Chapter 4: Jaehaerys II (Part 2)
This is an alternate-timeline work inspired by GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire world
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Jaehaerys II "the Smiling" (128-175AC, r.143-172AC)
"All schismatics are to cease and desist, or they shall learn what sort of protection the wise king Jaehaerys, rider of Vermithor, promised to the Faith."
- Jaehaerys II Targaryen, from "The Pacific Edict" issued during the Redfish Schism
The Redfish Schism
To talk about the Redfish Schism, one should start not from the Burning of the Starry Sept and the subsequent deaths of the High Septon and the Most Devout, leading to a collapse of the Faith's central leadership. Neither should one start from the actions of the tyrant Maegor. No, the roots of the Schism lie much, much further back, in the chaotic history of the Andal warlords that settled, went to war, built kingdoms and collapsed in the riverlands in all the centuries before Aegon's Conquest. This history, in and of itself, demonstrates an unfortunate fact:
The realm of the riverlands was a construct forcibly pulled into existence by the will of the Conqueror, united neither by the power of a pre-existing regional hegemon, nor shared mythic ancestry. The diversity of old gods and new, locals and immigrants coexisting like in Dorne could not be replicated in the riverlands either, for the temperate natural environment there provides no stimulus for a shared difficult lifestyle to lubricate relationships between diverse peoples. War happens to happen less often when there are less people overall, and even less when more people were busy scraping out a living instead of serving as part-time soldiers.
Pitifully few options remained for the riverlands, and in the end the tide that did claim the region was the one most likely to succeed. A reinterpretation of the Faith of the Seven custom designed for the people of the riverlands, which shall be forever connected to the title of "Redfish". Piecing together his story through records kept by the royal confessors and the smallfolk tales collected later on was a feat that puzzled and frustrated maesters for a long time, but their efforts produced a rough outline of comparatively reliable information.
Taik Rivers counts among those enigmatic figures who left a legend greater than history. Some claim he was a bastard brother to Kermit Tully, Lord Paramount of the riverlands, launching a bid for power under the guise of faith; some say he was a member (trueborn or bastard) of one of the great riverland Houses sworn to the weak Tullys, taking the name "Rivers" to protect his kin, acting as the banner under the sun for some plot in the dark to topple the Tullys; and the wildest rumors claim he was secretly the last in line of the extinct House Teague, raising his banners to reclaim what the rebellion of the Tullys had taken from his ancestors.
Regardless of all these origin stories, there remains one very clear thing about Taik: he was the Redfish, and his words shall set the riverlands aflame. Starting out as a begging brother, by the reign of Aegon II, Taik led a band of begging brothers who travelled around the riverlands. He had wanted to lead them to join the rebuilt Faith Militant, but the sudden collapse of the force at the Battle of the Stoney Sept broke his brothers' morale, so he led them to seek contemplation far away from the war burning its way across their home. By the time Jaehaerys inherited the throne, Taik's ideas had matured and was preaching again. His preaching was said to move crowds to tears and deep introspection, and his scathing criticism of lords big and small earned him an infamous popularity: if he showed up at any town, pawns of lords he had mocked would clash with his fervent followers in bloody street battles.
The Redfish claimed that he sought to return to the pure roots of the Andal faith, without the cynical dismissal of the pain the highborn visited on the smallfolk, and without all the exceptions set down for the House of the Dragon - to restore the ideal state of One People, One Faith, One (seven-faced) God. Similar movements had always existed since at least the days of Maegor, but the power vacumn the Burning of Starry Sept left in the community gave Taik a chance never seen before or since. Uniting similar wandering bands, Taik developed an organization capable of large-scale action that had communal subsistence farms, permanent teachers that trained the next generation of preachers, maesters and rookeries, and a ragtag military force made up of fervent peasants and knights. This brotherhood was Taik's core supporters, who followed him in hit-and-run attacks against ānogria under construction in the riverlands. What started out as a force that was barely a match for brigands became more and more skilled, and as their list of feats grew, so did their support of Taik. These were bolstered by soldiers who turned into zealots in King Jaehaerys' Pentos campaign, the septons who had followed the army boosting morale of Taik's men even further with tales of new miracles that happened during the pilgrimage.
Sensing that terror, resent and disgust of the Targaryens among the rivermen had reached boiling point with the spread of blood temples across their homeland, Taik called his men to raise their shared banner in uprising - the red fish on blue field banner that would become the trademark of the entire event: the fish's tail ended with a stylized seven-pointed star woven in the colors of the rainbow instead of a tail fin. Westeros would remember the year 161 AC, as Taik returned to the place where his dreams had nearly started 21 years ago: Stoney Sept. On the 7th day of the 7th moon, Taik raised his own banner as Septon of the Riverlands, swearing upon the Seven to "bring down the false king of twisted blood, make the impious highborn repent, and grant land to every tiller of the land". Singers claim his steel sword burst into the colors of the rainbow with that proclamation, and his men believed they were following a leader with divine favor. Unlike a traditional war between lords where castles drew the lines between warring factions, people who declared for the Redfish were in the fields, in the markets, in the septs, even at the bedside of lords and ladies. Riding on this wave of sentiment, Stoney Sept and Tumbler's Falls came under Taik's control without a fight. The self-appointed septon ordered the brothels in both towns be converted into weaving workshops.
