Game of Thrones - Full Story Before the Winds of Winter - Lore DOCUMENTARY | Wizards and Warriors

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“Madness and greatness are two sides of the same coin. Every time a new Targaryen is born,

the gods toss the coin in the air and the world holds its breath to see how it will land.”

Barristan Selmy. A Storm of Swords, Chapter 71

II Targaryen inherited the throne. His reign began with some promise, as many of the courtiers of his

father were replaced by younger men of ambition, among them his childhood friend Tywin Lannister as

Hand of the King. Aerys was proudly announcing that he would become the greatest ruler in the

history of the kingdom, but even at this early period, his grip on sanity was tenuous. Invasion

of Braavos following a dispute with the Iron Bank and plans to build a new wall hundreds of miles

beyond the existing Wall in order to expand the Kingdom did not have any basis in reality and were

soon abandoned. Despite this, Westeros prospered and it was often said that it was due to Tywin,

sparking the jealousy of Aerys. Their relationship was also damaged, when the Aerys bemoaned that the

King’s right of the first night had been abolished during Tywin’s marriage, and the latter would

never forget that. Soon the king started ignoring the impassioned pleas of his Hand, acting opposite

to Tywin’s advice and then blaming the Hand for the emerging problems. In 272 AC Aerys

insulted Tywin’s wife Joanna, and then refused Hand’s resignation, further embarrassing him.

King’s madness abated somewhat with the birth of his son Jaehaerys in 274 AC, but the Prince

passed away that same year, making the King even more insane - he executed the wet nurse, and then

his mistress and her family, blaming the death on them. Another son - Viserys was born in 276 AC and

Tywin proposed the marriage of his daughter Cersei to the young Prince, but the king Aerys rejected

the offer stating Tywin to be a mere servant and that a servant’s daughter would not be a fitting

wife to his son. Tywin would remember this. In 277 AC Lord Denys Darklyn of Duskendale

petitioned the king for more autonomy from the crown, but this was refused and,

so Darklyn withheld his taxes and invited the King to discuss the matter personally.

Tywin advised the king to avoid the meeting, but Aerys wanted to show his independence and went

to the meeting. In what would become known as the Defiance at Duskendale, the King’s retinue

was slaughtered and Aerys taken prisoner. Tywin amassed a large force and besieged Duskendale

for six months, but it was the brilliant Ser Barristan Selmy who rescued the king. Darklyn

surrendered immediately, but the king ordered the execution of every member of House Darklyn,

which earned Aerys his moniker the Mad King. With his deepening paranoia and tendency for violence

Aerys now made use of wildfire to execute his prisoners. He appointed the eunuch Varys as his

Master of Whispers to avoid assassination which he always believed was looming. Tywin had kept the

Kingdom afloat during this period, however, when his son Jaime was appointed to the Kingsguard,

which meant that he can’t inherit the title anymore, Tywin finally resigned.

The king also worried that his heir Rhaegar planned to usurp him, which led the court to

split between pro-Aerys and pro-Rhaegar factions, leaving the incompetent new Hand Owen Merryweather

with little room to maneuver. Then in 281 AC came the Tourney at Harrenhal, an event that

changed the fate of Westeros for generations. Aerys hoped to win back the love of the people

however his frail mental state and horrific appearance had the opposite effect, whereas his

son Rhaegar looked every inch the perfect knight poised to be a great king his father never was.

The Tournament contained the greatest knights of all of the Seven Kingdoms, yet it was Rhaegar who

emerged victorious defeating every opponent he faced. All seemed well, yet the happiness of the

day soon evaporated in the face of the prince’s actions. Riding past his wife Elia Martell,

Rhaegar crowned Lyanna Stark his Queen of Love and Beauty to the dismay of everybody.

What happened during the next year seemed to be at odds with the personality of the Prince,

as Rhaegar kidnapped Lyanna and disappeared with her. In response, her eldest brother Brandon with

a retinue of close friends which included Elbert Arryn rode to King’s Landing and outside of the

royal Red Keep yelled aloud for Rhaegar to “come out and die.” Rhaegar was not there however and

Aerys had the young Lord imprisoned on charges of conspiring to murder a member of the royal family.

The King ordered the fathers of each of the men in Brandon’s retinue to present themselves and

answer for their son’s actions, but when they did not arrive in time all were executed apart from

Brandon. His father Rickard Stark arrived and asked for a trial by combat, to which the Mad

King responded that his champion would be fire. Lord Rickard was burned alive with wildfire,

while his son who was strapped to a torture device that strangled him as he tried in vain to save

his father also suffered the same fate. Going even further word was sent to Elbert’s uncle Jon Arryn,

who was one of the strongest lords of the realm, that he was to send Aerys the heads of Lyanna’s

brother Eddard and her betrothed Robert Baratheon who were wards at his domain at

this point. Refusing to give up the two young men, Jon Arryn raised his banners in revolt beginning

what was to be known as Robert’s Rebellion or the War of the Usurper to the Targaryens.

Ned Stark, who was now the lord of the North, immediately left the Eyrie to head to Winterfell

and raise the banners, while Jon Arryn did likewise in the Vale of Arryn. However,

the port of Gulltown remained loyal to the Targaryens, so Ned had to head North by way

of the Mountains of Moon. Likewise, this forced Jon Arryn to besiege Gulltown. He was joined by

his ward Robert Baratheon who had grown into a warrior of immense size and ferocity wielding his

mighty warhammer and inspiring all those around him. The siege quickly turned into an assault,

with Robert Baratheon the first man over the wall ultimately slaying Lord Marq Grafton of Gulltown

in single combat. This victory consolidated Jon Arryn’s control over the Vale, creating a base of

operations from which the rest of the war could be fought. The feats of Robert Baratheon had already

begun to gain him much renown and as he sailed to Storm’s End to raise his own forces, many had

already begun to view him as a King in waiting. Arriving in the Stormlands Robert called upon

the Stormlords to join the rebellion, and while the majority of the Lords flocked to his banner,

some resisted. Led by the Hand of King Owen Merryweather, the Lords Cafferen,

Fell and Grandison were to meet at Summerhall - a ruined hold in the Dornish Marches,

before marching upon Storm’s End. Robert however received word of this assembly and force-marched

his men to meet them. The haste at which they moved gave the rebel forces the upper hand,

as they were able to face the loyalists one at a time as they arrived, winning all three battles,

with Robert killing Lord Fell in single combat. Lord Fell’s son, alongside the

Lords Cafferen and Grandison were all captured, eventually joining the rebel cause. This battle

consolidated Robert’s position in the Stormlands and allowed the young warrior to march against

the Reach with no enemy forces to his rear. Leaving his younger brother Stannis to guard

Storm’s End, Robert moved against the Reach, where the Lord Mace Tyrell could amass the largest army

in all of the Seven Kingdoms. Attempting to secure his Western flank, Robert led his forces against

the loyalist holding of Ashford, but would be caught unaware by the vanguard of the Tyrell

forces, commanded by the formidable Lord Randyll Tarly. Outmaneuvering Robert, Lord Randyll and his

forces swept through the rebel lines sending the Baratheon men into a rout. In the melee,

Lord Cafferen was slain by Randyll in single combat and Robert was forced to withdraw before

the main force under Mace Tyrell could arrive. While this was ultimately a Tarly victory,

Mace Tyrell would take all the plaudits despite his own glaring deficiencies as a commander.

