ERTAÇ ALTINÖZ
Copyright
HarperVoyager
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First published by HarperCollinsPublishers 2022
Copyright © George R.R. Martin 2022
Cover illustration © Larry Rostant
Cover design by Claire Ward © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2022
Title-page illustration by Ertaç Altinöz
George R.R. Martin asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008557102
Ebook Edition © October 2022 ISBN: 9780008557119
Version: 2022-09-21
COVER
TITLE PAGE
COPYRIGHT
PREFACE
The Conquest
The Seven Kingdoms
The Stormlands
The Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers
The Reach
The Westerlands
The Vale
The North
Dorne
The Arrival of the Targaryens
Aegon’s Landing and Conquest
The Reign of Aegon I
The Dragon’s Wars
The Dragon’s Governance
The Dragon’s Kin
The Reign of Aenys I
Ascension and Rebellion
Royal Tensions
The Reign of Maegor I
Bloody Coronation
War with the Faith Militant
Death in the Royal House
The Black Brides
The Reign of Jaehaerys I
The Regency
The Early Reign
The King’s Works
The Later Reign
The Reign of Viserys I
Apex of Power
The Seeds of War
The Reign of Aegon II
The Dance of the Dragons
The Death of Dragons
The Regency of Aegon III
The Council of Regents
War and Peace
Conspiracies
TARGARYEN LINEAGE
INDEX
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER
Valyria after the Doom.
PAOLO PUGGIONI
THE HISTORY OF Westeros stretches back thousands of years, but the period in which House Targaryen unified the various realms into the Seven Kingdoms as we know them covers less than three hundred. The history of the family goes back further than that, however, to its beginnings in the Freehold of Valyria. The Targaryens were an ancient and noble lineage—dragonlords who bred and rode the great beasts that had extended the Freehold’s power across western Essos—yet they were still a relatively minor family among the great Valyrian houses. When Aenar Targaryen sold his lands and properties and moved his entire family and their dragons to Valyria’s westernmost outpost, the isle called Dragonstone in the narrow sea, his rivals thought him a coward. Little did they know that his daughter, Daenys the Dreamer, had foretold the Doom of Valyria. Twelve years later, the Freehold was destroyed in a cataclysm when the volcanic Fourteen Flames erupted, shattering the Valyrian peninsula and the empire along with it. In the chaos that followed, all the dragonlords of Valyria perished, along with their dragons … apart from the Targaryens on their rocky isle of Dragonstone.
What follows in this book is a guide to the first half of that period, beginning with Aegon’s Conquest through the end of the regency of Aegon III Dragonbane.
The Field of Fire.
RENÉ AIGNER
A map of Westeros.
FRANCESCA BAERALD
BEGINNING IN THE year 2 BC (Before the Conquest), Aegon Targaryen and his sisters launched their invasion of Westeros with the intention of unifying the entire continent under their rule. Opposing them were seven individual kingdoms, each with a unique history stretching back thousands of years. Before discussing the events of the conquest, it seems prudent to take a moment to examine each of these varying realms, and their rulers, as they existed at the time.
The Stormlands
The stormlands are centered around the rainwood—the heavily forested south-eastern region of Westeros—and are bordered to the north by the Blackwater River, to the south by the Dornish Marches, and to the west by the Reach. Legends claim that the first Storm King was Durran Godsgrief, who gained the enmity of the gods of wind and sea when he won the love of their daughter, Elenei. Durran raised a succession of castles for himself and his Elenei that the gods then repeatedly destroyed, until a young boy helped Durran raise a seventh castle. Due to its massive curtain walls and drum tower, this castle could withstand the gods’ fury, and was ever after known as Storm’s End. The boy would become Bran the Builder, and House Durrandon ruled for thousands of years from its seat at Storm’s End.
The Storm King Arlan III expanded the realm by conquering the riverlands some four hundred years before the Conquest, stretching the domain of House Durrandon from the narrow sea to the Sunset Sea. Yet three centuries later, the Storm King Arrec lost the riverlands to Harwyn Hoare, a king of the Iron Islands. Arrec’s two subsequent attempts to regain the riverlands failed, and a third attempt—under Arrec’s son, Arlan V—ended in Arlan’s death. Arlan V’s successor was his young son Argilac, later known as Argilac the Arrogant, who would be the last of the Storm Kings.
As a boy, Argilac turned back an attempted Dornish invasion, and his reputation only grew from there. He joined an alliance with several of the Free Cities against Volantis and killed King Garse VII Gardener at the Battle of Summerfield. His only heir at the time of the Conquest was his daughter, Argella.
Argilac the Arrogant.
THOMAS DENMARK
The Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers
Although the histories of Westeros seem certain that the Iron Islands were settled by the First Men, the priests of the Drowned God on the Iron Islands claim that the ironborn are a people apart, created in the image of their god. Whatever the truth, the Iron Islands have a long history of maritime activity, fishing the rich waters, trading tin and iron ore, and sending reavers and pirates to pillage and make war on the “greenlands.”
The archipelago contains thirty-one islands, of which there are seven major inhabited ones. Legends claim that the Grey King ruled the isles in the Age of Heroes, but any details of his reign are lost to the mists of time. What is more certain is that each isle had a salt king and a rock king, each elected to these offices, until the priest Galon Whitestaff convinced the ironborn to unify by electing a High King at the first ever kingsmoot.
The centuries-long era of these High Kings—called the driftwood kings for their wooden crowns—brought the Iron Islands to the apex of their power. During the reign of Qhored the Cruel, the ironborn held much of the western shore of Westeros under their dominion. These gains were slowly lost, however—especially after Urron Greyiron and his supporters slaughtered his rivals at the last kingsmoot, establishing the first hereditary high kingship. The turmoil that followed on the Iron Islands made it easier for the mainland kingdoms to drive out the ironborn, until the great Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers was reduced once more to just the Iron Islands.
It would take centuries, and House Hoare succeeding the Greyirons as kings, for the ironborn to begin to reclaim their lost ground in the riverlands. Most notably, King Harwyn Hoare, known as Hardhand, launched an invasion of the riverlands, driving out the Storm Kings who then controlled the Trident. Harwyn’s grandson, Harren the Black, would rule the united Kingdom of the Isles and the Rivers until the Conquest, beggaring the riverlords by erecting an enormous castle by the Gods Eye. This castle, Harrenhal, took forty years to complete—and the histories say that the massive fortress was finished on the very day that Aegon Targaryen and his sisters set foot on Westeros at the start of the Conquest.
The Reach
The most fertile and populous region in the Seven Kingdoms, the Reach, is also one of the largest (though dwarfed by the size of the North). It dominates the south-western portion of the continent, bordered by the foothills of the westerlands to its north, the Red Mountains of Dorne to the south, and the marches of the stormlands to the east. The Kingdom of the Reach claims an ancient connection to the first High King of all the First Men, Garth Greenhand. Powerful and potent, Garth allegedly fathered scores of children from whom many houses of the Reach claim descent. The most notable of these was House Gardener, who established their seat at Highgarden beside the mighty river known as the Mander. Over the centuries, the Gardeners would expand their domain beyond the central plains of the Reach, stretching from the shores of the Sunset Sea in the west to the stormlands in the east, and from the foothills of the westerlands and the Blackwater in the north to the Red Mountains of Dorne in the south.
The Gardener kings ruled their Green Realm for millennia, weathering the arrival of the Andals by adopting their ways and making the Reach the birthplace of chivalry and knighthood in Westeros. Mern IX was the latest in a long line of kings (and one queen) to rule the Reach when the Targaryens first appeared in Westeros. The future of House Gardener seemed secure against this latest invasion, however, as Mern commanded the greatest army in Westeros, as well as having sons and grandsons to spare to secure his succession—and many other male kinsmen besides.
The Westerlands
A land of rugged hills in the west of the continent, the westerlands at the time of the Conquest stretched from the shores of the Sunset Sea in the west to the foothills from which the rivers Tumblestone and Red Fork issue in the east, and were bounded to the north by Ironman’s Bay, while the lands of the Reach bordered them to the south. In ancient times, the First Men discovered plentiful gold and silver in the rugged hills and rolling plains of the westerlands.
King Mern IX, King Loren I, and their armies.
JOHN MCCAMBRIDGE
The Casterlys were among the most powerful lords of the west, secure at Casterly Rock: the huge stone hill riddled with seemingly endless gold mines beneath it. But legends hold that Lann the Clever tricked the Casterlys out of control of their castle. His descendants were plentiful, but chief among these were the Lannisters, who would carve out a kingdom from their seat at Casterly Rock. When the Andals arrived, the Lannisters initially made war against them, but soon began to use them as mercenaries and allies in order to expand their realm. Before long, the Lannisters controlled the whole of the westerlands instead of just the port city of Lannisport and the lands around the Rock.
Many wars wracked the Seven Kingdoms before the Conquest and the Kings of the Rock were frequently at the center of these conflicts. They regularly battled the kings of the riverlands, the Iron Islands, and the Reach. Sometimes, however, these kings formed shifting alliances, uniting against a common enemy.
At the time Aegon Targaryen was turning his attention to Westeros, the King of the Rock was Loren I, who oversaw a brief period of peace with the Kingdom of the Reach.
The Vale
When the Andals invaded Westeros, it was in the Vale that they first settled. The fertile valley surrounded by the Mountains of the Moon would soon come to be ruled by House Arryn, considered the oldest and purest line of Andal nobility. The founder of the dynasty was Ser Artys Arryn, who in later centuries would often be confused with the legendary Artys Arryn, the Winged Knight, of the Age of Heroes. Ser Artys defeated the existing High King of the Vale, Robar II Royce—who had attempted to expel the Andals—at the Battle of Seven Stars and became Artys I, King of Mountain and Vale. The First Men that survived the battle and did not submit to Artys’s rule fled into the Mountains of the Moon, becoming the ancestors of the lawless clans that still call the mountains their home.
Over time, Artys and his descendants extended their rule beyond the Vale and the Fingers, seeking control over various nearby isles both great and small. Most notably, the Arryns spent centuries fighting the northmen for control of the Three Sisters—and ultimately succeeded in incorporating the islands into their domain.
At the time of the Conquest, the wearer of the Falcon Crown of the Vale was Ronnel Arryn, a mere boy. He was the eldest son of Sharra Arryn, who ruled as Queen Regent in her son’s name.
Torrhen Stark.
WOUTER FLORUSSE
The North
The North is—and always has been—the largest region of the Seven Kingdoms, stretching unbroken from the swamps of the Neck all the way to the Wall, and from the Sunset Sea to the narrow sea. Though continuously inhabited since the arrival of the First Men, the North remains the least populous of the Seven Kingdoms, due to the harshness of its climate and its often deadly winters.
Many lords and petty kings have claimed dominion over patches of the North, but it was the Starks of Winterfell—claiming descent from the legendary Bran the Builder—who succeeded in unifying the region through both alliances and warfare. They conquered the Barrow Kings in the Thousand Years War, and also the Warg King, the Marsh Kings, the Red Kings of House Bolton, and the barbarous men of the island of Skagos. Under the rule of the legendary Theon Stark, the North was the only realm of First Men to survive the coming of the Andals—not only throwing them back, but even launching their own attacks on Andalos, according to legend.
The Starks would be known thereafter as the Kings in the North and the Kings of Winter. Their chief enemies were the ever-present reavers from the Iron Islands and the wildling raiders from beyond the Wall. At one time they also fought the War Across the Water—a conflict of several generations in which the Starks attempted to seize control of the Three Sisters while the Kings of Mountain and Vale opposed them—but the Starks ultimately withdrew from that conflict. The King in the North prior to the Conquest was Torrhen Stark.
Dorne
As the southernmost region of Westeros, Dorne is a harsh land of wide deserts, dangerous coasts, and high red mountains. Much of the land is parched, save for the more temperate regions in the mountains and those watered by the rivers Greenblood, Vaith, and Scourge. The histories say that the First Men first came to Dorne over the land bridge that connected Essos to Westeros—a bridge that the children of the forest, according to legend, then destroyed with their magic to stem the tide of the invaders. The Broken Arm, as it became known, formed the easternmost part of the region, which then stretched all the way west to the Sunset Sea, and north to the Marches. Like the First Men, the Andals made incursions into Dorne as well, though they also never gained dominion.
Unlike the other regions of Westeros, Dorne remained a patchwork of petty kingdoms for thousands of years, with many royal houses rising and falling. The strangest such kingship was the confederation that formed along the Greenblood, where a dozen noble houses would elect a High King from among their number—though this kingdom eventually fell into warfare, fracturing into lesser petty realms.
Some seven hundred years prior to the arrival of Aegon Targaryen, Dorne eventually coalesced under the rule of Nymeria—a Rhoynish princess who led her people (mostly women, old men, and youths) out of Essos following the Valyrian destruction of both the Rhoynar cities and army. Wedding herself to Lord Mors Martell—an ambitious nobleman in the south of Dorne—Nymeria and her people joined with the Martell forces and set about subduing rival lords and kings, unifying Dorne under their rule. Forever after, women have been included in the Dornish laws of inheritance, holding equal status to men.
In the centuries after, the Martells maintained their rule over Dorne, warring with the Storm Kings and the Kings of the Reach across the Dornish Marches. At the time Aegon Targaryen’s gaze fell on Westeros, the Princess of Dorne was Meria Martell: an aged, fat woman derisively called “the Yellow Toad” by her rivals.
Meria Martell.
THOMAS DENMARK
Dragonstone.
ALLEN DOUGLAS
THE FIRST MEN and then the Andals both settled the rocky isles of Blackwater Bay, making themselves lords and living by piracy and fishing. The largest of these islands, dominated by the volcanic Dragonmont, would come to be known as Dragonstone.
Two hundred years before the Doom, the Freehold of Valyria sent an expedition to seize Dragonstone and make it the westernmost outpost of its vast empire. The citadel that they raised there to guard their new possession was shaped by Valyrian magic into an imposing structure impossible to create by any other means—with towers shaped like dragons, doorways that gaped like the mouths of dragons, and hundreds of gargoyles adorning the wall, forming a menagerie of fanciful beasts that bristled from the stone.
Twelve years prior to the Doom, Aenar Targaryen moved his kin, treasures, and dragons to Dragonstone after his maiden daughter, Daenys the Dreamer, foretold the destruction of Valyria. The Targaryens thus became the only dragonlords to survive both the Doom and the war-torn years called the Century of Blood that followed. Over that century, the Targaryens looked more to the east than to the west, however, busy with the various machinations and wars between the Free Cities in the aftermath of the Doom.
The Targaryens continued the Valyrian custom of wedding brother to sister, but when Aegon Targaryen came of age, he chose to wed not one but two of his sisters: his elder sister Visenya, stern and rumored to practice sorcery, and his younger sister Rhaenys, vibrant and impulsive. All three were dragonriders, each commanding their own great dragon.
Aegon Targaryen had initially made his reputation by joining a grand alliance against Volantis, commanding his dragon Balerion—known as the Black Dread—to burn a Volantene fleet threatening the Free City of Lys. But unlike his predecessors, Aegon showed more interest in Westeros after the fighting in Essos began to abate, exploring the Reach and possibly the Westerlands as well. It was at his command that the Painted Table was made, carved in the shape of the continent and painted to show the mountains, forests, castles, towns, and rivers of Westeros. Notably, however, no borders were ever painted to mark the different kingdoms, presaging what Aegon must have been planning—bringing all of Westeros under his rule.
Aegon joins the grand alliance.
SAM KEISER
Balerion burning Harrenhal.
MARC SIMONETTI
THOUGH THE END of Targaryen involvement in the wars between the Free Cities enabled Aegon and his sisters to look to the west, it’s not clear why they decided to take the risk of invading Westeros. The only clear precipitating event seems to be when Argilac the Arrogant, the Storm King, offered the hand of his only daughter Argella to Aegon, along with a dowry of lands beyond the Blackwater. Argilac made this offer in hopes of finding an ally against Harren the Black—the cruelest and most feared king in Westeros at the time. The ironborn had seized the riverlands from the Storm Kings three generations earlier, and Argilac wanted the territory back.
Aegon noted that he already had two wives and did not need a third, so he countered by offering his boon companion and bastard half-brother, Orys Baratheon, as a husband for Argella instead. Misunderstanding the bond between Aegon and Orys, Argilac saw the offer of this baseborn man as an insult, and responded by chopping off Aegon’s envoy’s hands and sending them back to Dragonstone in a box. In response, Aegon gathered his vassals and allies at Dragonstone. Among them were two nominal vassals of the Storm King—Lords Massey and Bar Emmon—who had for many years been more closely associated with the Targaryens.
Six days of debate followed, and on the seventh day ravens flew to every corner of Westeros to announce that Aegon would now be the only king in the land. Shortly after, Aegon and his sisters set sail from their island fortress of Dragonstone with their dragons and a small army—no more than three thousand strong, though some accounts number it more like a few hundred—to begin the Conquest on the mainland. They arrived unopposed at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush, where three hills rose tall above a small fishing village. There the Targaryens erected a simple earth-and-timber palisade upon the highest of the hills, and proceeded to gain control of the river’s mouth and the surrounding lands.
This region had been fought over for centuries, traded off between the kings of the riverlands and the Storm Kings. Some lords submitted to Aegon swiftly, but the Darklyns of Duskendale and the Mootons of Maidenpool joined together with three thousand men and marched on the Targaryen position. Orys Baratheon met them by land while Aegon descended on them from above on Balerion, and both lords were killed while the men they led surrendered and bent the knee.
After this, Aegon had himself crowned by Visenya, and hailed as the King of All Westeros by Rhaenys, in a ceremony witnessed by a handful of lords and knights at the Aegonfort—the crude castle on what would come to be called Aegon’s High Hill. And there he first displayed the banner of the three-headed red dragon on black that would be borne by his descendants. Accepting the fealty of those who surrendered, he also granted offices to his most loyal supporters, establishing his court. The rest of the Seven Kingdoms responded to this brash act by readying for war against their new king—or, in the case of Dorne and the Vale, making overtures of alliance, which Aegon then rejected.
Aegon’s campaign to conquer the Seven Kingdoms began in earnest a few days later. He divided his forces into three parts, each attacking a different enemy. Orys Baratheon and Queen Rhaenys, riding on Meraxes, led the main host south across the Blackwater, invading Argilac’s domain. The newly named admiral, Daemon Velaryon, led the Targaryen fleet against the Vale, accompanied by Queen Visenya on Vhagar. And King Aegon on Balerion flew above a smaller army marching north-west against King Harren the Black.
The Velaryons were a lesser house of Valyrian descent, and thus always closely aligned with their more powerful Targaryen allies. Like the Targaryens, they shared the same silver-blonde hair and purple eyes so characteristic of those with High Valyrian blood, though they possessed no dragons.
Each of these armies met resistance and setbacks. At the Battle of the Gullet, two-thirds of the Targaryen fleet was destroyed or captured, and the master of ships himself, Lord Velaryon, lost his life. At the crossing of the Wendwater, when the Storm King’s vassals fell on Orys Baratheon’s forces, a thousand men perished. And at the Battles of the Reeds, Harren the Black’s forces led a series of attacks against Aegon’s host, while two of Harren’s sons led longships across the Gods Eye to fall on Aegon’s rear at the Wailing Willows.
But complete disaster was averted each time thanks to the Targaryen dragons. Visenya’s Vhagar burned many of the Vale’s ships, as well as the Braavosi sellsails Queen Regent Sharra had hired, before she withdrew with the remaining Targaryen fleet. Rhaenys’s dragon Meraxes set the rainwood ablaze and destroyed the holdings of the stormlords Errol, Buckler, and Fell. And Balerion the Black Dread burned the longships carrying Harren’s briefly victorious sons, sending them both to watery graves.