When news of the rebellion reached the Lord Tully, the king himself was nearby with Vermithor at Riverrun, visiting Lord Kermit Tully and his daughter Cassandra, then one of the king's paramours. Instead of crushing the rebellion then and there with his dragon, Jaehaerys ordered Lord Kermit to handle the rebels before flying off to the Two Crowns, where he went on a planned vacation with his sister, leaving the task of crushing the rebellion in the hands of his ministers and bannermen. The king and queen kept a quiet eye on the unfolding events with the help of their outriders and their other agents, but for the most part they were just enjoying each other's presence instead of moving to end the war with all haste.
Rather embarassed by a smallfolk rebellion breaking out under his watch when the king was visiting, Lord Kermit called his bannermen with all haste, intending to crush the rebellion with extreme prejudice. However, when learning that the king had flown off elsewhere instead of taking to battle, the riverlords were slow to answer and brought few men, forcing Lord Kermit to march against Taik with a small army. Before their forces could clash, however, the Redfish's missionaries had already infiltrated Kermit's host, and before the planned day of battle many had been converted to Taik's cause. Open battle would still had been in Kermit's favor despite these efforts, but the armies never met. In a chaotic camp scare in the middle of the night, these newest followers of the Redfish attacked Kermit's tent with all the burning zeal of the newly converted, slashing his stomach open, the lord nearly bled to death then and there. His bodyguards managed to fish him out and bring him back to the safety of Riverrun, barring its gates against the rebels.
Lord Kermit Tully was out of the war, and without his leadership the already-passive riverlords started to flounder - his brother Oscar brought the Stormbreakers free company back to Westeros 2 moons after Kermit retreated to Riverrun, but even with his battle-hardened men he could only win battles against the Redfish, not put a stop to the movement's growth, a trend which was actually bolstered by the Stormbreakers' pillaging of villages and towns to keep themselves fed. The limited royalist counterattacks not withstanding, by the 3rd moon of 162, Taik held the core of the riverlands, besieging Riverrun and Raventree Hall while cutting the castles off from the farmlands beyond; to his west, Pinkmaiden could have posed some threat to the Redfish, had House Piper been not embroiled in the intrigues over the senile Lord Stanton Piper's succession.
Royalist control of the riverlands had effectively shrunk to isolated castles in the midst of Redfishite villages, and rebel morale was greatly boosted by the Opening of Pinkmaiden, when Ser Florian Piper opened the gates of Pinkmaiden to Taik in exchange for his forces making him the next Lord of Pinkmaiden. The fact Taik managed to make good his promises, instead of the Redfishites looting the castle, showed how much control he had over his own men. In exchange for this support, Lord Florian allowed Taik to do as he wished with all the other Piper claimants, and enforced the Redfish's brand of strict religious discipline within his castle with the help of Taik's septons, even putting a dress on his house's symbolic pink maiden. Taik employed the male Pipers as knights, dispersed the females to motherhouses under his control, and gave the elderly a duty to help dispense alms. News of House Piper's betrayal shocked even King's Landing, and many prayers raised for those coerced into the tyranny of the Redfish.
News that Taik was no violent chief among rabble but a leader that could be reasoned with soon spread throughout the riverlands. With this in mind, the idea of negotiating sprung into the minds of many lords. The first envoys of lords reaching him belonged to Houses Blackwood and Bracken, each promising the rival lord's seat should Taik lend his swords to their cause. After hearing their cases, Taik declared he would recall his forces in the region and lift the siege of Raventree Hall for half a moon, giving House Blackwood a chance to repent and mass convert - should they convert, he will help them cast down the Brackens, and should they not he will join the Brackens to cast them down.
The plan was sent into disarray just after Taik sent away the envoys near the end of 162, when Taik moved to besiege Acorn Hall, the seat of House Smallwood. Ceaseless campaigning and dwindling food supplies caused illness to break out within the Redfish's host, forcing him to withdraw. They were ambushed on the path to Stoney Sept by the Stormbreakers, and even though they scored a close victory against the free company, Taik was badly wounded, soon falling ill with a bad fever. Their leader incapitated, leadership of the movement fell to his 3 chief disciples: Taik's nephew and adopted son Kars Rivers; Sword, a man who had followed the Redfish for 25 years; and the septon Polson, who had left his post in Stone Hedge a man disillusioned and cynical, then found his faith ignited anew in the Redfish's preaching. Sword argued for honoring Taik's promise to House Blackwood, but Kars and Polson both believed the army should remain on the attack to keep them focused and not worrying about their leader's health, who was sent back to rest and recover in Stoney Sept, far from the front lines. When the Redfishite forces that were besieging Raventree Hall reached the rally point, their commander, a man remembered only as Butcher, supported Kars' position, claiming they should attack Raventree Hall no matter the Blackwoods chose conversion or not.
Concurrently, the Reach lords were surprised - pleasantly - by a mystery knight whose heraldry was a white sword on a red field, at a tourney in Oldtown celebrating the 50th name-day of Lord Lancel Redwyne, who had earned heroic fame as Ser Lancel during Dalton Greyjoy's rebellion. Despite not even giving an alias, the mystery knight was allowed to participate and became popular with the betting crowd for his great strength, poor horsemanship and questionable skill at arms, a paradox that earned the most bets regarding outcome of his jousts, though folks who bet he would lose were as many as those who bet he would win. When he won the final tilt and was given the right to crown his queen of love and beauty, he finally revealed himself as King Jaehaerys, then he crowned Lady Morgana Hightower in front of a racuous crowd - an event that seared itself into public memory, for it had been a long time since an incumbent king attended a tourney, much less won the wreath of flowers.
