Chapter 3: Aegon II

This is an alternate-timeline work inspired by GRRM's A Song of Ice and Fire world

Aegon II "Sundowner" (118-143AC, r.138-143AC)

"It is my belief a marriage between our families could not only bridge the gap between our courts, but also between Valyrian and Rhoynar as well."

- Aegon II Targaryen, during the peace talks with House Nymeros Martell of Dorne

King Aegon Targaryen the Second of His Name was the seventh king of the Seven Kingdoms to reign from the Iron Throne, as heir of his mother Rhaenyra "the Bee". Rising to the throne under turbulent circumstances, the powerful warrior would energetically overcome the various challenges to his heavy-handed and tyrannic rule and leave lasting marks on the history of Westeros despite the brevity of his reign, which in turn was almost completely defined by conflict and war.

Appearance and character

As an infant prince, Aegon was oft described as 'little' compared to his elder twin Maekar, who would become a septon. However, as they grew up and their interests led them in different directions, Maekar developed a lanky and thin figure, and Aegon became robustly muscled in stark contrast. While still shorter than his brother, Aegon was a giant bulk of a man, towering over most people in the Red Keep at the tender age of fifteen. One year before that, a stallion had run amok in the royal stables, but before anyone was seriously injured Prince Aegon managed to wrestle the horse to the ground, burning off the beast's excessive energy and aggression.

Preferring the austere fashions of a warrior, Aegon wore his bright platinum hair close-cropped. He shaved his beard but kept a curiously designed mustache. Some claim it was a result of the Essosi fashions introduced to the Red Keep by the Queen, but none of those really fit the little braids Aegon meticulously maintained in his mustache. Asides from that peculiar point, Aegon dressed magnificently as befits a royal, primarily with Targaryen black and red. When not off on campaign, Aegon often wore a gift from his mother, a pale gold cloak woven from threads of gold, interwoven with platinum flame patterns and embroidered with Valyrian steel. The cloak was a gift from Volantene Old Blood to the queen, and it was called "Chanhualaz" in their tongue.

Interested in action, Aegon much preferred to be outside of the Red Keep than within it, enjoying hunting, riding (both dragon and horse) and wandering around the realm in general. Like his mother, Aegon never went on an official royal progress, but he showed his face outside of King's Landing much more often than his mother, probably because he was so often at war. Between his wars, he accepted invitations from lords to hunt in their private hunting grounds. It was a sort of decision that created a lot of trouble for his bodyguards, for Aegon did these for the bravado of venturing into his bannermen's zone of influence and coming back out alive - no matter whether the bannermen in question want him dead or not.

Learning from Ser Criston Cole, even as a young prince Aegon became famous for his skill at the sword and the morningstar, a fame which only grew further when he developed his ambidextrous talent to become the first Targaryen to dual-wield a sword and a morningstar. Aegon eventually had no sparring partners except Ser Cole due to his prowess. Though a fearsome close combatant, Aegon was not good with bow and arrow, so he preferred javelins and spears when hunting, showing an uncanny talent for spearing fish.

While a far cry from his bookish elder brother's erudition, Aegon was strictly educated and considered knowledgeable even among the highborn. Sometimes he could be quite pedantic, personally overseeing the wording of official documents to deliver his exact intentions. His knowledge of mundane affairs such as rhetoric and law did not extend to the esoteric. Unlike his parents, Aegon did not find Valyrian lore and magic particularly interesting, and only maintained the royal library - especially the forbidden books section - as a family obligation. As that was also mundane, culture and technology of the Free Cities, which the king admired, continued to flow into and mix within the crownlands under his patronage, including their conflicting gods.

Unlike the fine-tuned measures his mother used to manipulate the lords of the realm, Aegon used methods as heavy-handed as swapping traditional Wardens for new houses, and warring with his bannermen himself. He was often remembered as a tyrant because of these events. This may be due to the perpetual insecurity that plagued the king, as he would panic whenever he felt matters were going out of his control, which was an issue that began when he was crown prince.

Aegon had a turbulent relationship with his massive dragon Dreamfyre. The blue dragon did not show any signs of flying off to Valyria like Balerion did, but unlike when Princess Rhaena rode her, the Dragonkeepers noted Dreamfyre had quite a temper when the king was her rider. On occasion, Aegon had to repeat commands before Dreamfyre would obey, displaying reluctance and annoyance before that. The one order from Aegon that Dreamfyre obeys without question was Dracarys.

