daeron targaryen Archives - History of Westeros

The Dance of the Dragons: Part 3 – w/Radio Westeros

The Dance of the Dragons continues in the third installment of our collaboration with Radio Westeros. We begin with the fallout from Rook’s Rest, then we cover topics like the mystery of Sunfyre. Plus, we discuss Tessarion’s dominance in the South, the Battle of the Gullet, the taking of King’s Landing and quite a few other subplots in the vast and complex Dance of the Dragons. Trading places, Pyrrhic victories and extremely poor leadership dominate part 3 of our series. Watch and listen to part 1 here. Find part 2 here.

Still possessed of more dragons than her half- brother, Her Grace now resolved to use them, no matter the cost. She would rain down fire and death upon Aegon and all those who supported him, she told the black council, and either tear him from the Iron Throne or die in the attempt.

Sheer walls of rock, eaten away by centuries of wind and spray, hemmed them in to either side. In some places they had assumed fantastic shapes. Nimble Dick pointed out a few as they climbed. “There’s an ogre’s head, see?” he said, and Brienne smiled when she saw it. “And that there’s a stone dragon. T’other wing fell off when my father was a boy.”

Dance of the Dragons Images

Dance of the Dragons - The Greens (naomimakesart) — The Greens (naomimakesart)

Dance of the Dragons - The Blacks (naomimakesart) — The Greens (naomimakesart)

As her lord husband Prince Daemon escorted her from the hall, cuts were seen upon Her Grace’s legs and the palm of her left hand. Drops of blood fell to the floor as she went past, and wise men looked at one another, though none dared speak the truth aloud: the Iron Throne had spurned her, and her days upon it would be few.

House Blackwood: Part 2 – Ravens, Dragons, Stags & Wolves

Part 2 of our House Blackwood series continues – you can find House Blackwood: Part 1 – The Time of the Tree here. It’s clear GRRM has placed the Blackwoods carefully; they are an important part of several of the most important houses’ ancestry, with strong associations with mystical elements.

In this episode, we take a look at all the heroes of House Blackwood since the coming of the Targaryens. We have lots of thoughts and ideas of what’s coming next for them as Winter and the Dragons come. They are tied to both…

North/River Shipping

Lord Stark had marched south with a great host, made up in large part of men unwanted and unneeded in the North, whose return would bring great hardship and mayhaps even death for the loved ones they had left behind. Legend (and Mushroom) tells us that it was Lady Alysanne who suggested an answer.

The lands along the Trident were full of widows, she reminded Lord Stark; women, many burdened with young children, who had sent their husbands off to fight with one lord or another, only for them to fall in battle. With winter at hand, strong backs and willing hands would be welcome in many a hearth and home. In the end, more than a thousand northmen accompanied Black Aly and her nephew Lord Benjicot when they returned to the riverlands after the royal wedding.

“A wolf for every widow,” Mushroom japed, “he will warm her bed in winter, and gnaw her bones come spring.”

Yet hundreds of marriages were made at the so-called Widow Fairs held at Raventree, Riverrun, Stoney Sept, the Twins, and Fairmarket. Those northmen who did not wish to marry instead swore their swords to lords both great and small as guards and men-at-arms.

A few, sad to say, did turn to outlawry and met evil ends, but for the most part, Lady Alysanne’s matchmaking was a great success. The resettled northmen not only strengthened the riverlords who welcomed them, particularly House Tully and House Blackwood, but also helped revive and spread the worship of the old gods south of the Neck.

GOAT Black Aly Blackwood

Huntress, horse-breaker, and archer without peer, Black Aly had little of a woman’s softness about her. Many thought her to be of that same ilk as Sabitha Frey, for they were oft in one another’s company, and had been known to share a tent whilst on the march. Yet in King’s Landing, whilst accompanying her young nephew Benjicot at court and council, she had met Cregan Stark and conceived a liking for the stern northman. And Lord Cregan, a widower these past three years, had responded in kind.

To him gathered Benjicot Blackwood of Raventree, already a seasoned warrior at three-and-ten; his fierce young aunt, Black Aly, with three hundred bows; Lady Sabitha Frey, the merciless and grasping Lady of the Twins, Lord Hugo Vance of Wayfarer’s Rest, Lord Jorah Mallister of Seagard; Lord Roland Darry of Darry; aye, and even Humfrey Bracken, Lord of Stone Hedge, whose house had hitherto supported King Aegon’s cause.

Missy Blackwood

Aegon the Fourth had died long before Jaime had been born, but he recalled enough of the history of his reign to guess what must have happened next. “Only later he put the Bracken girl aside and took up with a Blackwood, was that the way of it?”

“Lady Melissa,” Hoster confirmed. “Missy, they called her. There’s a statue of her in our godswood. She was much more beautiful than Barba Bracken.”

– Jaime I, ADWD

Images

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)

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 2 – Daeron II the Good (spoiler free)

The son of Aegon the Unworthy had a lot to deal with after his father’s deathbed decree. Guest Steven Attewell of Race for the Iron Throne joins us in this episode. We cover Daeron II, whether or not he actually deserved to be called the Good, and more. This episodes pays special attention to the Great Bastards, Baelor Breakspear, and Dorne.

Listen to the rest of our Blackfyre Rebellions series here.

Daeron’s reign quickly stabilized the realm, and he soon came to be called Daeron the Good by the smallfolk and noble lords alike. He was widely seen as just and goodhearted, even if some questioned the influence of his Dornish wife. And though he was no warrior—descriptions of the era note that he was small of frame, with thin arms, round shoulders, and a scholarly disposition—two of his four sons seemed all that could be wished in a knight, lord, or heir.

Yet too many men looked upon Baelor’s dark hair and eyes and muttered that he was more Martell than Targaryen. Even though he proved a man who could win respect with ease. And was as open-handed and just as his father. Knights and lords of the Dornish Marches came to mistrust Daeron, and Baelor as well… And then they would look at Daemon Blackfyre—grown tall and powerful, half a god among mortal men, and with the Conqueror’s sword in his possession—and wonder.

Daeron surrounded himself with maesters, septons, and singers.

Dorne

In truth, the seeds found fertile ground because of Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon had hated the Dornish and warred against them, and those lords who desired the return of those days—despite all the associated misrule—would never be happy with this peaceable king.

He was conscientious in his duties to the realm; he sought to stabilize it in the wake of Aegon’s deathbed decree.

It was a great moment, at last unifying the realm from the Wall to the Summer Sea as Aegon the Conqueror had once dreamed

Sons

The line of the dragonkings had almost died out during his father’s day, but it was commonly said that Daeron II and his sons had left it secure for all time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFmgED4a4Qg

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 2 – Daeron II the Good (spoiler free) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFmgED4a4Qg)