Tyrion Lannister would later deem this battle to be an inconclusive one, due to Robert’s

quick withdrawal. However, faced with the sheer numbers which the Tyrell’s could bring to bear,

Robert was forced to move North to join up with his allies. This facilitated the Tyrell

invasion of the Stormlands allowing them to lay siege to Storm’s End commanded by the unyielding

Stannis Baratheon who held the city for close to a year under immensely desperate circumstances.

In the meantime, seeing how poorly his Hand had performed in comparison to the contingent from

the Reach, King Aerys stripped Owen Merryweather of all his lands and titles before exiling him

and naming Jon Connington a friend of Rhaegar as Hand of the King. Meanwhile, Eddard Stark had also

successfully reached Winterfell and raised the Northern Banners, before marching South past the

Neck and joining with Jon Arryn. Together the two men successfully negotiated with Lord Hoster Tully

of the Riverlands for his support in the war. With most of the great nobles of Westeros

choosing sides, the stage was now set for the decisive battles of the rebellion.

In the aftermath of the battle of Ashford fought in 282 AC, the new hand of the king Aerys and a

competent commander Jon Connington amassed an immense host and gave chase to the weary

soldiers of Robert Baratheon’s now depleted army. The situation turned desperate as the

forced march progressed, with Robert being injured and left without an army,

eventually taking refuge in the Stoney Sept. Seeing an opportunity for glory and a chance

to end the Rebellion in one fell swoop, Connington occupied the town and ordered all of his soldiers

to begin searching for the renegade even within the sewers of the settlement. Jon attempted to

entice the people of the town with offers of pardons and reward if they would give up

the Lord of Storm’s End and when this failed placed disobedient civilians in

crows cages to make an example of them. This failed miserably as various townsfolk kept

Robert hidden as he recuperated from his wounds. The Royalist had failed in their task by the time

the forces of Eddard Stark and Hoster Tully reached the Stoney Sept. Left with no other

alternative Jon Connington amassed his forces. The Septons of the town rang bronze and silver bells

to warn the townsfolk to stay indoors, earning the engagement the name of the Battle of the

Bells. The rebels quickly stormed the meager fortifications of the town and bloody street by

street combat ensued with casualties mounting on both sides. Connington’s force fought with

immense ferocity defending each alleyway, rooftop and street with their lives. Jon would wound

Lord Hoster and slay the heir to the Eyrie Ser Denys Arryn with an ax in the brutal fighting.

As the streets ran red with rivers of blood and the battle hung upon a knife’s edge, the Lord

of Storm’s End emerged brandishing once more his mighty warhammer. Robert immediately slew six men,

among them Rhaegar’s close friend and former squire Ser Myles Mooton, before almost killing

Jon Connington on the steps of the town’s sept. However, before he could do so, Jon ordered a

general retreat seeing that the day had been lost, barely escaping with his life and a battered host

of disillusioned warriors. Robert refused to take the glory however instead insisting it was

Eddard who had won the day and saved his life. The Battle of the Bells finally forced Aerys

to take the threat posed by Robert’s Rebellion seriously, seeing now that his Kingdom and very

life were at risk in the conflict moreso even than in the prior Blackfyre Rebellions. Responding as

always with misplaced rage and paranoia, he stripped Jon Connington of all of his titles

and sent him into exile where it is believed he drank himself to death. Ser Jonothor Darry and Ser

Barristan Selmy were sent in the Hand’s place to try and rally what remained of the Royalist force.

Meanwhile, Rhaegar, who was in the Tower of Joy, keeping Lyanna Stark by his side,

was asked to return to the capital by the head of the Kingsguard Ser Gerald Hightower acting on the

command of the King. The prince immediately urged his father to seek out the aid of Tywin Lannister,

which the Mad King refused, instead trusting the war effort to lesser men such as his new

Hand Qarlton Chelsted, who could not stand before the combined might of the rebel host.

Aerys also ordered his chief alchemist to begin setting up caches of Wildfire around

Kings Landing in the event the city should fall. Meanwhile the victorious rebel forces returned

to Riverrun, where Jon Arryn, who now needed a new heir, married Lysa Tully and in a joint

ceremony Eddard Stark and Catelyn Tully were also further solidifying the alliance. While

the rebels now had the initiative, the return of Rhaegar to the fold, who was an immensely

competent warrior and commander, ensured that the war was not over. In response to this news,

Robert Baratheon officially announced his claim to the Iron Throne and his army began

the march South to meet the Royalist forces. Displaying more of his callous nature, Aerys

blackmailed Lord Doran Martell into supporting the war effort by reminding him that his daughter Elia

remained in his power. As a result, ten thousand Dornish men were sent to join the Royalist army,

with Aerys sending Prince Lewyn Martell of the Kingsguard to assume control of this contingent.

Word was also eventually sent to Tywin Lannister to join the war effort. However, his mobilization

was purposely delayed in order to assuage what way the winds were blowing. In total the Royalist army

amounted to forty thousand soldiers, including the Dornish ten thousand, the soldiers of the

crown and a number of men sent by Mace Tyrell as he continued the siege of Storm’s End. The

fact that Stannis Baratheon was still holding out against Tyrell, meant that thousands of royalist

soldiers were tied up. Still, the Targaryens possessed an advantage in numbers and also a

competent commander, leaving the outcome of the battle uncertain for the rebels despite the fact

that they had a far more battle-hardened army. The Battle of the Trident took place in 283 AC,

and was fought on the afore-mentioned river at a crossing point which came to be known as the

Ruby Ford. Seeing the Rebel forces amassed across the Trident, Rhaegar decided to take

the initiative and force a crossing. In response Robert’s booming voice bellowed out orders to hold

the line. The Dornishmen under Lewyn Martell began the assault threatening Robert’s left

flank with an early foray. Lord Corbray was injured in this fighting, forcing his son Lyn

Corbray to assume control of the left, barely holding back the Dornish onslaught. Seeing that

the pressure was untenable Lyn Corbray charged forward leading his men by example and utterly

breaking the Dornish force, slaying their commander Lewyn Martell in single combat.

Elsewhere, the peerless Ser Barristan Selmy fought like a man possessed,

slaying numerous Rebel soldiers cutting a bloody swathe through their lines, while

Ser Jason Mallister killed three of Rhaegar’s bannermen in the mêlée. Many Lords and Knights

of renown lost their lives at the Trident, however the outcome of the battle was soon to be decided,

with Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen meeting in the center of the battle on horseback,

in a fight which would determine the fate of the Seven Kingdoms for generations to come.

Rhaegar, a peerless swordsman of immense skill, provided Robert’s greatest challenge to date. He

rained down blow after blow with his blade, which the battle-hardened and immensely powerful Robert

merely shrugged off. The duel went on for hours as the chaotic and desperate fighting continued

in the background, yet Robert’s recent experience fighting on the front lines eventually proved to

be decisive. With a blow of such tremendous power it broke the rubies off of Rhaegar’s breastplate,

Robert smote his adversary with his warhammer ending the life of the last true hope of the

Royalist faction and effectively the war. This brought the battle to an end,

as the leaderless and demoralized army broke and fled the field making their way back to King's

Landing. A half-dead Barristan Selmy was brought before Robert, who, appreciating a true warrior,

pardoned the man and had his own Maester treat his wounds. In the immediate aftermath of the battle,

Walder Frey arrived with his forces, unwilling to commit to the cause until he knew that he would be

on the victorious side, leading to the nickname the Late Walder Frey being forever hoisted upon

him. Aerys hearing of his son’s death sent his pregnant wife Rhaella to Dragonstone with his

young son Viserys, simultaneously making plans for the destruction of the city by way of wildfire.