History

Youth

The second son of King Viserys and Queen Rhaenyra, as a boy no one believed the little Aegon would make much of himself. Asides from his designated household of servants and a maester, Aegon received much less attention as a boy compared to his elder twin. Nevertheless, Aegon was not ignored as younger sons tend to be, for Maekar often sought him out for lessons and for fun. Even after his ascension to the Iron Throne, the king would still remember fondly his boyhood days riding in the kingswood with his brother in one of his many letters sent to Brightwater Keep, where Maekar was the septon. As part of the spill-out effect, he was acquainted with his mother's and elder brother's loyalists, including the eunuch Efretar zo Dimimar early on.

Despite the 2 princes' close association, Aegon had an estranged relationship with his mother, due to an unfortunate difference in their mindsets. Rhaenyra received the full backing and all the love of her father the king: she was born into power and grew up secure in it. With his mother busy securing Maekar's position as heir, Aegon did not share that luxury, and would probably not see his mother as often had his brother not kept him close. As heir to nothing, Aegon did not inherit his mother's aura of royal confidence (sometimes called arrogance, or haughtiness), and was known to ask the Queensguard about the world beyond the Red Keep because he was worried he needed to become an adventurer to find a seat for himself. Partly in response to Aegon's worries, his mother the Queen planned to erect a new city across the Blackwater from King's Landing, but the city never materialized. In another attempt to assuage her son's worries, Queen Rhaenyra betrothed her daughter Aemma to Aegon, but born 7 years apart, the siblings were never close.

If Maekar became king, Aegon may have gone down in the history books as a warrior, maybe a general too, but the birth of their younger brother Jaehaerys caused a chain of chaotic events leading to Aegon becoming crown prince. As a second son betrothed to his younger sister, who was a full-blooded sibling of his greatest rival claimant, Aegon's position was a lot worse than his elder brother, who had enjoyed the support of the powerful House Velaryon. It was then Aegon, yet to turn 11, made the most important decision of his life. The Dragonkeepers still remember how the young prince barged into the Dragonpit and quite miraculously claimed Dreamfyre without any prior contact with the dragon. When the prince rode her out triumphantly, the scales of his mother's cold war against her bannermen tipped again, but judging by how often he flew around the capital and how little time he spent as an attendant at small council meetings, the prince remained blissfully oblivious of all the politicking. Throughout the rest of his life, Aegon would love dragon riding.

War against the Red Kraken

Dalton Greyjoy would soon turn a cold war hot. Upon his mother's orders, Aegon flew forth with his uncle-stepfather King Daemon and cousin Laenor Velaryon, busting the ironborn at Greenshield island. But after the defeat at Greyshield and the subsequent escalation of the war, the queen joining battle herself, Aegon was said to have fought more recklessly, as his brother Maekar had also taken to the field upon Sunfyre, and in one of his letters to the septon the king admitted he was worried their mother the Queen would make Maekar her heir again, then and there. The prince was aided in his adventures by the simple fact that Dreamfyre was the largest dragon in the fight. Even if the ironborn had procured scorpions like the mad Prince Morion, Dreamfyre's sheer bulk would have kept him safe from harm unless he was unlucky enough to get hit directly.

With the Queen's personal leadership at the war front, 5 dragons and the fleet organized by the Iron Throne stopped the ironborn dead in their tracks, breaking their power in the climactic Battle of Whispering Sound. Diving into the ironborn's rain of arrows, Aegon and Dreamfyre twisted and turned, sinking ships as simply as pushing them into the sea while the dragon pounced towards its next target, while Dreamfyre's bright blue flames consumed the worshippers of the Drowned God by their dozens. Over the course of the battle, the prince collected an impressive arsenal of arrows on his suit of armor, but also won for himself the honor of sinking Dalton Greyjoy's flagship (though the man was no longer on it). The momentum built up by the Red Kraken had all but dissipated by this point, and soon the ironborn reavers were forced to flee the seaboard, giving up their prior conquests. Atop Dreamfyre, Prince Aegon again played a leading role in the retaking of Faircastle, covering the marines by scouring the castle walls as they broke into the castle in search of the infamous raider Veron, the Red Kraken's brother.

Though the reavers were already on the retreat, Queen Rhaenyra gave leave for Prince Aegon to press ahead. Many westermen thus had their first taste of a dragon fighting with them, doing much to alleviate the generational scars the Field of Fire had left on the collective consciousness of the westerlands. Matters came to a most dramatic point after defeating an ironborn force pillaging around Tarbeck Hall, when Lord Adrian Tarbeck knighted the crown prince as "the Dragonknight".