Singers would claim Lady Morgana fell for King Jaehaerys at the tourney, though maesters claim the King had known beforehand Lord Lyonel Hightower was planning to seal his maiden daughter's betrothal to Lord Robert Rowan's heir at Lancel's tourney, and had sabotaged the pact with his "dark magic". Whatever the case, Jaehaerys flew off with Morgana from Oldtown shortly after. Here the legends are conflicted on where the duo went: the westerlords say the king flew north to show his newest lover the great blue ocean; the stormlords claim the king flew to their lands, crossing the skies over the mountains in the southern Reach and the stormlands; then there is the family tradition of House Dayne, which claim the king flew south to their lands and 'sired a Lord of the Torrentine'. The last rumor may have been a misremembered meeting between the king and his son Gaemon, whose route around the Seven Kingdoms would remain a mystery.
In the first moon of 163, the Redfishites arrived at Raventree Hall. Lord Benjicot Blackwood chose to uphold the faith of his ancestors instead of converting, which sparked the second siege of Raventree Hall during the war. Unfortunately for the rebels, they were sorely lacking in siege equipment, and hundreds died attempting to scale the castle's walls. Not even Lord Florian Piper raised his hand in support, even if he owed his lordship to the same army. Cutting losses, Sword ordered the siege lifted again, focusing forces on the movement's core holdings in the south and center of the riverlands. Still, under Polson's pressure - as leader of the rebel septons, with the Redfish too ill to perform his regular duties - even lords as far away as Darry and Wayfarer's Rest acknowledged Redfish authority over matters of faith, opening their gates to the septons he sent to their castles. Surviving letters indicate Redfishite partisans were seen as far as the outskirts of Hornvale by third moon, prompting Lord Armis Brax to write to Lord Lannister for help in case the rebels spilled into the westerlands.
News that the rebellion was spiralling out of control flooded all channels of contact to the king (Queen Aemma was on a mission to Essos, and thus unreachable), which finally prompted him to publish the Pacific Edict on 7th Day, Fourth Moon of 163 upon his return to King's Landing, marking the Iron Throne's involvement in the war at long last. At the King's request, the Vale gathered 3,000 men-at-arms which followed Prince Baelon into the riverlands. While the royal army rallied around Harrenhal in preparation for a move against Stoney Sept, the most prominent of the rebels' holdings, they were ambushed on the shore of the God's Eye. While the knights were able to fall back to the ruined castle without too many losses, Prince Baelon had vanished in the chaos of battle, where some of the Valemen overcame their cultural differences and defected to the Redfishites. Lord Gedmund Serrett was greatly concerned by the news, and lead his own men-at-arms against the Redfishites to search for his goodson.
As septs in King's Landing tolled their bells for the lost souls, Prince Baelon's disappearance in battle in particular sent the Red Keep into a panic, but King Jaehaerys adamantly held back any dragon involvement in the war, even if it was just to search for his missing crown prince. He took special care to prevent his father King Dowager Daemon from flying forth to war by repeating royal orders for him to stay in Lys and socialize with the king's contacts there. With how widespread the movement has grown, the king has legitimate reason to fear his father, the infamous Rogue Prince, would wreck widespread damage across the riverlands in the same reckless manner he dealt with pirates in the Stepstones so long ago.
Even worse news came late in 5th moon, when it became known that the Redfish himself was leading the war effort again, having recovered from his bedridden illness. He was not idle in illness - with words alone, Taik had won over Lord Hother Lychester, adding valuable men-at-arms to his movement. House Smallwood also pledged their men and castle to the Redfish movement, though in a less peaceful fashion: they were besieged by Sword's men before raising the peace banner. By this point, the Redfish Schism would reach the zenith of its influence, roughly controlling almost all the villages, towns and castles between the old river road and gold road. Only the household troops of the highborn were even trying to resist the rebels at this point, and it was an ineffectual resistance that saw them bottled up in their castles. Bells tolled, candles were lit, but without an army that was all the septons in King's Landing - assembled from across the crownlands - could do. None were risking their necks to debate the Redfish in the errors of his ways, not when that meant going into the reportedly war-torn riverlands.
For around one month, Taik Rivers, the Redfish, reigned supreme as Septon of the Riverlands. A curious phenomenon one could attribute to increased royal authority through past generations, for all of the Lords Paramount around the riverlands waited for royal commands to move in - Lord Serrett could only bring a small circle of bodyguards when he ventured into the riverlands in search of Prince Baelon, or else risk royal punishment. The Redfish, meanwhile, ruled as both King and High Septon: he was lawgiver, judge and executioner all rolled into one. Morality was oft legislated: Taik was one who enforced them at face value. Among septons, he castrated those who made vows of chastity and then broke them; forced them to dismiss debts acquired from the smallfolk during years of famine; and punished sept clerks who extorted the smallfolk in the name of their local septons, along with their septons, as they failed to keep their followers in check. Among the highborn, adultery was punished along with murder using execution, for both were affronts to the divine will of the 7-faced god; clothing laws effectively stopped the spread of exotic and, more importantly, erotic Essosi fashions; restrictions on trial by combat and other forms of violent personal rituals, such as duelling, were imposed; and many of their "abandoned" estates were divided amongst the smallfolk.