Robert, now seeking to claim his throne, had however been wounded by Rhaegar in the battle

and sent the majority of his force along with Eddard Stark to claim the city from the Mad King.

Initially the Iron Islands had remained neutral in the conflict, however upon hearing of the

death of Rhaegar Targaryen, Lord Quellon Greyjoy decided to take the rebel side. Still unsure as

to Lannister loyalties, he sent a fleet of meager fifty longships to attack the Reach,

with the rest remaining at the Iron Islands. This force began raiding,

devastating several settlements, but before they could continue however, they were unexpectedly

set upon by the longships of the Shield Islands who were vassals of the Tyrells in what would

become known as the Battle of the Mander. While on paper this was a victory for the Greyjoys,

their liege lord Quellon Greyjoy was slain in the fighting and the remaining fleet returned to the

Iron Islands having achieved little and lost much. Meanwhile, Aerys’ wildfire plot had been

progressing at a frantic pace. When the Hand Qarlton Chelsted learned of the plan,

he attempted to dissuade his King, but the latter was fully in the grips of his insanity and instead

had him burned alive, naming his pyromancer Rossart as the new Hand. A fortnight after

the Trident, the forces of Tywin Lannister appeared outside the walls of Kings Landing.

It wasn’t clear what their intentions were, but at the urging of Grand Maester Pycelle, Aerys let

this force of twelve thousand men within the city gates. The Lannister forces then began a brutal

sack of the city, murdering, raping and looting, to the dismay of the King who had believed his old

Hand had come to rescue him from this desperate situation. A handpicked group of Lannister

soldiers led by Gregor Clegane and Ser Amory Lorch began to scale the walls of the Red Keep.

Ser Jaime Lannister, who was in command of the Keep, asked permission to go out and make

terms with his father, which Aerys outrightly refused, ordering the young knight to kill his

father. The Mad King then met with his chief pyromancer. Seeing Rossart leaving the meeting,

Jaime realised that he intended to burn the entire city with wildfire and followed the

older man killing him before he could wreak such havoc upon the city. Jaime returned to the King

informing him of his actions. Aerys fled to the throne, but Jaime knew that the king could send

another messenger to initiate the wildfire plot. Seeing no other option Jaime hauled the King off

his throne and slit his throat, just as Ser Elys Westerling and Lord Roland Crakehall entered the

Throne room. The young Lannister forever earned the moniker of Kingslayer. Meanwhile as the

Lannisters fought and slaughtered the last of the Loyalist forces, Eddard Stark and his men

arrived from the Trident and making his way to the Throne Room the Warden of the North stared

at Jaime coldly until he got off the Iron Throne proclaiming the kingship of Robert Baratheon.

To prove their loyalty to Robert, the Lannister assault force had simultaneously entered the

nursery where Ser Amory murdered Rhaenys Targaryen and Gregor murdered Aegon Targaryen before raping

and murdering his mother Elia Martell. Upon arriving to the city Robert and Eddard argued over

these murders, with the ever-honourable Eddard believing them to be cruel and unnecessary acts,

whereas his liege held them to be justified. Jon Arryn was unable to cool the tensions between the

two men, so Eddard rode South relieving the Siege of Storm's End, after almost a year. The defenders

had only survived due to the actions of Davos Seaworth, a smuggler who had brought provisions

of onions and salted fish through the blockade saving the men from starvation. The Tyrells

surrendered and the majority of the Lords of the Reach were pardoned, with Stannis being given

orders to launch an assault on Dragonstone which was easily taken. However Stannis was unable to

capture the children of Rhaella who had died in childbirth. Viserys and Daenarys escaped to Essos

with the aid of Ser Willem Darry, making it to the Free Cities where they would live in exile.

Eddard then rode further South with six companions; Howland Reed, Lord Willam Dustin,

Ethan Glover, Martyn Cassel, Theo Wull, and Ser Mark Ryswell to free his sister Lyanna from her

captivity in the Tower of Joy. The Tower was protected by three Knights of Aerys’

Kingsguard Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Oswell Whent, and the Lord Commander, Ser Gerold Hightower,

with only Eddard and Howland surviving the ensuing conflict. Rushing into the tower after this,

Eddard found his dying sister and she extracted a promise before passing away. The tower was then

levelled by Eddard, the stones used to create cairns for the fallen of that day. Eddard would

then travel even farther South to Starfall leaving Lady Ashara Dayne with her brother’s blade,

the Sword of the Morning, before returning to King's Landing for Robert’s coronation.

Robert duly took up his place upon the Iron Throne and named his foster father Jon Arryn

as his Hand and his brother Stannis as the Lord of Dragonstone. At the urging of Jon Arryn,

he then married Tywin’s daughter Cersei, in a move aimed to stabilise the Kingdom for years

to come and ensure Lannister support should Viserys attempt to reclaim his throne. These

fears were sparked by the Dornish attempts to support Viserys, however the Hand of the King

was able to assuage their concerns returning the bones of Lewyn Martell which were duly buried and

facing the questioning of the Martells in relation to the circumstances of Elia’s death. While this

was successful short term, Lord of Dorne Doran Martell continued to plot a Targaryen restoration

in secret for many years to come, never forgetting the actions of the Lannisters or forgiving them.

Thousands of years before Robert's Rebellion, the Iron Isles were settled by the First Men.

As the Children of the Forest didn’t live here, they developed their own religion focusing on

the worship of the Drowned God with the Priests of the Isles claiming they were not in fact First Men

but rather had been created in the image of the Drowned God. Even at this early stage the Isles

were disorganized and warlike, with a Rock King ruling the land and a Salt King commanding at sea,

with these petty kings chosen by Kingsmoots in constant conflict. This changed when a priest of

the Drowned God Galon Whitestaff decreed that it was sinful for Ironborn to war with one another.

Other priests preached this, until each of the Kings agreed to convene the first proper Kingsmoot

on Old Wyk in order to elect a High King. It was not to be a hereditary title and the High

Kings were to be known as Driftwood Kings. This unification allowed the Ironborn to

begin conquering other lands as opposed to the disorganized raids of the past.

Under Qhored the Cruel, they were able to conquer much of the Western Coast of Westeros with Bear

Island, the Arbor and Oldtown falling under their rule. His successors would however lose much of

these lands as the Lannisters, Hightowers and Gardeners began to grow influential.