Battle soon came to the Iron Islands, home of the ironborn who started it all. Under the Queen's orders and Prince Aegon's supervision, all ironborn weapons were confiscated before being shipped off to mainland Westeros, where the highborn would reinforce the Night's Watch and the smallfolk sold off to become thralls, tilling the land they had pillaged for generations. With almost its entire population forcibly removed, the scant traces of Targaryen rule also pulled out of the islands, and other remnants such as the old sept built during the Conqueror's era was left to crumble in the sea winds. During the harrowing of the Iron Islands, Prince Aegon made a point by burning the Nagga's Bones, where Kings of the Iron Islands were traditionally elected. It was a clear sign to all that the age of the Iron Kings and the ironborn were completely over.

For his contributions and courage on the battlefield, Aegon's position as heir was acknowledged by his highborn comrades and the ordinary rank-and-file, neither of his brothers able to pose a threat to his position again. The support of the military would be a defining mark of Aegon's tenure as crown prince and his reign, giving him free rein to act like a tyrant on the other constituencies in his realm. On the flip side, he was quite vulnerable to their whims: after losing a bet while drinking with his men, Aegon was challenged to fight the massive wild dragon Cannibal. Quite fortunately, he asked for help from his king, and his stepfather Daemon, bellicose and adventurous, agreed to the crown prince's request. The two dragonlords worked in concert to drive out the old threat to Targaryen supremacy, abandoning the chase only after they had observed it make a new nest on mainland Essos 2 weeks later.

Succession Crisis

Several days after the Queen flew off on her own to fight the Sheepstealer, news reached King's Landing that Syrax was confirmed dead. Prince Aegon, as Prince Regent, quickly organized a search for the Queen - and demanded that she must be found, dead or alive. But highborn or smallfolk, none dared to approach the cave where Sheepstealer made its lair, so after naming the eunuch general Efretar zo Dimimar - who had risen to become the Protector of the Court - as regent during his absence, the prince flew off with Dreamfyre to Dragonstone.

The battle that would follow became one of the most fabled amongst the smallfolk, as the prince had also summoned Ser Laenor to join forces, and 3 dragons clashed on a clear day, the dragonlords ambushing Sheepstealer as it returned from one its sheep-stealing runs, in full view of the fearful yet fawning smallfolk who dared to raise their heads and observe the spectacle. While Seasmoke, a dragon of the younger generations, was considerably smaller than Sheepstealer, relegating Laenor to support roles, Dreamfyre once again displayed the power of its sheer bulk, besting the wild dragon in a fire-breathing contest before tackling it to the ground and snapping Sheepstealer's neck in a savage melee. The brown dragon's corpse became a tourist destination, with its bleached bones becoming the center of another town on Dragonstone later on.

Leaving their dragons to rest, Aegon and Laenor ventured towards the dead dragon's cave. For the following events, the only source we have is the prince himself, which led to many rumors and theories. According to the future king, he and Ser Laenor were beset by beasts that were "slimy, fast-moving and boiling hot" in the bowels of the earth, with the Lord Velaryon tragically perishing to protect him from an ambushing critter. Deeper still in Sheepstealer's lair, the prince found his father's crown and the ancient Valyrian weapon his mother brought to fight the wild dragon: the Ergmaut Tansargon, a warhorn-like weapon activated by blood magic. The Tansargon was the source of the strange, blood-red lightning witnessed by residents of Dragonstone. Carrying these artifacts and the corpse of Lord Velaryon, Prince Aegon returned to King's Landing by boat to announce his mother's death, despite not finding her body, as he was sure his mother would only part with her crown in death. Dreamfyre had refused to carry him and returned to the Dragonpit a few days later with Seasmoke. Later, Dreamfyre flew off to Dragonstone again to lay a clutch of eggs, all of which were some variations of salt-white and cerulean blue in their color patterns.

Later maesters, perhaps out of enmity to the king, put forward the theory that Aegon had murdered his mother the queen, who had fallen off Syrax's back but still lived, and then Ser Laenor to keep him quiet. Still, expeditions into Sheepstealer's cave had not revealed a female corpse with murder wounds on it, so the theory remains unfounded. The king's care of the Velaryon children, whose mother was Jocelyn Baratheon, a descendant of Garon Baratheon, could also be interpreted both for and against the theory of the maesters, adding to the mystery of a reign already quite mysterious.

