History of Westeros

  • Home
  • Episodes
  • Valar Rereadis
    • AGOT
    • ACOK
    • ASOS
    • AFFC
    • ADWD
  • Donate
  • Patreon Supporters
  • Websites
    • Art of Ice and Fire
    • Games of Ice and Fire
  • About
  • Facebook Group

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 6 – The Golden Company

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhmRi1U6Eyk


Steven Attewell of Race for the Iron Throne returns, we discuss the 3rd and 4th Blackfyre Rebellions, the Golden Company, and a lot more Bittersteel.

Credits
Our introduction, the Essos map, and the Bittersteel and Golden Company images were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube or the Acast player below to see those images, as well as art by Ed Scheer.

The primary topics in this episode:

Part 1 – The Life of an Exile
Part 2 – The Blackfyre Dynasty ~212
Part 3 – The Golden Company
Part 4 – Third Blackfyre Rebellion
Part 5 – Fourth Blackfyre Rebellion
Part 6 – Bittersteel: Death & Legacy
Part 7 – The Golden Company Then & Now
Outro

“At first the magisters and archons and merchant princes were pleased to welcome the last Targaryens Blackfyres to their homes and tables, but as the years passed and the Usurper Falseborn continued to sit upon the Iron Throne, doors closed and their lives grew meaner. Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. In the alleys and wine sinks of Pentos Tyrosh, they called her brother “the beggar king.” Dany Calla did not want to know what they called her.” – AGOT, Daenerys I

My mother was a lady of Tyrosh. I dye my hair in memory of her.” – ADWD, Tyrion III

“He has been trained in arms, as befits a knight to be, but that was not the end of his education. He reads and writes, he speaks several tongues, he has studied history and law and poetry. A septa has instructed him in the mysteries of the Faith since he was old enough to understand them.” – ADWD, Epilogue

“Bittersteel gathered exiled lords and knights, and their descendants, to him. He formed the Golden Company in 212 AC, and soon established it as the foremost free company of the Disputed Lands. “Beneath the gold, the bitter steel” became their battle cry, renowned across Essos.” – TWOIAF

“Bittersteel saw the strength of House Blackfyre scattering to the four winds, so he formed the Golden Company to bind the exiles together.” – TWOIAF

“Ser Aegor Rivers was sixty-nine years of age when he fell, and it is said he died as he had lived, with a sword in his hand and a curse upon his lips. Yet his legacy would live on in the Golden Company and the Blackfyre line he had served and protected.” – TWOIAF

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon targaryen, aegon vi targaryen, aegor rivers, audio, bittersteel, blackfyre, blackfyre rebellion, calla blackfyre, daemon blackfyre, daenerys targaryen, haegon blackfyre, homeless harry strickland, house blackfyre, house peake, illyrio mopatis, jon connington, maekar i targaryen, myles blackheart toyne, rohanne of tyrosh, the second sons, tyrion lannister, varys, video, viserys targaryen, young griff

The Winds of Winter: The Forsaken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwjmMDMo-tQ


We were among the first on the planet to hear this chapter, and it’s safe to say: we’re taken by the “The Forsaken”! PoorQuentyn’s transcript of The Winds of Winter: The Forsaken can be found here. Our new introduction was created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul.

The primary topics in this episode:

  • Part 1 – Euron
  • Part 2 – To Valyria and Beyond
  • Part 3 – Dreams, Visions & Hallucinations
  • Part 4 – Of Sacrifice and Bait
  • Outro

“The Shields have served my purpose. I took them with one hand, and gave them away with the other. A great king is open-handed, brother. It is up to the new lords to hold them now. The glory of winning those rocks will be mine forever. When they are lost, the defeat will belong to the four fools who so eagerly accepted my gifts.”

