“Clever bird, clever man, clever clever fool,” said Patchface, jangling. “Oh, clever clever clever fool.” He began to sing. “The shadows come to dance, my lord, dance my lord, dance my lord,” he sang, hopping from one foot to the other and back again. “The shadows come to stay, my lord, stay my lord, stay my lord. ” He jerked his head with each word, the bells in his antlers sending up a clangor. The white raven screamed and went flapping away to perch on the iron railing of the rookery stairs. Shireen seemed to grow smaller. “He sings that all the time. I told him to stop but he won’t. It makes me scared. Make him stop.”
“Are you the three-eyed crow?” Bran heard himself say. A three-eyed crow should have three eyes. He has only one, and that one red. Bran could feel the eye staring at him, shining like a pool of blood in the torchlight. Where his other eye should have been, a thin white root grew from an empty socket, down his cheek, and into his neck.
“A … crow?” The pale lord’s voice was dry. His lips moved slowly, as if they had forgotten how to form words. “Once, aye. Black of garb and black of blood.”
♔ aelinor targaryen
— unsung, she rises“As for Aerys, His Grace cares more for old scrolls and dusty prophecies than for lords and laws. He will not even bestir himself to sire an heir. Queen Aelinor prays daily at the Great Sept, beseeching the Mother Above to bless her with a child, yet she remains a maid. Aerys keeps to his own apartments, and it is said that he would sooner take a book to bed than any woman.”
The marble of the sept muffles the city long enough for Aelinor to compose herself. It’s an acceptable sight for a childless queen to fall back upon the Faith for guidance, but it also serves to keep her thoughts from unraveling. Whether or not her womb will quicken doesn’t seem to matter now, and her last hope in Aerys shrivels as the years turn. There will always be another to vie for the throne, but what it needs most is a caretaker, and that heavy task is hers; Aerys has their father’s intelligence but none of his will.
Aelinor reminds herself that she is her mother’s daughter just as much as she is of Valyria, and though she scarcely looks the Martell part like Baelor had, near as white-gold as Maekar but for a Dornish ink drop of hair, the strength remains from both sides of her lineage. I am of the Exile’s line, the everlasting blood of Dragonstone, and of Nymeria’s blood before him. I do not bend, I do not break.
Uncle Brynden is waiting for her in the Hall of Lamps when she finishes her prayers, and the Hand of the King slinks into step with shadowy grace, hands clasped at his back as he does when he carries important word from his spies and awaits her next command. For all their rumours, the smallfolk have it wrong that famed Bloodraven rules the realm; there is work to do, far more than a single person’s worth of it. And a queen bows to no one.
Pre aSoIaF: The Blackfyre Rebellion
King Aegon IV Targaryen had legitimised all of his bastards on his deathbed. His noble bastards were called the Great Bastards, the most notable of whom was Daemon Blackfyre, a great warrior and wielder of the Targaryen sword of kings, Blackfyre. After King Daeron II Targaryen assumed the throne in 184 AL, his court adopted a ‘Dornish’ flavour, due to the influence of his wife, Myriah Martell. Some at court took exception to the change. In addition, popular rumors held that King Aegon IV’s sister-wife Naerys had shared her affections with their other brother, Aemon the Dragonknight, leading to the possibility that Daeron II was not the legitimate son of Aegon IV.
The Blackfyre Rebellion was one of the greatest civil wars in the history of the Seven Kingdoms. It was fought in 195-196 AL between forces loyal to King Daeron II Targaryen, known as the Red Dragon, and those following of Daemon I Blackfyre, the Black Dragon.
There were five notable attempts by House Blackfyre to seize the Iron Throne of Westeros. These rebellions culminated in the extinguishing of the male Blackfyre line.
He builds an army and takes it north with Shaggydog, the cooper of blood still fresh on his tongue and revenge burning in wild eyes. He is winter in all its unmerciful rage and he is coming for you.
#I WANT RICKON TO BE CRUEL #AND RUTHELESS #AND MILDLY INSANE #I WANT HIM TO REMEMBER THE LITTLE DETAILS LIKE ROBB’S CHAIR AND CAKES WITH HONEY #AND HIS MOTHER’S HAIR #I WANT HIM TO BE LONELY EVEN IF HIS FAMILY IS REUNITED #I DONT WANT HIM TO CARE ABOUT ‘HONOR’ #BECAUSE WHERE WAS THE HONOR IN WHAT HIS LIFE BECAME #I DONT WANT HIM TO BE THE HERO #I WANT HIM TO BE THE VILLAIN IN SOMEONE’S STORY #THE NIGHTMARE THAT SPARKS A THOUSAND MYTHS (x)
The Targaryen Court during the final years of the reign of Aegon V
∟PART 2 - The Targaryens and their HouseholdKing Aegon V → Donald Sutherland
Ser Duncan the Tall → Richard Harris
Duncan the Small, Prince of Dragonflies → Alexander Skarsgard
Jenny of Oldstones → Astrid Berges-Frisbey
Jaehaerys II → Ben Foster
Jaehaerys’s wife, mother to Aerys and Rhaella → Alicia Vikander
Aegon’s third son → Bradley James
Rhaelle Baratheon nee Targaryen → Claire Danes
Aerys Targaryen → Gaspard Ulliel
Maester Pycelle → Allen Leech
The High Septon → Peter O’Toole
Septa Myrielle (Rhaella’s Septa) → Frances McDormand
Scenes I wish they hadn’t left out - Lord Hoster and Catelyn’s meeting in season 1
Catelyn knelt and took her father’s hand in hers. It was a big hand, but fleshless now, the bones moving loosely under the skin, all the strength gone from it. “You should have told me,” she said. “A rider, a raven…”