Just as Prince Aegon prepared his mother's funeral (opting to burn her royal dress in lieu of her body), a crisis broke out in King's Landing. Led by Ser Hendry Penrose and Ser Raymont Hightower, a group of nobles, their retinues and a mass of people who did not really understand what was going on blockaded the Red Keep, demanding as their king Prince Jaehaerys. They rolled past the raised barbican, broke through the main gates, found the 10-year-old studying with his maester, brought him to the Great Hall, and bowed to him. Ser Raymont then led the charge against Maegor's Holdfast, perhaps attempting to find and kill Prince Aegon, but found instead Efretar zo Dimimar, who led his men in a counter-charge against the rebels. The superior training of the royal soldiers turned the tide, forcing the rebels to retreat back into the Red Keep proper and fortify the throne room with whatever furniture they could find. To their great dismay, none other than Prince Aegon appeared behind the Iron Throne atop Dreamfyre, and with 1 ball of dragonfire opened the way for the palace guards waiting on the other side of the blockade. The leading figures of the riot were apprehended before things got even worse, and Aegon gave his brother Jaehaerys over to Efretar for "safekeeping".

Suspicious trails surround the events of that day, which would lead to an event known as "the Black Funeral", but first the funeral itself and its immediate consequences shall be detailed. Along with the various items of sacrifice assigned to his mother the late Queen, Sers Penrose, Hightower and their highborn followers were also burned by Dreamfyre, Caraxes and Silverwing 8 days later upon the great funeral pyre on Prince Aegon's orders, their families' pleas for mercy ignored by the still-uncrowned king. Even the High Septon spoke, declaring that Aegon must repent his sin of cruelty before receiving his coronation. Completely ignoring the demand, Aegon chose to instead hold his coronation at the Plaza of Dragons, crowning himself astride Dreamfyre, in full view of his army, with the crown of his parents - which was also the crown of Jaehaerys the Wise. His men roared their approval, and the king indulged them.

The storming of the Red Keep was a great mystery that had troubled historians for long. House Hightower had long lost most of their power in the capital since Ser Otto's resignation, and was therefore very unlikely to support a coup so distant from their core holdings, and House Penrose was too weak to control the storm even should it succeed. Some have pointed to the strangeness of complete outsiders to the Red Keep passing the defensive works and finding the young prince, while others noted how swiftly the entire event was handled, believing that King Aegon had orchestrated the entire event. Yet nothing directly proves Aegon had framed his younger brother to imprison him, and in any case, he had no need to do so. Correspondence with his elder brother, septon Maekar, even tasked him to search for traces of the mastermind. In spite of all the confusion, one thing remains clear: Prince Jaehaerys remained under house arrest for the rest of his brother's reign.

Grand Maester Gerardys was one of the few unfortunate victims of the entire affair. In response, the Citadel dispatched a messenger, Munkun the maester, as their choice of next Grand Maester, and to ask the new King to abandon his mother's institution of court eunuchs and hoping that he at least destroys the blasphemous blood magic tomes within the royal library. King Aegon accepted Munkun as his new Grand Maester, but denied the Citadel's other requests, much to the Conclave's disappointment. A further sign of the King's distrust was that he forbade Munkun to go near the Dragonpit, deflecting all of the maester's requests to study the wondrous monsters.

Aside from the customary ceremonies of renewed oaths of fealty and taking of hostages, the rest of the first year of King Aegon's reign would mostly be spent organizing a tighter, more formal structure for the troops that answer directly to the king. Like his mother, Aegon would place eunuchs as monitors for the commanders of these units. At the end of it all, the king could bring 3,000 men onto the battlefield even if none of his bannermen would answer his summons, who train with him, hunt with him, feast with him, drink with him, and Aegon was fairly sure they would die for him in his letters of commendation to their captains. The king would decree a blanket ban on large shooting apparats such as scorpions during this period, too, with lords not adhering to the ban guilty of treason and punishable by death.

The Wolves and the Manflayer

Shortly after stabilizing his own throne, news that Lord Cregan Stark was bedridden with a fever gave King Aegon new reasons to worry. Soon after the first ravens, riders came from 2 different houses in the North: one from House Bolton, claiming that the former regent of Lord Cregan, his uncle Bennard Stark, sought to usurp the Throne-approved Cregan in an insidious plot, by pulling strings from his dungeon cell; another from House Karstark claimed that the Boltons sought to usurp the position of Lord Paramount of the North by seizing Winterfell while Lord Cregan was sick in bed. The king was aware of the little coup by Lord Cregan to retake power from his uncle, and in a small council meeting behind closed doors, Grand Maester Munkun helpfully reminded his king that House Karstark was connected to Bennard Stark by marriage.