While the smallfolk had the most to gain from the Redfish, he was still harsh in his own way upon those that welcomed his rule the most. First, and most serious around Raventree Hall, was the general massacre of heathens in his realm, often not given any chance to repent and convert. Already wrecked during the Coming of the Andals, worship of the nameless old gods were almost completely destroyed between the many attacks the Redfishites launched against Raventree Hall and the zealots who responded to his calls of purging. Largely successful, the Redfish's other effort met with mixed success: an attempt to set up a center of learning to protect his dogma. In this, he soon found iliteracy amongst his followers was a huge problem. They could memorize prayers and hymns alright: but against the Oldtown letters criticizing them for separating from the rest of the Faith, Taik alone could put up effective scripture-based defense, so the other needs of his movement forced him to use old methods to promote his dogma across his new territories instead of transitioning to higher learning. Another order with widespread consequences was forbidding taverns from building walls. Recognizing that water was often not healthy for consumption, and so taverns provided a necessary drink, Taik was vehemently against doing nothing while taverns "slipped into degeneracy": or in other words, became hotbeds for sex trade. Taik almost naively believed removing walls would prevent taverns from turning into brothels: to his dismay, he only learned how depraved people were willing to dive for the most ancient trade. Following a setback such as this one too many, the Redfish returned to what he did best, personally taking command of his own forces in the north, marching them against Raventree Hall.
The Redfish's rule would soon end as the tides of war changed once more, as the king finally finished his preparations. Under Taik's command, Kars marched out with an army in 7th Moon of 163 AD, defeating a royalist force led by Lords Mathis Mooton and Norren Darklyn along the western shore of the God's Eye. Neither the traditional knights led by Lord Darklyn nor the free companies purchased by Lord Mooton found an effective way to counter the line of wagons drawn up by Kars, and had their supply lines to Harrenhal cut off by the young man instead. Surrounded themselves by the rebels' advancing line of wagons, the lords chose break through Redfishite line and retreat to Harrenhal, but in the ensuing battle Kars drove the starved royalists into the watery depths of the God's Eye with his unrelenting lines of wagons and pikemen, killing Lord Mooton; Lord Darklyn escaped from the battlefield wounded.
The entire Battle by the Lakeshore was a ruse, however: travelling with further Vale reinforcements, the king led another force, including one of the three elite royal companies, up the Red Fork to aid Raventree Hall, and the third siege of Raventree Hall was the scene where the war ended. Along with one of his Lysene sons: Argilac Targaryen, rider of the young dragon Stormcloud, Jaehaerys caught the Redfishite host unawares in the rear with five thousand men atop Vermithor. The sudden arrival of two dragonlords right next to their general commander's position sparked a fearful rout amongst the rebels: there was a reason the dragonlord kings of old could hold the continent together sans a powerful bureaucracy, and for all their battle experience against men and horses, the Redfish's men had never seen dragons staring down at them before, their own deaths one word of command away.
Victorious without a fight, the king laid out his terms to the Redfish: he could either take the black and lead all of his men to the Wall, including the various elements operating throughout the riverlands, or be burned on a second Field of Fire. Instead of giving in to furious zeal, Taik Rivers chose to preserve the life of his men, summoning all of his forces to the Inn of the Kneeling Man. While many lost heart knowing the dragons have come into play at long last, Sword openly defied his leader's command, attempting to keep the movement alive by leading his men into the hills on the border between the riverlands and the westerlands. This effort was utterly destroyed unexpectedly by Prince Baelon on top of Dreamfyre, catching Sword and his men on the outskirts of Riverrun in the very last battle of the rebellion. The Battle of the Burning Ford put an end to the last remaining armed resistance against royal authority in the riverlands, and the King's Peace was finally restored after 2 years of open war.
Since none of the dragonroad projects were in the North, the disarmed Redfishites faced horrible road conditions as soon as they left the watchful eyes of Lord Alyn Frey and his bannermen. Travelling through the marshes of the Neck and the cold land of the North, where it snows even in summer, many of the Redfishites died on the road to the Wall. King Jaehaerys ordered Lord Rickon Stark to collect the heads of those who died on the march, then sent outriders to post them on stakes along major roads in the riverlands, with a sign underneath saying "Killed by Bad Roads".
The aftermath of the Redfish Schism was a messy matter to deal with. While the royal court was deciding on the nature of the rebellion, King Jaehaerys insisted on the term "Schism", for the Redfish denied the authority of the king over matters of faith, which was a pointed defiance against the royal constitution, and in the end this term prevailed. Lord Kermit Tully had also died of his wounds in 162, leaving as his sole heiress the pregnant Cassandra Tully, a situation that made dealing the matter of inheritance a hot turnip. The Redfish had also made use of conflicts between and within the various riverland houses, ugly ambitions rearing heads when it seemed the king would not intervene yet proven wrong. With the Schism dealt with, many including Lord Florian Piper were put in a delicate position. Thus little opposition rose when the king claimed a vast tract of land containing the God's Eye lake into his demense, for he cited the inadequate ability of the riverlords to keep it safe and peaceful, an accusation none of them could shy away from.
Despite keeping an eye on the goings-on between his court and the riverlords, the minutiae of post-Schism political settlement had Jaehaerys disinterested, a matter he believed did not require his constant attention. He soon left King's Landing for the riverlands to restart dragonroad constructions, only intervening when the riverlords tried to depose Cassandra Tully, by brokering a matrilineal marriage between her and Lord Benjicot Blackwood's 3rd son, Ser Robert Blackwood.