Yet even as these battles were ongoing, others saw opportunity in the Targaryen invasion. Pirates and Dornish raiders beset the lands of the Storm King while Argilac was distracted; the Three Sisters rose in rebellion and crowned Marla Sunderland as their queen while the Vale was otherwise occupied; and the long-suffering riverlords rose up against Harren the Black under the leadership of Lord Edmyn Tully. Allying themselves with Aegon, the riverlords renounced House Hoare, forcing Harren and his army to take refuge in the enormous Harrenhal, only recently completed. Harren offered great rewards to any man who could slay Balerion, but to no avail. In the dead of night, Aegon and Balerion descended on Harrenhal from above. The dragon’s black flames were hot enough to melt stone, and Harren the Black and all his line perished in the conflagration. In the aftermath, Aegon named Edmyn Tully Lord Paramount of the Trident, making the rest of the riverlords his vassals.
Meanwhile, Orys Baratheon and Queen Rhaenys continued their march into the stormlands, despite the early setback at the Wendwater. King Argilac gathered a large army at Storm’s End, and—ignoring warnings about Rhaenys and Meraxes—chose battle. Rhaenys saw his army from the sky and delivered word to Orys, who placed his forces in a strong defensive position in the hills south of Bronzegate. The battle that followed, called the Last Storm, took place during increasingly heavy rainfall. Argilac, however, continued the attack, trusting in his numbers—for he had nearly twice the men, and almost four times the knights and horses. The battle raged into night, with Argilac personally leading three charges against Orys Baratheon’s positions and gaining ground each time. But at the fourth charge on the final hill, Argilac’s forces met Rhaenys and Meraxes on the ground, where the rain proved incapable of stopping a dragon’s fires.
The Last Storm.
ALLEN DOUGLAS
Though Argilac’s forces were in disarray and he himself was thrown from his horse, still he fought on. At the end, after the old warrior king had slain half a dozen men, Orys Baratheon faced him in single combat. Each wounded the other, but Argilac was slain and his followers surrendered. His daughter and heir, Argella, attempted to hold Storm’s End against the Targaryen host, declaring herself the Storm Queen, but her men betrayed her and delivered her chained and naked to Orys Baratheon. Orys freed her of her bonds and treated her kindly, and as a reward was granted Storm’s End and its domains, and Argella as his wife. He took the Durrandon sigil, a crowned stag, and their words—Ours is the Fury—for his own.
Now in control of two of the Seven Kingdoms, the Targaryens became much more of a threat. An alliance between Mern IX Gardener of the Reach and Loren I Lannister of the Rock—known to history as the Two Kings—enabled them to field an enormous army, five times greater than Aegon’s own. This great host marched from their meeting place at Goldengrove, traveling northeast toward the riverlands. Aegon advanced to meet them, joined by his sisters at Stoney Sept. Queen Rhaenys had come from Storm’s End, while Queen Visenya arrived from Crackclaw Point, where she had already received the fealty of those minor knights and lords.
Aegon’s forces and the Two Kings’ host came together on a plain south of the Blackwater Rush, with Mern and Loren both fully confident in their superior forces. But the plains they fought on were dry—the grass parched and the wheat ripe for harvest—so Aegon and his sisters set the field alight with dragonfire. What followed was forever after known as the Field of Fire. Four thousand men burned, and a thousand more were killed in combat—including King Mern and all the sons, brothers, uncles, grandsons, and cousins he had brought with him. House Gardener came to an abrupt and bloody end that day—and House Lannister only survived because King Loren abandoned the field when he knew the battle was lost. In the aftermath, he surrendered to Aegon Targaryen and became the first Warden of the West, and was afterward remembered as Loren the Last. The toll of the battle was steep—but not for the Targaryens, who lost fewer than one hundred men. From there, Aegon traveled to Highgarden, where the Gardener steward, Harlan Tyrell, yielded the castle to Aegon and in turn was granted Highgarden and its domains and named Lord Paramount of the Mander.
Before Aegon could march on to secure the rest of the Reach and begin to subdue Dorne, however, he learned that Torrhen Stark, the King in the North, had finally marched south with thirty thousand northmen. So Aegon gathered his new vassals and his queens and went to meet Stark at the Trident with a force forty-five thousand strong. The ruins of Harrenhal and the rumor of what had befallen the Two Kings at the Field of Fire made Torrhen hesitant to attack. Some of his banner-men urged him to fight, while his bastard half-brother, Brandon Snow, suggested he could cross the Trident at night and slay all three dragons before the Targaryens knew what had happened. Brandon Snow did cross the river, but as Torrhen’s envoy—and the next morning the King of Winter became the King Who Knelt, bending the knee to Aegon. In turn, he was granted continued dominion over his lands as the Warden of the North.
The Targaryen siblings then resumed their separate campaigns. Visenya took flight on Vhagar to the Vale of Arryn and the Eyrie, where Queen Sharra and her son, King Ronnel, had sought refuge. The castle high on the Giant’s Lance proved no barrier to a dragon, however, and Visenya landed unopposed in the castle’s courtyard. By the time Sharra and her knights arrived, Visenya had the boy king Ronnel on her knee, begging to fly on her dragon. Sharra was forced to submit while her son got his promised flight, circling the Eyrie three times on Vhagar’s back—taking off as a little king and landing as a little lord.
Rhaenys, meanwhile, turned her attention to Dorne, and like Visenya chose to fly deep into the heart of Dornish power rather than make war in the treacherous deserts and mountain passes. Yet each castle she arrived at was deserted, their lords gone—and the Planky Town was similarly deserted, with only old women and children remaining in the floating city at the mouth of the river Greenblood. At Sunspear itself, however, Rhaenys found the ancient Meria Martell in residence—fat, blind, and wizened but still keen of mind. Meria informed Rhaenys that Dorne had no king, and would neither bow, bend, nor break for the Targaryens. So Rhaenys was forced to depart with Dorne unconquered.
At the time, the greatest city in Westeros was Oldtown: the ancient seat of the wealthy House Hightower, and home to both the Starry Sept, where the High Septon ruled over the Faith, and the Citadel, where the maesters trained. Aegon now turned his attention to that city, for the Hightowers had been conspicuously absent from King Mern’s host yet had not allied with Aegon either. Aegon brought an army, expecting to lay siege to the city, but instead found its gates open and its lord, Manfred Hightower, riding out to meet him. Lord Hightower swiftly surrendered the city. For as it happened, when Aegon and his sisters had first landed in Westeros, the High Septon had fasted and prayed and, in return, received a vision that Oldtown and the Starry Sept would burn if they opposed the Targaryens—which convinced the pious Lord Manfred to stay clear of the fighting.
Welcomed with open arms into Oldtown and the Starry Sept, Aegon Targaryen was crowned a second time by the High Septon three days later, having successfully conquered six of the existing seven kingdoms. Hundreds of lords and knights from throughout the newly forged realm witnessed this coronation, and tens of thousands of smallfolk acclaimed the king in the city. Though many expected—and even hoped—that Aegon would make Oldtown the royal seat, he instead announced that the Aegonfort and the new town of King’s Landing, growing amidst the three tall hills, would be his seat in the Seven Kingdoms.
Ronnel Arryn with Visenya.
TOMASZ JEDRUSZEK
At his command, the weapons surrendered to his armies were used to create the Iron Throne, forged in the black fires of Balerion: a hulking mass of twisting, barbed steel designed to strike fear and awe into any who stood before it.
Aegon I and the Iron Throne.
BASTIEN LECOUFFE-DEHARME
Lodos and his followers.
SHEN FEI
AEGON’S SECOND CROWNING in Oldtown reset the Westerosi calendar and established the current dating convention of AC (After the Conquest) or BC (Before the Conquest). The crowning was said to occur in 1 AC—but crowning a king and changing a calendar did not mean that peace immediately fell in all corners of the realm. Indeed, the first decade of Aegon’s rule was marked as much by war as by the establishment of a new order.
The rebellious Three Sisters were first on Aegon’s agenda. He had Torrhen Stark dispatch northmen to the islands on hired galleys, while Queen Visenya accompanied them with her great dragon, Vhagar. The sistermen quickly deposed the hapless Queen Marla, and her brother, Steffon Sunderland, offered his fealty to Aegon. Marla Sunderland was imprisoned until 6 AC, when her tongue was removed and she was dispatched to live among the silent sisters for the rest of her days.
The Iron Islands were more problematic, as the destruction of House Hoare led to a bloody power struggle in its wake. Qhorin Volmark was among a number of claimants who came forward, while the drowned priests crowned Lodos, one of their own, after he declared himself to be the son of the Drowned God. The year of civil war that followed was brutal, and many ironborn perished.
In order to quell this rebellion, Aegon arrived in the Iron Islands in 2 AC, riding on Balerion and accompanied by a great fleet. By this time, however, many of the ironborn had wearied of the conflict and welcomed the arrival of the Targaryens. Aegon killed Qhorin Volmark with the Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre. As for Lodos, the priest-king attempted to raise krakens to destroy Aegon’s fleet—and when none arose, Lodos loaded his robes with stones and walked into the sea, claiming he would speak with the Drowned God. Thousands of his supporters followed him, drowning in turn. With peace restored, King Aegon considered whether to grant the Iron Islands to a mainland lord or to choose from among the ironborn. After some deliberation, he named Vikon Greyjoy, the Lord Reaper of Pyke, as ruler of the Iron Islands. But the riverlands—formerly part of House Hoare’s dominion—remained firmly under the control of the Tullys. And Harrenhal was granted to the master-at-arms at Dragonstone, Ser Quenton Qoherys.
By 3 AC, nearly all of Westeros was secure—save for Dorne. At first, Aegon and his sisters attempted to use diplomacy to win Dorne’s peaceful submission, to no avail. So the First Dornish War began in 4 AC, when Rhaenys Targaryen and Meraxes burned the Planky Town while Orys Baratheon led a company of knights up the Boneway, and King Aegon and Lord Harlan Tyrell marched a huge army through the Prince’s Pass. Yet, once again, the Dornishmen refused battle and melted away, even after Aegon split his forces. Although it was the second year of autumn, the Dornish sun was relentless, causing much suffering to the Targaryen forces—especially those under Lord Tyrell as he marched on the Hellholt. Orys Baratheon’s march up the Boneway was even less successful, as he and his forces were caught in a trap. Most of his followers were slain, though Orys and some dozen other lords were taken captive by the Wyl of Wyl, also known as the Widow-lover.
Only Aegon had any real success in the campaign, taking several castles and slaying the Toland champion in single combat before realizing that he had only defeated Lord Toland’s fool. When he reached Sunspear, it was to find Queen Rhaenys already there—after she, too, had discovered several Dornish castles abandoned along the way. The shadow town was half empty, and Sunspear itself was abandoned by all but the servants. Even the aged Meria Martell was gone. Despite this, Aegon declared victory. He installed Lord Jon Rosby as the Castellan of Sunspear and Warden of the Sands, ordered Lord Tyrell to put down any resistance, and departed through the Prince’s Pass.
In the wake of their departure, the Dornish rose up in rebellion, taking back the castles that Aegon and his sisters had conquered and slaughtering the garrisons. Meria Martell reappeared from hiding and—in an act that would later be called the Defenestration of Sunspear—tossed Lord Rosby out of the highest window of the Spear Tower. As for Lord Harlan Tyrell, he and his host were never seen again after they marched into the desert in an attempt to conquer Vaith.
The Defenestration of Sunspear.
ERTAÇ ALTINÖZ
Oldtown attacked.
SHEN FEI
After 6 AC, the Dornish war grew increasingly bloody—although with long periods of quiet and many attempted truces, punctuated by murders, assassinations, reprisals, and raids. In 7 AC, Orys Baratheon and the other lords captured by the Wyl of Wyl were ransomed, but each man had his sword hand removed prior to their release. Aegon retaliated with Balerion, burning Wyl’s keeps and watch-towers, but the Widow-lover took refuge in the caves and tunnels and lived on.
In 8 AC, the Dornish raided across the Sea of Dorne, using ships from a Stepstones pirate, burning towns and villages on the southern shore of Cape Wrath and setting half the rainwood alight. Visenya Targaryen responded by burning more Dornish castles. In 9 AC, she returned again—this time with Aegon—and still more castles burned.
In 10 AC, the Dornish responded by sending two armies into the Reach. The first, led by Lord Fowler, captured the stormlands castle Nightsong, then held by Lord Caron. Lord Manfred Hightower of Oldtown responded by sending an army to Nightsong, led by his son, Ser Addam. And it was only then that the second Dornish army—led by Ser Joffrey Dayne—was deployed, attacking and burning villages, farms, and fields for sixty miles around the now mostly undefended Oldtown. Ser Joffrey killed Lord Hightower’s younger son, Garmon, when he attempted to lead a sortie. Meanwhile, by the time Ser Addam reached Nightsong, the castle had been abandoned, its garrison slaughtered, and Lord Caron and his family carried away as captives. And when Ser Addam finally returned to Oldtown, Dayne and his army had already escaped back to Dorne. Lord Manfred died not long after, and was succeeded by Addam. Aegon considered another invasion of Dorne in response, but young Lord Theo Tyrell was reluctant to support him after what had happened to his father and his father’s army.
Instead, the Targaryens employed their dragons. All three flew to Dorne. Aegon and Balerion burned Skyreach, and Visenya and Vhagar burned Starfall. But when Rhaenys and Meraxes flew to Hellholt, they were struck down by an iron bolt from a scorpion placed on the castle’s highest tower. Meraxes fell from the sky, flailing in her death throes, destroying the tower and part of the wall before dying. What became of Rhaenys is less clear. She may have been flung off and fallen to her death; she may have been crushed beneath her dragon. But some claim she survived, only to be tortured to death in Hellholt’s dungeons.
What followed Rhaenys’s death came to be known as the Dragon’s Wroth. For two years, Aegon and Visenya flew over Dorne repeatedly, burning every Dornish castle—and often more than once. Only Sunspear was spared—though for what reason, we can only speculate. Perhaps because the Martells had purchased a dragon-slaying engine from Lys, or perhaps because the Targaryens hoped to turn the Dornish people against Princess Meria—though, if that was their aim, it failed. Additionally, the Targaryens placed bounties on the heads of the Dornish lords. Half a dozen Dornish lords and ladies were killed—but most of the assassins did not live to claim their rewards. The Dornish responded in kind, and so the stormlords Connington, Mertyns and Fell met their doom.
During the years of the Dragon’s Wroth, Aegon and Visenya were each attacked by Dornish assassins on several occasions. It was such an attack in 10 AC—foiled by Visenya herself—which led Visenya to establish the Kingsguard for Aegon’s defense. This company of seven knights, swearing their service, honor, and lives to the king, would swiftly become a celebrated brotherhood, containing some of the greatest knights in the history of Westeros.
The most infamous event of 12 AC was another Dornish reprisal—this time committed by the Wyl of Wyl. He led raiders to Fawnton during the wedding of Ser Jon Cafferen and Alys Oakheart. He and his men gelded the groom, killed the bride’s father, Lord Oakheart, and most of the wedding guests, then raped the bride and her handmaids before selling the women into slavery in Myr.
Dorne was a scorched wasteland by this point. There was no sign that the Targaryens would relent in their destruction until Dorne yielded, but neither was there any sign that the Dornish would yield. However, in 13 AC, Meria Martell, the Yellow Toad, died. Her son, Prince Nymor, succeeded her, and he seemed less willing to continue the conflict than his mother. He dispatched his heir, Princess Deria, to King’s Landing with the skull of Meraxes and an offer of peace—though one that left Dorne independent.
Queen Visenya and Orys Baratheon were both opposed to the deal. The new Lord Oakheart advised, by raven, that Deria should be sold to a brothel, to be used as his sister had been. Though Aegon refused to harm an envoy under a peace banner, he was still unwilling to allow the Dornish peace without submission. Before he announced his refusal, however, Princess Deria gave the king a letter from her father. The contents of that letter remain unknown to this day, as Aegon burned it and never spoke of its contents. But whatever the letter contained—theories about the letter include emotional appeals, sorcery, and even threats against Aegon’s son and heir, Aenys—it stirred Aegon to fly to Dragonstone that night. When he returned the next morning, he agreed to the proposal and signed a treaty of eternal peace.
Deria brings Prince Nymor’s letter.
LILY ABDULLINA
Astute readers may notice that Aegon claimed rule over the Seven Kingdoms, but ultimately only conquered six. However, a shrewd bit of political maneuvering served a dual purpose here. For generations, the riverlands had not been an independent kingdom but instead had been traded back and forth between the Storm Kings and the ironborn.
By granting the riverlands to Edmyn Tully, splitting it apart from the Iron Islands, Aegon not only gained a valuable ally, but created what could be termed a seventh kingdom, even as Dorne resisted integration into Aegon’s new realm. A technicality—but an important one for a realm that made much of the number seven.
Lord Edmyn Tully of Riverrun
FRANCESCA BAERALD
Aegon I’s court.
JOE SLUCHER
AEGON I’S EARLY reign may have been beset by war, but he also made many efforts to bind his new realm together. He and his sisters encouraged the nobility to send their children to King’s Landing to serve as pages and handmaids. They brokered marriages between far-removed noble houses to create connections between distant regions. And they made regular royal progresses, so that the whole realm could see their new rulers, gaze upon their dragons, and experience their justice. In fact, Aegon only spent half his time at the Aegonfort or Dragonstone; for the rest, he was out and about in his kingdom.
When he held court on these progresses, Aegon made sure to consult with maesters familiar with the local laws of the regions, which he used to guide his judgments. His chief goal was to establish peace, not harmonize the laws, so he declared that the first new law in the realm was the King’s Peace, which forbade private wars between feuding noblemen.
But over time, Aegon did standardize customs, duties, and taxes throughout the realm, so that no port or person had more favorable terms than another. And to court the favor of the Faith, he exempted the septs, septries, and the holy men and women of the Faith from taxation. In fact, courting the favor of the Faith and the High Septon became a pattern for most of the early Targaryens, as the Faith had great influence over the people of the Seven Kingdoms.
Aegon the Conqueror did not rule alone, however. Even from the earliest days of his reign, his sisters and queens ruled alongside him. Whenever he traveled on a progress, one of the queens would remain behind to rule from Dragonstone and King’s Landing—sometimes even rendering judgments and giving commands while seated on the Iron Throne. Queen Rhaenys, who filled the court with singers and bards and was a friend to women and children throughout the realm, once sat in judgment over the case of a husband who beat his wife to death and whom the dead woman’s brothers wanted punished. According to the Faith, it was proper for a husband to chastise his wife, but Rhaenys determined that no more than six blows were permissible, as the seventh would be for the Stranger, who is death. As the husband had administered ninety-four blows in addition to the lawful six, the brothers were allowed to return him the same number.
During Aegon I’s reign, King’s Landing grew rapidly:
2 BC—The site of the future King’s Landing is only a fishing village and armed encampment, with a motte-and-bailey and palisade at the peak of the highest hill.
1 AC—King’s Landing has grown to a bustling town of several thousand souls.
10 AC—King’s Landing has officially become the newest city in Westeros, albeit the smallest.
19 AC—Aegon commands the city to be walled, with seven gates to honor the Seven gods of the Faith.
20 AC—Construction of the walls begins under the oversight of Ser Osmund Strong, the Hand of the King.
25 AC—King’s Landing becomes the third largest city in Westeros, behind only Lannisport and Oldtown.
26 AC—The construction of the city walls is completed.
33 AC—King’s Landing is still the third largest city in Westeros, but now has a population over one hundred thousand.
35 AC—The Aegonfort is torn down and construction begins on the Red Keep, overseen by the current Hand, Alyn Stokeworth, and Queen Visenya.
Visenya was sterner and less well-loved—a warrior and an alleged dabbler in poisons and dark arts—but she was just as capable as either of her younger siblings. Her most notable addition to the king’s court was the creation of the Kingsguard in 10 AC, following multiple attempts on Aegon’s life by Dornish assassins. Until then, Aegon had trusted to his guards and his own skill with a sword to protect him, but after one such attempt, Visenya drew her Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, and slashed his cheek before he or any of his guards could respond. After that, Aegon admitted the wisdom of her argument and allowed her to provide him with better protection.
But Aegon trusted more than just his sisters. At his first coronation at the Aegonfort, Aegon had granted offices to his earliest supporters. Daemon Velaryon, Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark, would be the first admiral and master of ships. (For many years, the Velaryons—who provided the bulk of the royal fleet—would be so regularly appointed to this office that it seemed almost hereditary.) Upon Daemon’s death, the position was granted to his son, Aethan. Triston Massey, Lord of Stonedance, became the master of laws. Crispian Celtigar became the master of coin. Orys Baratheon, Aegon’s baseborn half-brother, became the first Hand of the King.