While numerous Houses would take on the role of High King, the Greyirons began to become

the preeminent rulers. High King Urragon IV’s dying wish was that the Kingship pass to his

great-nephew Urron, but the priests insisted that a Kingsmoot be called to decide this and

it was duly conducted on Old Wyk. Here Urron slaughtered all those who attended

among them Thirteen Kings and fifty Priests, establishing the hereditary rule of House

Greyiron and abolishing the title of High King. The roles of Rock and Salt Kings were eliminated,

with all other Kings lowered to the rank of Lords. The rule of the King of the Iron Islands now

depended primarily upon the strength of each individual King. As a result, the Greyirons

faced half a dozen rebellions which nearly ended their rule. The mainland Kings used this disunity,

with Garth VII Gardener[5] , driving the Ironborn from the Shield Islands and further

fortifying the islands to prevent any raids. With the coming of the Andals, these mainland

Kings were also capable of building far stronger ships which could now go toe to toe with the

longships of the Ironborn. The wooden stockades of the First Men were replaced by stone castles not

only in the Reach but also the Riverlands and the Westerlands with these more comprehensive

defences counteracting the lightning raids of the Ironborn effectively. The Greyirons lost

much of their strength and were replaced by House Hoare after a thousand years of hereditary rule.

The Hoares had intermarried with the Andals when they arrived upon the Isles and the Priests of

the Drowned Gods deemed them to be heretical and unworthy Kings due to their tolerance of

the Faith of the Seven and for encouraging trade in place of raiding. This contravention of the

old ways eventually led to a rebellion by the priests led by a priest known as the Shrike,

who overthrew King Harmund and mutilated his mother Lelia Lannister leading to a long war

with the Lannisters leaving the Iron Islands in an impoverished state and unable to effectively

deal with what came to be known as the Famine Winter. It took many centuries for the Ironborns

to fall and they now traded freely with the coastal cities of Westeros and Free Cities,

having lost all of their mainland holdings and lacking in the military might they

once possessed. They were further forced to raid in far more distant areas such as the

Basilisk Isles, Stepstones and Disputed Lands. Generations before the coming of the Targaryens

and their conquest of the Seven Kingdoms, King Qhorwyn the Cunning who advocated peace above

all else built a large fleet in order to deter any attacks on his Kingdom by the Great Houses of the

mainland. His son King Harwyn Hardhand was however a man of immense ambition and used this fleet

to conquer the Trident from the Storm King Arrec Durrandon, with his grandson King Harren the Black

beginning construction of Harrenhal which was to be the largest castle in all of Westeros on the

North Shore of the Gods Eye in central Westeros. The cost of its construction emptied the coffers

of the Iron islands. Their conquest and the fortifications were to prove inconsequential

anyways. Aegon’s arrival prompted Lord Edmyn Tully and the rest of the River Lords to rebel,

in spite of this Harren refused to surrender to Aegon believing his castle to be capable

of weathering whatever would be thrown at him. In response to this refusal Aegon mounted the Dragon

Balerion the Black Dread and flew above the fortifications, roasting Harren and his sons

and reducing the once mighty castle to a ruin. The majority of Harren’s supporters were killed

on this day with many more being slaughtered by the River Lords on their retreat to the Isles.

In 2 AC Aegon invaded the Iron Islands defeating the pretenders to Harren’s throne. He then allowed

the defeated Ironborn to elect a new Lord of the Iron Islands, namely Lord Vickon Greyjoy

who now ruled as a vassal to the Targaryens. The subsequent Lords of the Iron Islands took a

cautious approach in order to avoid provoking the wrath of Dragonlords. During the Dance of Dragons

however the Lord Dalton Greyjoy began raiding again even going so far as to capture some of the

Westerlands, however he was murdered in 133 AC by a concubine and a struggle for power ensued due to

his two sons being in their infancy. The angered Targaryens under lady Johanna Lannister allied

with Ser Leo Costayne in 134 AC in order to invade the Islands to claim some form of retribution for

this assault although she ultimately failed to place her son Lord Loreon Lannister upon the

Seastone Chair. During Aerys I’s reign Lord Dagon Greyjoy who came to be known as the Last Reaver

led the Ironborn once more to the Western Coast of the mainland and mercilessly raided the region.

The Iron Islands would however support the Iron Throne during the War of the Ninepenny Kings,

with Lord Quellon Greyjoy himself personally leading a hundred longships to fight in the

Stepstones. Quellon would outlaw thralldom in the Isles and wished to further integrate the

Iron Islands into the broader realm, but he maintained a cautious nature during Robert’s

Rebellion initially pursuing neutrality. However, as we covered previously in this

video he initially sided with Robert before being killed at the Battle at the Mander.

Quellon was succeeded by his eldest son Balon, who rejected the approach taken by his father and

wished to return to the old way of paying the Iron price and re-establishing an independent

Iron Islands for the Ironborn. This would not be feasible in the immediate aftermath of Quellon’s

death, as Robert maintained much in the way of support and strength following the end of the

Targaryens. Robert’s brother Stannis was tasked with building a new royal fleet and storming the

last Targaryen redoubt of Dragonstone where Queen Rhaella Targaryen yet remained. The assault on

the island took place nine months after the battle of the Trident in 284 AC. Rhaella had died giving

birth to Daenarys Targaryen and a vicious storm battered the castle that same night destroying

the Targaryen fleet which lay at anchor. Stannis received news that the castle’s

garrison was ready to sell out Targaryen heirs - Viserys and Daenerys. However, right before

Stannis approached Dragonstone, Ser Willem Darry and four other Targaryen loyalists saved the

children by crossing the Narrow Sea and making it to Essos. Dragonstone was gifted to Stannis,

as Robert, furious with his brother for failing to capture the Targaryen children, gave the Baratheon

seat of Storm’s End to his younger brother Renly. The support for Robert was not universal, with

many referring to him as the Usurper, among them Prince Oberyn of Dorne who planned a rebellion

to install Viserys as King in retribution for the deaths of Elia Martell and her children. However,

he was dissuaded by Jon Arryn who travelled to Dorne personally. Robert also maintained

no wish to marry following on from the death of Lyanna and as such was less than

enthusiastic about marrying Cersei Lannister in 284 AC, however he also recognised the need for

Lannister support. The marriage was successful to a certain extent stabilizing the realm further

and also providing three remarkably blonde children - Joffrey, Myrcella and Tommen.

Still, Balon presumed that Robert’s rule was a weak one and that he lacked support amongst the

nobility of his Kingdom, so over the next five years the Lord of the Iron Islands

constructed the Iron Fleet consisting of one hundred war galleys. He presumed that Robert

would not be able to muster a sufficient counterattack to defeat the Ironborn in

case they attack the mainland. In 289 AC some six years into the reign of Robert Baratheon,

Balon proclaimed himself King of the Iron Islands and was crowned under Nagga’s Ribs on Old Wyk.

Believing control of the Sunset Sea would be vital in the conflict to come and the eventual

success or failure of his fledgling Kingdom, Balon placed great stock in a plan devised

by his brother Euron. The Iron Fleet commanded by another brother - Victarion made its way to

Lannisport in the Westerlands. Here Victarion threw the first torch upon the Flagship of the

Warden of the West Tywin Lannister’s fleet and the remaining thirty ships were likewise

destroyed in the burning. Balon, hearing the news, responded in a characteristically over

confident manner declaring, “The sea shall be my moat, and woe to any man who dares to cross it.”

This victory allowed King Balon to send a contingent of Longships and reavers

to storm the seat of House Mallister Seagard under his eldest son Rodrik. The battle which

took place beneath the walls was fierce, with no love lost between the mainlanders and the

marauding Ironborn. This represented the only time in three hundred years that the bronze bell housed

within the Booming Tower of Seagard was rang in order to call the townsfolk to safety within the

castle when Longships were sighted. The battle was to be a crushing defeat for the Islanders,

as Lord Jason Mallister killed Rodrik Greyjoy in single combat, crushing the morale of the raiders,

before driving them back into the Sunset Sea. This not only cost Balon his heir but

also prevented the Ironborn from taking any of the wealthy regions of the Riverlands.