“I think the Damphair’s dead. I think the Crow’s Eye slit his throat for him. Ironmaker’s search is just to make us believe the priest escaped. Euron is afraid to be seen as a kinslayer.” – The Wayward Bride, ADWD

Euron Crow’s Eye stood upon the deck of Silence, clad in a suit of black scale armor like nothing Aeron had ever seen before. Dark as smoke it was, but Euron wore it as easily as if it was the thinnest silk. The scales were edged in red gold, and gleamed and shimmered when they moved. Patterns could be seen within the metal, whorls and glyphs and arcane symbols folded into the steel.

Valyrian steel, the Damphair knew. His armor is Valyrian steel. In all the Seven Kingdoms, no man owned a suit of Valyrian steel. Such things had been known 400 years ago, in the days before the Doom, but even then, they would’ve cost a kingdom.”

“If your Drowned God did not smite me for killing three brothers, why should he bestir himself for the fourth?”

“Euron did not lie. He has been to Valyria. No wonder he was mad.”

“A weaker man might have wept, but Aeron Damphair prayed, waking, sleeping, even in his fever dreams he prayed. My god is testing me. I must be strong, I must be true.”

[separator type="top"]Content[/separator]

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon vi targaryen, aeron damphair, aeron greyjoy, alleras the sphinx, asha greyjoy, audio, balticon, cersei lannister, daenerys targaryen, euron greyjoy, falia flowers, house hightower, jon snow, melisandre, oldtown, red oarsman, sarella sand, shade of the evening, the reach, the winds of winter, theon greyjoy, tristifer botley, twow, tyrion lannister, valyria, valyrian steel armor, victarion greyjoy, video, young griff

Aziz vs. ADWD Epilogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JMuScleEYwU


A breakdown of the final chapter in A Dance with Dragons! Our new introduction was created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul.

This episode was created as part of our Patreon reward system! Patreon voters will select from a short list of chapters and Aziz will record an episode breaking down that chapter. A new installation will come periodically. All the foreshadowing and parallels, the historical references, easter eggs and fates of secondary characters. All the fun.

These episodes will be available for Patreon supporters only until TWoW is released! When that happens, we’ll switch to discussing a TWoW chapter each time instead. The TWoW chapter recordings will be for Patreon supporters only, and the previous episodes will be released for anyone. This ADWD chapter is the first episode in this series, so we released it as an example of how these Aziz vs. Chapter episodes will work.

“You do not deserve to die alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes…”

“We do not even know if he’s alive. Meryn Trant claimed that Strong took neither food nor drink, and Boros Blount went so far as to say he had never seen the man use the privy. Why should he? Dead men do not shit. Kevan Lannister had a strong suspicion of just who this Ser Robert really was beneath that gleaming white armor. A suspicion that Mace Tyrell and Randyll Tarly no doubt shared. Whatever the face hidden behind Strong’s helm, it must remain hidden for now. The silent giant was his niece’s only hope.”

A knight of the Kingsguard was always posted at its far end. Tonight the duty had fallen to Ser Meryn Trant. With Balon Swann hunting the rogue knight Darkstar down in Dorne, Loras Tyrell gravely wounded on Dragon-stone, and Jaime vanished in the riverlands, only four of the White Swords remained in King’s Landing, and Ser Kevan had thrown Osmund Kettleblack (and his brother Osfryd) into the dungeon within hours of Cersei’s confessing that she had taken both men as lovers. That left only Trant, the feeble Boros Blount, and Qyburn’s mute monster Robert Strong to protect the young king and royal family.

“The more I give him, the more he wants. Kevan Lannister was beginning to understand why Cersei had grown so resentful of the Tyrells.”

“Ser Kevan was cold as ice, and every labored breath sent a fresh stab of pain through him. He glimpsed movement, heard the soft scuffling sound of slippered feet on stone. A child emerged from a pool of darkness, a pale boy in a ragged robe, no more than nine or ten. Another rose up behind the Grand Maester’s chair. The girl who had opened the door for him was there as well. They were all around him, half a dozen of them, white-faced children with dark eyes, boys and girls together.