Yet after his return from captivity in Dorne, minus his sword hand, Orys felt he would be a laughingstock—the Hand without a hand—and so he resigned the office in 7 AC. Lord Edmyn Tully succeeded him until 9 AC, but then desired to return to the riverlands after the death of his wife in childbirth. Alton Celtigar, Lord of Claw Isle, then became the King’s Hand until he died in 17 AC. Ser Osmund Strong next served until his death in 34 AC. After him came Lord Alyn Stokeworth.
Raising the walls of King’s Landing.
SHEN FEI
In 5 AC, Aegon also asked the Citadel in Oldtown to send one of their maesters to advise him. They elected Archmaester Ollidar to become the first Grand Maester, but he died within a year. He was succeeded by Archmaester Lyonce, who served until his passing in 12 AC. After that—and perhaps learning from their mistakes—the Citadel dispatched Grand Maester Gawen, a younger man, who would serve King Aegon and the Iron Throne for thirty years.
Visenya saw the Kingsguard not only as a protective force for the king, but also as a powerful emblem of his right to rule. Though other kings may have had single champions, the Lord of the Seven Kingdoms should have seven, she declared, and these seven should be knights, sworn and anointed to the king’s service alone. Their cloaks and armor would be pure white, showing both the purity of their duty and their lack of allegiance to whatever house they had been born into. She modeled their vows on those of the Night’s Watch, and like the Night’s Watch, they would serve for life—giving up their fortunes and lands and titles, and swearing themselves to celibacy, so they would be devoted to no one but the king.
Also, rather than choosing champions from a grand tourney, Visenya hand-picked the men herself, judging them by their loyalty and willingness to die for their king as well as by their skill at arms. The first seven she chose are storied names: Ser Richard Roote; Ser Addison Hill, Bastard of Cornfield; the brothers Ser Gregor and Ser Griffith Goode; Ser Humfrey the Mummer; Ser Robin Darklyn, called Darkrobin; and Ser Corlys Velaryon, the first Lord Commander. Each would have their names and deeds written down in the White Book, the chronicle of the Kingsguard, and two would die in the king’s service.
The first Kingsguard.
MV RENJU
Aenys and Maegor.
MV RENJU
THE OTHER ROLE of a king, after establishing his realm, is to beget heirs. Though Aegon and his sisters came to the throne childless, all three were young and healthy, and it was expected that children would soon follow. As the years passed, however, some at court grew concerned. Much attention was therefore given to the relationships between the three siblings. Aegon’s marriage to Visenya, his elder sister, had been expected and proper, according to the Targaryen tradition, but marrying Rhaenys as well was unusual. Many assumed that, of the two, it was Rhaenys who held his heart, while his relations with Visenya spoke more of duty.
Whether true or not, it was observed that Aegon spent ten nights with Rhaenys for every night he spent in Visenya’s bed, so it was no surprise when Rhaenys was the first to give birth in 7 AC. Her son was named Aenys. He was weak and sickly to begin with, refusing wet nurses and instead nursing only from Rhaenys’s own breast. And after his mother’s death in 10 AC, he became even weaker, reverting to crawling instead of walking and inconsolable at her loss. He began to thrive only after he was given the hatchling dragon Quicksilver.
Some would later whisper that one of the handsome young men who flocked to Rhaenys’s side at court must have been his actual father—especially as he grew and became less and less like his grave, stern, warrior father. Aenys was kind, charming, and soft-spoken—eager to please and preferring music and dance to other pursuits. He was an adequate fighter, but no true warrior. This was in marked contrast to his younger half-brother.
For in 11 AC, Visenya announced that she was with child. Maegor was born the next year on Dragonstone—a large and robust child. He was mostly raised on Dragonstone by Visenya and had little early contact with his elder half-brother. Like his father, there were early signs of his talent for arms—although there were also early signs of his cruelty. (He used his first sword to kill a cat, and at the age of eight he stabbed a horse to death after it kicked him.) As he grew older, he lived for conflict and combat, seeking to dominate others, and swiftly gained a reputation for harshness and cruelty.
Aegon had no more children by Visenya, nor did he wish to marry a younger bride from among his subjects or from the Free Cities after Rhaenys’s death. Still, with two heirs, the dynasty seemed relatively secure—especially after Aenys wed a cousin, Alyssa Velaryon, in 22 AC. She promptly gave birth the following year to their daughter Rhaena. Queen Visenya used the girl’s birth to raise the question of the succession, desiring that her son Maegor remain second in line. She proposed to betroth the infant Rhaena to Maegor, then eleven years old, to settle the matter, but Aenys and Alyssa objected. So, too, did the Faith, as the High Septon would not countenance any more incestuous marriages. Aegon agreed with the High Septon and his eldest son, and instead betrothed Maegor to the High Septon’s niece, Ceryse Hightower, who was ten years older than the prince. In 25 AC, Visenya gave Maegor her Valyrian steel sword, Dark Sister, on his thirteenth nameday. Half a year later, he married Ceryse Hightower. Maegor boasted of having consummated the marriage a dozen times and was sure a son would come of it, but no son proved forthcoming.
Aenys and Alyssa had their own son in 26 AC, whom they named Aegon for his grandfather. It was accepted by all that, though there may have been questions over Rhaena’s place in the succession, this son would be Aenys’s heir, pushing Maegor further down the line. Aenys and Alyssa would go on to give Aegon three more grandchildren—Viserys in 29 AC, Jaehaerys in 34 AC, and Alysanne in 36 AC—while Maegor’s marriage to Ceryse remained barren.
Maegor was knighted in 28 AC at the age of sixteen—the youngest knight in the Seven Kingdoms—by his own father, using his Valyrian blade, Blackfyre. He went on to join two expeditions against the Lyseni pirate Sargoso Saan and his strongholds in the Stepstones, earning himself a further reputation for fearlessness. In 31 AC, he led a company that hunted down and killed a robber knight called the Giant of the Trident.
The last years of King Aegon’s reign were peaceful. In 33 AC, he celebrated his sixtieth nameday, and after that sent his son Aenys on the royal progresses while he remained at King’s Landing or on Dragonstone. He oversaw construction of the Red Keep and the burgeoning city it would rise above. In 37 AC, while showing his grandsons Aegon and Viserys the Painted Table, Aegon the Conqueror suffered a stroke and died instantly. Prince Maegor spoke the eulogy as Aegon rested on his pyre. Vhagar lit the pyre, and Aegon the Conqueror, First of His Name, was turned to ash.
Aegon’s eldest son Aenys, who was at Highgarden during a royal progress, learned the news and flew to Dragonstone on Quicksilver’s back to be crowned as Aenys, First of His Name.
Aegon’s pyre.
SHEN FEI
The crowning of Aenys I.
PAOLO PUGGIONI
Approaching Lannisport.
PAOLO PUGGIONI
ONCE CROWNED, THE new King Aenys followed his father’s example and traveled to Oldtown to seek the blessing of the High Septon—passing through Storm’s End and the Dornish Marches on the way, and returning via Highgarden, Lannisport, and Riverrun. With him went his wife, Alyssa, and all but his two youngest children. It was on this journey that the young Princess Rhaena, now fourteen, drew increasing attention from would-be suitors—though her behavior was sullen for much of the progress, as her dragon, Dreamfyre, had been left behind on Dragonstone. It was said that her mood was lightened only when her closest companion, Melony Piper, was added to the party. Yet despite this great show of royal wealth and power, challenges to Aenys’s reign soon developed—and in a way that none had dared during Aegon the Dragon’s time in power.
It was in the riverlands, while Aenys was a guest of Lord Tully at Riverrun, that the first stirrings of rebellion appeared. Harren the Red—a brigand who claimed to be a grandson of Harren the Black—slipped into Harrenhal, slew the infamous Lord Gargon Qoherys (grandson of Quenton Qoherys, to whom Aegon had granted Harrenhal in 2 BC), and declared himself King of the Rivers. Though it was proposed that King Aenys employ his dragon Quicksilver to rain down fire on Harrenhal—much as Aegon had done with Balerion years before—Aenys instead ordered Lord Tully to raise his banners and only march when more than a thousand men had been assembled. By the time they reached Harrenhal, Harren the Red and his band of followers had already fled.
And by the time the king returned to King’s Landing, more rebels had appeared. Jonos Arryn had overthrown his older brother Ronnel and proclaimed himself King of Mountain and Vale. A priest appeared on the Iron Islands claiming to be Lodos returned from the sea, taking the name of Lodos the Twice-Drowned. And a Dornishman calling himself the Vulture King appeared in the Red Mountains of Dorne, gathering thousands of Dornishmen to his banner despite being denounced by Princess Deria. The Dornishmen swept into the Marches and the Reach, taking and burning Blackhaven castle and slicing the nose off its lord, Harmon Dondarrion.
King Aenys, a peaceable man, could not understand why these men would rise against him when he would have been more than willing to hear their grievances. He could also not seem to stop the rebellions. He assembled a fleet that would sail to the Vale under the command of the Hand, Lord Alyn Stokeworth, then disbanded it at the last moment out of fear that King’s Landing would be left defenseless. Instead he sent Stokeworth north with men to hunt down Harren the Red.
The Vulture King.
FRANCISCO VEGAS
His indecisiveness meant that it was largely left to his lords and vassals to put down these rebels, sometimes with the assistance and advice of the Dowager Queen Visenya, and the results of these efforts were mixed. In the Vale, Lord Allard Royce defeated the few supporters of Jonos Arryn, but when he demanded the release of Lord Ronnel, Jonos returned his elder brother via the Moon Door, from which he plummeted to his death. It was then up to Prince Maegor, flying on Balerion, the Black Dread—whom he had taken as his own mount after his father’s death—to sort out the mess. Maegor forced the remaining garrison to surrender by throwing Jonos out the Moon Door in turn, then the garrison were all hanged at Maegor’s command. Hubert Arryn, a cousin of Jonos and Ronnel, succeeded to the rule of the Vale.
Maegor arrives at the Eyrie.
DANIEL ALEKOW
During Aegon’s reign, Visenya often assumed the daily tasks of ruling while Aegon was off on his royal progresses. Visenya’s role changed when Aenys assumed the throne, and she became more an advisor—and an often unwelcome one—rather than a co-ruler whose decisions had the force of law. It could truthfully be said, however, that Dowager Queen Visenya was still the most influential woman in the realm during Aenys’s reign—even more so than his own queen, Alyssa. But Visenya’s lack of direct power—and her clear preference for her own son, Prince Maegor—would eventually alienate the two entirely.
In the Iron Islands, Goren Greyjoy and his hundred longships put thousands of Lodos the Twice-Drowned’s followers to the sword and sent the priest’s head to King’s Landing. The gesture so pleased the king that he offered the Lord Reaper of Pyke any boon he desired. Lord Goren took advantage of the king’s generosity by having all the septons and septas expelled from the Iron Islands, ending the Faith’s foothold there.
The threat from the Vulture King was the most serious, however, thanks to his many supporters. The Vulture King split his host, sending half under the command of Lord Walter Wyl (the son of the infamous Widow-lover) to besiege Stonehelm while personally leading the other half to attack Nightsong and then Horn Hill. The aged Lord Orys Baratheon led his stormlanders to smash Wyl’s host. Lord Walter was taken prisoner and presented to Lord Orys, who had Walter’s hand removed in revenge for having lost his own to Walter’s father. He then had Walter’s other hand and both feet removed as interest. Lord Orys died on the march home from the wounds he had taken in the fighting, but his son Davos claimed he died smiling, looking at the rotting hands and feet he had strung up in his tent.
Lord Orys’s revenge.
BORJA PINDADO
The Vulture King fell as well. When he failed to take Nightsong from Lady Ellyn Caron, he abandoned the pursuit and marched west—only to be attacked on the road by Lady Caron, the mutilated and vengeful Lord Dondarrion, and Savage Sam Tarly of Horn Hill. Despite allegedly outnumbering his opponents two to one, the Vulture King’s forces were undisciplined and poorly equipped. The rout that followed was remembered as “the Vulture Hunt,” and thousands died after they broke and fled. The Vulture King himself was tied between posts, stripped naked, and left to die of exposure. This marked the end of the Second Dornish War, but other Vulture Kings would appear in the decades to come, claiming the same mantle.
The last of the rebels, Harren the Red, was hunted down by the King’s Hand, Lord Alyn Stokeworth, and his men. The outlaw and his followers fought to the end, and Harren killed Lord Stokeworth before he was slain in turn by Stokeworth’s squire, Bernarr Brune. The king later rewarded these defenders of his crown, knighting Brune and granting riches, lands, and offices to those who helped bring about the defeat of the rebels. But the greatest reward he gave to his brother, Prince Maegor, whom he named Hand of the King.
The death of Harren the Red.
ERTAÇ ALTINÖZ
The Vulture hunt.
WOUTER FLORUSSE
Maegor departs King’s Landing.
LUCAS GRACIANO
AENYS AND MAEGOR ruled together for the better part of two years with no significant friction between them, but all this changed in 39 AC. King Aenys and Queen Alyssa had a sixth child, Vaella—further proof, even if the child died in the cradle, that the queen remained fertile. Yet Maegor’s fourteen-year marriage to Lady Ceryse still remained barren. So Maegor took a drastic step: marrying a second wife, Alys, daughter of Lucas Harroway, the new Lord of Harrenhal. This marriage was conducted in secret on Dragonstone, using a Valyrian rite officiated by the Dowager Queen Visenya. When King Aenys was informed of the marriage, the quarrel that followed was bitter, and the feeling was echoed by Lady Ceryse’s father, Lord Manfred (grandson of the previous Lord Manfred), and the High Septon himself, who denounced Maegor for the sin of bigamy.
But Maegor was defiant. Given the choice to renounce Alys or go into exile across the narrow sea for five years, he chose the latter, taking Alys, Balerion, and the sword Blackfyre with him, settling in Pentos and leaving Ceryse abandoned at King’s Landing. King Aenys did his part to heal the breach by having Septon Murmison—alleged to be able to heal with his touch—pray over her belly each day. But Ceryse eventually grew wearied of these attentions and departed for Oldtown. Aenys also named Septon Murmison to succeed Prince Maegor as Hand of the King. This choice did little to assuage the anger of the High Septon, however, or the discontent of Aenys’s lords.
In 41 AC, convinced that Maegor’s exile had repaired the anger against House Targaryen, Aenys betrothed his daughter Princess Rhaena to her brother Prince Aegon, in keeping with the Valyrian practice. The two siblings had been affectionate since childhood, but for the High Septon such incestuous marriages could never be tolerated again.
From his pulpit in the Starry Sept, the High Septon denounced the marriage plans and declared that any offspring from such an unholy union were sure to be abominations. Septons throughout the realm read the declaration, spreading the word of the Faith’s disapproval. Yet Aenys pressed on, rejecting the advice of Dowager Queen Visenya to either abandon the marriage or use Quicksilver to burn down the Starry Sept in a show of strength. When Aenys joined his two children in matrimony and then named Aegon as Prince of Dragonstone—a title that had, until now, informally been her son Maegor’s—Visenya left the wedding and flew to Dragonstone on Vhagar, where she then remained.
Princess Rhaena was eighteen and Prince Aegon fifteen when they were betrothed. The princess was a dragonrider, ranging widely throughout the realm on her dragon Dreamfyre—sometimes with her brother, sometimes with friends, but most often by herself. She attracted many suitors, but encouraged none … though some rumors claimed that she had already given up her maidenhead to several lowborn men she met during her journeys.
Princess Rhaena
FRANCESCA BAERALD
Unlike his sister, Aegon was no dragonrider—though he was a talented young warrior and was said to bear an uncanny resemblance to his grandfather and namesake. More notably, there was no question that he enjoyed the attention women bestowed on him, raising concerns that he’d father bastards if he wasn’t quickly wed.
Visenya on Dragonstone.
JOSHUA CAIRÓS
The king, in turn, sent his newlywed children on a royal progress (minus Rhaena’s dragon), but they were met with anger and jeers by the crowds, and the septons stayed away. Lord Lucas Harroway even denied them entry into Harrenhal when they refused to acknowledge that his daughter, Alys, was Maegor’s only legal wife.
The High Septon also continued to escalate the conflict, expelling Septon Murmison from holy orders and calling Aenys “King Abomination” in fiery sermons. And the Faith Militant took up arms.
Within a fortnight, Murmison was hacked to death by a group of Poor Fellows in King’s Landing. On the Hill of Rhaenys, the Warrior’s Sons fortified the Sept of Remembrance and made it their citadel. Recognizing the threat within his city, Aenys relocated to Dragonstone—a wise choice, for three days before he set sail, a pair of Poor Fellows nearly succeeded in killing the king in his own bedroom.
In the wake of Aenys’s flight, much of the realm was in open rebellion—led mostly by the Faith Militant at the High Septon’s behest. Dozens of pious lords joined them, with their hosts. The gates of King’s Landing were seized by the Warrior’s Sons. The Poor Fellows ranged the roadways, forcing all they came across to declare their allegiance to the High Septon and denounce “King Abomination.” Aegon and Rhaena, mid-progress, were forced to hide at Crakehall castle rather than continue.
At the time of Aenys’s reign, the Faith Militant was made up of two military orders: the Noble and Puissant Order of the Warrior’s Sons, and the Poor Fellows. The former was the most illustrious, acting as the High Septon’s personal guard and army, and based at chapterhouses in cities and great towns. All members were knights, and most were men of high birth—younger sons of great houses of ancient lineage. Their sigil was the Warrior’s rainbow sword on black, and they wore cloaks and swordbelts striped in the colors of the rainbow. They were sometimes called the Swords, for their sigil.
The Poor Fellows were far more numerous, accepting members from all stations—even women—and were originally tasked with protecting travelers on pilgrimages to septs and other holy sites. Their sigil was a red seven-pointed star on white, said to have its origins in the bloody stars that Andal warriors carved on their chests in the earliest days of the Andal invasion of Westeros. They were sometimes called the Stars, for their sigil.
By the coming of the new year, King Aenys had grown so ill with worry and fright that—even though he was but thirty-five years of age—he seemed to grow old overnight. His health improved, briefly, when Dowager Queen Visenya took over his care, but it collapsed again when he learned that his children were under siege in Crakehall. The king died three days later and was committed to the flames on Dragonstone. His funeral was attended by his widow, Queen Alyssa—along with his children Viserys, Jaehaerys, and Alysanne, who were twelve, seven, and five years of age respectively. His beloved dragon Quicksilver set his pyre alight.
Years afterward, however, it would be whispered that Visenya had poisoned the king—in part because she departed Dragonstone within the hour of his death and did not attend his funeral. But her true motives for that departure would shortly become apparent.
The Faith Militant.
MV RENJU
King Maegor I.
BASTIEN LECOUFFE-DEHARME
Maegor crowned.
MV RENJU
THE DOWAGER QUEEN Visenya may have departed Dragonstone on Vhagar in the hour following Aenys’s death, but she was not gone for long. When she returned to Dragonstone, it was with Prince Maegor and Balerion at her side. (Queen Alyssa and her younger children had fled to Driftmark following King Aenys’s funeral.) Maegor stopped on Dragonstone only long enough to claim his father Aegon’s crown. His mother placed it on his head—much as she had for his father, years ago—declaring him king. The sole voice speaking up for the rights of Aenys’s heir, Aegon, was Grand Maester Gawen—who was promptly beheaded by Maegor.
After dispatching a host of ravens to inform the realm that he was now its ruler, Maegor flew to King’s Landing with his mother and established his banner on Visenya’s Hill, as the Warrior’s Sons held much of the rest of the city. Maegor’s arrival sparked riots in the city, but any of the populace attempting to flee King’s Landing found the city gates barred by the Warrior’s Sons, who adamantly remained opposed to any Targaryen rule.
