HeliosMegistos
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Post by HeliosMegistos on Nov 6, 2022 6:49:00 GMT
As House of the Dragon has gotten me back into a major Game of Thrones vibe I think it's time I revived and tried to put up some written material for an alternate history of both shows source material in A Song of Ice and Fire.
I've toyed with this idea a few times and have a rough name for it in the form of The Tragedy of Fire and Blood. It is basically a mixture of alternate history and world building on my end to make a more interesting setting beyond just having an alternate series of Targaryen rulers, I'd put my own spin of things and including expanding upon the magic of the world as well as the Faith of the Seven and other religions within reason.
Basically the areas that are more bland or clearly were not George R.R Martin's specialty during his world building. This isn't because I dislike any of it or find his setting boring mind you, I just figure that since most fan fiction and alternate history people tackling his work play fast and loose with the lore and canon I may as well do so to while keeping it recognizable.
The most major points to note regardless of me actually doing this or not are thus.
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HeliosMegistos
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Post by HeliosMegistos on Nov 6, 2022 6:49:31 GMT
1) When the Targaryens fled from the Freehold of Old Valyria to resettle on Dragonstone with various allies like the Velayrons and Celtigars they do happen to bring all their stores of knowledge and lore with them to keep the embers of their civilization and culture alive when the Doom of Valyria strikes twelve years later.
This takes the form of various tomes and scrolls stored in a library constructed during their exile and what magical knowledge and secrets they can maintain and preserve over the course of the Century of Blood. The actively bring a number of skilled professionals over to Dragonstone with them to assist with this and as a result Dragonstone, Driftmark and Claw Isle are more populated and developed when Aegon's Conquest eventually kicks off and over the course of the Century of Blood attract a number of refugees and immigrants of both high Valyrian and low Valyrian status looking to escape the chaos and warfare of the Free Cities that futher bolster Aegon the Conquerors starting position.
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HeliosMegistos
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Post by HeliosMegistos on Nov 6, 2022 6:50:19 GMT
2) For reasons that are lost to history and heavily speculated on by the Order of the Maesters, the Targaryen's never conquered or even attempted to Conquer the North like they did with Dorne.
All that is known is that King Aegon I of House Targaryen and King Torrhen I of House Stark meet face to face just south of the Neck and some kind of discussion took place over several hours and ended with the Northern host marching back home and the Targaryen's flying back to King's Landing on dragon back.
To this day the North remains an independent kingdom, the first, the last and the only one of Westeros pre-conquest realms to remain standing. This is despite periods of hostile relations with the Kingdom of the Iron Throne resulting in several conflicts as well as the occasional periods of peaceful relations which have resulted in marriages of Ice and Fire between the two royal houses.
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HeliosMegistos
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Post by HeliosMegistos on Nov 6, 2022 6:51:16 GMT
3) The main line of House Targaryen descends from Queen Visenya not Queen Rhaenys as in canon, with Rhaenys dying an alternate and earlier death in Dorne via poisoning before she could give birth to canon King Aenys. As a result all future Targaryens are descendants from an alternate Maegor, one King Maegor I the Defiant and his wife Queen Alyssa Velaryon.
The Targaryens still have their Dragons and still rule the Kingdom of Westeros from the Iron Throne in the year 599 AC (almost 300 years after the books would take place in canon) although the survival of their realm and their house is in question with the onset of a long and harsh winter and that a massive civil war was in full swing before the arrival of the snow caused hostilities to pause for the time being.
The realm is divided between one Dragon King ruling from Old Town in the Lord Paramountship of the Honeywine and another Dragon King ruling from Harrenhal in the Lord Paramountship of the Trident.
These two rivaling kings are twins and their fierce rivalry has torn the realm apart in the two years leading up to the onset of winter and before the snows fell it showed no sign of stopping even after King's Landing fell to an uprising by fanatical R'hllorite cultist and the Burning of the High Tower in Old Town by a heretical and zealous sect of the Faith of the Seven.
Dragon King Daemon III rules from Old Town with the support of the High Towers of the Honeywine and the Gardeners of the Mandervale as well various houses in the Stormlands, the Westerlands and the Lord Paramounts of the three Dornish Lord Paramountships. Daemon's wife is a member of House Gardner.
His rival Dragon King Baelon II rules from Harrenhal with the support of the Tullys of the Trident, the Arryns of the Vale and the Durrandons of the Stormlands with support from various houses in the Westerlands, the Crownlands and the High Lords of the Narrow Sea such as the Velyrons and the Celtigars. Baelon has two wives, a member of House Blackwood and a member of House Royce.
The Lannisters of the Westerlands are currently neutral and stubbornly sitting out the conflict while some of their vassals take sides of their own accord. The North is independent and currently distracted with it's own internal issues with the death of God Queen Ayra II and the ill health of her daughter and heir God Queen Meera and the uncertain parentage of her own children as well as unrest from the Karstarks and the Manderlys.
The Ironborn are currently torn between the two Targaryen claimants and fighting a vicious civil war of their own over the issue, they have not been reavers for several centuries now following the Scouring of the Isles and the extinction of House Greyjoy at the hands of dragon fire and the elevation of House Harlaw and House Goodbrother to rule the new Lord Paramountships of Harlaw and Wyk respectively.
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HeliosMegistos
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Post by HeliosMegistos on Nov 6, 2022 6:52:27 GMT
4) After the Doom took place something awoke within the Starks blood and the members of the family leading up to Torrhen during the Century of Blood all were increasingly powerful Wargs or Greenseers while Torrhen himself had Green Dreams like Jojen Reed does and his were of things to come and things that could be.
It's this that ultimately convinces Aegon to leave the North be during the Meeting of Ice and Fire as their discussion is referred to. While all those who actually overheard or took part in it are long dead and the Maesters do not know what precisely was said I can tell you what it came down to.
The Long Night... Torrhen didn't have overly specific knowledge about it because to much of the future was in flux but he did foresee that sometime in the next couple of centuries that a long and cruel winter would fall upon the continent and a great threat would emerge from Beyond the Wall which aligned with Aegon's similar Dragon Dreams of the Song of Ice and Fire.
Aegon attempted to use this coinciding knowledge to get the North to submit to his rule however Torrhen was stubborn, his people did not submit to the Ironborn or the Andals or the Faith as it spread and they would not submit to the Targaryens. Aegon points out his dragons and that he would not hesitate to use them if he had to which Torrhen tells him that if Aegon insist on this path he had forseen the death of his beloved sister-wife Rhaenys and her dragon (In actually her their canon death in Dorne... but Aegon isn't told that part) and great suffering for the realm down the line (the Faith Militant Uprising and canon Maegor's cruelty).
As you may expect Aegon would be skeptical of this to which Torrhen ultimately responds with knowledge of exactly how the meeting between Harren the Black and Aegon went down, details so specific that he either had to have been there beside the two kings or had actually seen it. This along with his stubborn insistance that the North would never willingly submit to the south even if it lead to many deaths is that convinces Aegon.
This is played into the Starks whole god-king thing I have going on and developments with the Old Gods faith.
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