"Yes, I raise horses for the Khalasar, and I am loyal to you, Khaleesi! I have great merit! Even if I am old and weak, and not as strong as them, I am still far more qualified to be a Niru Leader."
Avanti muttered, his eyes brightening as he spoke, as if he had discovered a truth he had long ignored.
Seeing their expressions, Daenerys nodded inwardly: the power structure of the Horse People was beginning to change today.
Any stable political structure is shaped like a pyramid. The kind of foundation it has will build the kind of "peak" it supports.
Daenerys wanted the position at the peak of the Horse People's political structure to belong to "Emperor Dany," not "Khaleesi Dany." Therefore, the lower structure had to be changed.
The new political structure would spontaneously build the throne she desired and instinctively maintain this structure.
"From this day forward, merit—that is, one's contribution to the Khalasar—will determine a person's position and status. Do you agree?" Daenerys asked her Niru Leaders loudly.
"We agree!" they replied in unison, without a moment's hesitation.
Of course they agreed!
For in Daenerys's new regime, they might not be the strongest warriors, but they would certainly be the ones with the greatest merit—the merit of dragons!
As time passed, even if the *khalasar* grew ever larger and even unified the Dothraki Sea, they would still be able to guarantee their own interests.
This was about protecting their own interests; anyone who disagreed would be a fool.
"I always feel that Her Highness has brought about some... I don't know how to describe it... huge change to the Dothraki."
Seeing the excited Daenerys and her *niru* leaders on the deck, Jorah felt a sense of something big happening in his heart, yet he wasn't sure exactly what it was.
"From now on, the Dothraki of Her Highness's *khalasar* will only recognize her alone. After her death, it will be her offspring. As long as the dragons grow up, the Dothraki will change their surname to Targaryen." Whitebeard's eyes widened, his body trembling continuously in shock. "She really is a Targaryen, a born king, perhaps the greatest king of House Targaryen."
"More than Aegon the Conqueror?" Jorah said in disbelief.
"Perhaps, Aegon's heart was not as broad as hers." The old man muttered.
He actually wanted to say ambition, but the old man was also not sure if Her Highness did this on purpose or did it unintentionally.
Daenerys walked up to a Dothraki slave and asked in Dothraki, "Will you join my khalasar and obey my laws?"
The young Dothraki woman, barely twenty, stole a timid glance at her before immediately lowering her gaze. Her voice was as faint as a mosquito's buzz. "I will obey the Khaleesi."
"Bow your head," Daenerys commanded.
The Dothraki woman obediently lowered her head, and Daenerys personally unlocked the bronze collar around her neck.
*Clatter!* The heavy collar crashed onto the wooden deck. The Dothraki woman seemed to shed a crushing weight from her shoulders, her posture suddenly becoming light and free.
"You are free. Now, you are once again a wild horseman."
"Sob... sob..." For some reason, hearing the Khaleesi's soft words, the Dothraki woman burst into tears of joy.
Daenerys ignored her and moved to the next slave. "Join my khalasar. I will give you freedom and dignity, but you must swear to obey my laws. Will you?"
"I will, Khaleesi."
*Thud. Thud. Thud.* Collar after collar was removed, and one by one, the slaves became new members of the khalasar.
"My first law, reward by merit, you already know. Now, I proclaim my second decree: the introduction of the institution of marriage."
Daenerys swept her gaze across the Dothraki and declared, "In the name of the Khaleesi, I swear that your marriages will be protected and blessed by the entire Khalasar and my dragons."
"Any act of seizing another's wife shall be deemed unlawful."
"Similarly, marriage shall be a matter of free will. The union of a man and a woman must be voluntary; coercion is strictly forbidden. Otherwise, their marriage will not only be denied protection and blessing but will also be subject to punishment."
"Children born to a married couple shall have the right to inherit their parents' horses, arakhs, bows, and other property."
Though titles did not yet exist among the Dothraki, she knew they would inevitably emerge—or something akin to them. When that time came, she would include titles as inheritable assets.
*Lesser nobles inherit titles, while only the greatest noble inherits the throne!*
Daenerys went on to elaborate, her words weaving together what she believed to be the most advanced marriage laws of the age.
Yet, as she spoke, a seed of doubt took root in her mind. It wasn't that she feared the Dothraki would disobey her decrees, but rather that she wondered if they could even remember them all.
After all, the Dothraki had a language, but no written script.
She couldn't even draft a public notice that everyone could read.
Still, Daenerys found a scroll of parchment and inscribed the two laws—"Reward for Merit" and "Protection of Marriage"—in black and white.
She used High Valyrian script.
There was no fundamental difference between High Valyrian and City Valyrian. The former was the script and language of the ancient Valyrians, while the latter had incorporated local dialects and accents, as well as elements of the local script.
It was much like how French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese all belong to the Latin language family, yet remain distinct from Latin itself.
Of course, the differences between the various City Valyrian dialects were not as vast as those between national languages; they were more akin to regional dialects within the Middle Kingdom.
Though Daenerys had never received a formal education, Viserys had.
It would be strange if the Targaryens couldn't speak High Valyrian. But Daenerys, having wandered through many cities in the West, had also learned a fair amount of City Valyrian.
