Somnus
Nothing To See Here
For many centuries, the continent of Westeros had been divided under the rule of any number of petty Kings, each vying for individual power and influence over a turbulent and ever changing political climate, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros continually at each other’s throats, fighting war after war over land, wealth, political clout, or merely greed and jealousy over their neighbor. A time of chaos and anarchy where the strong subjected the weak, and he with the most swords always won the day. That was until the descent of the dragons.
Exiled long ago from the Freehold of Valyria, the Targaryens hid in their island keep of Dragonstone, forgotten by the world, though nurturing the same fire of conquest that burnt in the dragonriders of old, awaiting their chance to forge their own path in the history books, and once again emerge as prominent figures in the annals of the Known World.
At the birth of summer on the year now known to history as 1BC (Before Conquest), for it occurred but a year prior to the conclusion of wars of unification, the Targaryen King rode his dragon over the waters of the Narrow Sea, and reigned down fire upon the unsuspecting heads of the people of Westeros, forever changing the course of history, and forging seven independent kingdoms into one.
THE STORMLANDS
It was at the mouth of the Blackwater Rush upon which the Targaryen King first made his landing, and it was thus the rulers of that land, the House of Durrandon, who were the first to feel the dragon’s wrath. Unreceptive to the idea of peaceful submission, the Storm King rode forth at the head of a mighty host, near twenty thousand soldiers strong, to end prematurely the Targaryen’s dream of conquest. It was not, however upon the shores of the Blackwater Rush that the armies of storm clashed with that of fire, nor in fact did they clash at all, for whilst the Durrandon King rode north, the Dragon King flew south, landing his scaley beast atop the walls of the ancient fortress of Storm’s End itself. With no armies to oppose him, and only women and green boys left to defend the castle, it was Durrandon’s wife who met with the Targaryen conqueror, and it was Durrandon’s wife, in fear for the lives of her children, that lay down the arms of the Stormlands and surrendered the ancient crown of the Storm Kings.
With his wife and sons captives in his own keep, and no weapon that could hope to withstand the might of a dragon, King Durrandon himself returned to bend the knee, kneeling a King, yet rising as Lord Paramount of the Stormlands and Warden of the East.
THE REACH
The strongest of the Seven Kingdoms, wealthy both in land and fertility, the Kingdom of the Reach was the next to fall, though it’s decline was perhaps less graceful than that of the Durrandons. With the Storm King’s army at his back, the Dragon King marched right to the walls of Highgarden, though the keep’s surrender under the influence of the Gardener King’s lowly stewards, the Tyrells, did not prove to be the grand victory for which he had hoped. Gardener himself was a pious man by nature, and upon hearing of the dragon’s descent, he had sought out the council of the High Septon in Oldtown, carrying his entire family with him on a train of wagons in order to seek spiritual guidance on how to proceed, though as it would soon be discovered, even the will of the Gods cannot stand up to the fires of a dragon.
Leaving his armies behind him at Highgarden, the Dragon King flew on his lonesome to the Hightower itself, greeted with opposition by not only the Gardener King and the Lord of Oldtown, but also the High Septon himself, the representative of the Gods on earth, who cursed the House of Targaryen, and denounced them as heathens and traitors. His words were as strong as iron, though unfortunately, iron can be melted, and dragonflame rained from above, cutting down the Hightower and all of Oldtown, engulfing the people in flames, and ending the line of House Gardener.
The Targaryen’s return to Highgarden was a somber one, with a trail of ashes behind him, though it was there that he named his new Lord Paramount of the Mander and Warden of the South, the lowly stewards of House Tyrell, the only family in this god forsaken Kingdom to show an ounce of respect.
THE RIVERLANDS
It was the Dragon King’s brother who made his descent upon the downtrodden waters of the River Trident, riding his dragon right up to the walls of the imposing fortress of Harrenhal, and demanding the Hoare King’s submission, though he received naught in reply but ghostly echoes. For much like the Gardeners before them, the Hoares had vacated their keep, though unlike the Gardeners, it was an act of hubris, rather than one of defiance. With the Targaryen’s arrival to the continent came a certain amount of chaos, and it is upon chaos that the people of the Iron Islands best thrive, so whilst other Kingdoms found themselves hiding in their keeps and readying for prolonged siege, the Iron King turned his armies in a different direction.
This however, did leave the Riverlands without leader, and the King’s brother was able to hold court at Harrenhal for the first time, accepting the fealty of the Riverlords who had long chafed under the oppressive rule of the Ironborn, and now swore freely their allegiance to the Red Dragon. The Targaryen Prince promised them that one of their own would be elevated to rule these lands, though which of them was a decision best left to his brother, so he took once more to dragonback and vowed to finish his mission here.
