When news came of Daeron's death in Dorne under the banner of truce, I was stuck inside a chamber near the Starry Sept, working on plagiarizing the Proverbs of Solomon, which I wished to present to the Most Devout as inspiration from the Crone. It was sometimes frustrating, trying to remember verses from the Scriptures but changing wisdom with the Crone and "G-d" or "the Lord" with the name of one of the Seven was easy enough. The Seven knows it was easier work that the time when Daeron made me ghostwrite his "Conquest of Dorne."

I had been pulled away from my first life at the ripe old age of four and twenty, by the very Crone herself, who was rather upset by the fact that the vast majority of her Faithful had no idea what the Seven-Pointed Star even preached. Her plan was to use me to reform the Faith, preferably by acquiring the reins of its power, not by nailing ninety-five theses on the door of the Starry Sept.

The initial plan was to be sent to Oldtown, to study the holy scriptures of the Faith and take the vows of a septon, and then work my way to the top of the career ladder. It was quite a quite brilliant plan that I made at the age of seven years – Daeron ruling with the temporal iron fist over the people of the Seven Kingdoms, and me, with a crystal crown upon my head and a soft silk glove over the souls of the Faithful, bestowing my charity on the orphan, the widow and the infirm and seeing to septons learning to read and preach the holy writ, as the Crone bade me do.

It did not work out as planned, for dear father had a dwarvely grudge towards the Hightower, one too great to allow me to set foot in Oldtown. Yet by the time of Daeron's death, there I was. It was the same grudge towards the Hightowers that the sons of Rhaenyra had that led me there. My uncle Hand had sent me there post-haste, for His High Holiness had died and the Iron Throne wished to ensure that the next Sheperd of the Faithful was not of their accursed line. So there I went with great haste, to exercise the crown's right of exclusion and ruin the career path of the Most Devout Abelar, who had the misfortune of being of the same blood as Queen Alicent. (i)

The news of my brother's death were sadly not surprising, for he had not heeded my warnings on the treacherous nature of the Dornish and his chivalrous nature prevented him from showing up in force at a gathering of truce. I had still held hope that Daeron would live, that my existence would butterfly away his fate. Yet my hopes all had come crashing down and now my fate was a crown made of gold.

I had not married Daena, for reasons including my aversion to incest and the conflict of my mental and physical age strong enough to provoke me existential angst. My insertion into Baelor did not come with existential horror, for the Crone made me aware of the reason for my second life and I was obviously aware of the divine means of my transmogrification. Having convinced my uncle of the benefits of holding the Iron Throne and the Crystal Crown in the hands of the Targaryens, I was yet unwed and presumed to take the holy orders soon enough.

Now that I was king, I was in no hurry to marry, even if I had no heir. Beyond the very horror at the idea of incest, Daena's nature was so different from mine, that our marriage would have fared worse than that of Robert and Cersei. Rhaena's piousness far outweighed my own, and while a celibate marriage between the two of us would have worked well enough, my heart would not deny her the desire of becoming a septa. I was already halfway set in my plans to name Daeron, the son of my worthless cousin, as my heir and Prince of Dragonstone once he reached the age of six and ten and won his spurs.

I hurried to the Citadel to send word to King's Landing, to stay my uncle's hand against the Dornish hostages, until I found a way to rescue the Dragonknight from the hands of the Dornish. Oh, how I lamented the fact that the wrong cousin was in the hands of my enemies, for Aegon was a cousin who I well afforded to lose. I was tempted to pull a move from the original Baelor and recover Aemon from the Wyls, and while I was convinced that a quick S.O.S. to the Crone would have saved me from the bites of Wyl's vipers, I had no intention to make peace with the Dornish, and so that way was shut to me. Perhaps I could find twenty good men and attempt to free my cousin, by I doubted that even the Crone herself could afford so much plot armor.

Ravens went to the lords of the Dornish Marches, bidding them to keep their men armed and ready. My coronation in King's Landing could wait, and soon, with five hundred men that Lord Hightower graciously provided I was on the Roseroad, riding towards Highgarden, and then Blackhaven.

I was king now, and the Blessed Baelor would be quite a different king than Baelor the Befuddled. I had no need and reason to imprison my sisters in a Maidenvault, for I was determined to wed Daena to Lord Stark's new heir, if yet unwed. Rhaena was to join the Faith, and Eleana's marriage was to wait quite a few more years, though I planned to keep Oakenfist as far away from her as possible. The bastard was five and thirty year her elder, and I was sorely tempted to shorten him of his head the moment his eyes turned towards her.

While I was the Crone's very champion and at least an outwardly pious man, I had no intentions of following the other Baelor's folly. The brothels of King's Landing were the Red Keep' sewers, for if I took away the whores from the city, Aegon would fill the palace with them.(ii)

The king's dole towards the poor of Fleabottom was a welcome idea, as long as it did not empty the treasury, though I judged that the "panem" needed the addition of a bit of "circenses." The idea of using doves instead of ravens was, to me, a Terran, not so absurd, but it was hardly worth the bother and the hassle.

I was king, and I would be the greatest king that the Seven Kingdoms had, for the shepherd of the flock should seek the good of their flock, and every ruler the good of the people subject to him. (iii)

So begins the reign of the Blessed Baelor.

A.N. : This is an attempt at a Baelor self-insert, while preserving the character of Baelor as godly and pious man, something akin to Saint Louis of France, but at the same time very different. The plot instrument of the Crone – the avatar of wisdom – serves as a guiding path for the SI, who is a man who would rather take his ideas of ruling from Aquinas rather than Machiavelli and wants to make the word a better place – by changing mentalities rather than technology. That is where the Faith comes in the plot – Me-Baelor want to raise literacy under the guise of spreading the word of the Seven-Pointed Star and insert in Westeros an ideology of ruling that is one step above "Might makes right", mainly Thomistic ethics and the idea of the common good. So expect a whole lot more of Aquinas quotes – that is if I find the time, the muse and the motivation to continue this beyond the initial concept.

All feedback welcome – as long as it does not try to convince me to just add some incest. Realpolitik criticism is welcomed too, but just a little, as a treat.

(i))The right of exclusion is taken from the real life right that monarchs of Europe had of preventing the elections of a cardinal they deemed unseemly by sending a crown cardinal to exercise their veto. In Westeros, my worldbuilding is that the right of exclusion was won many centuries ago by the kings in the South, to prevent the Faith from being monopolized by the Hightowers or the Reach. After the Conquest, that right rests solely upon the Iron Throne, who sends a representative to the Conclave to make their will known.

(ii)Adapted from a quote by Ptolemy of Lucca: Remove the sewer, and you will fill the palace with a stench.' Similarly, concerning the bilge, he says: 'Take away whores from the world, and you will fill it with sodomy.' – Ptolemy of Lucca and Thomas Aquinas, On the Government of Rulers (1997)

(iii) Another adaptation of a quote from Thomas Aquinas.