Ser Damon Morrigen, known as Damon the Devout, was the Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons at the time, and he led seven hundred of his men from the fortified Sept of Remembrance atop the Hill of Rhaenys to challenge Maegor’s right to rule. A Trial of Seven—an ancient Andal custom of pitting seven knights against seven more—was established to resolve the conflict. Accounts of the combat differ in many of the details, but they all agree that King Maegor was victorious—and the sole survivor.
The names of the combatants at the Trial of Seven were as follows:
The Warrior’s Sons (all slain)
Ser Damon Morrigen, called The Devout, grand captain of the order—second to last to die, killed by Maegor
Ser Aegon Ambrose
Ser Dickon Flowers, called The Bastard of Beesbury
Ser Garibald of the Seven Stars, a septon and knight
Ser Harys Horpe, called Death’s Head Harry
Ser Lyle Bracken
Ser Willam the Wanderer, a hedge knight—last to die, killed by Maegor, but not before he delivered the blow that felled the king
The King’s Champions
King Maegor Targaryen
Ser Bernarr Brune
Ser Bramm of Blackhull, a hedge knight
Dick Bean, a common man-at-arms—first to die, killed by Ser Lyle Bracken mere instants after the combat began
Ser Guy Lothston, called Guy the Glutton
Lucifer Massey, Lord of Stonedance
Ser Rayford Rosby
Because of the conflicting nature of the eyewitness testimony, only a few details of the actual combat remain.
But though Maegor was triumphant, a blow to his head in the final moments of the conflict left him comatose for twenty-seven days, while the Warrior’s Sons deliberated on whether to accept Maegor or continue to fight on as the High Septon commanded. As news of Maegor’s crowning spread throughout Westeros, thousands of Poor Fellows marched to King’s Landing—some led by Ser Horys Hill and others by a man known as Wat the Hewer. The departure of those Poor Fellows who had been besieging Crakehall gave Prince Aegon and the now-pregnant Princess Rhaena a chance to escape, and they quickly sought refuge with Lord Lyman Lannister at Casterly Rock. Queen Alyssa, still on Driftmark, proclaimed Aegon king, but found little support for her claims.
The Trial of Seven.
ERTAÇ ALTINÖZ
On the twenty-eighth day after the Trial of Seven, a ship from Pentos arrived at King’s Landing. On it were six hundred sellswords and two women. One was Alys Harroway, the king’s second wife. The other was a beautiful woman named Tyanna of the Tower, the natural daughter of a Pentoshi magister and a courtesan. She was reputed to be the lover of both Alys and Maegor—and a poisoner and sorceress to boot. Visenya immediately gave Maegor over to Tyanna’s care. The very next morning, Maegor woke at sunrise and appeared on the walls of the unfinished Red Keep between Alys and Tyanna, where he was met by a wildly cheering crowd.
Maegor’s third wedding.
ANDREY PERVUKHIN
THE CELEBRATION OVER Maegor’s recovery quickly turned to horror, however, as Maegor flew Balerion to the Hill of Rhaenys, setting the Sept of Remembrance alight as the Warrior’s Sons were at their morning prayers. Those that fled the inferno were slain by Maegor’s waiting soldiers. Seven hundred men died that day, and the order of the Warrior’s Sons would never again rise to its former glory.
Thus Maegor’s war against the Faith Militant began with fire and blood—and would continue in that vein for the duration of his reign. He raised his swords against the Poor Fellows, who refused his command to disarm. When Wat the Hewer’s army was caught attempting to cross the Mander at Stonebridge, so much blood ran in the water that day that the site was renamed Bitterbridge. Wat himself was delivered in chains to King’s Landing, where Maegor personally hacked off his limbs.
A second army, led by Ser Horys Hill, reached the Great Fork of the Blackwater. Ser Horys’s force numbered twenty thousand—more than half of them Poor Fellows, but the rest a mixture of Warrior’s Sons, rebel lords, and pious followers. Maegor’s answering army was of similar size, but with more horses—and Balerion. Lord Rupert Falwell, the Fighting Fool, killed two of the Kingsguard before he was cut down by the Lord of Maidenpool. Big John Hogg, a loyal follower of the king, led a charge that put the Poor Fellows to flight—despite having been blinded earlier in the battle. And though a rainstorm dampened Balerion’s flame, it could not quench it. By night’s end, Maegor had control of the field.
Tyanna of the Tower.
FRANCISCO VEGAS
On his return to King’s Landing, Maegor declared his intent to marry Tyanna of the Tower. The only one to raise an objection was Grand Maester Myros, whose head Maegor promptly separated from his shoulders. Among the witnesses to the marriage was the limbless Wat the Hewer, whom Maegor had kept alive until the wedding. Also present was Queen Alyssa and her youngest sons and daughter, who were “convinced” by Visenya and Vhagar to join the royal family in King’s Landing. The wedding was loudly decried in Oldtown by both the High Septon and Ceryse Hightower, who claimed she was the only lawful queen. But for the time being, Maegor seemed content to ignore them.
As for the only remaining challengers to Maegor’s rule—his nephew and niece, Prince Aegon and Princess Rhaena—they were still in the west, under the protection of Lord Lyman Lannister. But they were still out of favor with the High Septon for their incestuous marriage and largely abandoned by the lords and knights who had accompanied them on their progress, so they did not seem like a credible threat. Some of Maegor’s supporters even claimed that the dragonless Aegon must be a pretender, calling him Aegon the Uncrowned. But Aegon refused to give up his rights as the eldest son and acknowledged heir of the previous ruler and would not leave Westeros—even after Rhaena gave birth to twin daughters Aerea and Rhaella, and begged him to take his children into exile so that they might live.
The start of 43 AC saw Maegor taking charge of the construction of the Red Keep. He brought in new builders and stoneworkers to salt secret passages and tunnels throughout the castle and deep into Aegon’s High Hill. Maegor also commanded the building of a castle within the castle, which would forever after be called Maegor’s Holdfast. And he appointed Lord Lucas Harroway, the Lord of Harrenhal and father to Queen Alys, as his new Hand. However, it was commonly held that the three queens at court—Visenya, Alys, and Tyanna—held more power and influence than Lord Lucas. Tyanna developed a dark reputation and was soon known as “the mistress of whisperers,” for it was alleged that rats, spiders, and other vermin would whisper to her of any disloyalty they witnessed.
But as Maegor focused on his castle, his enemies had not disappeared. Thousands of Poor Fellows still lurked, attacking the king’s loyalists in the Reach, the riverlands, the Vale, and the stormlands. New leaders—little better than outlaws—sprang up to replace the disgraced Ser Horys Hill, whose defeat at the Great Fork had destroyed his reputation. The Warrior’s Sons elected Ser Joffrey Doggett, the Red Dog of the Hills, as their new grand captain. He led a hundred of them from Lannisport, but had two thousand men in his entourage by the time he reached Oldtown. Other lords and knights throughout the realm also gathered their forces and prepared to fight the Targaryens. In response, Maegor demanded fealty and hostages, outlawed the militant orders entirely, and demanded that the High Septon report to King’s Landing and be tried for treason. The High Septon responded in kind, demanding Maegor come to Oldtown to beg forgiveness of the Seven.
The High Septon’s crystal crown.
FRANCISCO VEGAS
The Poor Fellows attack Maegor’s loyalists.
DIEGO GISBERT LLORENS
This was enough to distract Maegor from his castle, so he dispatched his mother on Vhagar to destroy the seats of rebel houses in the riverlands while he himself took Balerion to confront the rebels in the westerlands. Then they headed for Oldtown together. Thousands fled the city in terror, certain that the dragons—when they arrived—would destroy Oldtown completely. Queen Ceryse’s brother, Lord Martyn Hightower—who had succeeded his father only a few moons earlier—called his banners, while his younger brother, Ser Morgan, led his fellow Warrior’s Sons to defend the High Septon. The city waited for the dawn and the arrival of the dragons.
Dowager Queen Visenya arrived at daybreak on Vhagar, and Maegor and Balerion at the midday—only to find the Targaryen banner adorning the walls of the city alongside the banners of the Hightowers and the Tyrells. It seemed that, in the middle of the night, the fifty-three-year-old High Septon had surprisingly—and mysteriously—died. Rumors abounded. There was talk of suicide; of the man being struck down by the gods; of murder at the hand of Ser Morgan or the alleged witch Patrice Hightower—or even through the dark magics of Queen Visenya. But whatever the truth, word of the High Septon’s death prompted Lord Hightower to prove his loyalty by hanging the Targaryen banner from the walls, arresting the Warrior’s Sons, and forcing the Most Devout to choose a new High Septon more favorable to Maegor’s cause.
Maegor and Visenya come to Oldtown.
LUCAS GRACIANO
Liberating Dreamfyre and Quicksilver.
LUCAS GRACIANO
The new High Septon—formerly Septon Pater, a blind, frail ninety-year-old—was all too willing to bless King Maegor in the Starry Sept. Afterward, the king remained in Oldtown for much of the rest of that year. The imprisoned Warrior’s Sons were given the choice between taking the black or execution, and three-quarters went to the Wall. Maegor personally executed seven of the most notable who chose death over the Night’s Watch. Only one of the Warrior’s Sons was given the king’s royal pardon: Ser Morgan Hightower. In the aftermath, the High Septon dissolved the two militant orders, and Maegor gave clemency to those who laid down their arms while declaring a bounty on the heads of those who remained defiant. During his time in Oldtown, Maegor also reconciled with Queen Ceryse, who agreed to accompany him to King’s Landing when he returned.
It was late in 43 AC when Maegor was finally forced to leave Oldtown. While he was absent, Aegon and Rhaena had raced boldly across Westeros to sneak into King’s Landing with the help of a handful of followers and a few traitors in Maegor’s own court. Their aim was not to seize control of King’s Landing; it was dragons they were after. Rhaena was reunited with her beloved Dreamfyre, while Aegon finally laid claim to his late father’s dragon, Quicksilver. Then they flew back to the west and the riverlands to raise an army.
Lord Lannister dared not openly oppose Maegor in the field, but Lord Jon Piper—encouraged by his sister Melony, Rhaena’s closest friend and companion—allowed Pinkmaiden Castle to serve as a rallying point. Thousands of lords and knights, largely from the westerlands and the riverlands, joined their cause. Among them were five hundred men from Lannisport, commanded by Ser Tyler Hill, the bastard son of Lord Lyman. Melony personally led the Piper levies. By the time they departed for King’s Landing, fifteen thousand men marched beneath Aegon’s banner—though Princess Rhaena and Dreamfyre were not among their number, as she had remained at Pinkmaiden with her daughters. None of the great houses had dared to openly support Aegon, but Queen Tyanna’s spies claimed that the Baratheons, Arryns, Starks, and Lannisters had all informed Queen Alyssa that they would proclaim for Aegon, provided he won a victory against his uncle.
Maegor commanded his loyalists to respond with multiple armies, though each was smaller than Aegon’s host. Rather than dividing his strength to engage with them, Aegon insisted on keeping his army together and marching on. But south of the Gods Eye, his path was blocked by the Kingslanders, with two more armies approaching from the north and south. Aegon attempted to lead a charge to break the enemy before the other hosts arrived—and that is when King Maegor and Balerion appeared. For the first time since the Doom, two dragonriders fought in the sky—but Quicksilver was no match for the Black Dread. Balerion ripped a wing off the younger, smaller dragon, sending it and its rider plummeting to their deaths. With Aegon fallen, his army collapsed. Over two thousand were killed alongside Aegon the Uncrowned, including Rhaena’s friend Melony Piper. In the wake of her husband’s defeat, Princess Rhaena fled from Pinkmaiden with her daughters and Dreamfyre, first seeking shelter at Lannisport, then accepting the protection of Lord Marq Farman on Fair Isle.
In the days that followed, numerous captured rebels were tried and executed, though Dowager Queen Visenya did persuade her son to spare a few, who instead offered up hostages and were stripped of their lands and titles.
Rallying Aegon’s forces at Pinkmaiden.
RENÉ AIGNER
The death of Aegon the Uncrowned.
RENÉ AIGNER
The melee for Harrenhal.
SVEN SAUER WITH IGOR POSAVEC
AFTER KING MAEGOR had put an end to Aegon and his claims—as well as breaking the power of the Faith Militant—44 AC was relatively peaceful. The aged High Septon passed away, but his successor proved just as reticent to speak out against the king. The Poor Fellows, with prices on their heads, were scattered and hunted down. The Warrior’s Sons, led by Ser Joffrey Doggett, became outlaws, forced to rely on ambushes and subterfuge to attack Maegor’s loyalists—killing the likes of Ser Morgan Hightower, Lord Merryweather, and Blind Jon Hogg.
Maegor’s main task now was resuming his efforts to produce an heir of his body, to supplant Aenys’s remaining children from the succession. (At the time, Queen Alyssa and her two youngest children—Jaehaerys and Alysanne—were hostages at Dragonstone under Visenya’s supervision, while her son Viserys served as Maegor’s squire at King’s Landing as a guarantee of her good behavior.) Late in that year, Maegor’s second wife, Alys, finally became pregnant. Grand Maester Desmond personally oversaw her care, but that pregnancy ended in a stillbirth after only three moons. Worse yet, the boy that was pulled from her womb was monstrous: with twisted limbs, an oversized head, and no eyes. In rage and disgust, Maegor swore that could not have been his son and executed those who delivered the monstrosity, as well as Grand Maester Desmond.
Later that day, Queen Tyanna informed him that the child was not, in fact, his son—that his own Hand, Lord Lucas Harroway, had conspired with his daughter to bring other men to her bed in hopes that one of them could give her a child when it seemed King Maegor could not. Though Maegor did not believe it, Tyanna presented a list of twenty men who had allegedly bedded Alys—men who had proven their virility by having already fathered children. They were all secretly arrested, and all but two confessed under torture.
Maegor’s wrath knew no bounds. The Kingsguard burst into Queen Alys’s chambers and dragged her from her bed. Her father, who had been inspecting the construction of the Tower of the Hand, was flung from its roof, plummeting to his death. His sons, brothers, and nephews were likewise arrested and impaled on the spikes in the still-dry moat of Maegor’s Holdfast. The same fate was shared by the twenty men who had been arrested—even the two who did not confess under torture—then by a dozen more that had been named in the course of questioning. But the worst death of all was that of Queen Alys, who was given over to Tyanna’s torturous ministrations for almost a fortnight, while her husband watched. Maegor later had her body cut into seven parts, mounting each on spikes above the seven gates of the city.
As a final act of revenge, Maegor marched on Harrenhal. The castellan that Lord Lucas Harroway had left in charge of the castle was another nephew, and he surrendered with alacrity in the hope that he and his family might be spared. Maegor was not in a sparing mood, however, and put the castellan—as well as every man, woman, and child inside the castle’s walls—to the sword. And thus began the rumors of the curse on Harrenhal, for every house that had held it since Harren the Black first erected it had come to a disastrous end—including Harren himself. Still, it was a huge castle with a great wealth of land, so King Maegor ordered a melee to decide who should rule it next. Ser Walton Towers, a knight of his household, won—though he died of the wounds he took a fortnight later and was succeeded by his son.
On his return to King’s Landing, Maegor was informed that his mother, the aged Dowager Queen Visenya, had died. In the wake of her death, Queen Alyssa, Jaehaerys, and Alysanne had fled Dragonstone, absconding with the dragons Vermithor and Silverwing, and Visenya’s Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister. Maegor sent word that Visenya’s remains should be cremated and interred with those of King Aegon, but he also ordered the Kingsguard knight Ser Owen Bush to seize Alyssa’s eldest son, Prince Viserys, who remained in King’s Landing. Viserys was taken to the black cells and tortured for information about Queen Alyssa’s whereabouts—although the king was warned that the boy almost certainly knew nothing. After nine days of questioning by the torturers and Queen Tyanna, Viserys died at the age of fifteen. His body was displayed openly for a fortnight, in the vain hopes that Alyssa might try to claim it.
The escape from Dragonstone.
ALLEN DOUGLAS
The tunnels of the Red Keep.
MARK SMYLIE
The Red Keep’s construction was finally completed in 45 AC. To celebrate, Maegor richly rewarded the builders and workers who had toiled on his castle, feasting them and sending them prostitutes from the city’s brothels. For three days they celebrated, drunk on his strongwine. But the celebration ended abruptly and violently when Maegor’s knights descended, putting every man to the sword so that the secrets of the Red Keep would be Maegor’s alone.
Not long after, Queen Ceryse died at King’s Landing of what was said to be a sudden, short illness, though rumors flew that Maegor was somehow involved. (The most persistent rumor was that she had died in a struggle when Maegor sent the Kingsguard knights Ser Owen Bush and Ser Maladon Moore to remove her tongue on account of her shrewish remarks.) If Maegor grieved for Queen Ceryse, he did not show it. Instead, he began a new great work, ordering the ruins of the Sept of Remembrance to be cleared from the Hill of Rhaenys so that the Dragonpit—a stable for dragons—could be erected. However, due to the circulating rumors about the fate of the men who had built the Red Keep, Maegor found few willing workers, and instead had to recruit master builders from Myr and Volantis to oversee its construction, while prisoners from the dungeons were made to provide labor.
At Maegor’s behest, the Red Keep and Aegon’s High Hill are riddled with tunnels—sometimes carved through solid stone. Wary of his enemies, he wished to be able to flee the castle even if it were under siege. The many passages can be accessed through hidden entries scattered throughout the castle—save in Maegor’s Holdfast, which is unconnected to the network.
Besides the tunnels, the dungeons of the Red Keep extend down through four levels beneath the drum tower:
1st Level: A gaol for common prisoners
2nd Level: Cells for noble captives
3rd Level: The black cells, for traitors and the worst criminals
4th Level: The dungeons devoted to torture, filled with cruel and ghastly devices from the days of Maegor
The Black Brides.
KIERAN YANNER
LATE IN 45 AC, Maegor began a new campaign to stamp out the scattered remnants of the Faith Militant. In the kingswood, Maegor captured many Poor Fellows, sending some to the Wall and hanging others. Poxy Jeyne Poore—the woman who had now become the leader of the Poor Fellows—was betrayed by men who were promised pardons and knighthood. She was declared a witch and set to burn at the stake. Three hundred of her followers attempted to rescue her, but Maegor was ready, and all of them—including Ser Horys Hill—were killed before Poxy Jeyne met her fiery end.
Yet despite this success, Maegor’s enemies were growing in number as his cruelty turned smallfolk and lords alike against him. This enabled men like Septon Moon and Ser Joffrey Doggett to rally their followers in the riverlands, the westerlands, and the Reach while the great lords of those regions looked the other way. When Maegor returned from his campaign against the Faith Militant late in 46 AC, he brought with him two thousand skulls that he claimed belonged to Warrior’s Sons and Poor Fellows—though it was widely believed that most of them belonged to innocent men.
Yet as 47 AC dawned, Maegor’s lack of an heir became an increasing concern, and he was determined to remedy it. He sought advice from various councillors and determined to take three wives at once—choosing women of proven fertility to increase his chances. Among the three was his niece Princess Rhaena, whom Lord Daemon Velaryon—Queen Alyssa’s brother and Maegor’s master of ships—had advised that he marry as a means of strengthening his claim to the Iron Throne. Rhaena had remained on Fair Isle since Aegon’s death, under the protection of Lord Farman—and though she had sent her infant daughters Aerea and Rhaella into hiding, Rhaena herself remained in the open because she would not leave Dreamfyre, and it was impossible to hide a dragon. When the summons came from King’s Landing to present herself to Maegor, the princess flew to the Red Keep rather than risk any harm coming to the Farmans and Fair Isle.
At the Red Keep, Rhaena learned that she was to marry Maegor alongside two other women. One was Jeyne Westerling, the widow of Alyn Tarbeck—a follower of Prince Aegon who had died in the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. She had one child: a son conceived shortly before her husband left for battle, and born after his death. The other was Elinor Costayne, the wife of Ser Theo Bolling and mother to his three sons. Maegor had Bolling—then still very much alive—seized by the Kingsguard under the guise of having plotted with Queen Alyssa to murder him, and Bolling was then put to trial and executed all in the same day. After seven days of mourning, Elinor was summoned and informed that she would marry the king.