Faced with conflicting sources of information, both with their own stakes to blatantly lie to the Iron Throne, but also not willing to let governance of the North remain in paralysis, Aegon appointed his brother Septon Maekar as acting Warden of the North, dispatching him to resolve the crisis. This tyrannical decision was soon met with protest from the Starks as soon as the septon of Brightwater showed up at Winterfell with his royal appointment charter, but a dragon in one's courtyard does wonder to resolve one's doubts. Tensions were at first high with Maekar forced to act alone, demanding both the Boltons and Karstarks keep the king's peace, but soon the arrival of the Bloodsworn who sailed up the White Knife settled matters for good. Under pressure from the forces of the throne and Sunfyre (Maekar's authority as septon meant little in the North), it was decided that, for the alarm they caused the Iron Throne, both House Bolton and House Karstark will send a son to the Wall as the blood price, while the position of Warden shall be returned to Lord Cregan as soon as he recovers, and would be held by Maekar in the meantime.

Unfortunately, the Lord Stark succumbed to the fever later in the year, and his son Rickon, just shy of 11 years of age, became the new Lord of Winterfell. Worried about the potential crisis that may arise should the Boltons or Karstarks still end up acting as overlords of the North with this development, Maekar detached the title of Warden from his name and granted it to Lord Desmond Manderley of White Harbor, along with the authority of Regent of Winterfell. To bolster his position, the septon hand-picked knights from his own retinue who finally arrived in the North and former knights among the Bloodsworn, then blessed Lord Manderley as Grandmaster of the resurrected Order of the Green Hand. Believing that the southrons would enforce Lord Manderley's position as regent while generating enough opposition for him to step down once Rickon comes of age, Maekar returned to his duties at Brightwater.

As Regent of Winterfell, Lord Manderley granted the lordship of Redberry Hill in the wolfswood north of Winterfell to Bennard Stark, as a form of glorified exile. Bennard and his 3 sons would leave Winterfell the next day, never to return.

Conquest of Dorne and Marriage

After the North was pacific once more, Aegon prepared to finish what his namesake had started: the complete conquest of the lands south of the Wall, of which the only remaining target was the arid realm of Dorne, then ruled by the 24-year-old Princess Aliandra Martell. King Aegon opted to demand a peaceful surrender to the Iron Throne before taking up arms, but the laconic refusal from Sunspear made him decide he must marshal his army. Prior to the actual advance, the young king unleashed his uncle, letting the rogue prince run rogue in the sands with Caraxes. While Daemon did not take any cities, he did disrupt the defenses of the Dornish, and in the chaos the marcher lords had secured the Boneway prior to the arrival of the king's main host on the first day of the year 140AC. Aegon had no intention of repeating the mistakes of the First Dornish War.

Yet marching with 7,000 men down the Boneway was no easy task in the parched environment, even on its own, and worries that the Dornish would raid their luggage train remained constant throughout the entire campaign. It was with a great amount of luck that the tired forces of the Iron Throne captured Yronwood, busting through a gate that just happened to be open. Forces of the Reach had by then taken Starfall in the name of the Iron Throne, so all in all things went, though accidentally, smoothly. After collecting reinforcements arriving from the coast, the royal army began its march down the Scourge, where they planned to meet up with further reinforcements that would land at the mouth of the Greenblood and siege Sunspear.

3 moons would have passed since the king set off along the Boneway before he saw Sunspear, which was besieged by another royalist army that should be commanded by Lord Walys Mooton of Maidenpool. Unfortunately, scorching heat did not suit the Riverman, and he was bedridden in his tent due to sun-sickness when the king arrived, and his men were at a loss without a commander. If the Princess had hoped to defeat the armies of the Iron Throne with the heat of the sun, she would be sorely disappointed. King Aegon took command of the whole army, covering his siege units with Dreamfyre's massive wings, taking advantage of the sections of Sunspears' walls that blocked the scorpions' fire. With the heat-stalled siege work restored, Aegon began to strafe Sunspear's walls, employing multiple, simultaneous, defensive brisk attacks in concert with Caraxes, forcing the defenders to abandon the scorpions, which the king proceeded to ignite. During Aegon's last strafe over Sunspear, a blast of flame from Dreamfyre brought down the sun-and-spear banner over Sunspear, shattering Dornish morale and securing Targaryen victory that day. In honor of his accomplishment, soldiers began to refer to the king as "Sundowner". The title quickly spread, and the king made no attempt to suppress it, despite the on-and-off protests of House Martell.