King Jaehaerys was said to have quipped "I have legions of men praying for me, but only five thousand on the battlefield" after the bloody conclusion of the rebellion.
Wardens of the Realm
As his various children had matured in the midst of war, King Jaehaerys took note of newfound peace throughout the realm, so he gave them the task of patroling great stretches of lands beyond the Red Keep as wardens to keep their dragons active, and to spread out his children, for he believed it beneficial for them to see the realm outside of the Red Keep to develop their sense of duty to the realm. Just after the Redfish Schism, the children thus tasked include Prince Baelon, Prince of Dragonstone, dispatched to patrol the lands between Silverhill and Goldengrove on top of his newly-claimed dragon, Dreamfyre; Princess Visenya, Winterfell and "wherever else the Lords Stark would point their sword"; Rothyna Targaryen, White Harbor to Seagard; Argilac Targaryen, Whispering Sound and the Redwyne Straits; Gaemon Targaryen, Last Hearth to Karhold. Even Queen Aemma's children by other men, such as Borros and Edwyn Targaryen were also sent out to be regional wardens. Alone out of Jaehaerys' adult children Balerion was not sent out, because the prince's dragon, Sēntkelaks, had a notorious reputation of murderous temper, killing men and beast alike, so was instead tasked with patrolling Blackwater Bay under the King and Vermithor's watchful gaze.
Part of the official reasons for the warden policy being "letting them see the realm with their own eyes and meld the royal house further to the land" has not stopped the most obvious rumor from starting: the king intended to cow the realm into submission with all the dragon-riding children he now has. Scholarly analysis of this policy tend to stress its avant-garde nature instead of following the critique of traditional narratives: beyond striking fear into hearts and minds, the Targaryen kings had gained the means to rule the Seven Kingdoms in a manner that blurred the lines of the old kingdoms, as the circuits of Prince Baelon and Lady Rothyna demonstrate.
The warden policy, for all its potential, was an unprecedented decision. Even during the first Jaehaerys' era, Princes Aemon and Baelon Targaryen were mostly stationed in the capital, holding court positions instead of flying out across the far-flung Seven Kingdoms. But then, this was also the first time House Targaryen swelled to so many members, and bottling up a dozen dragonriders in a city as small as King's Landing was so risky not even the Valyrians of old tried that. In light of future events, one may consider this decision ill-placed, but in the then and there, the abundance of dragons and dragonriders presented a huge boost to Targaryen prestige. In particular, Argilac's visit to the southernmost regions of the Reach was especially well-received even by House Hightower, perhaps because his dragon Stormcloud was mild-tempered and well-fed by Reach meat. For the next generation of dragonriders, gifts were traded, petitions were heard, friendships were forged, and according to rumor, even dalliances were started.
King Jaehaerys had already gotten the realm used to the sight of dragons again with his travels after his mother's more recluse lifestyle made the creatures fade away from public memory in general, but the number of dragonriders his policy unleashed, and the great amount of time they spent outside King's Landing, hailed the apex of Targaryen power even for the smallfolk. While the nature of dragonroad construction made it very difficult for people beyond the construction area to even feel power of dragons, the huge number of dragonriders now enforcing the laws of the realm by dragonfire, if necessary, quickly made the buzz among tavern-goers and other street folk. Despite traditional Faith of the Seven disapproval of the dragonlords, spectacle and rumor soon added up to a heady mix that the Targaryens protected the interests of the smallfolk against the abuse of the highborn.
This sentiment marked the partial success of the king's policy, but ever the detached ruler, he took more interest with continuing dragonroad construction in the riverlands. However, the expenses in gold, manpower and grain both for roadbuilding and post-war recovery for the riverlands put an enormous strain on the resources of the Red Keep. Already burning through their accumulated goodwill with their traditional trade partners across the sea due to royal demand for blood sacrifices, further taxation to cover the royal court's expenses antagonized the houses that survived by trade across the Narrow Sea, which included the Targaryen's most ancient and steadfast vassals: House Velaryon and House Celtigar. Even if their blood bonds and alliances reach back for centuries, House Velaryon was quite unwilling to terminate its de facto dominance on trade between Westeros and the Free Cities to supply the sacrifices necessary for the King's appetite.
Not only the Narrow Sea houses suffered for Jaehaerys' infrastructure ambitions: the Reach, breadbasket and manpower hub of Westeros, was another region heavily milked for its wealth. House Tyrell acknowledged the needs of the realm, and guided their banners to sate these needs. The lords of the Reach followed, at first, even if Lord Lyonel Hightower led a vocal minority in demanding recompense for the destruction of the Starry Sept. But as the years passed and the Reach saw no improvements to their homeland despite all the output, they grew reluctant and discontent - the complete eradication of the ironborn affected the westerlands much more than the Reach, who did not bear the brunt of the seaborne raids. These signs were not ignored by the royal court: before and during the Redfish Schism, King Jaehaerys was personally involved, paradoxically, in angering the Hightowers against the Targaryens. By delaying the reconvocation of the Most Devout, and by refusing to respond to Lord Hightower's demands, the Targaryens damage the Hightowers' standing with the clergy every day, every year, which was exactly what the king achieved. In blatant defiance of the Hightowers and Oldtown, the king's half brother Septon Maekar aligned himself with the Tyrells, severely threatening Oldtown's status as the greatest settlement within the Reach.