The early momentum lost, the Greyjoys now braced for the inevitable counter attack by the forces

of the crown. Unfortunately, they faced one of the great tacticians of their age in Stannis

Baratheon, Lord of Dragonstone and Master of Ships. Stannis merged the royal fleet with that

of the Redwyne Fleet from the Arbor and also a number of ships coming from Oldtown and the Reach.

The battle which was to decide the war took place in the Straits of Fair Isle Victarion’s

Iron Fleet was in position within the straights with the island of Fair Isle to their West and the

Westerlands to their East. Stannis had calculated their positioning however and split his navy in

two, trapping the Iron Fleet from both the North and South, effectively surrounding the Ironborn.

The youngest Greyjoy brother Aeron’s ship Golden Storm was destroyed by Stannis’ flagship, he was

washed ashore where he was captured and brought to Casterly Rock in chains, likewise the two

sons of Rodrik Harlaw were killed in the battle. The Ironborn navy was effectively destroyed and

this ended the threat posed by the Ironborn, allowing for an invasion of the Isles proper.

Stannis subdued the island of Great Wyk in Robert’s name, while Ser Barristan Selmy Lord

Commander of the Kingsguard and widely regarded as the most effective warrior in the Seven Kingdoms

successfully smashed all resistance upon Old Wyk, likewise Harlaw and Orkmont were quickly pacified.

The final battle of the war took place upon the island of Pyke and the Crown’s

forces were commanded by King Robert Baratheon I and his Warden of the North Eddard Stark. The

force amassed by the Crown was immense, with thousands of battle-hardened warriors from

Robert’s Rebellion landing upon the island which housed the seat of the Greyjoys. Taking stock

of the situation, the decision was taken to raze Botley castle and the town of Lordsport, prior to

commencing the main attack on the Castle of Pyke. Siege engines were assembled and a bombardment of

the Southern wall ensued, before long the main watchtower was brought down which destroyed much

of the surrounding wall. Maron Greyjoy who was the second of King Balon’s three sons was killed in

this bombardment, leaving only his youngest son Theon in the male line. The destruction of the

watchtower opened up a sizable breach in the wall, the forces of the King rushed forward,

first among them a red priest of R’hllor from the Free City of Myr named Thoros who had been sent to

the Seven Kingdoms initially in order to convert a fire obsessed King Aerys II to convert, before

later joining Robert’s court. The image of this Red Priest hefting a

blade coated in wildfire rushing ahead of the rest of the force and being first through the breach,

was one all who took part in the battle that day would never forget. Not far behind the Priest many

considered to be a lunatic, was Jorah Mormont of Bear Island who went on to earn a Knighthood

in recognition of his bravery that day, making his mark in taking the castle in spite of the

fierce fighting, with Ser Jacelyn Bywater likewise earning his Knighthood that day for similar feats.

With the Castle taken Balon Greyjoy was utterly defeated and forced to bend the knee to King

Robert swearing his fealty once more to the Iron Throne. In order to add insult to injury,

his only remaining son Theon who was nine years of age at the time was given to Lord

Eddard Stark as a hostage in order to ensure the loyalty of the Ironborn.

The king then celebrated this great victory with a Tourney at Lannisport, the same place

where a year prior the entire insurrection had commenced. The winner of the Joust that

day was Lord Jorah Mormont who was awarded the victory after breaking nine lances against Ser

Jaime Lannister. He would go on to name Lynesse Hightower as his Queen of Love and Beauty before

successfully requesting her hand in marriage that same night from her father Lord Leyton Hightower.

While the realm returned to peace and Robert basked in the adulation of the people following

on from his great victory, the Rebellion proved that Robert could not command the

same respect from his vassals that the previous Targaryen Kings had. Discontent remained in Dorne

and more importantly in his bedchamber, as his wife Cersei Lannister hated him.

When Aerys Targaryen II ascended Westeros’ Iron Throne in the 262nd year after Aegon’s Conquest,

he, with the aid of the astute Tywin Lannister, ushered in an era of unprecedented peace and

prosperity. However, in the course of his 21-year reign gradually warped Aerys into a violent,

paranoid despot. The excesses of the ‘mad-king’, as he became known, turned Tywin against him and

eventually triggered Robert’s Rebellion in 282AC. Also known as the War of the Usurper to Targaryen

loyalists, this epochal year-long conflict shattered the dynasty of the dragon kings and sent

its survivors into exile1. Robert Baratheon seized the throne at King’s Landing, beginning a new

age for Westeros. But Robert proved a far worse king than he had been a soldier. Under his rule,

the throwing of myriad feasts, tourneys, and other spectacles bankrupted the Seven Kingdoms. Not only

that, but the new monarch also proved critically unable to truly control his new wife Cersei

Lannister, daughter of the wealthy and powerful Tywin. Throughout the subsequent decade-and-a-half

of Baratheon rule, Robert and Cersei sired three children named Joffrey, Myrcella, and Tommen.

Unfortunately, all was not as it seemed. Various notables in the capital, including

Robert’s Hand of the King Jon Arryn and his dour brother Stannis, grew suspicious about the true

lineage of these royal scions. The two prominent nobles conducted an investigation into the matter,

eventually coming to the conclusion that the ‘king’s’ children were, in truth,

the result of an incestuous relationship between Queen Cersei and her twin brother Jaime - a

member of the Kingsguard. Before this cabal could bring its findings to Robert, however,

Jon Arryn died suddenly, secretly poisoned by his own wife Lysa Tully at the behest of

the schemer Petyr Baelish - Littlefinger. Anxious and believing Jon Arryn’s death had been a murder

prompted by their groundbreaking findings about Robert’s children, Stannis Baratheon withdrew

to his island citadel of Dragonstone and began quietly raising forces. In the meantime, Robert,

who required a new Hand of the King, marched north with his royal entourage in 298AC to request that

his greatest friend Eddard Stark take up the position. The Warden of the North at Winterfell

intended to refuse, but a single letter changed all that. Prompted by the plotter behind the

curtain - Littlefinger, Lysa Tully sent a secret message to her sister Catelyn - Stark’s wife,

falsely implicating the Lannisters in Jon Arryn’s death to ferment conflict. This

revelation obliged Eddard to take up the position of the Hand in order to further investigate the

matter and culpability of the Lannisters, with whom the Starks already had enmity.