With the walls of Sunspear breached, Princess Aliandra knelt to the king. But, learning from the failures of his ancestors, Aegon was unwilling to impose terms too harsh upon the Dornish, many of which were proposed by his own bannermen, to reduce resistance from Dornish smallfolk. Still, by right of conquest, he did strip the Martells of their title of "Prince/Princess", reducing future Lords and Ladies of Sunspear to Lords or Ladies Paramount of Dorne. The change was mostly honorary - the Martells kept their old ascension ceremonies for the reduced title, whose only practical effect was to constantly remind them of their subservience to the Iron Throne. Due to concerns such a display may destabilize the Martells' position, King Aegon decreed the lords and ladies of all houses that had been kings before the Targaryen conquest could adopt the House Yronwood title of "Bloodroyal", or some variation thereof, to signal their royal past. Furious at the decree, the Yronwoods sent their champion, Ser Amphred Yronwood, to Sunspear, demanding the king to take back this insult or duel the knight. Aegon chose to duel Ser Amphred, and dueled him barehanded, sending him flying out of the duel circle with a single punch to the stomach. The duel left quite an impression on the Dornish highborn present, who began to take advantage of the king's decree.

The peace deal was finally sealed before the 12th day of 5th moon, 140AC, with the marriage of King Aegon and Lady Paramount Aliandra Martell in a splendid ceremony that went down in the history books as "the Burning Wedding", referring to Queen's intricate and brilliant Martell orange wedding gown, attended by representatives from highborn houses in the crownlands and Dorne. Many other houses sent their gift-bearing envoys to the desert city. As a concession granted in the name of a wedding gift, control of the Stepstones was transferred from the Iron Throne to Sunspear. Another part of the concessions granted by the king to his bride was the title Warden of the South, traditionally held by members of House Tyrell. There were also the more mundane gifts of gold and jewels and flowers, which we will not go into. Despite the political nature of their marriage, it seemed the newlyweds did grow genuinely fond of each other, with their first son Prince Aegon born the year after.

Second Faith Militant Uprising

King Aegon's marriage to Aliandra Martell had a significant obstacle - the Faith, and the fact it does not recognize bigamy. The High Septon, who recognized the king's betrothal to Princess Aemma, demanded King Aegon annul his marriage, and declared if any children were born of this illegal union, they would be considered bastards by the Faith. In response, Aegon declared that according to Valyrian custom, a man could legally take 2 wives, and he would make his eldest son his heir, regardless of which wife gave birth to him. In the same letter, Aegon addressed the High Septon with the unprecedented title of "King of New Valyria and the Seven Kingdoms", while doing away with the traditional 'blessed by the Father' mantra usually following the royal title. Such a letter was a declaration of war, and both sides knew it.

The High Septon in the Starry Sept was understandably enraged at such a tyrannic dismissal of the Faith's authority over the great matter of marriage. Thus, the re-establishment of the Faith Militant was declared, nearly a century after Maegor the Cruel had slain so many of them. Much like the infamous and approved tyrant™ Targaryen, Aegon declared that such a blatant offense of the king's peace must be paid with fire and blood. Pay the Faith Militant did, for wherever the Swords and Stars raised their banners, dragons were soon to follow. In Duskendale, they were quickly put out by the Darklyns; at Stoney Sept, they perished by the dozen as Dreamfyre unleashed fire upon knights and smallfolk, the unquenchable flame consuming both without discrimination. Shocked by the Battle of Stoney Sept, the lords of Riverrun and Maidenpool banished the holy brothers from their lands, only to be hunted down on the road by the king's own soldiers. Stoney Sept was such a catastrophic defeat for the Faith that its effects rippled to the Reach: the Tyrells rescinded their pledge to support the holy orders, and Highgarden escaped mostly unscathed, losing only some hostages taken by the royal army.