Though the rebellious Septon Moon and his followers at Stoney Sept denounced the marriages, the High Septon sailed from Oldtown to perform the marriage rites as the king had commanded. The triple marriage took place on a warm spring day in the ward of the Red Keep, witnessed by the people of King’s Landing who took to calling the three widowed women “the Black Brides.” The king made sure to have the children of each of his new brides present, to make sure they complied—because alas for Princess Rhaena, Queen Tyanna had discovered the whereabouts of Aerea and Rhaella and collected them.
After the wedding, Maegor declared that Rhaena’s elder twin, Aerea, would be his heir—as she had been Prince Aegon’s—until an heir of his own body was born, while Rhaella was sent to Oldtown to become a septa. The king also disinherited his remaining nephew, Prince Jaehaerys. The children of the other Black Brides were also dealt with. Lady Jeyne’s son was confirmed as Lord of Tarbeck Hall and sent to be fostered by Lord Lyman Lannister, while Lady Elinor’s older boys were sent to be fostered at the Eyrie and Highgarden; the youngest son, still at the breast, was given over to a wet nurse.
It was not half a year before the King’s Hand, Lord Edwell Celtigar, announced that Queen Jeyne was with child, and shortly after, Maegor revealed that Queen Elinor was also pregnant. He was greatly pleased, showering gifts and lands on them and their kin. However, Queen Jeyne entered labor three moons before she was due—delivering a stillborn child of monstrous appearance—and did not long survive the birth. Though men whispered that Maegor and his seed were cursed, the king himself laid the blame at the feet of Queen Tyanna. She was seized and imprisoned by Ser Owen Bush and Ser Maladon Moore, but before the torturers could begin their work, she confessed that she had poisoned Jeyne Westerling’s child in the womb, as she had done to Queen Alys Harroway before her … and to Queen Elinor as well, though Elinor not yet given birth. Maegor killed Tyanna by his own hand, allegedly cutting out her heart and feeding it to his dogs. A moon later, in 48 AC, Elinor delivered a malformed, stillborn child: eyeless and with the nubs of wings on its back. It would be a harbinger for worse to come that year—the final one of Maegor’s reign.
The ugliness at court induced many noble lords to distance themselves more and more from Maegor’s cause. Lord Tully was seen hosting Ser Joffrey Doggett at Riverrun. When Septon Moon marched on Oldtown with thousands of followers to confront the “High Lickspittle” and make him restore the military orders—claiming that he himself was the legitimate High Septon—Maegor dispatched Lords Oakheart and Rowan with levies to stop him, but instead those men joined Moon. The King’s Hand, Lord Celtigar, resigned and returned to his seat on Claw Isle. And the Dornishmen, sensing weakness, began gathering in the mountain passes.
Worst of all was the appearance of Queen Alyssa at Storm’s End with her remaining children, Jaehaerys and Alysanne. After four years of hiding, they were back with their dragons, Vermithor and Silverwing. At Shipbreaker’s Bay, Lord Rogar Baratheon and his stormlords proclaimed the fourteen-year-old Jaehaerys the rightful king; in turn, Jaehaerys named Rogar Protector of the Realm and Hand of the King.
As word spread, Queen Rhaena seized her chance, escaping the Red Keep with her dragon Dreamfyre, her daughter Aerea, and Maegor’s Valyrian steel sword Blackfyre.
More abandoned Maegor in the days to come. Grand Maester Benifer fled across the narrow sea, Lord Hightower seized Maegor’s messenger who had been sent to Oldtown to demand Rhaella’s head in punishment for her mother’s betrayal, and the Kingsguard knights Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery went over to Jaehaerys. (While a third, the infamous Ser Owen Bush, was gruesomely murdered outside of a brothel.) Lord Daemon Velaryon defected, along with the royal fleet. The great houses Tyrell, Lannister, Tully, and Arryn—and notable houses including the Hightowers, Redwynes, and Royces—likewise turned to Jaehaerys.
Only the lesser lords nearer to the Red Keep came at Maegor’s summons, bringing little more than four thousand swords to his defense. A war council was held over an entire day and night on how to face the expected attacks—and when Lord Hayford urged Maegor to surrender, the king beheaded him and continued on with his plans. Finally, late into the night, Maegor allowed his supporters to leave. Lord Towers of Harrenhal and Lord Rosby of Rosby were the last to depart.
The death of Tyanna.
KIERAN YANNER
Maegor was found dead by Queen Elinor that next morning, still on the Iron Throne, impaled on its twisted blades. Legend would claim that the throne itself had rejected him—though others wondered if the queen had done it, or the lords who had last seen him alive, or even his remaining Kingsguard. Whatever the case, this ignominious death brought an end to the bloody reign of Maegor, the First of His Name—who would come to be known to history as Maegor the Cruel. His reign lasted six years and sixty-six days.
Jaehaerys proclaimed.
SHEN FEI
Jaehaerys and Alysanne on a royal progress.
JOSHUA CAIRÓS
The young king.
KIERAN YANNER
JAEHAERYS, THE FIRST of His Name, ascended the throne in 48 AC, at the age of fourteen, and would hold it for fifty-five years—the longest reign of any Targaryen king. He would win the name “the Old King” for his long rule, though there were some questions, early on, as to whether he should sit the Iron Throne at all. His elder brother, Prince Aegon, though dead himself, had living daughters—the eldest of which was Jaehaerys’s niece Aerea. That she was a child of six counted against her, however, as did her sex. A few then suggested that Aegon’s and Maegor’s widow Queen Rhaena, the eldest of Aenys’s children, could rule, but others noted that the Iron Throne did not follow the inheritance customs of Dorne, where women were included in the line of succession (a further strike against Aerea as well). Queen Rhaena had no interest in ruling, in any case, detesting King’s Landing and desiring only to return to the tranquility of Fair Isle.
But these quibbles over succession died away quickly, and Jaehaerys’s early reign was shaped by attempting to repair what his father Aenys and his uncle Maegor had broken, for the Seven Kingdoms had been deeply wounded by the bloody rebellions and brutal reprisals that had consumed the realm since Aegon the Conqueror’s death.
As Jaehaerys was still a year and a half from his legal majority when Maegor died, his mother, the Dowager Queen Alyssa, was named as regent, while Lord Rogar Baratheon served as Hand and Protector of the Realm. Jaehaerys insisted on voicing his own opinion on all matters, however—starting with the question of those lords who had remained loyal to Maegor. When Jaehaerys first arrived at the Red Keep on the back of Vermithor, some of Maegor’s loyalists fled to their castles. Others left the Seven Kingdoms altogether, and one—Lord Rosby—chose suicide over capture. The Lords Towers, Darklyn, and Staunton were the only ones who remained at the castle to surrender it to the young king. Though many called for their immediate execution, Jaehaerys commanded that they be taken to the black cells instead. They were joined there by several others, including the King’s Justice, the Commander of the City Watch, and the four knights of the Kingsguard who had served King Maegor. When Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa arrived two weeks later, hundreds more were arrested, from lowly servants to great knights. Even the noblewomen who had attended the Black Brides, as well as a score of common women who were alleged to have warmed Maegor’s bed, were swept up in the net.
Queen Alyssa wished them all condemned as traitors and executed, while Lord Rogar argued that such an act would only inflame the loyalists. The matter was settled by Jaehaerys himself, who announced that he would not begin his reign with a bloodbath. Though not yet crowned and still in his minority, his words won him wide support. Even the Dowager Queen agreed—though mostly because she feared her son would look weak were he seen being overruled by his own mother. The prisoners were brought out in groups of seven, made to swear fealty to Jaehaerys, and the nobles among them were forced to give up hostages, lands, or gold as punishment for their treason.
A handful of men were executed, however: Maegor’s gaolers; his confessors; the headsman who had slain Prince Viserys; and the Kingsguard knight Ser Maladon Moore, for allegedly assisting the late Ser Owen Bush in the death of Queen Ceryse Hightower. This left five surviving Kingsguard knights. Two had betrayed Maegor and joined Jaehaerys, but the king now declared them oathbreakers. The other three had remained at Maegor’s side and so were traitors. Though all five were condemned to death, Jaehaerys said they would be given clemency if they took the black. All but one accepted the young king’s justice. Ser Harrold Langward alone demanded a trial by combat. The young king offered to fight him, but was swiftly overruled by the Queen Regent. Ser Gyles Morrigen, nephew of Damon the Devout who had been Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons, stood as the king’s champion instead and swiftly killed Langward; Morrigen was soon after named Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.
Word of Jaehaerys’s clemency spread quickly through the Seven Kingdoms, and even Maegor’s staunchest followers soon bent the knee. The youthful king’s wisdom, piety, and generosity made him one many were willing to follow, despite their past allegiances. But not so the faithful. Maegor’s dreadful war against the Faith Militant had soured them against the Targaryens. Ragged Silas and Dennis the Lame commanded roving bands of Poor Fellows—and had since the days of King Aenys—while the self-declared Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons, Ser Joffrey Doggett, patrolled the westerlands and riverlands with the support of the Lord of Riverrun’s wife, Lady Lucinda. Further south, Septon Moon and his thousands of followers—protected by the rebellious Lords Oakheart and Rowan—sat outside of Oldtown and proclaimed Moon the true High Septon. For his unwillingness to raise an army against this rabble, Lord Donnel Hightower became known as Donnel the Delayer.
Ragged Silas and Dennis the Lame.
THOMAS DENMARK
With his huge size and booming voice, Septon Moon cut an imposing figure. Though he called himself “the Poorest Fellow,” his sermons never quoted The Seven-Pointed Star, but were instead filled with admissions of his own sins, as well as diatribes against the Targaryens and the “Lickspittle” who claimed to be the High Septon in Oldtown. His own sins were many—including gluttony, drunkenness, and fornication. He impregnated so many women that some came to believe his seed could make barren women fertile. His more ignorant and desperate followers even began to offer their barren wives or daughters to him—offers which Moon happily accepted.
Septon Moon
FRANCESCA BAERALD
To heal the schism between the Faith and House Targaryen, it was vital that Jaehaerys be crowned by the High Septon in Oldtown. However, first Septon Moon and his rabble had to be dispersed so that Jaehaerys could safely travel to the city. Despite some urging, Jaehaerys was unwilling to use his dragons to resolve the issue. Lord Rogar then offered to raise an army to cross into the Reach, though the odds were not entirely in his favor given the size of Moon’s forces, which were composed not only of Poor Fellows, but also of knights and men-at-arms from the great houses Rowan and Oakheart. However, matters soon resolved themselves when an unknown woman approached Septon Moon’s tent with a flagon of wine and a request for his assistance. Not long after, she fled the tent and vanished. Shortly after, Septon Moon appeared, naked and drenched in blood, for his throat had been slit open. He staggered through the camp until he eventually collapsed and died. The wine in his tent was later discovered to have been poisoned as well.
After Moon’s death, his followers fractured. A dozen men claimed to be his successor, and fighting broke out amongst the various factions. The boldest of these proclaimed successors, Lorcas the Learned, even seized Septon Moon’s body, tied it to a great destrier, and led the horse to Oldtown in an attempt to storm the city. But fewer than a hundred men followed Lorcas and the stinking corpse, and they were quickly dispatched, along with their leader. The body of Septon Moon was seized by some of Lord Hightower’s knights, beheaded, and later tanned and stuffed to be presented to the High Septon in the Starry Sept. Lord Rowan and Lord Oakheart slunk back to their keeps, and much of the rest of Moon’s host soon followed.
Jaehaerys’s coronation followed without incident near the end of 48 AC. The High Septon placed the King Aenys’s crown on Jaehaerys’s head, and seven days of feasting followed, with hundreds of lords appearing to bend the knee and swear fealty. Many luminaries of the court and the realm were present, but among them was one surprise: Ser Joffrey Doggett, the Red Dog of the Hills. Doggett had named himself Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons and led them against King Maegor and his supporters, but he now appeared in Oldtown with Lord and Lady Tully of Riverrun thanks to a letter of safe conduct sealed with Jaehaerys’s own seal. Lady Lucinda Tully and Ser Joffrey urged the king to restore the Stars and Swords, but Jaehaerys refused, saying that the Faith needed only the protection of the Iron Throne. However, he rescinded the bounty that Maegor had placed on the heads of any members of the Warrior’s Sons and the Poor Fellows. He then shocked the court by offering Ser Joffrey a place in the Kingsguard—a place that the Red Dog of the Hills accepted.
The death of Septon Moon.
SHEN FEI
The convenient and mysterious death of Septon Moon was a matter of speculation for years to come. Among the many candidates for having arranged the cat’s-paw were the king himself, his Hand, or his mother, the Queen Regent. Some even speculated that, due to her sudden disappearance, the woman was in fact a Faceless Man of Braavos. Most scholars, however, believe that the woman was simply a camp follower directed by either Lord Rowan or Lord Oakheart—men whose quarrel had chiefly been with King Maegor rather than the Targaryens as a whole. After Septon Moon’s death, both lords soon returned to Oldtown and bent the knee to Jaehaerys.
When Jaehaerys departed Oldtown for King’s Landing, most of his court traveled with him. His sister Rhaena parted ways with him at Highgarden, however, flying back to Fair Isle, the seat of Lord Farman, on Dreamfyre. But she left behind her daughters: the twins Aerea and Rhaella. Rhaella, the younger, remained at the Starry Sept, having been sworn to the Faith, while Aerea, the elder—now the heir to the Iron Throne until such time as Jaehaerys had children of his own—went on to the Red Keep to serve as a companion and cupbearer to Alysanne.
Aerea and Rhaella.
LILY ABDULLINA
Jaehaerys returns to King’s Landing.
SHEN FEI
Curiously, it was remarked that a great change had taken place in Rhaena’s children following Jaehaerys’s coronation. Where Aerea had been shy and timid and Rhaella bold and willful, their temperaments were now entirely reversed—and consequently better-suited to their new roles. Though never proved, it was widely believed that Queen Rhaena—or perhaps her mother, Queen Alyssa—had taken the opportunity to switch the twins before the coronation.
Jaehaerys’s return to King’s Landing was marked by the adulation of cheering throngs, as well as the appearance of hundreds of gaunt, unwashed Poor Fellows begging the king’s clemency. King Jaehaerys gave it—on the condition that they join the Night’s Watch at the Wall, which the vast majority did.
The next task became selecting members of the small council to advise Jaehaerys during the two years of his minority. Aiming to reconcile those in Westeros who had sided with him, and those who had sided with his uncle Maegor or the Faith, he selected a diverse group of advisors. Set above them all, however, was Lord Rogar Baratheon, the Hand of the King and Lord Protector of the Realm.
49 AC—the first full year of Jaehaerys’s reign—was marked by peace, plenty … and marriages. In fact, it would later be called the Year of the Three Brides. The first marriage took place within two weeks of the new year, as Queen Rhaena married Androw Farman, Lord Farman’s second son, on Fair Isle. Androw was only seventeen at the time—nine years Rhaena’s junior. Among those attending the wedding were Lord Lyman Lannister, his wife Jocasta, Rhaena’s former favorites Samantha Stokeworth and Alayne Royce, and Androw’s spirited sister Elissa. The Crown did not learn of the marriage until a raven arrived announcing it, which was said to have offended Queen Alyssa greatly and infuriated Lord Rogar, because Rhaena had not sought the Crown’s permission to wed. However, King Jaehaerys and Princess Alysanne rejoiced at the news and sent gifts and felicitations and he ordered the bells of the Red Keep to be rung in celebration.
The second wedding was that of Lord Rogar to Queen Alyssa—a union whose announcement was no great surprise but led to much speculation. Lord Rogar was a bold and ambitious man, ten years Queen Alyssa’s junior, and some wondered if he thus meant to establish himself as the dominant power at court for the rest of his days. Perhaps this is why King Jaehaerys privately opposed the marriage, which had also been contracted without his sanction. However, his failure to censure his sister Rhaena’s marriage had set a precedent, and so he held his tongue. As for Queen Alyssa, if she believed Lord Rogar was taking advantage of her position, she gave no hint, and indeed many observers believed she wed him out of true affection. And she was certainly a woman who deserved some happiness after the many tragedies that had befallen her—from the loss of her husband Aenys to the brutal deaths of her two eldest sons and the forced marriage of her daughter to their killer.
Rhaena’s wedding to Androw Farman.
MV RENJU
The king’s chosen councillors and officers were as follows:
Edwell Celtigar, Lord of Claw Isle, formerly Hand of the King to Maegor—lord treasurer and master of coin
Daemon Velaryon, Lord of the Tides, the king’s uncle—lord admiral and master of ships
Prentys Tully, Lord of Riverrun, a supporter of the militant orders—master of laws
Qarl Corbray, Lord of Heart’s Home, a supporter of Jaehaerys’s elder brother Aegon the Uncrowned—Commander of the City Watch
The occasion of Rogar and Alyssa’s marriage would be remembered as the Golden Wedding—the most splendid celebration in living memory. The wedding itself was scheduled for the seventh day of the seventh moon of 49 AC, and lords great and small from across Westeros flocked to attend—from the ailing Brandon Stark, Lord of Winterfell, with his sons Walton and Alaric, to the sister of the Prince of Dorne. The Sealord of Braavos sent his son; the Archon of Tyrosh came in person with his maiden daughter; and the Free City of Pentos sent no fewer than twenty-two of its magisters. All brought gifts—though it was noticed that the most lavish came from those who had followed King Maegor or Septon Moon.
The Golden Wedding.
SHEN FEI
Jaehaerys used the occasion to hold private audiences with any lord or landed knight who wished to speak with him. Some hundred and twenty took him up on the offer, and these audiences allowed his vassals to get the measure of their new king while he, in turn, learned of their concerns and interests. Opinions of the young king were diverse, as if Jaehaerys presented a different face to each, but the greatest praise came from Lord Stark, who claimed he saw King Aegon the Conqueror in the boy king.
Lord Rogar did not attend any of these audiences, but instead played genial host to the many lords and knights in King’s Landing, feasting, gambling, hunting, and hawking with them. However, his most notorious entertainment was said to have taken place two days prior to the wedding. It was widely rumored, though never proven, that the Hand’s brothers presented him with seven virgins from the pleasure houses of Lys, so that Rogar could have the pleasure of taking a maidenhead since Queen Alyssa had already surrendered hers in her first marriage. The gossips claimed Lord Rogar managed to deflower four of them before collapsing from exhaustion.
Lord Rogar and King Jaehaerys were not the only ones who kept busy in the days leading up to the wedding. Princess Alysanne, the king’s sister, was charged with entertaining the highborn women who came with their fathers, brothers, and husbands, as Queen Alyssa was busy with the preparations for the wedding itself and Queen Rhaena had chosen not to attend, preferring Fair Isle to the Red Keep. Though only just turned thirteen, Alysanne proved a brilliant, charming hostess.
When the wedding day dawned, Rogar and Alyssa’s vows were spoken before the High Septon in the half-completed Dragonpit, where tens of thousands could gather to celebrate. Jaehaerys and Alysanne made a dramatic entrance, flying down though the open roof of the Dragonpit on Vermithor and Silverwing, and it was said the ceremony was witnessed by over forty thousand smallfolk and hundreds of lords, ladies, and knights. Thousands more lined the streets as the wedding procession made its way through the city toward the Red Keep. The Red Keep’s huge throne room would later host the noble guests and foreign dignitaries for a prodigious feast, while the smallfolk of King’s Landing celebrated in the inns, wine sinks, and brothels of the city that had grown beneath Aegon’s High Hill.
Seven days of feasts and frolics followed, including a mock sea battle and a great tourney, featuring some of the finest jousts that the realm had seen in years. Lord Rogar and a lively, oft-drunk group of lords and lauded knights attended every tilt and melee, but it was the foot combats that took on the most significance. Up to this point, Jaehaerys’s Kingsguard still numbered only two: the Lord Commander, Ser Gyles Morrigen, and the former Grand Captain of the Warrior’s Sons, Ser Joffrey Doggett. Queen Alyssa proposed that the tourney could be used to fill the remaining five posts. King Jaehaerys agreed with his mother, but it was he who decided to use the foot combats rather than the jousts to award these honors—since, as he wisely pointed out, threats against a king rarely came from other mounted men in the field. These combats were later remembered as the War for the White Cloaks.