Underlying tensions only increased further when, during the royal court’s final days at Winterfell,

Eddard’s son Bran witnessed the queen and Jaime during an intimate moment. Jaime threw the boy

from the window to silence him, and although there were no other witnesses and the boy was in a coma,

suspicion still fell on the Lannisters. The royal court, with Lord Stark in tow,

departed south along the king’s road not long after. Once they’d departed,

a mysterious assassin wielding a Valyrian steel dagger attempted to murder Bran in his bed,

but failed in the task. Intent on revealing the truth of things for herself, Catelyn made

for King’s Landing via a different route2 and, without the burden of a large caravan, arrived

there before her husband. There, Littlefinger’s manipulations concerning the ornate dagger led

both Starks to believe that their son’s murder had been orchestrated by Tyrion Lannister - the

notorious ‘imp’. Having told Lord Stark what he needed to hear, Catelyn departed north and Eddard

began his tenure as King Robert’s right hand man. But fate had it that, as Catelyn returned north,

she encountered Tyrion Lannister coming south from the Wall. Buoyed by Lord Baelish’s previous lies

concerning the imp, and existing bad blood, Catelyn roused Rivermen soldiers within a

local inn to take Tyrion captive. With him and a makeshift retinue accompanying her,

Catelyn moved east toward the Eyrie - her sister’s mountaintop citadel. However, word of this quickly

reached the Lannister stronghold of Casterly Rock. Tywin, ever unwilling to allow his house to

be humiliated with impunity, responded with war. The ruthless western lord began rallying bannermen

and vassals, but wasn’t about to let that time go to waste. While tens of thousands of troops

mustered at Casterly Rock, Tywin dispatched the infamous ‘knight’ Ser Gregor Clegane to the

Riverlands with a small vanguard force. Disguised as a common raider, this giant brute and his band

plundered throughout Catelyn’s ancestral homeland. Not only did this maneuver would prevent the

Riverlords, who were allied to the Starks via the marriage between Eddard and Catelyn, from

mustering the forces to resist the main Lannister thrust, but, Tywin also calculated, that it would

also draw the honourable Lord Stark into the conflict personally, where he could be captured.

Events elsewhere quickly put a stop to that tidy strategy. For when news of Tyrion’s imprisonment

reached King’s Landing, Jaime accosted Lord Stark in the streets. In the skirmish that ensued,

Eddard’s bannermen were killed and the King’s Hand himself wounded, rendering him unable to

ride west. Jaime fled to join his father, while Lord Stark dispatched Lord Beric Dondarrion

with 100 riders to arrest Clegane. As his high nobles began turning on one another,

risking an outbreak of violence in the realm, King Robert was off hunting in the Kingswood.

At about this time, Stark finally confronted the queen with his findings concerning her children,

doing so in an attempt to spare their lives from Robert’s inevitable wrath. However,

Robert had been gored by a boar during his hunt, suffering mortal wounds and laying at death’s door

in the Red Keep. Shortly thereafter, Eddard was named protector of the realm until the ‘heir’

Joffrey came of age. Sensing the need to secure the succession and realising the potential danger

Cersei and her faction posed, Renly Baratheon - the king’s youngest brother, offered to aid

Stark in taking the Lannister-Baratheon royals hostage. Eddard declined him,

once again citing honour as his reason. With little other choice, Renly fled the capital to

join his Tyrell allies at Highgarden and prepare for the looming war that he suspected might be

on the horizon. Matters came to a climax when King Robert Baratheon died and Cersei proclaimed

Joffrey monarch of the Seven Kingdoms, in defiance of her late husband’s wishes. Lord Stark attempted

to intervene but was betrayed by Littlefinger and the City Watch. The remainder of his retinue died

on the throne room floor, while the Warden of the North himself was thrown into the jail. The

Lannister faction took King’s Landing, and sent a message to Winterfell demanding Stark submission.

Rather than kneel to the false king, Eddard’s eldest son Robb - the young wolf - instead raised

his father’s banners and, mustered an army of close to 20,000 Northmen on his way to the south.

At the same time, two Lannister armies launched an invasion of the Riverlands. One under the command

of Jaime Lannister, 15,000 strong, destroyed the Riverlords in pitched battles at the Golden Tooth

and Riverrun before putting the Tully castle to siege. It was at this time that Tyrion was able

to join his father after surviving a trial due to the fighting skills of his champion Bronn.

Meanwhile, Gregor Clegane’s vanguard force defeated Dondarrion at the Mummer’s Ford. The

shattered remnants of Dondarrion’s group escaped and continued the war as bitter guerilla fighters,

and would eventually form the Brotherhood Without Banners. Meanwhile, Tywin’s main host crossed

into the Riverlands via a more southerly route following Clegane’s triumph and began methodically

conquering lesser nobles in the area adjacent to the Trident. With that lightning attack,

the initial stage of the war effectively ended, the Tully vassals smashed, scattered, or bottled

up in their castles by Tywin’s blitzkrieg. Their fate now depended on the actions of the Starks.

Convinced that the Lannister overlord possessed too much strategic acumen to risk invading the

North, Robb Stark conferred with his lords and came up with an offensive plan to take the war

to Tywin. With hopes of rescuing the imprisoned Lord Eddard lifting the spirits of its men,

the northern host then began marching south along the King’s Road. After a long march,

the Stark army arrived at the Twins - the only real crossing of the Trident River’s

Green Fork. For Robb’s military machinations to succeed, he needed to cross that river.

With scouting reports coming in outlining Riverrun’s increasingly grim situation,

Robb hurriedly, albeit reluctantly, made a deal with House Frey3 promising to marry, one of Walder

Frey’s daughters. By nightfall, he and his army’s passage was secured, and 4,000 Frey men-at-arms

joined the Stark cause. While almost all of his archers, pikes and men-at-arms remained on

the eastern bank under the command of the cunning Lord Roose Bolton, Robb led his mounted contingent

across the Green Fork and south toward Riverrun. Commander of the Lannister scouts Ser Addam

Marbrand failed to realize that the Starks crossed the river which allowed them to march undetected

through the night and arrive a mile north of Tywin’s camp near the Crossroads Inn by daybreak.

Despite being taken by surprise, organisation and discipline allowed the Lannister army to

muster for battle in short order and march to meet the Starks on the King’s Road,

adjacent to the Green Fork4. Tywin’s cousin Ser Kevan commanded 10,000 men in the center. Three

lines of archers5 interspersed by pike blocks made up the front line, and behind them rank upon rank

of soldiers armed with assorted melee weapons. Dead center was Kevan himself at the head of 300

heavy cavalry. A steel hammer of 4,000 knightly cavalry under Marbrand manned the right wing.

Tywin purposely massed his army’s undisciplined refuse on the left wing, a motley assembly of

Gregor’s warband, mounted archers, Vale tribesmen allies6, mercenaries, and untested conscripts of

all sorts. Tywin himself, clad in ornate Lannister garb, headed the reserve of 2,500 footmen and an

equal number of horse. This 20,000 strong army of the west outnumbered its northern counterpart by

roughly 3,000 troops. Its commander Roose Bolton, although the Lannisters believed Robb was present,

led an army of 16,500 warriors from the cold north together with their Frey allies. Present

were houses Glover, Hornwood, Karstark, Umber, and others. Most of the Stark cavalry was away

with their greatlord to the west, but Bolton still had around 600 with which to work.