THE IRON ISLANDS
The Iron King of House Hoare had dreams of conquest of his own, though they were not quite so lofty as those of the Targaryens, so as the Dragon King lay flames upon Oldtown in the Reach, the Ironborn descended upon the shores of the Westerlands, to plunder the riches of Casterly Rock. The Golden King had been caught unawares, the cowardly lions gathering their forces inside of the Rock itself, thinking it’s walls too thick to be penetrated by dragonflame. Perhaps they were right, though that truth was never to be determined, for whilst the Lannisters looked forward to see the threat of the dragon, they failed to account for the iron dagger that was about to be plunged into their back. Whilst the Dragon King left his mark upon the Reach, and his brother held court with the Riverlords, the Ironborn torched Lannisport, carrying off all the wealth they could hold, and plundering the shore that had been left defenceless by the hiding lions. Perhaps the Trident had been surrendered, but King Hoare sought a different prize entirely, one of much more value to him, and his men followed into what would prove to be a one sided campaign of blood and violence. Unfortunately it was not to last.
Whilst two Targaryens were thus far accounted for, it is a widely known truth that the dragon has three heads, and it was thus that the Ironborn were met with a fate they did not quite expect. It was the Dragon King’s sister whose dragon let down it’s flames upon the Ironfleet, burning the sailors and sinking their riches. It was also the Dragon King’s sister who let down a similar blaze upon the Iron Islands themselves, needing not a single ship, nor a single soldier to cow the once mighty people.
They say that an Ironborn man will fight to the very last breath to be accepted into the drowned god’s watery halls, however upon seeing the folly of his plans, and the sheer devastation that was brought down upon his home and his people, the Hoare King began to reconsider this principle. In exchange for being allowed to keep his life, and being named Lord Reaper of Orkmont and Lord Paramount of the Iron Islands, House Hoare bent the knee and surrendered any claims they might have to the mainlands of Westeros.
THE WESTERLANDS
Ravaged by war with the Ironborn, and witnessing the carnage of the Ironfleet from the walls of Casterly Rock, House Lannister was not eager to try their luck against a dragon, so when the time came for the Dragon King’s sister to descend upon Casterly Rock, the Lannister King was quick to surrender his kingly crown, offering an oath of fealty to the House of Targaryen that allowed him to be confirmed in his new title of Warden of the West.
THE NORTH
Whether it be a great tragedy that the North would witness the violent ends of all their fellow Kingdoms before their own demise seemed so iminent, or a blessing that they had been given the time to muster their forces and gather their strength for one final push is a question that was not easily answered at the time, though the Winter King was quite assured of the latter. House Stark had been long term allies of the Arryns of the Vale, after an alliance through marriage, so after a brief correspondence, and an agreement that neither Kingdom would allow themself to be keeled over, House Stark marched forth, mustering an army larger than any the North had seen before, they descended upon the neck to put an end to the Dragon King. All it would take was one lucky shot. They met a similarly significant force from the Vale just east of the Twins, and together the Wolf and the Falcon intended to cross the Trident and destroy the Targaryen’s meagre holdings along the Blackwater Rush. They never made it across the river.
The Battle of the Burning Ford was the last, and the largest battle in the Wars of Unification, and the only one in which all three of the Targaryen dragons were employed. Flying from the Reach, the Riverlands and the West, all three heads of the dragon descended upon the joint Northern and Valeman army, with their own force of subjected Stormlords, Reachman and Riverfolk. The battle was swift and decisive, and just as many people drowned as were burnt, for the soldiers attempted to extinguish the dragonflame by dousing themselves in the Trident, though all that they managed to achieve was their own demise through sinking to the bottom of the river in their heavy armour. In the end, Stark bent the knee, and the war was almost over.
THE VALE
House Arryn was soon to follow the lead of the Starks in surrendering their Kingship following the events of the Bloody Ford, giving up their crown and returning to the Vale in disgrace, their armies destroyed, and their moral shattered.
DORNE
It was during the Dragon King’s foray into the Reach that the first subjugation of Dorne was attempted, though such an endeavour proved to be a short lived fantasy, the unruly sands of Dorne, proving hostile to foreign invaders. Even dragon fire was not a strong enough tool to see the Martells bowed, bent nor broken and though the Targaryen King vowed that he would one day return to see all Seven Kingdoms united under his rule, the pressing calls from the North and the Vale made his reconsider such immediate conquest, a decision that has thus far left the conquest unfinished.
EPILOGUE
With all but one of the Seven Kingdoms not safely subjugated, the Dragon King could now rest easy knowing that there was no one who could stand up to his rule, though that did not mean that he could sit the throne so easily, with unruly former monarchs and ambitious subjects making the administration of such a vast land a difficult task to achieve. Perhaps the most significant rift between the monarch and his people is the alienation of the faith, as achieved through the burning of Oldtown, and whilst the King had pledged to adopt the Faith of the Seven and become a devout man, only recently has the new High Septon agreed to crown him definitively as the rightful King.
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Hey guys! So this is a Game of Thrones/A Song of Ice and Fire RP set roughly five years after the Targaryen conquest, however all canon characters of the period have been replaced with our OCs to give more freedom to the setting. This means that players get to guide Westeros through its early history, and forge a new path, be it trying to attain the Iron Throne for themselves, or making their own way and avenging their fallen kin and Kingdoms that fell at the hands of the Targaryens. Hope to see a few people interested!
INTERESTING CHARACTERS
House Targaryen
The King -
Somnus
The King’s Brother -
Braddington
The King’s Sister -
ailurophile
House Stark
High Moon
House Arryn
House Hoare
Mion
House Tyrell
Yarrow
House Durrandon
RayPurchase
House Lannister
The Riverlords
