maester 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

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)

ASOIAF Dreams and Dreamers, plus Q&A

An episode dedicated to all kinds of ASOIAF dreams and dreamers, whether mundane or magical. Green dreams, wolf dreams, dragon dreams, dreams of guilt, fever dreams… and an accompanying Q&A to go with it, answering all the burning (and freezing) questions sent us regarding the last episode.

Credits

Our introduction, and the awesome new Essos map were created by Michael Klarfeld (Klaradox). Dutchmogul created the cyvasse pieces. Martin Lewis of Echoes of Ice and Fire did the quotes.

“There’s different kinds,” he said slowly. “There’s the wolf dreams, those aren’t so bad as the others. I run and hunt and kill squirrels. And there’s dreams where the crow comes and tells me to fly. Sometimes the tree is in those dreams too, calling my name. That frightens me. But the worst dreams are when I fall.” – ACOK, Bran V

Starks

He knew nothing of his mother; Eddard Stark would not talk of her. Yet he dreamed of her at times, so often that he could almost see her face. In his dreams, she was beautiful, and highborn, and her eyes were kind. – AGOT, Jon III

That night Sansa dreamt of Joffrey on the throne, with herself seated beside him in a gown of woven gold. She had a crown on her head, and everyone she had ever known came before her, to bend the knee and say their courtesies. – AGOT, Sansa IV

They are children, Sansa thought. They are silly little girls, even Elinor. They’ve never seen a battle, they’ve never seen a man die, they know nothing. Their dreams were full of songs and stories, the way hers had been before Joffrey cut her father’s head off. Sansa pitied them. Sansa envied them. – ASOS, Sansa II

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJ_7qIzahg

Dreams & Dreamers (mild TWoW spoilers) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOJ_7qIzahg)

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

Dreams & Dreamers Q&A (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyxjRgAzGnE)

She had no time for sleep, with the weight of the world upon her shoulders. And she feared to dream. Sleep is a little death, dreams the whisperings of the Other, who would drag us all into his eternal night. She would sooner sit bathed in the ruddy glow of her red lord’s blessed flames, her cheeks flushed by the wash of heat as if by a lover’s kisses. Some nights she drowsed, but never for more than an hour. One day, Melisandre prayed, she would not sleep at all. One day she would be free of dreams. Melony, she thought. Lot Seven. – ADWD, Melisandre

The Shadow of Summerhall: Aerys & Rhaegar (spoilers)

This episode delves deep into Aerys, Rhaella, and Rhaegar Targaryen, and we also discuss other characters impacted by Summerhall. There’s talk of how the Mad King could wreak havoc on the Seven Kingdoms even now. Of course, our main focus is the Aftermath of Summerhall. Why didn’t it work? Who tried to capitalize on the instability? What impact did the event have on the survivors? What impact does it have on the current ASOIAF storyline? You can listen to the previous episode in this series here. Stay tuned past the credits for a short after episode chat. We’ll talk a bit more about dragon eggs, pyromancers, Summerhall art, toss out a few random facts.

Anyway, here’s Summerhall.

“Summerhall.” The word was fraught with doom.

Credits

Thank you to yolkboy of Radio Westeros, Nina Friel, and Rhaenys_Targaryen for their contributions.

The primary topics in this episode are:

The Day After.
Jaehaerys Ascends, Blackfyres Descend.
Aerys Ascends, Madness Descends.
Dragons in the Shadow.
Rhaegar.
The Mad King’s Revenge.

“Once it takes fire, the substance will burn fiercely until it is no more.”

Drawing on his father’s plans, His Grace put aside his grief, called his lords bannermen, and resolved to meet the Ninepenny Kings upon the Stepstones, choosing to take the war to them rather than awaiting their landing on the shores of the Seven Kingdoms.

“…many of the accounts written of Harrenhal speak of his hysterical laughter, long silences, bouts of weeping, and sudden rages.”