The deep, thrumming din of warhorns resounded from the northern side of the battlefield as Stark

bannermen charged at a run. They were met not only by the impetuous blare of Lannister trumpets,

but hail after hail of arrows from Kevan’s bowmen. Hundreds of advancing northerners fell to this

volley, but they came on anyway. On the riverine flank, Gregor’s mounted wing of renegades and

malcontents galloped into the fray. Contrary to Tywin’s plan of baiting the northern right

flank into a trap by crushing his undisciplined left, Gregor’s brute force and combat experience

instead smashed the crescent-shaped Stark shield wall opposing him. Vale tribesmen and other riders

flooded through the gap, tearing a wound into the northern right flank. Immediately pivoting his

stategy, Tywin maneuvered his 5,000 reserve troops toward the river in the hope of capitalising

on his advantage there. Meanwhile, Lord Kevan’s archers continued unleashing missile fire into the

Stark troops behind the shield walls. At the same time, he ordered pike blocks to advance against

the beleaguered enemy infantry in an orderly fashion. They did so with aplomb, pushing the

northern army back against the hills north of the battlefield. Details are not forthcoming

about what Marbrand’s wing accomplished, but it is likely the knightly horsemen also attempted to

outflank and crush the 600 Stark cavalry present. The battle was already over when Tywin’s 5,000

moved to reinforce Gregor and mob up the last northern resistance, shattering their lines ‘like

glass beneath the hammer of their charge’. Roose Bolton lost several thousand men in

the battle and the retreat that followed. However, the Lord of the Dreadfort managed

to withdraw north with about 12,000 fresh and unharmed soldiers, his army intact.

But his task had never been to win an outright victory. After interrogating his captives,

Tywin finally discovered that Robb Stark had not been present at the Green Fork. Instead,

to the west, in the damp forests north of Riverrun, Robb Stark and his cavalry were

about to make their debut on the battlefield a display of tactical and strategic brilliance. En

route to the Tully capital, the Stark heir managed to absorb thousands of Riverlander

soldiers from Seagard and the scattered remnants of Edmure Tully’s forces defeated at Riverrun.

Thanks to the exhaustive efforts of the Blackfish Brynden Tully and his elite outrider vanguard,

who tirelessly shot Lannister communication ravens out of the sky and killed enemy scouts, the 15,000

besiegers of Riverrun, encamped in three camps divided by rivers, remained blissfully unaware

of Robb and perhaps 6,000 men under his command lurking nearby. The detailed scouting efforts told

Robb that the Jaime Lannister, always a dynamic albeit impatient military commander, routinely

launched expeditions to hunt for small Tully harrying contingents raiding Lannister supply

lines, or to seize smaller recalcitrant castles in the area. Utilising the knowledge of Jaime’s

routine sorties from the siegeworks, the Stark army developed a plan to lure the enemy commander

into a cunning trap. Robb concealed the greater part of his mounted corps in a forested valley

midway between Riverrun and Oldstones, known as the Whispering Wood. The cavalry of House Stark’s

cadet branch of Karstark took up position in the gorge’s narrower northern reaches. Mallister,

Umber, and Mormont forces deployed on the eastern edge of the valley, while Robb,

his personal Stark retinue, and the Frey horsemen arrayed themselves to the west. Once in place,

this reverse-V-shaped formation lay silently in wait, shrouded by dense valley foliage.

Simultaneously, the Blackfish and a few hundred riders carrying Tully banners assailed Lannister

posts and supply caravans near Riverrun. The emergence of yet another guerilla threat provoked

Jaime into launching a further apparently routine sortie against what he believed to be mere dozens

of raiders. After mustering between one-and-a-half and two-and-a-half thousand Lannister cavalry,

Jaime took the bait and pursued the Blackfish north, straight into the jaws of Robb’s trap.

Brynden’s force charged at a gallop into the Whispering Wood right as Jaime’s knights seemed

primed to catch them. Then, as the last of the Lannister riders crossed the threshold of the

valley, it is said that above the thundering hoofbeats resounded the quaint call of native

snow shrikes. However, this indistinct call might equally have served as a predetermined signal by

Stark forces to enact the ambush. As the moon shone its pale light down from above, barely

able to penetrate the dense canopy, the deep boom of northern warhorns reverberated from the north,

west, and east, signalling the unified attack. The 6,000 Stark and Riverlandish cavalry charged,

descending on Jaime’s detachment from three sides. Blackfish and his unit turned and launched their

own attack. The nighttime cavalry engagement was a brutal, confusing affair. However, the better

prepared and numerically superior Stark forces quickly gain the advantage. Realising his imminent

defeat, Jaime Lannister gathered a picked force of elite lords and knights to him. Then, hoping to

kill the Stark leader, he desperately charged up the valley directly at Robb Stark’s contingent.

A brilliant warrior and swordsman, Jaime managed to cut his way through, personally slaying three

of Robb’s bodyguards before being subdued. Still, despite that last gasp, Lannister forces had been

utterly crushed, all their men killed or captured, together with a hundred knights and a dozen lords.

In one fell swoop, the Lannister army putting Riverrun to siege

had been deprived of the majority of its command echelons. However, the army as a military force

still remained a powerful albeit dangerously divided force, numbering perhaps 12,000 or so men

divided between three siege camps. This scattered disposition proved necessary due to the Tully

citadel’s natural strength of defence, flanked as it was by the confluence of the Tumblestone

and Red fork to the east and north, and by an artificially deepened moat to the west. After his

triumph at the Whispering Wood, Robb marched his force at speed and swiftly moved on Riverrun under

the cover of darkness. His aim was to exploit the advantage by relieving his mother’s homeland and

take one half of Casterly Rock’s martial strength out of the war. As the young wolf’s army circled

its prey and prepared to strike, the prey in question was totally unaware that anything was

amiss. The Blackfish descended on the northern camp with Robb’s vanguard, quickly routing

any semblance of resistance from the bedazzled defenders and clearing palisades. Reinforcements

then launched the main assault and it became clear that the camp would be overrun. Screams of death,

the clang of weapons and burning tents started to rouse the other two camps. Seeking to aid his

comrades, Lord Andros Brax, in the western camp, raised and rallied a detachment and began ferrying

it across the Tumblestone on rafts. Unfortunately for these prospective

reinforcements, Tully catapults, in an attempt to aid their rescuers, began raining down great

boulders onto the crossing contingent, smashing rafts to splinters and overturning a great many

others. Lord Brax himself, together with hundreds of soldiers, drowned in the roiling Tumblestone.

The scarce few Lannister warriors that did manage to make landfall found Stark bannermen waiting for

them, and were cut down where they stood. As this disaster unfolded on the northern flank of the

battlefield, Robb Stark himself, his direwolf Grey Wind at his side, led two divisions of armoured

riders in an assault on the western camp. Alerted by the Blackfish’s initial attack, spearmen in

the western camp managed to form a shield wall and beat away the first charge. However, upon

noticing the engagement, Tully holdouts under Lord Tytos Blackwood lowered the drawbridge of Riverrun

and sallied forth, attacking the Lannister forces from behind. Prisoners captured in Jaime’s initial

victories were released and the besieging army’s siege weapons put to the torch. Realising defeat

was now inevitable, commander of the eastern camp Forley Prester opted not to throw his own troops

into the grinder also. Instead, he mustered 2,000 spearmen together with 2,000 archers and retreated

from Riverrun in good order. A mercenary captain from Tyrosh did not reach the same conclusion and,

rather than go with Prester, lowered his banners and defected to the victorious northern side.

Jaime had been captured, the siege of Riverrun broken and an entire Lannister army destroyed. The

young wolf had introduced Westeros to his military prowess in a stunning display, but the Starks were

about to suffer a loss that would change not only the face of the war, but the continent as a whole.