And in their hands, the daggers.”

“Grand Maester Pycelle bobbed his head. “Dragons. These same stories have reached Oldtown. Too many to discount. A silver-haired queen with three dragons.””

[separator type="top"]Content[/separator]

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: a dance with dragons, adwd, aegon vi targaryen, audio, cersei lannister, gregor clegane, kevan lannister, myrcella baratheon, pycelle, robert strong, tommen baratheon, varys, video, vs chapter

Book Discussion: World of Ice and Fire Overview

In this discussion episode, we give our first impressions of The World of Ice and Fire. We discuss all of the immediate revelations, and the latter half of the episode contains discoveries more related to the ‘current events’ of the series.

Special attention is paid to the Kingdom of Sarnor, other ancient cultures, and the mysterious oily black stone that keeps popping up. There is, of course, a lot of discussion on House Targaryen as well. We also talk at length about the sections on Dorne. The mystery of Asshai’s children is also debated.

“On the Isle of Toads can be found an ancient idol, a greasy black stone crudely carved into the semblance of a gigantic toad of malignant aspect, some forty feet high. The people of this isle are believed by some to be descended from those who carved the Toad Stone, for there is an unpleasant fishlike aspect to their faces, and many have webbed hands and feet. If so, they are the sole surviving remnant of this forgotten race.”

Such questions abound even to this day. Before the Doom of Valyria, maesters and archmaesters oft traveled to the Freehold in search of answers, but none were ever found. Septon Barth’s claim that the Valyrians came to Westeros because their priests prophesied that the Doom of Man would come out of the land beyond the narrow sea can safely be dismissed as nonsense, as can many of Barth’s queerer beliefs and suppositions.”

“For scholars and students of history, the fall of Sallosh by the Silver Shore was especially tragic, for when that City of Scholars burned, its great library was not spared, and most of the history of the Tall Men and the peoples who had gone before them were lost for all time.”

“Florys the Fox, the cleverest of Garth’s children, who kept three husbands, each ignorant of the existence of the others. (From their sons sprang House Florent, House Ball, and House Peake).”

[separator type="top"]Content[/separator]

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon vi targaryen, aerys ii targaryen, aliandra martell, asshai, audio, betha blackwood, brienne of tarth, discussion, duncan the tall, essos, five forts, h.p. lovecraft, hightower, house blackfyre, house greyjoy, house targaryen, hyrkoon, illyrio mopatis, isle of faces, joanna lannister, leng, lomas longstrider, lyanna stark, maegelle targaryen, melisandre, muppet tullys, oily black stone, others, queen nymeria, rhaegar targaryen, saera targaryen, sarnor, seastone chair, septon barth, serra, sothoryos, the rhoynar, the westerlands, the world of ice and fire, twoiaf, tyrion lannister, tywin lannister, ulthos, valyria, video, viserra targaryen, westeros, yeen, yi ti

Plots: Varys & Illyrio (spoilers)

In this episode, Aziz, Steve, and Ashaya continue their series on Varys and Illyrio. This is the spoiler filled installment in which their origins, motives, and “Young Griff” are discussed.
When Maelys the Monstrous died upon the Stepstones, it was the end of the male line of House Blackfyre.

Young Griff, the boy is called. There never was a nobler lad.

[separator type=”top”]Content[/separator]

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon vi targaryen, aerion targaryen, audio, daenerys targaryen, faegon, golden company, griff, house blackfyre, illyrio mopatis, jon connington, olenna redwyne, olenna tyrell, queen of thorns, rugen, serra, varys, video, viserys targaryen, young griff

Plots: House Martell (spoilers)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vntRZ19icJc

Aziz and Steve are joined by Ken from the “Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things” blog/podcast. House Martell remembers.
Once I crown Myrcella and free the Sand Snakes, all Dorne will rally to my banners.

Vengeance. Justice. Fire and blood.