Rhaegar

He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company. Even the knights of the Kingsguard did not attend him there. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and stars, and whenever he came back he would bring a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not but feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved.

Who is the Prince that was Promised?

“He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.”

“Your grandsire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince that was promised would be born of their line.”

“It was a prince that was promised, not a princess. Rhaegar, I thought… the smoke was from the fire that devoured Summerhall on the day of his birth, the salt from the tears shed for those who died. He shared my belief when he was young, but later he became persuaded that it was his own son who fulfilled the prophecy, for a comet had been seen above King’s Landing on the night Aegon was conceived, and Rhaegar was certain the bleeding star had to be a comet. What fools we were, who thought ourselves so wise!”

The Heresies of Septon Barth (spoilers)

A detailed look at the life, times and works of the man who knows the most about the “higher mysteries”. Want to learn more about dragons, ravens, or why the seasons are so crazy? You do not want to miss this episode on Septon Barth. He’s the leading expert in all of A Song of Ice and Fire on those topics and more! We made this episode before Fire and Blood.

Ser Ryam Redwyne was the greatest knight of his day, and one of the worst Hands ever to serve a king. Septon Murmison’s prayers worked miracles, but as Hand he soon had the whole realm praying for his death. Lord Butterwell was renowned for wit, Myles Smallwood for courage, Ser Otto Hightower for learning, yet they failed as Hands, every one. As for birth, the dragonkings oft chose Hands from amongst their own blood, with results as various as Baelor Breakspear and Maegor the Cruel. Against this, you have Septon Barth, the blacksmith’s son the Old King plucked from the Red Keep’s library, who gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty.

He was the son of a common blacksmith and had been given to the Faith while young. But his brilliance made itself known, and in time he came to serve in the library at the Red Keep, tending the king’s books and records. There King Jaehaerys became acquainted with him…

With Barth’s aid and advice, King Jaehaerys did more to reform the realm than any other king who lived before or after.

Yet if Alysanne was Jaehaerys’s great love, his greatest friend was Septon Barth. No man of humble birth ever rose so high as the plainspoken but brilliant septon.

Dragons

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.

Dragons are neither male nor female. Barth saw the truth of that, but now one and now the other, as changeable as flame. The language misled us all for a thousand years. Daenerys is the one, born amidst salt and smoke. The dragons prove it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-86Pn9XLuc

The Heresies of Septon Barth (spoilers) (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-86Pn9XLuc)

Blackfyre Rebellions: Part 1 – Aegon IV the Unworthy (spoiler free)

This episode covers the life of Aegon IV the Unworthy, the man who fathered the Blackfyre Rebellions. A King who used the Iron Throne to serve his needs, caring little for the realm. Aegon IV made life miserable for his sister Naerys and brother Aemon the Dragonknight while siring Bittersteel, Bloodraven, Shiera Seastar and Daemon Blackfyre himself. Listen to the rest of our Blackfyre Rebellions series here.

“Aegon the Fourth legitimized all his bastards on his deathbed. And how much pain, grief, war, and murder grew from that? I know you trust Jon. But can you trust his sons? Or their sons? The Blackfyre pretenders troubled the Targaryens for five generations, until Barristan the Bold slew the last of them on the Stepstones.”

“…no king before or after would practice so much willful misrule.”

“Treason . . . is only a word. When two princes fight for a chair where only one may sit, great lords and common men alike must choose. And when the battle’s done, the victors will be hailed as loyal men and true, whilst those who were defeated will be known forevermore as rebels and traitors.”

“His last act before his death, all accounts agree, was to set out his will. And in it, he left the bitterest poison the realm ever knew: he legitimized all of his natural children, from the most baseborn to the Great Bastards—the sons and daughters born to him by women of noble birth. Scores of his natural children had never been acknowledged; Aegon’s dying declaration meant nought to them. For his acknowledged bastards, however, it meant a great deal. And for the realm, it meant blood and fire for five generations.”