A few warriors in the foot combats won the admiration of the smallfolk, including the Drunken Knight, Ser William Stafford; the Bard of Flea Bottom, Tom the Strummer, who mocked his opponents in song before each bout; and the slender mystery knight known as the Serpent in Scarlet who was revealed to be a woman, Jonquil Darke, a bastard daughter of the Lord of Duskendale.
The knights chosen for the Kingsguard were less colorful:
Ser Lorence Roxton, of House Roxton in the Reach
Ser Victor the Valiant, a sworn sword to Lord Royce of Runestone in the Vale
Ser Willam the Wasp, a sworn sword to Lord Smallwood of Acorn Hall in the riverlands
Ser Pate the Woodcock, a hedge knight who preferred the spear to the sword
Ser Samgood of Sour Hill, called Sour Sam, a grizzled hedge knight sixty-three years of age who claimed to have fought in a hundred battles
Once the Golden Wedding and its lavish festivities were completed, a different wedding entirely became of concern to the court: that of King Jaehaerys himself. His sister Alysanne’s potential marriage was considered less urgent than finding a bride for the young king so he could beget heirs of his body. Jaehaerys’s current heirs were Queen Rhaena’s twin daughters, and if Rhaena claimed the right to act as their regent, problems could ensue. A great friction had arisen between mother and daughter, as was evidenced by Queen Rhaena’s absence from the Golden Wedding, as well as her failure to invite Alyssa to her own wedding.
Though Rogar and Alyssa were agreed on the need for a bride for Jaehaerys, they and their councillors could not agree on a choice. Lord Rogar favored the daughter of the Archon of Tyrosh, to forge an alliance with the Free City and extend the influence of the court across the narrow sea. Queen Alyssa believed a foreign bride with foreign gods would not be accepted by the people and preferred the bride be picked from among the houses that had supported Aegon the Uncrowned. Grand Maester Benifer, in turn, believed that choosing exclusively from the houses that had supported Aegon against Maegor would alienate those who had supported Maegor; he recommended a bride from one of the great houses that had played little part in the fighting. Lord Tully recommended the younger sister of his famously pious wife, Lucinda. Lord Velaryon proposed the former Black Bride, Queen Elinor of House Costayne, both to show that all was forgiven for those who had sided with Maegor and because of her proven fertility. Lord Celtigar even offered up his two daughters as candidates, as he had to Maegor.
In all these debates, only one thing was clear: none of them believed that King Jaehaerys should wed his own personal choice, his sister Alysanne. Granted, the Targaryens had wed brother to sister for centuries, and the two siblings had long expected to marry. Moreover, there was a great closeness between them. Queen Alyssa herself would once have been in favor of the union, but the objections of the Faith still held—the very same objections that led to its rebellion against House Targaryen during the reign of King Aenys. Septon Mattheus of the Most Devout—a likely future High Septon—was one of the most ardent detractors. Though the current High Septon—the “High Lickspittle,” as the rebellious Septon Moon had called him—was himself cautious of sparking any further conflict between the Faith and the Crown and thus unlikely to speak ill of the marriage, Septon Mattheus underscored the fact that the High Septon was old and frail, and that many of the other Most Devout who might succeed him would speak out vociferously against the match.
While the debates around Jaehaerys’s marriage prospects swirled, it was quickly decided that Princess Alysanne should wed Orryn Baratheon, Lord Rogar’s youngest brother, on the seventh day of 50 AC. The bride was young at thirteen, but she was freshly flowered, and the Lord Protector, the Queen Regent, and their councillors were all agreed on the union. But Alysanne was not. How the princess learned she was to be married to Orryn is unknown, though Grand Maester Benifer suspected Daemon Velaryon, the lord admiral, of leaking the information—likely because Daemon feared the Baratheons were growing too influential, usurping House Velaryon’s once-favored position.
Regardless of how the plans were discovered, neither Jaehaerys nor Alysanne publicly denounced the match. Instead, Jaehaerys commanded his Kingsguard to quickly and quietly set sail for Dragonstone, while he and Alysanne snuck out of the Red Keep in the middle of the night, flying on their dragons to the ancient Targaryen citadel. Upon landing, Jaehaerys told the waiting servants that he had need of a septon.
The Kingsguard arrived a few days later. On the following dawn, and as 49 AC drew to a close, Jaehaerys and Alysanne were wed by Dragonstone’s Septon Oswyck—an old man who had taught them both the tenets of the Faith in their childhood. Unlike the Golden Wedding, few were in attendance: just the Kingsguard, the castle’s garrison and servants, and a portion of the smallfolk from the village beneath the walls. A modest feast followed, and then Jaehaerys and Alysanne retired to the marital chamber—though they both agreed that the marriage would not be consummated until Alysanne was older.
The wedding of Jaehaerys and Alysanne.
THOMAS DENMARK
Lord Rogar and Queen Alyssa arrived not long after, along with Septon Mattheus of the Most Devout, Grand Maester Benifer, a dozen knights, and more men-at-arms. Alyssa wept when Jaehaerys and Alysanne greeted them at the castle gates, hand-in-hand, while Septon Mattheus denounced the marriage forcefully—until the king warned him that he would accept his mother’s chastisement but not another’s, and threatened to have his lips sewn shut. Lord Rogar, cannily, asked if the marriage had been consummated. When the king admitted it had not, Lord Rogar ordered his knights to separate the newlyweds, intending to leave Alysanne at Dragonstone while taking Jaehaerys back to the Red Keep. However, the knights of the Kingsguard stepped forward, drawing their swords, and interposed themselves between their king and queen and the Lord Protector’s knights. Queen Alyssa managed to restore the peace, but before departing she commanded her children not to spread word of their marriage. They agreed. However, Jaehaerys and Alysanne had no intention of being parted.
Following their marriage, King Jaehaerys and Queen Alysanne remained on Dragonstone until he reached his majority, a year and a half later. They were nearly inseparable during that time—sharing meals, reading together, riding out to hawk or fish or mingle with the smallfolk, and even continuing to share a bed while still remaining chaste. But because Dragonstone was relatively remote, the union largely remained a secret. Upon his return to King’s Landing, Lord Rogar had instructed all those who accompanied him to Dragonstone to speak no word of what had transpired there, if they wished to keep their tongues. Nor was any announcement made to the realm at large. When Septon Mattheus attempted to send word of the match to the High Septon and Most Devout in Oldtown, Grand Maester Benifer burned his letter rather than dispatching a raven, on orders from the Hand. And all the while, Lord Rogar considered how to unmake the marriage. Queen Alyssa was certain her children would never allow themselves to be parted, but feared that the Faith would rise against them and wanted to find some way to prevent that. But still, the Lord Protector and the Queen Regent had a realm to rule in Jaehaerys’s name.
The year 50 AC dawned with grand plans for feasts, fairs, and tourneys throughout the realm to mark the fiftieth year of Targaryen rule. At court, however, the fraying relationships among the Targaryens and with Lord Rogar would have consequences for years to come. Although the secret wedding of Jaehaerys and Alysanne was the most immediate cause, another issue was Queen Rhaena and her decision to marry Androw Farman without seeking leave—a fact that remained a sore point with both Lord Rogar and King Jaehaerys. Rhaena in turn had her grievances, failing to understand why her mother chose to marry Rogar Baratheon and growing increasingly resentful of the fact that her youngest brother had taken the Iron Throne ahead of her and her daughters.
Lord Rogar was particularly humiliated by how Jaehaerys had overruled him when he had confronted the king on Dragonstone, and stewed over how to right this perceived wrong. As weeks stretched into moons with no word of the marriage escaping Dragonstone, Rogar believed that there was still a chance to undo it, certain that the silence indicated Jaehaerys’s wavering commitment to his new bride. The truth was otherwise. Though Jaehaerys could easily have sent word flying throughout the realm from the rookery on Dragonstone, he chose not to because he recognized the danger of the Faith not accepting the marriage. He hoped instead to announce it only after he reached his majority, so that he could present it as the choice of an adult in the fullness of his power rather than as the act of a callow, lovestruck boy. Regardless, Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s absence from court was becoming increasingly obvious. Queen Alyssa declared that the young king was resting and reflecting on Dragonstone, but as time went on, some wondered if the king was ill, or even secretly imprisoned.
In fact, Jaehaerys was using his time in exile wisely. Knowing that some might see King Aenys’s weakness in him, he set himself a brutal regimen of training-at-arms with the aid of Ser Merrell Bullock, the commander of the garrison of Dragonstone, and his seven Kingsguard knights, who were some of the finest fighters in the realm. He became quite an accomplished warrior, winning praise from his tutors for both his determination and his progress. And though he was never as proficient as his Kingsguard, he would be able to hold his own against most challengers.
While Jaehaerys worked to improve his skills in the practice yard, Alysanne’s time on Dragonstone was somewhat lonelier. She had left behind her handmaids and companions when she and Jaehaerys had flown from King’s Landing, so her mother dispatched a new group of companions to Dragonstone for her daughter. The Queen Regent had selected Septa Ysabel and the novices Lyra and Edyth for Alysanne’s religious education and support; the pious Lady Lucinda Tully, along with her equally pious sister Ella Broome, to manage her household; and Jennis Templeton, Coryanne Wylde, Rosamund Ball, and Lord Celtigar’s daughters—all highborn women of about Alysanne’s age—for companionship.
Part of Alyssa’s intention was that the septa and the other devout women in the company might be able to convince Alysanne and Jaehaerys of the error of their ways. Lord Rogar, on the other hand, had very different motives in supporting—and perhaps even encouraging—Alyssa’s intervention. First, he asked Lady Lucinda and the others to keep him informed of all that went on at Dragonstone—especially if Jaehaerys and Alysanne showed any intention of consummating their union. Second, he hoped to lure the king away from Alysanne entirely. Coryanne Wylde, according to both rumors and her alleged memoir A Caution for Young Girls (dictated, it is said, at the end of her life as a septa at the Starry Sept), had been hand-picked by a great lord to seduce Jaehaerys. The oldest variations of the text claim this lord was Ser Borys Baratheon, Lord Rogar’s brother. Later expanded versions claim it was Lord Rogar himself.
Regardless of who dispatched her, Coryanne departed for Dragonstone with the other companions on the galley Wise Woman on the seventh day of the second moon in 50 AC. Alysanne greeted them at the docks on their arrival and gave them gifts. She was pleased to have female companions again, and seemed to have little concern that they might report back to King’s Landing.
A Caution for Young Girls is the oldest and seemingly original title of Coryanne Wylde’s book, but it became so popular that hundreds of copies were made over the years, with many alterations and expansions that accumulated over time. Among the alternative titles are Sins of the Flesh, The High and the Low, A Wanton’s Tale, and The Wickedness of Men. The basic outline of Coryanne Wylde’s life is the same in all these texts: that she surrendered her maidenhood to a groom at her father’s seat at Rain House, gave birth to a bastard son, was sent in service to Queen Alysanne, and then lived a lewd and colorful life until she eventually repented of her ways and became a septa. The more lurid details vary widely between the texts, however, and later authors took great pleasure in creating fanciful and erotic episodes that had no bearing on the truth.
Coryanne Wylde at the Starry Sept
FRANCESCA BAERALD
Meanwhile, on the opposite side of the Seven Kingdoms, Fair Isle was seeing its own drama unfold. Queen Rhaena had established herself at Faircastle with her new husband, Androw Farman, the younger son of Lord Marq Farman. If the court had been surprised by the marriage, it was a surprise to many in the westerlands as well, because Androw was otherwise unpromising: not merely a younger son, but one who lacked the skill to be a knight and who was even said to be incapable of reading and writing. But these facts did not matter to Rhaena, who said she had married him because of his kindness. Others would speculate that she was moved to do it for other reasons: either to thank Lord Farman for the shelter he had given her after the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye, or because of Androw’s sister Elissa.
Elissa Farman was Androw’s elder sister by three years, making her six years Rhaena’s junior. Flaxen-haired and blue-eyed, she was sharp-witted, bold, a skilled singer, hunter, and archer … and most of all, a skilled sailor. The Farmans claimed to have sailed the waters of the Sunset Sea since the Dawn Age, and that passion had found its way into Lady Elissa’s soul. By the time she was twenty, she was an accomplished sailor with her own ship, and mused aloud about trying to cross the Sunset Sea. She was also still unwed, having twice chased away men who had been betrothed to her. It was little surprise that she and Queen Rhaena found themselves confidants. And along with Alayne Royce and Samantha Stokeworth, Rhaena’s other companions, they made a court of women within the wider court of Faircastle.
The snake in Rhaena’s grass proved to be Ser Franklyn Farman. He was Lord Marq’s eldest son, heir to Fair Isle, and had fought and bled for Aegon at the Battle Beneath the Gods Eye. He resented Rhaena’s presence and the “Four-Headed Beast,” as he called her and her three female companions, decried the ruinous cost of feeding her dragon Dreamfyre, and was troubled by Dreamfyre’s recently laid clutch of dragon eggs, which might cause Fair Isle to be overrun with dragons. And with the sudden and unexpected death of Lord Marq in 50 AC, after choking on a fish bone not two weeks after the first anniversary of Rhaena’s marriage to Androw, the new Lord Franklyn was finally able to do something about his unwelcome guest.
He ordered Rhaena to depart Fair Isle not a day after his father’s funeral. Rhaena was so livid that many feared she would mount Dreamfyre and burn the castle to the ground. But instead, after instructing her companions and husband to take ship for Casterly Rock, she flew away on Dreamfyre that very day.
At Casterly Rock, Lord Lyman Lannister and his wife Lady Jocasta of House Tarbeck were welcoming, and the hospitality Rhaena and her companions received for the next moon’s turn was substantial. However, it soon became clear that the Lord of Casterly Rock had ulterior motives, for he and his lady wife began to show great interest in Dreamfyre’s eggs. Lady Jocasta even had the temerity to suggest Rhaena make a gift of one or more of them, and when Rhaena declined, Lord Lyman offered to pay in gold. It was clear that Lord Lyman’s ambition was to become the second house of the Seven Kingdoms to possess dragons, so Rhaena resolved to find some new shelter for herself and her companions.
Rhaena with the greedy Lannisters.
JOSHUA CAIRÓS
Elsewhere in the realm, other matters grew urgent. In King’s Landing, the need to refill the exhausted royal treasury led to the appointment of Lord Edwell Celtigar (once Hand to King Maegor) as master of coin, but his steep taxes brought the growth of King’s Landing to a sudden halt, sending merchant ships to neighboring ports such as Duskendale, Maidenpool, and Driftmark rather than to the capital. And the fees the master of coin had imposed on new buildings also halted construction of the Dragonpit, as the crown could no longer afford to pay the builders.
But the problems the Seven Kingdoms faced were not merely fiscal. The Dornishmen had grown bolder of late and raided more frequently into the Dornish Marches, with rumors growing of a new Vulture King in the Red Mountains. In the North, old Lord Brandon Stark had died the year previously, and his son Lord Walton was faced with an uprising among the men of the Night’s Watch at Rimegate and Sable Hall. These rebels were former Poor Fellows and Warrior’s Sons, led by Ser Olyver Bracken and Ser Raymund Mallery—the traitorous Kingsguard knights who had abandoned Maegor only to be dismissed and exiled to the Wall by Jaehaerys.
The rebellion was short-lived, as the great majority of the Watch remained true. Their strength, combined with that of Lord Stark and his host, was sufficient to overwhelm the forces at Rimegate, whose defenders—including Ser Olyver—were executed. The rebels at Sable Hall, under Ser Raymund, chose to flee beyond the Wall rather than await the same fate. Lord Walton and the Watch gave chase, but two days into the haunted forest they were beset by giants and Lord Walton was dragged out of his saddle and torn limb from limb. The survivors of the attack carried his remains to Castle Black, and Ser Raymund and his followers escaped into the wilds of the far north … until the wildlings delivered Ser Raymund’s head to Eastwatch not half a year later. In Winterfell, Walton’s brother Alaric Stark rose to rule the North, though he had little love for King Jaehaerys, blaming his clemency to the two Kingsguard traitors for the death of his brother.
Dragonstone was an idyll compared to this. Alysanne spent her time with her new companions—the Wise Women, as they came to be called—and enjoyed their company well enough … though their efforts to convince her to abandon her marriage failed. Her firm but gentle insistence made her companions slowly begin to feel not merely sympathy but support for her position—which was hardly what Queen Alyssa and Lord Rogar had hoped for when they dispatched them. Coryanne Wylde also seemed to fail at her task of driving a wedge between Jaehaerys and Alysanne. Though A Caution for Young Girls makes the dubious claim that she did bed the king—and the other versions additionally claim she bedded Alysanne as well, or even all seven of the Kingsguard—Jaehaerys’s feelings for his sister remained unchanged.
Whatever danger Coryanne posed came to an end in the sixth moon of 50 AC, when she departed Dragonstone under cover of night with Ser Howard Bullock. The younger son of the commander of Dragonstone’s garrison and a married man besides, Ser Howard had become besotted with Coryanne and fled with both her and much of his wife’s jewelry. They eventually found themselves in the Free City of Pentos and then the Disputed Lands, where Ser Howard joined the Free Company, a band of sellswords. He died following a drunken fall from his horse three years later, and the penniless Coryanne was left to fend for herself—which would provide fodder for the lewd and fanciful tales of A Caution for Young Girls.
As rumors of Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s marriage finally began to spread, Queen Alyssa declared that there was no more point attempting to undo what could clearly not be undone. In a rage, Lord Rogar put forward the plan of uncrowning Jaehaerys and crowning Aerea instead. He claimed that Rhaena would support her daughter’s ascension … and Rhaena had a dragon. But what Lord Rogar failed to recognize was that he had raised the specter of dragon going to war against dragon—and that was a mistake he could not undo. Alyssa reminded the council that they served at her pleasure, and then told her lord and husband that his services as Hand were no longer required and that he should depart for Storm’s End. When Lord Rogar tried to refuse, Lord Qarl Corbray stood, unsheathed the Valyrian steel sword Lady Forlorn, and made it plain that he would enforce the Queen Regent’s will.
Lord Walton Stark is killed by giants.
SHEN FEI
The rest of the small council seemed to be in accord, so Rogar departed—though he lingered for six days on the far side of the Blackwater Rush while his brother Ronnal collected their men-at-arms and tried to seize Princess Aerea. The attempt failed, because the Queen Regent had already dispatched Lord Corbray to spirit Aerea into hiding, disguised as a commoner and working in a stable near the King’s Gate—a guise she would wear for the rest of the regency. She was eight years old and loved horses; years later, she would say that this was the happiest time of her life.
The conflict destroyed whatever affection Lord Rogar had for his wife, and Queen Alyssa was devastated. She named her brother Daemon as Hand of the King, sent a letter to Dragonstone with news of what had transpired, then retired to her bedchamber. Lord Daemon ruled for the remainder of the regency, and Alyssa no longer took part in the public affairs of the realm.
Lord Rogar was made of different stuff, however, and did not take his defeat lying down. He attempted one last play for power, dispatching his brother, Ser Orryn, to Oldtown, where he attempted to remove Princess Rhaella from the motherhouse where she was a novice. The plan nearly succeeded, but a suspicious septa led to its undoing. Ser Orryn soon confessed to the High Septon that he had been dispatched by his elder brother to steal Rhaella away to Storm’s End, force her to admit she was the true Princess Aerea, and then see her crowned. Lord Donnel Hightower—already known far and wide as Donnel the Delayer—showed no concern for offending Lord Rogar. He immediately threw Orryn and his men into the dungeons and dispatched an account of what had happened to King’s Landing and Dragonstone.
In the wake of this failure, Lord Rogar was certain he would be sent to the Wall or even executed. He prepared his will and wrote a confession, attempting to absolve his brothers of any responsibility while naming his eldest brother, Borys, as his heir. He concluded by insisting he had acted only for the good of the realm.
On the twelfth day of the ninth moon of 50 AC, Jaehaerys Targaryen turned sixteen—a man grown by the laws of the Seven Kingdoms, and so the regency ended.
Princess Aerea in disguise.
SHEN FEI
A map of Jaehaerys’s royal progress.