After finishing the text, Daenerys signed her full name on the back. Then, in her Dragon Spirit form, she nudged Great Black to sign his own name—a crude but remarkably lifelike self-portrait.
The onlookers watched in awe, and this only served to invisibly bolster the sanctity of the *Code of the Horse People*.
Finally, Daenerys had all the Niru Leaders sign and seal the document. She wrote their names first, and the Horse People followed her lead, tracing the characters and then pressing their fingerprints onto the parchment.
*Hmm, the names are all transliterated, losing almost all their meaning in Dothraki.*
*For example, that "-go" sound. So many Dothraki names have it: Drogo, Rago, Ago, Jogo, Hago.*
*"-go" in Dothraki means strong and brave. After transliteration, the hidden meaning is completely gone.*
*The Dothraki may be savage, but they take their oaths very seriously. Now, signing their names is almost like swearing an oath.*
*At this moment, only the ten-man captains are signing. In the future, they might grow to become khals, or even leaders of a khalasar.*
*In this way, Daenerys's laws will be implemented among this generation. When the next generation grows up, the second generation will face a form of oppression from their fathers—the "ancestral laws."*
*When the second generation, who grew up under these ancestral laws, grows old, they will unconsciously pressure the third generation to obey the rules they've been accustomed to for a lifetime.*
*If this continues, as long as Daenerys's Horse Lord Empire does not collapse in a short period (at least three generations), her rules will become "common knowledge" among the Dothraki.*
*Whether she can establish a thousand-year empire for House Targaryen, Daenerys wasn't sure, but she knew that the level of civilization of the Dothraki would definitely take a giant leap forward.*
This "Khalasar Reform" was no mere whim. Dany had decided to undertake a monumental task that would shake the world.
The reforms for the Dothraki were merely a trial run.
Holding the *Code of the Horse People* aloft, Dany continued, "Rewards for merit will be implemented immediately. However, the marriage system cannot be established overnight. We will proceed in three steps."
"First, we will create several 'model couples' to give everyone a direct sense of the benefits and operation of the marriage system."
"Second, we will open the marriage system to everyone. All Horse People of this Khalasar may freely choose to marry, or to remain unattached."
"Third, all newborn Horse People must have clearly identified parents. Children born outside of marriage will be considered bastards."
While the Dothraki processed this information, Dany smiled at Jorah and the others. "I have thought of a surname for the Dothraki bastards. Following the tradition of the Seven Kingdoms, how about 'Godzilla'?"
The most abundant and cheapest thing in the Dothraki Sea was grass. Logically, 'Grass' would be more accurate than 'Godzilla,' but bastard surnames always carried a certain variation.
Take Blackfyre, for example. The correct spelling should be "Blackfire," but the actual name is "Blackfyre." Similarly, the "water" in Waters was changed.
Daenerys's approach did not violate the traditions of the Seven Kingdoms.
"Don't ordinary Dothraki lack surnames?" Whitebeard asked dismissively. "Even Khal Drogo doesn't have one. Now these bastards have a surname like 'Godzilla'? Isn't that encouraging everyone to father bastards?"
Daenerys gave the old man a mysterious smile. "You'll see. They will gradually develop surnames."
"How? Surnames are ancestral and carry special meaning. You can't just hand them out randomly, can you?" Whitebeard shook his head.
*Heh heh heh, you old foreigners are still too narrow-minded.*
How did surnames originate in the Great Heavenly Empire?
Surnames first appeared among the nobility. The common folk had no surnames at all. So where did the nobles' surnames come from?
Most evolved from the names of their fiefs.
In the future, Daenerys would use surnames as a reward, bestowing them upon meritorious officials.
As for the commoners without any merit, they could just wait for the nobles to knock up their daughters and wives!
*Well, whether the children are actually theirs doesn't matter. At least let the nobles believe they are the ones who sired them.*
"Or, we could learn from the Japanese. A child born in a rice field is named 'Tanaka,' one by a bridge is 'Watanabe,' and one by a stream is 'Kawaguchi.'"
Whitebeard pondered for a moment, then said hesitantly to Dany, "You shouldn't have allowed the Blood Oathsworn to marry and have children."
"You mean I should adopt the Kingsguard system?"
"Yes, that is the only way to ensure their hearts belong entirely to you," the old man replied.
Dany didn't consider Whitebeard's words to be heresy. Centuries of history had already proven the Kingsguard system's effectiveness. In the three hundred years of Targaryen history, hundreds of Kingsguards had served. Aside from Jaime Lannister, most of them had only minor flaws in character; their loyalty to their monarchs had never wavered fundamentally.
There were only three Kingsguards of any renown who had truly disgraced their vows: one slept with the King's mistress (not the Queen), another secretly fathered a brood of bastards (Kingsguards were sworn to celibacy, forbidden even from holding hands), and the last was Jaime, who killed the King.
Compared to the countless men who died defending their lords, the proportion of traitors was infinitesimally small.
One could say that the Kingsguard was to the knightly culture of Westeros what dragons were to the magical civilization of Valyria.
(End of Chapter)