aemon targaryen Archives - History of Westeros

The Three-Eyed Bloodraven

The third of our THREE (1, 2) Bloodraven episodes. This one has a deep dive into the life of Brynden Rivers beginning from the point at which he took the Black. Was he a ranger? What did he and Maester Aemon talk about? Who is Coldhands? What’s up with the Raven’s Teeth, and much more in this episode on the Three-Eyed Bloodraven!

Thanks to guest producer Zack of Game of Owns!

The Last Greenseer

Before them a pale lord in ebon finery sat dreaming in a tangled nest of roots, a woven weirwood throne that embraced his withered limbs as a mother does a child. His body was so skeletal and his clothes so rotted that at first Bran took him for another corpse, a dead man propped up so long that the roots had grown over him, under him, and through him.

What skin the corpse lord showed was white, save for a bloody blotch that crept up his neck onto his cheek. His white hair was fine and thin as root hair and long enough to brush against the earthen floor. Roots coiled around his legs like wooden serpents. One burrowed through his breeches into the desiccated flesh of his thigh, to emerge again from his shoulder. A spray of dark red leaves sprouted from his skull, and grey mushrooms spotted his brow. A little skin remained, stretched across his face, tight and hard as white leather, but even that was fraying, and here and there the brown and yellow bone beneath was poking through. – Bran II, ADWD

The last greenseer, the singers called him, but in Bran’s dreams he was still a three-eyed crow. When Meera Reed had asked him his true name, he made a ghastly sound that might have been a chuckle. “I wore many names when I was quick, but even I once had a mother, and the name she gave me at her breast was Brynden.” – Bran III, ADWD

Three-Eyed Bloodraven Images

Bloodraven's sigil by Abjiklam — Bloodraven’s sigil by Abjiklam

Eastwatch — Bloodraven’s sigil by Abjiklam

https://youtu.be/szq21CZrwts

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 8 – Bloodraven 2

The second of THREE Bloodraven episodes and part 8 of our Blackfyre Rebellions series. This one covers Bloodraven’s time as Hand up to the point where he takes the Black. A full accounting of the reigns of Aerys I and Maekar, plus Aerion Brightflame, Daeron the Drunkard, Egg, Maester Aemon, Blackfyres and so much more including the discovery of the Prince That Was Promised prophecy. Big thanks to Camille S and Valkyrist (who you can catch on the Vassals of Kingsgrave pod) for the voices, and to all the art contributors, particularly Klaradox for the maps, as always.

Bloodraven proved to be a capable Hand, but also a master of whispers who rivaled Lady Misery, and there were those who thought he and his half sister and paramour, Shiera Seastar, used sorcery to ferret out secrets. It became common to refer to his “thousand eyes and one,” and men both high and low began to distrust their neighbor for fear of their being a spy in Bloodraven’s employ.

Yet Aerys had need of spies, given the trouble that followed the Great Spring Sickness. Summer came, and with it a drought that lasted more than two years. Many blamed the king, and many more accused Bloodraven. There were poor brothers who preached treason, and knights and lords as well. And amongst those were some who whispered a specific treason: that the Black Dragon must return from across the narrow sea and take its rightful place.

– The World of Ice and Fire.

Bloodraven Images

Bloodraven by Eliyadoodles — Brynden Rivers by Eliyadoodles

Bloodraven & Shiera Seastar by hubsher — Brynden Rivers by Eliyadoodles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMigsZx30uQ

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 8 – Bloodraven 2 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMigsZx30uQ)

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 7 – Bloodraven

The first of THREE Bloodraven episodes and part 7 of our Blackfyre Rebellions series. This one covers the time from his birth until the death of King Daeron II.

Six years ago in King’s Landing, Dunk had seen him with his own two eyes, as he rode a pale horse up the Street of Steel with fifty Raven’s Teeth behind him. That was before King Aerys had ascended to the Iron Throne and made him the Hand, but even so he cut a striking figure, garbed in smoke and scarlet with Dark Sister on his hip. His pallid skin and bone-white hair made him look a living corpse. Across his cheek and chin spread a wine-stain birthmark that was supposed to resemble a red raven, though Dunk only saw an odd-shaped blotch of discolored skin. He stared so hard that Bloodraven felt it. The king’s sorcerer had turned to study him as he went by. He had one eye, and that one red. The other was an empty socket, the gift Bittersteel had given him upon the Redgrass Field. Yet it seemed to Dunk that both eyes had looked right through his skin, down to his very soul. Despite the heat, the memory made him shiver. – The Sworn Sword

Bloodraven Images

https://youtu.be/1eGA7K3hWZ0

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 7 – Bloodraven (https://youtu.be/1eGA7K3hWZ0)

Dark Sister

Everything you ever wanted to know (and more) regarding the Valyrian Steel Sword Dark Sister. Famous owners from Queen Visenya to Bloodraven, and all their epic kills! Plus we have speculation about the sword’s future. Let us know what you think the future of the sword is.