However, the Hightowers were already one of the greatest houses in all of Westeros back when the Targaryens were merely lords of a rock in the middle of the sea, and its connections run very, very deep. Seething, Lyonel waited for the chance to strike back at the godless monarch who was making no secret of his attempts to take everything away from him, while mobilizing his many friends in preparation for a future conflict.
Deposition and Death
In the year 171 AC, the coffers of the Red Keep ran dry again due to His Grace driving construction of the dragonroads through multiple swamp regions. With taxes already raised dangerous high, King Jaehaerys was forced to seek alternatives. His genius solution was to order an audit on the Bank of Oldtown, in order "to check for concealed incomes and prevent the weakest of the realm being overburdened for works, when completed, should benefit them".
With relations between King's Landing and Oldtown already hostile with the many grievances between their ruling houses, Lord Hightower was enraged not only by the demand itself, but also how the king framed the context of the audit, as if the lords of the land had no freedom to tax the smallfolk as much as they wanted and were "embezzling income bound for the king". Had circumstances not vastly changed, there was not much action this rage could translate into, but the royal audit team that arrived by sea under the wings of Ergmaut were in for a very nasty surprise.
Despite Lord Hightower's cordial relations with his fellow Lysene Bastard Argilac, Gaemon was not operating as an independent Warden but as an enforcer of royal will, and he was treated accordingly by his host. He was forced to fly Ergmaut out into the waters of Whispering Sound to keep him fed by fish, a routine which in hindsight may have saved his life. While out over the sea waiting for royal accountants to complete the audit like in previous days, Gaemon noticed a huge winged figure, much larger than Ergmaut, obscuring the fisher huts along the coast with its great shadow. Demonstrating enormous courage, he returned to Oldtown first, warning his father's agents of the approach of a hostile dragonrider, before flying off ahead of the crew, very nearly getting killed by the brown-and-green dragon and its rider in a close chase over the clear skies of Oldtown, which he survived - badly burned, but survived - thanks to Ergmaut's agility and speed, and his own armor enchanted with Valyrian blood runes which staved off the worst of dragonfire.
It was easy enough to deduce the "what" and "who": ancient Vhagar, long since become an elusive legend in the general south of Westeros, was claimed by a man very hostile to the current regime, and given what was known of rogue children of the dragon, this hostile figure could be none other than Prince Aegon "the Martell" Targaryen, the eldest surviving son of King Aegon the Second, elder half-brother of King Jaehaerys. A few days later, ravens from Oldtown brought the worst news possible: backed by a coalition of lords led by Lord Hightower and his mother Lady Aliandra, also in possession of the great dragon Vhagar, Aegon was indeed pressing his claim to the Iron Throne. Fortunately, King Jaehaerys was at Khrake with Queen Aemma when all this grim news arrived in quick succession. The royal couple swiftly returned to the capital, and after discussing many courses of action with his small council, the king announced he wished to parley with the prince at the God's Eye. This show of weakness led to a great upsurge of pro-Aegon movements as other lords from the westerlands, stormlands and riverlands joined the young prince's cause.
Backed by the full momentum of his initiative, Prince Aegon arrived at Harrenhal with his army almost leisurely in the next year. The lake which had seen bloody infighting between the Targaryens more than a century ago had become the site of a peaceful transfer of power - a large amount of restraint from both sides, stemming from various causes, making this miracle possible. Prior to the general talks between both factions, King Jaehaerys spoke to Prince Aegon in private, pieces of history undoubtedly important yet lost to pen and parchment.
Posterity could infer from the speed of negotiations, though, that the two monarchs had already hammered out the outlines of their final agreement. 2 days after the Council of Harrenhal began, the agreement to cede the Iron Throne was done.
Despite that Prince Aegon - King Aegon, Third of His Name - deposed his uncle, the two were rumored to have a non-murderous relationship. One proof of this rumor was the new king allowed Jaehaerys, now Lord of Harrenhal, to visit and even fly on Vermithor after his fall from power, though he was no longer allowed to build dragonroads due to public outrage. The two men maintained an uneasy peace, defying worries the dragonlords may fight a duel to the death, like Aegon the Uncrowned and Maegor the Cruel so long ago. Jaehaerys even met with his nephew every few moons to discuss magical matters, such as dreams that may possibly prophetic. In the year 174, the former king even flew to visit the Night's Watch with his queen, and the couple explored the Nightfort in an attempt to discover what made Queen Alysanne feel the place was unpleasant.
The final act of Jaehaerys' epic life began with the horrendous bloodshed of fifty thousand sacrifices - the methods used in execution combined surviving Valyrian lore and Qohorik innovations - in a great ritual circle around the emptied castle of Harrenhal. He then proceeded to channel all that ritual power against the walls of Harren the Black's greatest creation, helped by Vermithor's scalding hot golden-bronze flames. With blood and fire, he melted down the huge, misshapen walls, and re-fashioned them into fused stone, characteristic of dragonlord architecture. According to the Dragonkeepers watching the event, he "danced among the molten stone", and it seemed to come alive in response, forming new shapes of dragons, gargoyles and other fantastic beasts along the battlements. The former king declared the curse of Harrenhal lifted once he had completed the days-long ceremony.