[separator type=”top”]Content[/separator]

[feature icon=”star” style=”horizontal” title=”Relevant Links:”]

Cripples, Bastards, and Broken Things

 

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon vi targaryen, alleras the sphinx, areo hotah, arianne martell, audio, barristan selmy, doran martell, elia sand, faegon, house fowler, house uller, house wyl, house yronwood, myrcella baratheon, nymeria sand, obara sand, oberyn martell, quentyn martell, sand snakes, sarella sand, tyene sand, video, viserys targaryen

The Winds of Winter: Dornish Preview Chapter

A very thorough discussion of the Arianne spoiler (early release) chapter from the Winds of Winter. Includes character analysis, historical context, predictions/theories, a keen eye for detail and of course, a sense of humor.
War is happening, and this time Dorne will not be spared.

They were dancing. In my dream. And everywhere the dragons danced the people died.

[separator type=”top”]Content[/separator]

[feature icon=”star” style=”horizontal” title=”Relevant Links:”]

The Arianne spoiler chapter on George R.R. Martin’s site.

Filed Under: Episodes Tagged With: aegon vi targaryen, arianne martell, audio, daemon sand, darkstar, doran martell, elia sand, faegon, gerold dayne, house martell, house toland, jon connington, lady lance, the winds of winter, video

Search Episodes!

Follow us:

The Thrones Effect (chapter by us)

The Great Castles of Westeros: An Unofficial Guide by Joe Buckley

The Unofficial Guide to Game of Thrones by Kim Renfro

Shire Post Mint's ASOIAF coins

Fire and Blood

Illustrated A Game of Thrones

Illustrated A Clash of Kings

Illustrated A Storm of Swords

Game of Thrones: The Storyboards

Join us on Patreon to receive a custom title, early access to episodes & more!

PayPal Donations

Amazon Shopping:
Amazon (all countries)!
Try Audible and Get Two Free Audiobooks Try LISTENING to ASOIAF! Two free book downloads plus a 30 day subscription for $0 (Audible trial)
Try Amazon Prime 30-Day Free Trial

Conventions
Ice & Fire Con 2021 - we will be there! Buy your membership and include us as your referral to help the show, at no additional cost.
Con of Thrones 2021 - we will be there! Buy your membership using code HISTORY and get 5 dollars off, while helping generate free tickets for other listeners.

RSS RSS Feed

  • Aziz vs. ADwD Epilogue (2016)
  • Valar Rereadis: ADWD - Part 19 of 19
  • Valar Rereadis: ADWD - Part 18 of 19
  • When Giants Roamed... (w/Crowfood's Daughter)

Aziz & Ashaya’s Recommendations!

The Dunk & Egg Collection
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

Other Short Stories in Westeros
The Rogue Prince (Prince Daemon)
The Princess & The Queen
The Book of Swords (Sons of the Dragon)

Maesters' Hotlist
The World of Ice & Fire (Kindle)
The Lands of Ice & Fire
ASOIAF Boxed Set
A Hymn for Spring (Tower of the Hand, includes an essay on Harrenhal by us!)

Art
ASOIAF 2020 Calendar
ASOIAF 2021 Calendar
The Art of A Song of Ice and Fire
The Art of A Song of Ice & Fire: Vol. 2

Games!
Risk: Game of Thrones Board Game
AGoT: The Board Game 2nd Edition
Monopoly: Game of Thrones
Crusader Kings II
4D Game of Thrones: Westeros Puzzle

Game of Thrones on TV
Seasons 1-7 Blu-Ray Box Set
Season 7 Blu-Ray
Season 6 Blu-Ray
Get Someone Started With S1
Start Your Free Trial of HBO with Prime Video Channels

Non-ASOIAF Books Recommended by GRRM & us!
The Last Wish - Book 1 of The Witcher
The Last Kingdom - Book 1
The Accursed Kings - Book 1
The Expanse - Book 1

© Copyright 2013-2020 History of Westeros · All Rights Reserved · Created by Ash @MeereeneseKnot ·