FRANCESCA BAERALD
ON THE DAY of his majority, King Jaehaerys flew alone to King’s Landing on the back of Vermithor, after having dispatched five of his Kingsguard ahead of him to prepare for his arrival. Queen Alysanne remained on Dragonstone, in the event there were renewed calls to annul the marriage. However, Queen Alyssa desired no conflict with her children, and was said to have wept with joy when Jaehaerys sought her out. The Dowager Queen joined the feast of welcome for her son, and the other functions at court that followed, but she never again held a pivotal role in the governance of the realm.
One of Jaehaerys’s first acts was to select his own small council, retaining his uncle Lord Daemon Velaryon as Hand and Lord Qarl Corbray as Commander of the City Watch, but thanking Lord Prentys Tully for his service as master of laws and replacing him with the learned Lord Albin Massey, and choosing Lord Manfryd Redwyne as lord admiral and master of ships; Lord Manfryd became the first man not of House Velaryon to ever hold those offices. Lord Edwell Celtigar was likewise dismissed as master of coin, and his taxes and levies were rescinded. To replace him, Jaehaerys made the surprising choice of naming Rego Draz, a merchant and moneychanger of the Free City of Pentos. Draz had begun his life in poverty and had then risen to become the wealthiest man in Pentos, but the scorn of his peers convinced him to take both his family and his vast fortune to King’s Landing when Jaehaerys offered him the position. He was often called the Lord of the Air, because he had no lands or castle.
Septon Mattheus was also dismissed from King’s Landing, as his loud protests against the incestuous marriage of the king to his sister left the king uninterested in his spiritual counsel. To replace him, the king called on a young septon from Highgarden. His name was Barth, and he was the lowborn son of a common blacksmith—though he would swiftly rise to become a man of great import. After Mattheus departed, the king proceeded to dismiss and replace dozens of lesser offices, from the Keeper of the Keys to the King’s Justice to the Red Keep’s ratcatchers. Even the Red Keep’s dungeons were emptied out, and the men in the black cells were allowed a chance to bathe and make appeal for the king’s mercy, as a number of these had been wrongly imprisoned by Maegor.
Once all this was done, the king summoned Lord Rogar Baratheon. Though his brothers advised Rogar to join the Night’s Watch or even refuse the summons rather than risk execution, Lord Rogar did as he was commanded. To the surprise of many, King Jaehaerys accepted that Lord Rogar had acted in what he believed was the best interest of the realm. Jaehaerys was willing to forgive him if he swore to never speak against Jaehaerys or Queen Alysanne again, and if he took Alyssa back to Storm’s End to live together as man and wife, treating her with honor and courtesy for the rest of her days. Lord Rogar accepted. Jaehaerys also forgave Rogar’s brothers, excepting Ser Orryn; he and the men who had tried to abduct Princess Rhaella were sent into exile for ten years. The king did not even require hostages of the Baratheons, reminding Rogar that he had no need of hostages when he had Vermithor, who was growing by the day.
When Lord Rogar and the Dowager Queen Alyssa returned to Storm’s End several days later, King Jaehaerys began the process of dealing with the crown’s most pressing problem: the empty treasury. Rego Draz negotiated loans from the Iron Bank of Braavos and its rivals in Tyrosh and Myr, and with those funds filling the royal treasury, the building of the Dragonpit resumed. New taxes were levied on luxury items that came from outside the kingdom, including cloth-of-gold, Myrish lace, Dornish wines, and costly spices from the east. A levy on crenellations was instituted, such that any lord who wished to build a new castle or expand and repair his existing seat would need to pay a hefty price for the privilege.
Six moons after Jaehaerys’s return, partway into 51 AC, Queen Alysanne arrived from Dragonstone and a second wedding was planned before the court—though there remained a concern that the Faith might speak against the union, as it had when it rose in rebellion against their father and uncle. So the king devised a plan of sending seven men and women—mostly septons and septas—throughout the Seven Kingdoms in the moons before the wedding, to preach a doctrine he had crafted with the help of Septon Oswyck and Septon Barth: the Doctrine of Exceptionalism. This claimed that the Seven had made the Valyrians differently than other men—that they controlled dragons was proof enough of their uniqueness—and that incest was not the sin for them that it would be for others.
The seven who preached on behalf of the king and queen were as follows:
Septon Baldrick, a cunning speaker
Septon Rollo, noted for his learning
Septon Alfyn, old but fierce, carried in a litter because of his missing legs
Septa Ysabel, one of Alysanne’s Wise Women
Septa Violante, said to have miraculous gifts as a healer
Mother Maris, who had taught orphans for years in a motherhouse outside Gulltown in the Vale
Queen Elinor of House Costayne, the former Black Bride, now a penitent who had lived quietly until summoned by the king—in her later years she would become a septa as well
The seven did their work diligently, and no further objections were raised to Jaehaerys’s marriage. Conscious of the state of the royal treasuries, King Jaehaerys did not match the excess of the Golden Wedding, but still there were a thousand guests, including Lord Rogar Baratheon and the Dowager Queen Alyssa. Even the Queen in the West, Rhaena, arrived on the back of Dreamfyre to witness the event, and to see her daughter Aerea. Unlike the first wedding, however, this second wedding ended definitively with the consummation of the marriage; Alysanne insisted on it, to make certain that the union could never be questioned again on those particular grounds.
One final challenge came from Jaehaerys’s sister, Queen Rhaena. Having left Casterly Rock and the ambitious Lannisters behind, she had spent the last few moons on a kind of progress, traveling from castle to castle in the west and on into the riverlands. Each lord either complained of the cost of hosting her—for her entourage consisted of her dragon Dreamfyre, plus her extensive hangers-on and household—or seemed all too interested in her dragon and its clutch of eggs. Rhaena now asked the king for a seat of her own: Dragonstone. Jaehaerys refused to give her Dragonstone outright, but instead allowed her to hold it in his name as a gift. Though Rhaena was not pleased by having to bend the knee to her much younger brother, she eventually accepted. When she flew to Dragonstone, her daughter Aerea, heir to the Seven Kingdoms, accompanied her with Jaehaerys’s permission.
The rest of 51 AC proceeded with no new crises, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne ruled peacefully together. Alysanne attended meetings of the small council and offered her advice, to the surprise of some of the council’s other members. She also restored the charm and grace of the court, filling its halls with singers, dancers, mummers, and even the castle’s first fool—a man called the Goodwife who called his wooden puppets his children. Toward the end of the year, another joyous occasion took place: Alysanne announced that she was with child.
Not long after, Jaehaerys declared that he would make his first royal progress—the first of many he would make in his long reign. He intended to travel with only a hundred knights, men-at-arms, and servants: a far cry from the small armies his grandfather Aegon the Conqueror had traveled with. As for the journey itself, due to Queen Alysanne’s pregnancy, they would only venture as far as the Vale. During that progress, Alysanne held the first of many women’s courts, where women and girls of all stations were welcome to come forward and speak of their concerns.
The first progress was never completed, however, thanks to the attempted assassination of Queen Alysanne at Maidenpool. Wishing to bathe in the celebrated Jonquil’s pool—said to have been where Florian the Fool first glimpsed his beloved Jonquil in the Age of Heroes—Alysanne and her women entered the bathhouse. The only ones present besides her attendants were the holy sisters who maintained the baths, but among their number were three who believed Alysanne and her incest would pollute the holy waters. After Alysanne and her women had undressed, these sisters attacked with knives. The Wise Women who were with Alysanne threw themselves between her and the assassins; Rosamund Ball died three days later of a wound she took in defense of her queen. Two of the renegade sisters were killed by the Kingsguard, while the third was questioned and revealed a half-dozen other sisters who had aided in the planning; all were condemned to death. The king and queen returned to the safety of Maegor’s Holdfast, and it was decided that from then on Alysanne should have her own protector—a woman who could follow her where men could not. So Jonquil Darke, who had once fought as the mystery knight known as the Scarlet Serpent, was summoned to court to become the queen’s sworn shield. In time she would be known as the Scarlet Shadow.
Jonquil’s pool.
FRANCISCO VEGAS
Soon after their return from Maidenpool, word arrived that Queen Alyssa, now forty-four, was with child. The pregnancy brought great joy to Lord Rogar, who had repented his infidelities to his wife, but the queen herself was rightly concerned about her age and the dangers of a pregnancy so late in life. Yet while her pregnancy went well, that of her much younger daughter did not. Alysanne’s boy—whom she named Aegon—had come too early, and died three days later, in early 52 AC. The queen blamed the attack in Maidenpool, which had prevented her bathing in the healing waters of Jonquil’s pool. Weeks later, Queen Alyssa gave birth to a robust, black-haired boy that Rogar named Boremund.
After Alysanne had somewhat recovered from the birth and her subsequent grief, she and Jaehaerys returned to their interrupted progress. Jaehaerys arrived in Gulltown and proceeded to visit Runestone, Redfort, Longbow Hall, Heart’s Home, and the Gates of the Moon before flying Vermithor up to the Eyrie high on the Giant’s Lance. The queen did not join her brother for every stage of the journey, but she did hold her women’s courts in Gulltown and the Gates of the Moon. And thus came to realize that the laws of the Seven Kingdoms did not sufficiently protect widows who outlived their husbands—especially those who were second or third wives and so might be resented by their husband’s children from previous marriages. At this time, these children could legally take all income, servants, and prerogatives from their father’s widows, leaving the women no better than impoverished, unwanted boarders. Alysanne convinced Jaehaerys to develop and enact the Widow’s Law, requiring that widows be allowed to remain in the castle that had been their home, and that their clothing, income, and servants would remain their own. The law also provided for the protection of a lord’s firstborn children, forbidding him from disinheriting them in favor of later children by a second wife.
The redesign of King’s Landing.
SHEN FEI
This period also heralded the start of a substantial restructuring of King’s Landing. While visiting the Dragonpit, Jaehaerys observed that King’s Landing had grown too rapidly and in too unplanned a fashion, leading to narrow streets overrun with filth and sewage. The king determined to widen and straighten what streets he could, knocking down sties and hovels as needed, and creating a central square to serve as a hub for long, wide streets that would connect the center of the city to its outskirts. These efforts, which would take years to complete, were expensive, and so caused much grief to the master of coin, Rego Draz. His many levies and taxes were not enough to raise sufficient capital, and so a gate fee was assessed for entering and departing the city. This greatly increased the complaints against Draz—already resented as a foreigner with strange gods and vast personal wealth.
Toward the end of 52 AC, Alysanne was again with child and so decided not to join Jaehaerys on his second royal progress. At the start of 53 AC, Jaehaerys departed on Vermithor to visit the riverlands. With him went Lady Jennis Templeton, one of the queen’s companions, to hold Alysanne’s women’s courts in her stead. While the king was away, Alysanne presided over the meetings of his council and held audiences from a seat at the base of the Iron Throne.
Alysanne gave birth on the seventh moon of 53 AC, naming the daughter she bore Daenerys. When word reached King Jaehaerys in Stoney Sept, he immediately flew to King’s Landing. Most of the realm was pleased by the birth of a royal daughter, but on Dragonstone things were different. The bold, willful Princess Aerea found herself displaced as Jaehaerys’s heir, and at eleven years of age was aware enough of her station to be displeased. Her mother, Queen Rhaena, shared her feelings, but was distracted by the rift growing between her and her favorite, Elissa Farman, who had grown tired of Dragonstone and wanted to build a swift ship with which to explore the Sunset Sea.
The year 54 AC would be remembered as the Year of the Stranger in the annals of Westeros, because of the many deaths and turmoil that shook the realm. Shortly after the new year, old Septon Oswyck—who had wed Alysanne and Jaehaerys on Dragonstone and who had helped formulate the Doctrine of Exceptionalism—passed away in his sleep, casting a pall over the court. Then there was the news that Queen Alyssa was pregnant once more, at the age of forty-six, raising questions about her ability to carry a healthy child to term. And on Dragonstone, the tensions between Rhaena and Elissa Farman came to a head when Elissa left the island—and Westeros as well—with three stolen dragon eggs. In a rage, Rhaena did what she could to retrieve both Elissa and the eggs, but the trail grew cold in Pentos, and she was finally forced to inform Jaehaerys of what had happened.
Alys Westhill’s discovery.
NUTCHAPOL THITINUNTHAKORN
Elissa Farman dreamed of building a ship to explore the Sunset Sea, and the dragon eggs were her way of realizing it. Her trail grew cold in part because she had taken a new name, Alys Westhill, and traveled on from Pentos to Braavos. There she sold the dragon eggs to the Sealord of Braavos, who was famed for menagerie. Then she began financing the construction of the Sun Chaser, a ship of her own design.
In 55 AC, the Sun Chaser was completed. The Sealord informed Elissa that questions were being asked, and he did not wish to start a war with the Targaryens and their dragons, so Elissa departed Braavos in her new ship, then spent the next year tempting experienced sailors to join the crew for her expedition into the Sunset Sea. Though many in Westeros thought that the far side of the ocean led to Ulthos and Essos, Lady Elissa believed that the sphere of the world was large enough that there must be other continents that were yet undiscovered. In 56 AC, she set sail into the Sunset Sea from Oldtown—along with a handful of companion vessels—and not a day too soon, as King Jaehaerys had become aware of this Alys Westhill and realized who she was.
Three years later, on the seventh day of 59 AC, one of those companion vessels, captained by Ser Eustace Hightower, arrived back in Oldtown. His tale was a strange one. After sailing farther west than anyone in Westeros had ever been, a storm drove them to three small, mountainous islands that Lady Alys named Aegon, Rhaenys, and Visenya. The three islands were uninhabited, but had fresh water, wild pigs, strange grey lizards as large as deer, nuts, and fruits and spices that no one had ever seen before. Believing that the three isles were discovery enough, Ser Eustace turned back—though his journey home was a roundabout one.
Alys and her Sun Chaser continued on, though Ser Eustace and his surviving crewmembers were the last people to have seen her alive. However, years later, Ser Corlys Velaryon, on the second of his nine great voyages, reached distant and mysterious Asshai, and there he claimed to have seen a battered old carrack of unique design that he swore must have been Sun Chaser.
Jaehaerys was little pleased, fearing that the Free Cities might use the dragons to forge a new Valyria. Rhaena was convinced Elissa meant to sell them to fund the construction of the ship she had dreamed of, and Grand Maester Benifer suggested that the dragon eggs would not hatch away from Dragonstone, where the heat of the Dragonmont seemed to play a role in their quickening. Jaehaerys offered rewards for any word of dragons, but discovered nothing.
Another notable death that took place in 54 AC was the passing of the aged High Septon. The Most Devout were set to meet beneath the dome of the Starry Sept to elect a new Voice of the Seven. King Jaehaerys’s favored choice, Septon Barth, advised the king against advancing his name because of his youth, his unorthodoxy, and his lack of fame. Yet the king did not want the opportunistic Septon Mattheus to be elected, given the opposition he had voiced to Jaehaerys’s marriage. So Jaehaerys and Alysanne flew to Oldtown before the selection could be concluded.
Jaehaerys’s intentions were to meet with Lord Donnel Hightower and persuade him to support a High Septon who agreed with the Doctrine of Exceptionalism. The Hightowers had deep ties to the Faith, strengthened by their custom of sending younger sons and cousins into the holy orders. Donnel the Delayer backed the king, and the Most Devout ended up electing Septon Alfyn: the aged and legless septon who had served as one of Jaehaerys’s Seven Speakers. His selection was notable not only because he was not one of the exalted Most Devout, but also because he was by far the oldest of the Seven Speakers and so would not be expected to live for many years more. This was by design; King Jaehaerys promised to support a Hightower to succeed him, provided he was an Exceptionalist.
While awaiting Septon Alfyn’s arrival from Ashford, the king and queen made good use of their time in Oldtown. Jaehaerys visited many of the nearby castles while Alysanne spent time with silent sisters and holy septas, and then passed several days in the Citadel, reading in its library and attending lectures. She even hosted a feast with the archmaesters, where she attempted to convince them to allow women into the Citadel as postulants—alas unsuccessfully.
Once Alfyn put aside his name and was anointed as the High Septon, the king and queen began their return to King’s Landing. They made a new progress of it, visiting the Dornish Marches and the stormlands along the way. At Blackhaven, however, dreadful news arrived: their mother, Queen Alyssa, was close to death. When they arrived at Storm’s End, they found Alyssa gaunt and heavily pregnant, and Lord Rogar drunk and grieving. From the maester and midwives they learned that it was too soon for the birth, but that something had torn within the aged queen and there was little to be done save ease her pain. There was a small chance the maester of Storm’s End could remove the child alive from Alyssa’s womb, though she would likely die from the process. If the attempt was not made, however, mother and child would surely die together. Jaehaerys insisted that the maester do what was needed. The queen did die from the procedure, and the child removed from her womb was so small and weak that it was feared she would not long outlive her mother. Yet she survived and thrived. Days after her birth, Lord Rogar finally named her: Jocelyn.
Alysanne at the Citadel.
TOMASZ JEDRUSZEK
The day of Jocelyn’s birth and Alyssa’s death brought one more arrival: Queen Rhaena. After viewing her mother’s remains and refusing to hold her newborn half-sister, Rhaena publicly excoriated Lord Rogar for her mother’s death. She threatened to make Storm’s End another Harrenhal if he ever took a new wife or mistreated his children by Alyssa. After she left, Lord Rogar dismissed her threats, declaring himself unafraid, yet he never did remarry, nor did his children by Alyssa ever want for anything.
Rhaena’s return to Dragonstone was not a happy one. Her daughter Aerea had grown increasingly willful, given to tantrums, defiance, and insults. Her husband Androw was increasingly estranged from her, finding himself pushed aside for the women she considered her companions and favorites, and having little to do but drink. He became a subject of mockery for everyone from the lowliest servants to Princess Aerea and Queen Rhaena herself. As the long summer gave way to autumn, Dragonstone became even gloomier and a sickness arrived on its shores, marked by bloody stool and then an agonizing cramping in the belly. The citadel’s aged Maester Culiper was the first to die. More deaths followed—all of them women, and many of them close to the queen. Culiper’s successor, Maester Anselm, guessed that the queen and Princess Aerea were protected from the illness due to their Valyrian blood, thus repeating the one of the key beliefs of Exceptionalism: that the Targaryens were immune to the common illnesses that could trouble and kill other men.
Dragonstone was quarantined to prevent the illness escaping the island, and Rhaena closed the gates of the citadel to prevent it from escaping the walls. The last to die was Lianna Velaryon, niece to Lord Daemon, who died in Rhaena’s arms. When the details of this illness were shared among the king’s councillors, Rego Draz immediately recognized it as the poison known as the Tears of Lys. Realizing that Culiper had been disposed of before he could identify the poison, Jaehaerys swiftly sent word to Rhaena, who concluded that her husband, Androw Farman, had been the poisoner. Androw threw himself to his death from the Chamber of the Painted Table—though not before admitting his crimes, which he had committed out of anger and jealousy. Rhaena had her men cut his body into pieces and fed to her dragon.
In the aftermath, Lord Daemon Velaryon resigned as Hand of the King and Lord Myles Smallwood—a veteran of a dozen battles, and a fierce and noted warrior—replaced him. Meanwhile, Queen Alysanne was on Dragonstone attempting—and failing—to comfort her sister Rhaena. As for Princess Aerea, she was furious with both her mother and her lot in life. She begged Alysanne to take her to King’s Landing, yet Rhaena refused to give up her daughter and sent her younger sister away empty-handed.
As the year drew to a close, Queen Rhaena arrived in King’s Landing on Dreamfyre, where she informed Jaehaerys and Alysanne that Aerea had claimed Balerion, the Black Dread, then flown away without word. Jaehaerys had the Red Keep’s ravens dispatched to every castle, to command word be sent if the dragon or the princess were discovered. After seven days without word, a despairing Queen Rhaena set off in search of her daughter.
With no word of his former heir, Jaehaerys returned to his labors. He was determined to organize and codify the laws of the Seven Kingdoms, which were a jumble of local and ancient customs, and often contradictory. Jaehaerys was offended by this disorder and set what he deemed his “smaller council” to the task—though it was a task that would take years to complete. The smaller council consisted of Septon Barth, Grand Maester Benifer, Lord Albin Massey, and Queen Alysanne. Barth took a leading role here, contributing three times as much to the Books of Law—which would later become known as the Great Code of Septon Barth—as any other person.
