History of Westeros

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

Outline

Bloodraven Images

  • @Maryon_B
    @Maryon_B
  • @Maryon_B
    @Maryon_B
  • Abjiklam
    Abjiklam
  • Abjiklam & Eagle of Seagard
    Abjiklam & Eagle of Seagard
  • ProKriK
    ProKriK
  • WinryArts
    WinryArts
  • The Lady Rae
    The Lady Rae
https://youtu.be/1eGA7K3hWZ0

Game of Thrones: Pre-Season 7 & Con of Thrones LIVE Q&A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6_yUYSDApI

Sean, Aziz & Ashaya chat about Season 7 and Con of Thrones 2017! Listen on your podcast player of choice, otherwise go to the YouTube version. You can also find our full Con of Thrones album at our Facebook page here.

Drogo He Didn’t (Daenerys & The Targaryens!)
The Manimals
You’re Welcome Filks from Ice & Fire Con
Clegane Rap Battle from Ice & Fire Con

Euron Greyjoy (TWOW spoilers)

We’re joined by special guest PoorQuentyn for a look at Euron Greyjoy and his past, present and future. This episode includes spoilers for The Forsaken chapter from The Winds of Winter. Listen to our episode on The Forsaken here.

Credits

Our introduction and the Westeros and Essos maps were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox), with the cyvasse pieces created by dutchmogul. Check out the episode on YouTube below to see those images and some great art of Euron while listening, as well as the newest art of Mazzalicartho, by Azany. You can also find these images below.

“Tell the Crow’s Eye he’s afraid of kinslaying, and he’ll murder one of his own sons just to prove you wrong.”

– ADWD, The Wayward Bride

Images of God

“Who knows more of gods than I? Horse gods and fire gods, gods made of gold with gemstone eyes, gods carved of cedar wood, gods chiseled into mountains, gods of empty air… I know them all. I have seen their peoples garland them with flowers, and shed the blood of goats and bulls and children in their names.

And I have heard the prayers, in half a hundred tongues. Cure my withered leg, make the maiden love me, grant me a healthy son. Save me, succor me, make me wealthy, protect me! Protect me from mine enemies, protect me from the darkness, protect me from the crabs inside my belly, from the horselords, from the slavers, from the sellswords at my door. Protect me from the Silence.” He laughed. “Godless? Why, Aeron, I am the godliest man ever to raise sail! You serve one god, Damphair, but I have served ten thousand. From Ib to Asshai, when men see my sails, they pray.” – AFFC, The Iron Captain

Euron by Mike Hallstein
Mike Hallstein
Euron by TheThreeHares
TheThreeHares
Euron by Dejan-Delic
Dejan-Delic

Euron had seduced them with his glib tongue and smiling eye and bound them to his cause with the plunder of half a hundred distant lands; gold and silver, ornate armor, curved swords with gilded pommels, daggers of Valyrian steel, striped tiger pelts and the skins of spotted cats, jade manticores and ancient Valyrian sphinxes…

– AFFC, The Reaver

Euron by Artur Mósca
Artur Mósca
Euron's Sigil by Drafturgy
Drafturgy
Mazzalicartho
Mazzalicartho has grown! Art by Azany.

“When I was a boy, I dreamt that I could fly,” he announced. “When I woke, I couldn’t…. or so the maester said. But what if he lied?”

– The Reaver, AFFC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwKWMSTb1qE&t=6555s

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 6 – The Golden Company


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. Check out our series on the Blackfyres here. Time to find out what is beneath the gold, in this episode on the Golden Company.

Credits

Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox) created our introduction, the Essos map, and the Bittersteel and Golden Company images. Dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces used in the intro video. Joey Townsend does our intro music, and Jesse Kowal does our outro music. Thank you to them as well!

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. 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

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

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

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

It ended far more quickly than the pretender might have wished, at the Battle of Wendwater Bridge. Afterward, the corpses of the Black Dragon’s slain choked the Wendwater and sent it overflowing its banks. The royalists, in turn, lost fewer than a hundred men. – TWOIAF

Aziz vs. ADWD Epilogue

A breakdown of the final chapter in ADWD!

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.

Credits

Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox) created our introduction. dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces.

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.

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.

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

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

The Winds of Winter: Mercy Preview Chapter (spoilers)

History of Westeros analyzes the fifth pre-release chapter from The Winds of Winter, widely regarded as the best of the bunch. George gives us something that is somehow dark, controversial and satisfying all at the same time. We peel off all the layers to find all the references and details you might have missed. This was released in 2014. You can now listen to our 2021 coverage here. We have also released an audio play production of this chapter!

She woke with a gasp, not knowing who she was, or where. The smell of blood was heavy in her nostrils… or was that her nightmare, lingering? She had dreamed of wolves again, of running through some dark pine forest with a great pack at her hells, hard on the scent of prey.

The Bloody Hand
The Bloody Hand

On stage, Bobono was bargaining with Marro’s sinister Stranger. He had a big voice for such a little man, and he made it ring off the highest rafters now. “Give me the cup,” he told the Stranger, “for I shall drink deep. And if it tastes of gold and lion’s blood, so much the better. As I cannot be the hero, let me be the monster, and lesson them in fear in place of love.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcKfC6F_Wdw

The gods have given me a gift.

The Winds of Winter excerpt on GRRM’s site.
So Spake Martin we mention that talks about Izembaro.

Plots: Varys & Illyrio (spoilers)

[row][column size=”1/2″]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.[/column] [column size=”1/2″]When Maelys the Monstrous died upon the Stepstones, it was the end of the male line of House Blackfyre.[/column][/row]
[column size=”1/1″ center=”yes”]Young Griff, the boy is called. There never was a nobler lad.[/column]

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

History: Varys & Illyrio (spoiler free)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTwLtncBW-I

[row][column size=”1/2″]In this spoiler-free first installment, Steve, Aziz, and Ashaya discuss what we have learned about Varys and Illyrio as of the first three books.[/column] [column size=”1/2″]Power resides where men believe it resides. No more and no less.[/column][/row]
[column size=”1/1″ center=”yes”]A 3 headed dragon has been born in Qarth, and is the wonder of the city.[/column]

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

© Copyright 2013-2021 History of Westeros · All Rights Reserved · Created by @MeereeneseKnot