One day after Harrenhal was completely reshaped, the burned-out Jaehaerys died in his bed. Within the moon, Dreamfyre, Vermax, Jaeskirine, Stardancer, Sēntkelaks, Perzax, Nōrox, Qūvyr, Ergmaut, Stormcloud, Suvion and Silverwing gave fire to his pyre. The king's own Vermithor was, according to the Dragonkeepers watching the funeral beside him, visibly saddened by Jaehaerys' death.
Legacy
Known Children
By Queen Aemma Targaryen
Prince Baelon Targaryen (b.145)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Dreamfyre
Princess Visenya Targaryen (b.151)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Vermax
Prince Valarr Targaryen (b.158)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Jaeskirine
Princess Aerea Targaryen (b.162)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Stardancer
By Princess Baela Targaryen
Balerion Targaryen (b.146)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Sēntkelaks
Rhaenys Targaryen (b.150)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Perzax
By Lady Cassandra Tully
Oscar Targaryen (b.162)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Mordax
By Lady Jessamyn Darklyn
Shaera Targaryen (b. 155)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Nōrox
By Lady Morgana Hightower
Uthor Targaryen (b.163)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Arrax
By Lady Allariel Rogare
Coryanne Targaryen (b.160?)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Qūvyr
"The Lysene Bastards", born to unknown Lyseni women; they had all weaned when they arrived at King's Landing in 150 AC
Gaemon Targaryen (b.148?)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Ergmaut
Argilac Targaryen (b.148?)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Stormcloud
Rothyna Targaryen (b.148?)
Dragonrider, bonded to the dragon Suvion
The most remarkable trait regarding King Jaehaerys the Second was his open use of Valyrian magic. A controversial move considering this type of magic's blood and fire nature, Jaehaerys was also noted for his restraint in wielding such magic, not once using it to curse his many enemies - the sheer amount of deaths required would have exposed such attempts. He instead used it only to improve the road system of the Seven Kingdoms, greatly accelerating travel and trade between the Neck and King's Landing. As probably the only dragonmage active in his age, the king did not possess the finesse of the Old Valyrian dragonmages, but if one would say Viserys the First worked kept the embers of Valyrian magic alive, Jaehaerys was the one who kindled it back into a flame again.
Ruling Style
Policies delivered during Jaehaerys' reign were often credited with deepening Targaryen rule across Westeros, though the Statue of the Two Kings may have pushed it too far when the plaque beneath it claims:"They made of the Seven Kingdoms, one". Queen Aemma, an active ruler in her own right, may have been behind policies beyond those that bear her name. The key to understanding this period of Westerosi history was the siblings were equal partners in power, a fact which makes disentangling their individual contributions to each policy much more difficult.
The Second Tooth of the Tridentine Constitution was one many believed to have been promoted mostly by the Queen, since she already handled home politics while her first husband was at war with Dorne. Terror of Aegon II had delayed the re-constitution of the Most Devout long enough for this impactful edict to be sent out across the Seven Kingdoms. Septons had originally believed this simply meant the Iron Throne wished to consolidate its power over the Faith, a process they had come to treat as usual, but the council to re-elect the Most Devout was never called. In effect, the Faith was "beheaded" so long as the monarchs wish. What was thought to be a temporary political bandage became a permanent bleeding wound upon the structure of the Faith. Over time, catalyzed by this beheading, regional identities and politics gradually bled into the Faith, loosening its cohesion as a super-regional superstructure that stood as one of the few bastions against complete Targaryen domination over the cultural landscape of Westeros.
The Dragons of Power
While dragons have always been closely related to House Targaryen in the public imagination, it was Jaehaerys that started stressing the importance of specific dragons due to his links with the Old King. Indeed, the fact another Jaehaerys was riding Vermithor gave some hope that the Seven Kingdoms could go back to how it always was - well, the ironborn should not go back to being raiders, that much was agreed on. Jaehaerys would make use of these emotional currents, but time proved his reign would be nothing like his namesake.
Future developments aside, in the delicate period of power transition, this link served a persuasive purpose, helping people accept that Jaehaerys was truly in charge. With it came a change hard to detect in the there and then: specific dragons had become tied to Targaryen legitimacy. Primus inter pares was naturally Vhagar, last of the Conquest dragons, oldest and largest of the Targaryen mounts, a living symbol of the House's might. Next in line was Vermithor, second-largest of the dragons and the only living one to have served twice as the mount of a king, who also happened to both be named Jaehaerys. Balerion, who had served thrice, was dead, though had it still lived it would need to recover from its wounds to occupy the foremost position. A senile dragon was hardly the best face to represent the House of the Dragon.
Despite their political divergences, Jaehaerys the Second did not shy away from stressing his link to his paternal great-grandfather (who also happened to be his maternal great-great-grandfather), as demonstrated during the Redfish Schism, where he successfully mobilized the Drējor to follow the Red Keep's policies against the Redfishites by stressing his status as Protector of the Faith, a status shared by his namesake. Riding to battle on Vermithor certainly helped his case.
In time, as dragons multiplied, a few of the other dragons would also join this venerated pantheon as their power and accomplishments seared their images onto the oh-so-impressionable minds of the people, leaving a permanent mark on the collective consciousness of Westeros.