Oldtown would be far less lucky than the city of the Gardeners. Seat of the Starry Sept, there was no way the city could have avoided dragonfire once the High Septon decided to challenge the king. To make matters worse for the defenders, Aegon had called upon the Guild of Alchemists for this particular war, and they brought the infamous wildfire to tear down Oldtown's old walls. Despite bringing an overwhelming force to bear, the king tried diplomacy with Lord Ormund Hightower, asking him to hand over the High Septon and captains of the Faith Militant, promising to blot out the lord's prior involvement with "the false priests that denied the protection of the Iron Throne". Lord Ormund went against the advice of his uncle Otto, however, and stood with the High Septon. In the subsequent Burning of Oldtown, wildfire charges that spun out of control burned down the Starry Sept, the entire structure collapsing into a great green ball of flame with most of the Faith's central leadership in it. Lord Ormund himself would in turn be consumed by wildfire when he led dozens of men into the ruins in an attempt to rescue the High Septon. Many sections of Oldtown would go up in flames with the Starry Sept, scarring the city even more than the ironborn did Lannisport, halving the population and reducing the city to a shadow of its former glory.

After the collapse of the Starry Sept and the death of the High Septon in it, 6 out of the 7 kingdoms attempted to conciliate and choose a new High Septon together. Aegon cared little for the tattered inner workings of the Faith, flying back ahead of his army to be present for the birth of his son. However, he did wait for his army to return to King's Landing before marrying his sister Aemma later in the year, with his captains taking the place of friends of the groom during the wedding and bedding ceremony.

Death

War in Dorne erupted again as an alliance led by House Uller of Hellholt declared that they would no longer recognize the authority of the Iron Throne. Within a day, half of Dorne had seceded from the Iron Throne's authority, and Aegon flew to war deep in the desert, ignoring the quarrels at court demanding the Tyrells be re-installed as Wardens of the South. House Dayne to the west and a cluster of Houses surrounding Sunspear remained loyal to the Iron Throne, but Lord Garin Uller and his brother Ser Anders put up a spirited resistance. On the royalist side, House Dayne was notably fighting out of marriage ties to the house of the dragon: King Dowager Daemon had wooed Lady Ashara Dayne, a beautiful maiden who was also young enough to be his granddaughter, into his embrace, and married her at a small ceremony in Starfall. Lord Dayne entered the war less for the Martells, even less for his new king, and mostly for his daughter.

With House Wyl displaced from their traditional seat at the mouth of the Boneway, the royal host marched quickly down the path, repelling the skirmishers House Yronwood sent their way. Aegon's second siege of the ancient castle did not go as well as the first, for there were inherent difficulties in transporting siege equipment down the Boneway. Nevertheless, as a piece of flight-capable siege equipment, Dreamfyre made quick work of the barbican and the castle gates once Aegon confirmed the Yronwoods had no scorpions installed, burning all defenses on the line of attack down. Leaving a token force to keep an eye on the Yronwoods, Aegon continued to press south. On the path from Yronwood to Helholt, in another one of the Dornish hit-and-run attacks the royal host had gotten so used to, a great tragedy struck.

According to the Kingsguard Ser Glendon Goode, who was the only witness of the event, while the king was fighting the Dornish who swarmed him, Dreamfyre suddenly struck, and with this one snap of its jaws killed 4 Dornish assailants, the Kingsguard Ser Harrold Darke, and mortally wounded King Aegon himself, taking the king's left arm and a chunk of his torso. Ser Goode raced to bring the dying king to the healers, but he breathed his last before reaching them. The kingsguard then relayed the news to Inspector-Pacificant Efretar, who was in charge of all armies in the field. While Efretar managed to rally the troops and successfully destroy the ambush force, he had no way to repair the damage done. Ordering the king's remains to be preserved with salts and fragrant herbs, Efretar led the army forward to avenge their liege with the blood of rebellious Dornishmen.

In spite of losing their king and his dragon, the royal army still managed to stay on the march before taking Helholt after a bloody siege that consumed both Uller brothers, and the sacking of Helholt that followed marked the end of House Uller - even the elderly, women, children, down to the last. Taking control of the castle, the royal host tore up the dungeon to find any clue regarding Queen Rhaenys' - wife of the Conqueror - whereabouts, but in the end they were disappointed. As one last act in memory of their beloved king, the royal host tore down nearly the entire castle, leaving only a curtain wall engraved with the Targaryen sigil, and the word "VICTORIOUS" underneath the shield.

Legacy

Children

By Queen Aliandra Nymeros Martell, Lady Paramount of Dorne

Prince Aegon "the Martell" Nymeros Targaryen (b.141)

Not yet a dragonrider by his father's death

Prince Qoren Nymeros Martell (b.143)

Not yet a dragonrider by his father's death

By Queen Aemma Targaryen

Princess Viserra Targaryen (b.142)

Not yet a dragonrider by her father's death

Social Developments

By fire and blood, Aegon had bound Dorne into the realm of the Iron Throne. Despite the resistance put up by some of the Dornish highborn and smallfolk alike, the Iron Throne would maintain some sort of control over some part of Dorne over the following centuries. However, the ties of blood would continue to be a source of unrest, as people with too much ambition for their own good would claim Aegon "the Martell" should be heir to the Iron Throne, even in face of those who claim a "Dornish" should have no place in King's Landing.