Androw Farman leaps to his death.
DANIEL ALEKOW
The queen also revealed, early in 55 AC, that she was once again with child. She kept herself busy as her belly swelled, arranging marriages for two of her Wise Women. When midyear arrived, Lord Redwyne’s tourney to celebrate the completion of the Dragonpit took place. It was the greatest tourney the realm had seen since the Golden Wedding, with many famed feats of arms. Of greatest note was the grand melee fought by seventy-seven knights in teams of eleven; when only one team remained, they fought each other, and the victor of the day was a broadshouldered young knight from the riverlands, Ser Lucamore Strong. After the tourney, Alysanne went to Dragonstone to await the birth of her child. The king continued with another planned progress, this time traveling through the westerlands until Alysanne gave birth to a healthy boy with white-gold hair and pale lilac eyes; he was named Aemon.
Winter came again to Westeros in 56 AC, and with it grim news. In the previous year, the king had dispatched Ser Willam the Wasp of the Kingsguard with a dozen men to investigate rumors of a beast in the hills of Andalos, north of Pentos, hoping that it was Aerea and Balerion. Now, word arrived that Ser Willam and all his men had been killed, led into an ambush by their guide, who was in league with brigands. To take his place, the king gave the white cloak to Ser Lucamore Strong, the victor of the grand melee of Lord Redwyne’s tourney.
It was not until the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC that Balerion, the Black Dread, returned. On his back was the gaunt, starved Princess Aerea, her flesh burning and her mind lost in delirium. All efforts to cool her failed, and she died that evening. Her remains were burned the next day and it was announced that she had died of a fever. But this was not precisely the truth. Septon Barth recorded that Aerea had cooked from the inside, her flesh growing darker and cracking … and that something was alive inside her—something that burst out of her body when it was immersed in ice: worms with faces and snakes with hands, horrifying to look on, which did not survive the cold. Barth concluded that Balerion—born in Valyria before the Doom—had carried Princess Aerea to the place of his birth, and there the princess had encountered the horrors that led to her death. Balerion as well bore the scars of great wounds on his body—wounds that had not been present before his disappearance. Soon after, Balerion became the first dragon to reside in the completed Dragonpit. To guard him and the dragons that joined him, seventy-seven men were recruited, forming the order of the Dragonkeepers.
In response to Aerea’s death, Jaehaerys forbade any ship that had visited Valyria from landing in the Seven Kingdoms, and likewise forbade his subjects from visiting Valyria. His sister Rhaena scattered her daughter’s ashes into the sky, then asked for a new place to live, as Dragonstone was too full with ghosts. Jaehaerys settled her in the Widow’s Tower of Harrenhal, where she shared the castle with the sickly, impoverished Lord Maegor Towers—named after the late king and the last of his line.
In 57 AC, Alysanne bore Jaehaerys a second son, whom they named Baelon. He was born at the start of the spring, and so became known as the Spring Prince—though his boldness in later years would also earn him the title of Baelon the Brave. That year also saw the dismissal of Lord Myles as Hand, as he was simply not suited to the task. King Jaehaerys elevated Septon Barth to the office instead, despite his low birth. Barth’s first act as Hand was to journey to Braavos, where he forced the Sealord to admit that he had purchased Elissa Farman’s stolen eggs—something Jaehaerys had come to suspect. Barth agreed that the Sealord could keep the eggs, so long as they did not hatch, and in return the Sealord convinced the Iron Bank to forgive the loan that Rego Draz had procured, thus cutting the crown’s debts in half. This windfall allowed the improvement of King’s Landing to continue, so work digging drains, sewers, and wells commenced.
Balerion in the Dragonpit.
RENÉ AIGNER
Jaehaerys meets with leaders of the Free Cities.
MV RENJU
IN 58 AC, the king planned another progress, this time to visit the North. Jaehaerys sent his Kingsguard, servants, and retainers ahead of him by ship to White Harbor; he and Alysanne would follow on their dragons. However, before his departure, envoys from the warring Free Cities of Pentos and Tyrosh accepted his offer to broker a peace between them. Sensing opportunity, Jaehaerys delayed his own departure, though he sent Alysanne ahead as planned. She was received lavishly by Lord Theomore Manderly at White Harbor, where she arranged some marriages and took a few Manderly kinswomen into her service. She then traveled on to Winterfell. But there, her reception from Lord Alaric was colder and more begrudging. First was the perceived insult that Jaehaerys had not joined his queen; the king sadly remained delayed in King’s Landing as the negotiations dragged on. But added to that was Alaric’s resentment of the man he still felt had cost him the life of his brother; Walton had been slain by one of Maegor’s former Kingsguard, whom Jaehaerys had exiled to the Wall.
While awaiting her husband, Alysanne decided to visit the Night’s Watch on the Wall, first stopping at Last Hearth and several other keeps in the North. She was received cordially by the Lord Commander, Lothor Burley, and his men at Castle Black. Her first glimpse of the Wall was breathtaking, and she resolved to get a better view of it and the lands beyond on the back of her dragon, Silverwing. Three times she made the attempt to pass the Wall, but each time Silverwing refused. She later rode atop the Wall, escorted by the First Ranger, to visit the castles of Snowgate and the Nightfort. When she realized that Nightfort’s huge size made it ruinous to maintain, she pledged her own jewels for the construction of a neighboring castle that would be called Deep Lake. In her honor, the Watch also renamed Snowgate to Queensgate.
Half a year later, with the negotiations between Pentos and Tyrosh finally concluded, Jaehaerys happily traveled on to Winterfell, where he and Alysanne were reunited. Lord Alaric was still unwelcoming of his king—though Alysanne herself had won his favor—and his resentment made it harder to discuss the plight of the Watch, which Alysanne had learned needed more land from which to derive income, as well as food and resources. She proposed that Lord Alaric grant the Night’s Watch another section of land south of Brandon’s Gift, doubling the area under their control. Though Alaric was resistant at first, Alysanne’s charm and arguments finally won him over. This additional land would be known thereafter as the New Gift.
Once this was settled, Jaehaerys and Alysanne flew south again, visiting several northern castles along the way. Their attendants took a slower route, traveling to White Harbor and taking ship for the royal city. When the king and queen arrived at King’s Landing, the council was called to discuss a matter that had come to light from the several women’s courts that Alysanne had held in the North. The rest of the Seven Kingdoms had largely given up the ancient practice of the right of the first night—in which a lord could claim the right to bed any bride on her wedding night—but it was still widely practiced in the North. Jaehaerys was reluctant to abolish the practice by law—not the least because the Targaryens of old had often sown “dragonseeds” among the women of Dragonstone—but the arguments of his wife and Septon Barth convinced him.
The fifty-eighth year after the Conquest was also the tenth anniversary of Jaehaerys’s reign, which seemed blessedly peaceful and prosperous. His dynasty was secured by two strong young princes, and a beautiful and beloved princess. Alysanne was well-loved throughout the realm and was widely known as Good Queen Alysanne. A great tourney was arranged toward the end of the year to mark the occasion, and all the lords of the great houses (apart from Lord Alaric Stark, who sent his sons and daughter in his stead) attended. Lord Manfryd Redwyne’s youngest son, Ser Ryam, rode splendidly, defeating many famed champions as well as two knights of the Kingsguard before winning the event. He crowned Alysanne the Queen of Love and Beauty, to the great pleasure of the onlookers.
But troubling times were on the horizon. The winter that began in 59 AC was long and cruel. The North was hardest hit, with famine spreading through the land, but harvests failed through the rest of Westeros as well—even as far south as the Reach. The price of bread rose, fruits and vegetables were hard to come by, and meat grew even costlier. Worse still, in 59 AC, the Shivers returned to the Seven Kingdoms—first appearing in the islands of the crownlands and then sweeping through Blackwater Bay and up the Blackwater Rush. First recorded a century earlier, the Shivers was a disease believed to have originated in Essos that would periodically appear in the ports of Westeros, and from there spread throughout the land. It began with chills, then progressed into increasingly violent shivers, blue lips, and bloody coughs. Fewer than one in five survived it, and the maesters and healers knew of nothing that could cure it or improve the chances of survival.
Silverwing at the Wall.
RENÉ AIGNER
A map of the North.
FRANCESCA BAERALD
The first lord to die of the Shivers was Lord Edwell Celtigar, the former master of coin, and soon after came his son and heir. Many more followed—including some of the greatest lords and ladies in Westeros. Oldtown was especially hard-hit, with the High Septon and Lord Donnel the Delayer among the dead, as well as some forty of the Most Devout, and a third of all the men at the Citadel.
Hardest hit of all, however, was King’s Landing. The Kingsguard knights Sam of Sour Hill and Ser Victor the Valiant perished, as did the councillors Lord Albin Massey, Lord Qarl Corbray, and aged Grand Maester Benifer. Corbray’s death left the City Watch in disarray, brought low by the Shivers sweeping through their ranks, and for a time lawlessness ran rampant. Not even the remaining Kingsguard and household knights could restore order, as their numbers were too few.
The most grievous death among the officers of the court was not directly due to the Shivers, however. Lord Rego Draz, already hated by the denizens of King’s Landing and now wrongly blamed for the food shortages caused by the season, was set upon in the heart of Flea Bottom as his palanquin was carrying him to his manse in the Street of Silk. A dozen men surrounded him and his servants, who fled. One of the men pried a stone up from the king’s newly cobbled street and brought it down upon Lord Rego’s head again and again, until only a red mash of blood and bone and brains remained. Thus died the Lord of Air, his skull crushed by one of the very cobblestones he had helped the king lay down. Jaehaerys recovered his body, located the perpetrators, disemboweled them, then hung them from the walls of the Red Keep.
As 60 AC began, there were no celebrations to mark the new year. The winter maintained its bitter grip on the kingdom, and the Shivers still stalked the land. The Red Keep’s gates were closed and barred, but even that could not keep the Shivers at bay. One night, the six-year-old Princess Daenerys woke her mother to say she was cold. No effort was spared to save her: maesters were called, septons and septas prayed, and a silver stag was offered for every rat killed, since many believed that they spread the disease. King Jaehaerys even sent for a hatchling from Dragonstone so it could be placed in Daenerys’s bed. But to no avail. Daenerys died a day and a half after her first symptoms appeared. Her parents’ grief was enormous, but they were only two of many thousands of parents who lost children in those two cruel years.
The death of Rego Draz.
IVELIN TRIFONOV
The belief that the Targaryens and their Valyrian forebearers were proof against the illnesses that struck common men was called into question by the princess’s death … and the Doctrine of Exceptionalism with it. Since Aenar first took up residence on Dragonstone, no Targaryen was ever known to have suffered pox, bloody flux, brownleg, wormbone, sourgut, or any other sort of disease. The maesters believed it was due to the blood of the dragon, which held a purifying fire within it. But if that were so, how could a pure-born princess die as easily as a common child?
The Shivers eventually ran its course late in 61 AC, and the king set to the task of restoring his court, naming replacements for the many offices that had been emptied by illness and violence. Ser Robert Redwyne, Lord Manfryd’s heir, became Commander of the City Watch. Ser Ryam Redwyne, Lord Manfryd’s youngest son, became a knight of the Kingsguard, as did Ser Robin Shaw. Lord Rodrik Arryn was summoned to become the master of laws. The sharp-tongued Elysar was elected by the Conclave to become Grand Maester. At Septon Barth’s urging, Martyn Tyrell—a younger son of the late Lord Bertrand Tyrell, who had survived the Shivers only to die in a drunken fall off his horse four days later—was selected to become master of coin. Everyone agreed he was a dolt, but his wife, Lady Florence of House Fossoway, was clever. She had taken over the accounts at Highgarden since her marriage, and increased the revenues of House Tyrell by a third.
Not two moons after the death of Princess Daenerys, Queen Alysanne became pregnant with her fifth child. Just before she gave birth, the Conclave in Oldtown announced that winter had ended, and toward the end of the year Alysanne bore a daughter. She was named Alyssa, after her grandmother.
This Alyssa was soon joined by other of her namesake’s offspring when the now-aged and greying Lord Rogar came to King’s Landing in 61 AC, bringing two of the daughters of his late brother Ronnal (who had recently returned to Westeros from exile only to die soon after of the Shivers) and his own daughter by Alyssa—the solemn and black-haired Jocelyn. He asked the king and queen to take Jocelyn into their household, as she had never known her mother and the women who looked after her had died of the Shivers. He also asked them to look after his son and heir Boremund as well, because he intended to lead an expedition into the Red Mountains to deal with the latest incarnation of the Vulture King.
Lord Rogar presents his children.
GAGA TURMANISHVILI
This particular Vulture King had allied himself with Rogar’s brother Borys, who had also recently returned from exile. Rogar himself was dying, so he wanted to deal with this threat while he still had the strength. He asked the king’s leave to mount the expedition, and Jaehaerys was moved not only to give it, but also to take part in the campaign. What followed became known as the Third Dornish War—although the Prince of Dorne and his armies stayed away from the fighting. It was also known as Lord Rogar’s War by the smallfolk. With Vermithor in the sky above them, the Vulture King and his few hundred followers could not hide for long. Ser Borys was the first cornered, and King Jaehaerys dispatched him with Blackfyre so that Rogar would not be known as a kinslayer. Soon after, the Vulture King was brought to bay and fought Lord Rogar in single combat. Despite his age and illness, Lord Rogar prevailed, and would later lament not having died in battle; he lived another half a year before dying in his bed in Storm’s End.
Dorne has had a long history of Vulture Kings: robber-knights and brigands who all gave themselves this august title. The first and most dangerous threatened Aegon I’s reign until he was killed in 37 AC. This new Vulture King was the younger son of a minor Dornish house. Others would follow him in adopting the title over the years.
The campaign lasted less than half a year, and had the effect of greatly reducing raids along the Dornish Marches. As 62 AC dawned, the realm was once more at peace and Jaehaerys was preparing to enact still more reforms. On the dynastic side, Jaehaerys officially named his eldest son, the seven-year-old Prince Aemon, as the Prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne, while Alysanne gave birth to another child, a daughter named Maegelle. But Jaehaerys also longed to expand his vision for the Seven Kingdoms well beyond King’s Landing. His public works within the city had borne fruit, as the new streets, sewers, and fountains had brought increased growth and prosperity to the city. Now he wanted to better unite the realm by constructing new roads, as his many progresses had revealed the poor state of the existing network—often little more than muddy, rutted paths, with few bridges over streams and rivers. The king commanded that many leagues of new roads be built—a project that would take decades but which would successfully connect King’s Landing to the rest of the realm, and the various great seats and cities of the Seven Kingdoms to one another.
More children blessed the royal house in quick succession. In 63 AC, Prince Vaegon was born. He was followed in 64 AC by Princess Daella. Three years after came Princess Saera, Jaehaerys and Alysanne’s ninth child and fifth daughter. In 68 AC, not long after Saera’s birth, it was announced that Prince Aemon would marry Jocelyn Baratheon. Their marriage in 70 AC was a spectacle to rival the Golden Wedding, and many remarked on the handsome couple. Jocelyn was sixteen, nearly six feet tall, with long, raven-black hair, while the prince was even taller at fifteen, with all the beauty of Valyrians.
The death of Borys Baratheon.
IVELIN TRIFONOV
In 71 AC, Aemon received another sibling when Queen Alysanne gave birth to the princess Viserra, her tenth child and sixth daughter. In 72 AC, Prince Aemon won his spurs following a victory at a squire’s melee during the celebrations of Lord Darklyn’s marriage to one of Lord Theomore Manderly’s daughters in Duskendale. He defeated his own brother, Baelon, to win the contest. As soon as he returned to King’s Landing, Prince Aemon went to the Dragonpit and there became a dragonrider, taking a fierce young dragon called Caraxes for his own. The Dragonkeepers called Caraxes the Blood Wyrm because of his blood-red coloring.
Further afield, 72 AC saw the death of Lord Alaric Stark—the ending of an era for the North. His two strong sons had died before him, leaving his grandson Edric as the new Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.
In 73 AC, at the age of sixteen, Prince Baelon the Brave sought to outdo his elder brother, riding as a mystery knight in a tourney at Old Oak in the Reach, defeating several notable knights. Though he was defeated and unmasked by Ser Rickard Redwyne, his feat of arms won him his spurs. Once he was back in King’s Landing, he also claimed a dragon: Vhagar, unridden for twenty-nine years since the death of Queen Visenya.
That same year saw other changes in the royal family, not all of them happy. Princess Maegelle, a gentle and pious girl, became a novice of the Faith, while Queen Alysanne gave birth to a son named Gaemon, after the great Lord of Dragonstone, Gaemon the Glorious. The labor had been long and difficult, and Gaemon was small and weak. The queen recovered, but Gaemon did not, dying less than three moons later near the end of the year. It was not the only death Jaehaerys and Alysanne would suffer that year, for their sister Queen Rhaena died in Harrenhal, having been its sole master for twelve years since Lord Maegor Towers had died in 61 AC. She had kept to herself for all those years, leaving Harrenhal only once a year to visit her daughter Princess Rhaella in Oldtown. But outside of the royal household, her passing had little impact on the realm.
The first road the king commanded—and the first completed—was a road that cut south of King’s Landing through the kingswood to Storm’s End, and north to the riverlands, through the Neck, and all the way to Winterfell and the Wall beyond. This would be known as the kingsroad.
The other royal roads were the roseroad, the ocean road, the river road, and the goldroad.
Just before the end of the year, a scandal rocked the royal court when it was discovered that the popular Kingsguard knight, Ser Lucamore Strong, had broken his vows by having secretly married three women (all ignorant of each other) and had fathered sixteen children among them. Ser Gyles Morrigen, the Lord Commander, demanded his death for forswearing his oaths. Ser Lucamore begged for mercy for the sake of his wives and children—an error that would cost him dearly. The king did not kill him, but he had him gelded, clapped in chains, and sent to the Wall, there to take the oath of the Night’s Watch. His marriages were undone, and his children reduced to bastards.
Ser Lucamore’s pleas.
JOHN MCCAMBRIDGE
In 74 AC, Prince Aemon and Lady Jocelyn presented the king and queen with their first grandchild—a black-haired, lilac-eyed babe they named Rhaenys. As the firstborn child of Jaehaerys’s heir, the princess was hailed as the realm’s future queen.
The year after, Baelon the Brave married his sister Alyssa. The two had been close all their lives, for Alyssa had followed him about from the time she could walk. Alyssa had been a lively, healthy infant who looked much like her lamented sister Princess Daenerys in the cradle. As she grew older, however, the resemblance faded, and poor Alyssa possessed little of her late sister’s beauty. Her hair was dirty blond, her ears were too large, her nose broken from swordplay at the age of six, and her eyes were a mismatched violet and green. But what Alyssa lacked in looks she more than made up for in confidence. Once married, she made haste to consummate her marriage, much to the ribald amusement of the court. Soon after, though still but fifteen years of age, she claimed the swift, scarlet she-dragon Meleys for her own. (The Dragonkeepers had to dissuade her from choosing Balerion the Black Dread by noting he was now too old and slow.) The marriage would bear fruit when Alyssa swelled with child in 76 AC. In 77 AC, she gave birth to a son named Viserys. One of her first acts after Viserys was born was to strap him to her chest and then mount Meleys, taking her delighted infant on his very first flight.
Queen Alysanne also gave birth that year, though at forty years of age her labors were growing increasingly difficult and the birth of her son Viserion left her confined to bed for half a year after. Sadly, Viserion was born sickly and small, and died in 78 AC before seeing his first nameday. Queen Alysanne began to fear that, at forty-two years of age, she was better placed to be a grandmother than a mother. Yet King Jaehaerys piously believed that the gods might still bring them more children, reminding Grand Maester Elysar that their mother had been forty-six when Jocelyn Baratheon was born. This proved to be prescient, because Queen Alysanne was with child again in 79 AC, and in 80 AC gave birth to her final child at the age of forty-four: a daughter named Gael. Called “the Winter Child” because of the season of her birth, she was born small and frail, but survived.
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