Tegondo Ānogres
Fortunately for House Targaryen, but rather unfortunately for everyone else, King Jaehaerys had figured out a solution for the Dragonpit problem as he plotted his own rise to power. The issue itself was simple: no dragon housed in the Dragonpit ever reached Balerion the Black Dread's size. It was often dismissed as an acceptable side effect of keeping the dragons securely housed, but with the king's knowledge of the esoteric, a way to increase the size of dragons in spite of their cramped residence was realized: ānogres, or in common tongue, blood magic. As beings of fire created by blood magic, there were indeed methods to 'feed' power to dragons and increase their size by the very same dark art that created them. The crude methods Jaehaerys managed to figure out through trial and error were, alas, quite costly in terms of human lives.
Ritual massacre occured whenever enough sacrifices were collected at ānogria - Valyrian blood temples - channelling blood-borne life-force to a dragon, who would lie at the center and swell red with the power of offerings. At these ceremonies, the king himself would take notes, detailing how different dragons react to the process differently. Already second largest of the Targaryen dragons still alive, Vermithor was especially noted as growing quickly with the help of blood magic. Some dragons were obviously agitated during the process, like the young dragon Arrax when subject to dozens of offerings, while Vhagar (when she was subjected to these ministrations at a later time) did not give much of a reaction when fed with five hundred - neither did her size change much.
From a monarch's standpoint, it would naturally be quite detrimental to strip one's lands of tilling peasants and turn them into ritual fodder. This was the economic drive behind the foundation of the Tegondo Ānogres, or the "Lands of Blood Magic", which meant those lands were used for collecting blood magic ingredients - specifically, the human sacrifices. Conversely, Tegondo Zaldrīzer meant lands protected by the dragons, which were also the lands that were exempt from the blood tithe. The king's announcement caused widespread panic throughout Essos, as only Westeros-south-of-the-Wall was Zaldrīzer, everywhere else fair game. But the response of the Free Cities gave Jaehaerys the confidence not to recall the bloody order, for even in face of a threat that targeted them all, their embassies of protest still arrived at King's Landing separately. In return, Jaehaerys promised not to raid their lands for sacrifices, so long as they were not the Free City that 'voluntarily offered' the least sacrifices.
The result was an absolute boom in the slave trade. Even the staunchly anti-slavery Braavos decided against going to total war with House Targaryen, and the rulers of the city state quickly passed a law declaring "humans designated for blood sacrifice are no longer slaves, but objects", before joining in the great flow of offerings travelling to the Blackwater Rush. The result was Pentos being subject to a punitive war, because it offered up the least sacrifices, the reasons behind their paltry offerings were the ghastly wounds dealt by Braavos upon the former slave-trading Free City.
A side effect of this policy was a huge influx of Essosi immigrants into Westeros, for many people believed arriving at Westeros meant they could avoid the cruel fate of being burned up in blood magic rituals. Their belief is correct: they just also earned themselves first-class seats to watching their kin and neighbors being consumed by the bloody rituals, if they chose to leave their designated settlements. Despite the rather graphic risks, there was some motive for these expatriates to explore the wider Westeros - their designated settlements were the Dāriālia, which meant they were, for ease of understanding, royal property that would probably be worked to death and subject to wildly changing tax rates depending on the royal treasury's needs of the year.
Trivia
King Jaehaerys was not good at close combat. Sword, lance, arakh, scimitar, battle-ax, hammer, morningstar, he was bad at them all - it was not a question of weapon choice. It would be much later in life when the king was taught to wield a very long spear orignating from Ghis, which finally made him a formidable close combatant, largely because it was not "close" combat at all - Jaehaerys gored his opponents through while they were still 3 to 5 steps away.
The "Ash Wedding" was the name given to the splendid wedding of King Jaehaerys and Queen Aemma, due to the fact it was held in a godswood - which was made up of ash trees - and Queen Aemma's white-and-black wedding gown, intersected with grey flames patterns, which looked like 'black coal burning to pure white ash'. The royal designers said the Queen herself came up with this concept, but she never explained the meaning. There were few guests and no bedding ceremony at the Ash Wedding.
Part of the Smiling King's efforts to stress his link to Jaehaerys the Wise was his support of the Twin Crowns inn. A town grew up around the inn as the king lavished it with funds and construction teams, making it a landmark.
As they were considered legitimate according to their royal parent's joint constitution, both Jaehaerys' and Aemma's children born out of wedlock used some altered form of the Targaryen heraldry for their personal coat of arms. When they took up personal coat of arms in adulthood, they used the black field emblazoned with a dragon whose color changed depending on what color their dragon was. Oscar Targaryen would be the exception to the rule, as his dragon Mordax was black, but he used a blue field instead of red to symbolize his status as a legitimate child born to Tully and Targaryen, as reversed colors are sometimes seen as a mark of bastardy.
King Jaehaerys likes halstitudes and tournaments, but dislikes the spacious royal box, because it was still cramped in his opinion. He usually watches tournaments atop Vermithor, circling above the competitors or perched on the walls of the stadium.
AN:
I modeled Jaehaerys II on a combination of historical child rulers, Emperor Manuel I Komnenos and some of my more moral Crusader Kings playthroughs. The end result was I had a really difficult time trying not to let the Dance of the Dragons explode as his reign comes to a close. It was totally worth it, because if I had to think of writing the Dance now, I would probably burn myself out.
I am venturing into territory with less and less canon material to support me, so updates would unfortunately still come slowly as I try to make sense of what to do with this timeline by this point. With flying nukes in a pseudo-medieval setting I am not really sure if traditional narratives of feudalism to absolute monarchy work, which happen to be the exact starting point of this timeline.