With the destruction of the Starry Sept and the organization's central leadership, the prestige of the Faith fell considerably, and the position of High Septon would remain vacant for years as regional loyalties tore the members of the Faith apart, unable to decide who ought to be the next High Septon. The reunification of the Faith was a complex problem, and the process of completely solving it would take generations.

The ironborn were a problem - a threat, even. But the iron ore on the Iron Islands were a most useful resource, so as early as during Aegon II's reign, Northmen and Westermen set up smith villages on the islands to process the ore and export iron back to their homelands. For the moment, ties to their homeland had stopped the new residents from becoming new ironborn. Only time could tell whether this peaceful status would be permanent.

Military units that answered directly to the Iron Throne were further developed in Aegon's reign. The young king disbanded many of his mother's parade units, focusing his resources on a smaller, more battle-hardened army. Though soldiers in general felt an affinity to the soldier-king, the Three Thousand were Aegon's true iron warriors, following him through whatever war he wanted to fight. They were also paid triple compared to conventional Essosi prices for mercenaries, easily able to become a lord of his own small plot of land through service, not to mention Aegon generously distributed loot gained in his wars to them.

After killing Aegon, Dreamfyre also turned wild, haunting the Red Mountains like Meleys.

Trivia

King Aegon was considerably smaller than his dragon, the size difference even more pronounced than his mother upon Syrax. Dreamfyre was one of the second-generation Targaryen dragons, which meant she was larger than most dragons belonging to the younger generations. As a result, the king often found himself an obvious target on the battlefield. To increase his chances of survival, he re-designed the traditional dragon saddle, replacing chains with a system of boiled leather straps which could be fastened in seconds, and added downward-facing protective flaps to deflect arrows. This refined saddle was gradually accepted by the rest of Targaryen family due to its superior defense properties.

Part of King Aegon's legitimacy stems from the fact he ordered the entire Iron Throne polished at the start of his reign, which made it blatantly clear he was never cut even once on the throne in the following years.

The peace talks with Dorne were so protracted that by the time King Aegon and Lady Aliandra planned to marry, many other knights and ladies from the crownlands and Dorne had already made marriage pacts of their own. The Burning Wedding became a mass wedding that did much to tie Dorne to the Seven Kingdoms, and to the crownlands in particular.

House Yronwood attempted to assassinate Aegon when he went hunting in their lands as part of his marriage celebrations. The arrow missed, the king drove the javelin meant for his head into a boar, and the hunting trap caught a mountain hare.

While the official statement was House Uller went extinct in the Sacking of Helholt, "the last Uller" would remain a permanent theme both in future Dornish rebellions and in Dornish songs.

AN: Hmmm. Not much to say here, since I prefer not to comment on comments that might ignite my own temper.

Aegon's unfortunate death by his own dragon was one of the first things I nailed down about his character before I posted the chapter about his mother, just in case anybody was wondering, because I like HotD Viserys' comment on control over dragons. Aegon II is in some ways the Young Dragon of the YO-timeline, but not entirely. He does have one more similarity with Daeron I: a septon brother who would play a further role in the coming chapters.

Since starting with Aegon, Targaryen kings of the YO-timeline would all be original characters, I would CK2-ize them to enhance understanding for the casual reader who happens to play the game. The 5 basic values are provided in the form of councilor ratings (i.e., a rating you could check in-game for the corresponding value range). Personal combat skill levels are given in subjective descriptions.

Aegon II "Sundowner"

Diplomacy: Poor

Martial: Masterful

Stewardship: Competent

Intrigue: Decent

Learning: Competent

Personal Combat Skill: Champion of the Age

Education: Skilled Tactician

Lifestyle: Duelist

Other traits: Strong; Self-Crowned; Brawny; Groomed; Paranoid; Brave; Proud

-file-end-

If there are any suggestions for a name for the Great Sept in King's Landing which is not yet complete, I'm happy to hear about it. As to why I am asking for another name, suffice to say after this little fiasco with Aegon II, the Faith was not willing to accept a Great Sept named after Valyria's defining geographical feature.