Ash has since learned new information straight from GRRM himself – that Bloodraven took Dark Sister with him to the Wall! She asked him this in August 2018, which is two and a half years after this episode.

Credits

Thank you to Joey Townsend for our intro music, and to Ed Scheer for the art. And as always, thank you to our wonderful patrons.

When Queen Visenya and an escort were set upon, two of her guards died before she cut down the last villain herself with Dark Sister.

Dark Sister by Ed Scheer — by Ed Scheer (The Art of Geekishness)

On one occasion in 10 AC, Aegon and Visenya were both attacked in the streets of King’s Landing. If not for Visenya and Dark Sister, the king might not have survived. Despite this, the king still believed that his guards were sufficient to his defense; Visenya convinced him otherwise. It is recorded that when Aegon pointed out his guardsmen, Visenya drew Dark Sister and cut his cheek before his guards could react. “Your guards are slow and lazy.”

“He proved the greatest jouster and swordsman of his age—a knight worthy to bear Dark Sister. He became known as the Dragonknight for the three-headed dragon crest wrought in white gold upon his helm.”

Bloodraven

“Six years ago in King’s Landing, Dunk had seen him with his own two eyes, as he rode a pale horse up the Street of Steel with fifty Raven’s Teeth behind him. That was before King Aerys had ascended to the Iron Throne and made him the Hand, but even so he cut a striking figure, garbed in smoke and scarlet with Dark Sister on his hip.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfssg3tW820

The Tragedy of Summerhall

The Tragedy of Summerhall was a spectacular attempt by Aegon V to hatch dragon eggs, and it failed spectacularly, killing most to all of the participants plus at least some, probably most of, the witnesses. Summerhall has some really surprising aspects to it, and explains quite a lot more than we could’ve hoped it would, despite so much of it still remaining mysterious. Not just in what happened, but in how it impacts the more recent, and even the current, ASOIAF storyline.

This episode will have a second (shorter) part focusing on the aftermath of Summerhall, examining the effects on Aerys, Rhaegar, and the realm… Listen to part 2 here!

The primary topics in this episode:

History of Summerhall
The Realm of Aegon V, Treason & Turmoil
Dragon Dreams
Enablers: The Wisdom & the Ghost
The Ritual

What became of the dream of dragons was a grievous tragedy born in a moment of joy. In the fateful year 259 AC, the king summoned many of those closest to him to Summerhall, his favorite castle, there to celebrate the impending birth of his first great-grandchild, a boy later named Rhaegar, to his grandson Aerys and granddaughter Rhaella, the children of Prince Jaehaerys.

“Treason and turmoil followed, as night follows day, ending at Summerhall in sorcery, fire, and grief.”

The last years of Aegon’s reign were consumed by a search for ancient lore about the dragon breeding of Valyria, and it was said that Aegon commissioned journeys to places as far away as Asshai-by-the-Shadow with the hopes of finding texts and knowledge that had not been preserved in Westeros.

Dreams

“My brothers dreamed of dragons too, and the dreams killed them, every one.”

As he grew older, Aegon V had come to dream of dragons flying once more above the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. In this, he was not unlike his predecessors, who brought septons to pray over the last eggs, mages to work spells over them, and maesters to pore over them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK25XfDFsIM

The Tragedy of Summerhall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yK25XfDFsIM)

The dragons are done. The Targaryens tried to bring them back half a dozen times. And made fools of themselves, or corpses.

History: The Kingsguard (spoiler free)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7RYYWJzX_w

[row][column size=”1/2″]Learn more about famous Kingsguard members like Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, Barristan the Bold, and Ser Arthur Dayne. There are no spoilers past A Storm of Swords.[/column] [column size=”1/2″]Some had been heroes, some weaklings, knaves, or cravens. Most were only men.[/column][/row]
[column size=”1/1″ center=”yes”]There are some technical difficulties in this episode that are edited out of the audio version. Please listen to that for a better experience, or go ahead and laugh at the video when one of us forgets to unmute our mic![/column]

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Plots: Oldtown & The Citadel (spoilers)

[row][column size=”1/2″]In this episode, Steve, Aziz & Ashaya discuss maesters, Oldtown, and House Hightower through A Dance with Dragons. Individual maesters, including Marwyn the Mage, are covered.[/column] [column size=”1/2″]The grey sheep have closed their eyes, but the mastiff sees the truth. Old powers waken. Shadows stir. An age of wonder and terror will soon be upon us, an age for gods and heroes.[/column][/row]
[column size=”1/1″ center=”yes”]The sphinx is the riddle, not the riddler.[/column]

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