged, three small Stone knives, and three arrowheads, with the arrowheads he had carved runes of durability and piercing with a nine he carved Runes of durability and ruins to make it lighter and finally with the stones he caught one with simply durability another with heat resistance in the last one with protection and resistance to the cold. he decided to first test the arrowheads, to test them he got three regular arrowheads made of Stone or rather Flint then he shot all six arrows keyshot into a wooden log which he had brought to the caves months earlier. To his slight disappointment all the arrowheads Duran had crafted pierced into the law about the same amount, funnily enough one of the ones he did not carve into pierced further than the three he did. then he decided to test the stones, he got a stone the same type of stone similar in size to the one gay car ruins of durability onto he placed it on the ground and got a large Rock he slammed the rock down as hard as he could on one and with the same amount of force hit the other they both shattered into many pieces. and those slightly disappointed it is not as though he expected anything different at this point and while he would not give up he was becoming slightly disheartened because of the little to know progress he was making. he then picked up the stone with rooms of protection and cold resistance, feeling a slight tingle when he picked it up but brushing it off as nerves he simply held it in his hand and stuck his hand outside into the cold wind with no glove. and while still freezing he then dropped the Stone into his surprise and great excitement the moment he dropped the stone his hands became even colder. Thinking it was just his imagination he picked up the stone again and to his excitement and relief the moment he picked up the stone he felt the effects of the cold lesson and though not by much it was an unnatural amount. it wasn't simply a stone shielding him from parts of the wind or it being warmer than his hand the stone felt cold Yet it protected his hand slightly from the biting winds.
drain rushed back into his cave with excitement he finally succeeded and while he doubt it he would have ever given up, given enough time he would have put less Focus on this skill and would have decided to put most of his attention on skin changing as he had done before, but now that he finally gained some success and proof that he wasn't simply wasting time he knew that all the time spent carving into stone and wood was not in vain
Sorry for the wait. I was reediting all of my chapters.
Constructive criticism is appreciated,and any ideas any of you have for the story.