It is the year 298 After Conquest. Tywin Lannister, learning of the capture of his

son and the defeat of his besieging forces at Riverrun, began retreating to Harrenhal - an

easily defended fortress of immense proportions despite its burning by the dragons in the early

stages of the Targaryen conquest. He wanted to reassess his forces and strategy, however, his

forces continued to be harassed by the Brotherhood without Banners during this retreat. News had

also reached both the Stark and Lannister camps, that the Baratheon brothers had raised their own

respective forces and looked set to claim their eldest brother’s throne for themselves.

Stannis who considered himself a legitimate heir by way of seniority due to the infidelity of

Cersei was one of the most capable commanders in Westeros, but could only muster a paltry force as

he only controlled Dragonstone and the loyalty of the majority of the Storm Lords belonged to

Renly. The younger Baratheon brother was also engaged to Margaery Tyrell and so could call

upon the might of the Reach and the majority of the Stormlands in his claim to the Iron Throne.

Many thought that he would make a far better king King than the harsh and uncompromising Stannis.

This news would however pale in comparison to the events which transpired in the capital.

Eddard Stark who was imprisoned by the forces loyal to Cersei was offered an ultimatum:

to confess his crimes and join the Night’s watch, renouncing his titles and Lordship of the North,

or face execution for his alleged treason against the crown. He accepted this ultimatum hoping it

would guarantee the lives and well treatment of his daughters. Eddard was taken to the Sept of

Baelor in full view of an onlooking crowd in order to confess his crimes and openly

accept king Joffrey’s offer. The prisoner did just that for the sake of his family,

effectively giving up his much-valued honour. He and all in attendance would be stunned by

the reaction of the supposed King of the Seven Kingdoms: “My Mother wishes me to let Lord Eddard

join the Night’s Watch …. Stripped of all titles and powers, he would serve the realm in permanent

exile. And my Lady Sansa has begged mercy for her father. But they have the soft hearts of

women … so long as I am your King treason shall never go unpunished! Ser Ilyn, bring me his head!”

To the extreme shock of Cersei, Varys and the High Septon, Ser Ilyn Payne made his way to the

despondent Eddard before beheading him with his own Valyrian steel greatsword Ice. Eddard’s head

was placed upon a pike and this event changed the complexion of the war in its entirety. This

event sent ripples across Westeros, making any hope that peace might be achieved farfetched.

The men of the North who had followed their liege Lord’s son Robb South in order to save the now

deceased Eddard became vengeful in the extreme, removing Robb’s uncertainty as to whether he

should support Renly. Casting off the yolk of the Iron Throne the Northerners and Riverlords swore

fealty to Robb Stark now choosing to create their own sovereign nation, regaining the independence

lost with the coming of the Targaryens. Eddard’s bastard Jon Snow hearing of his father’s execution

also attempted to leave Castle Black and join his half-brother but was convinced to

stay by his new brothers within the Night’s Watch. Robb’s first act was to send Theon Greyjoy to meet

with his father Balon to persuade the Ironborn to join his cause in return for the independence of

the Iron Islands. Unfortunately for Robb, Balon had his own plans that would unfold in the months

to come. At this point, Renly Baratheon claimed the Kingship at Highgarden, placing him on a

collision course with his older brother Stannis, and Robb decided to send his mother Catelyn to

negotiate with him. Renly had been marching his gargantuan host along the Roseroad towards King’s

Landing bringing with him his young bride and the flower of the forces of Highgarden. Stannis,

despite having fewer troops, was not the one to back down and marched towards the Storm’s End.

Tywin, whose Joffrey appointed as his Hand, learned of these events very soon and hitched his

hopes that the rivalry between 2 brothers would last for some time giving him an opportunity to

deal with Robb Stark. Still, he had to find a way to stabilize the situation in King’s Landing and

to that end, he sent his younger son Tyrion to the capital to take up the role of acting Hand. Tywin

despised his son, but knew that he is capable. Meanwhile, at the same time, the Young Wolf had

followed up his coronation at Riverrun by driving much of the Lannister forces from the Red Fork of

the Trident in a number of skirmishes freeing the lands of his new subjects from Lannister

subjugation, as he met little in the way of resistance due to the Lannisters aforementioned

retreat to Harrenhal. Robb left the defence of Riverrun in the hands of his uncle Edmure Tully

ordering him to defend the castle. Edmure was incompetent and Robb knew that, so he

kept him out of the loop of his plans and that would play a significant role in future events.

The young king once more displayed his tactical acumen by recognizing that Harrenhal was too

well fortified even in its ruined state to be attacked directly. This necessitated a

new strategy in order to draw the cunning Tywin from his position of power and that strategy was

conceived in the form of a limited invasion of the Lannister homeland. This surprised the

Lannister army which was gathering at Oxcross under Ser Stafford Lannister to replace that

which had been lost at the Battle of the Camps. Tywin was planning to use Ser Stafford's army as

an anvil for his hammer’s hammer in an attack on the Riverlands, but for now, it was just beginning

to gather its strength. Its 4000-strong core consisted of the survivors of the battle of the

Camps led by Ser Forley Prester. It is possible that another 6 to 10 thousand have either joined

this new army, training a few days march from the Lannister capital of Casterly Rock.

Robb wasn’t going to let this new force become a threat though, and in his usual fashion decided to

take the initiative. To that end, he left most of his footmen behind and with 6000 horsemen

started to march towards the Lannister territory. The Westerlands were divided

from the Riverlands by a chain of mountains and most of the paths across these mountains were

protected by Lannister fortresses. One of them called – the Golden Tooth was occupied by Ser

Forley and half of his troops. Robb knew that he can’t lose time besieging this fortress,

as that would alert both Tywin and Ser Stafford who might attack him from both sides. So, the

Stark forces began looking for undefended hidden passes. Luckily for Robb, his direwolf Grey Wind

managed to discover one such path and this allowed Stark forces to enter the Westerlands undetected.

Ser Stafford wasn’t expecting to be attacked, so there were no sentries around his camp. Robb

decided to attack in the night and ever an opportunist found another way to gain

an advantage. Grey Wind was set loose against the Lannister horses around the camp and the scent of

the direwolf drove the horses mad. Poor animals broke their enclosure, some running away, some

charging directly at the camp of their masters. This in turn caused mass panic among the Lannister

forces. Some of them attempted to create a battle line around the core of veterans, but the majority

started to run. The Young Wolf sent his entire army against the enemy and added to its panic. The

Lannister leader was killed almost immediately and soon after the untrained Westerland army

was crushed. We don’t know the exact numbers, but it seems that up to 10 thousand Lannister

warriors died or were taken prisoner, while the Stark casualties were very few.

Unwilling to rest on his laurels, Robb once more pressed upon the Lannister’s neck sensing their

current precarious situation. He knew that he doesn’t have enough troops to take Casterly Rock,

so instead, he decided to scour the Westerlands hoping that this will dislodge Tywin from his

well-fortified position in Harrenhall. First Rob took the Seat of House Marbrand - the castle of

Ashemark and three of the surrounding gold mines. As that didn’t lure Tywin out, the Young Wolf

continued raiding, this time attacking the seat of the house Westerling - the Crag. In short order,

it was stormed at night, with Stark troops scaling over the walls. Robb displaying his

continued courage led from the front breaking down the main gate with a ram before taking

an arrow wound. The Crag was taken soon, but the injury slowed down Robb. Fortunately for him, he

was now being tended to by Lady Jeyne Westerling. Meanwhile, Tywin finally realized that he can’t

leave his base of power undefended and as he wasn’t yet worried about the Baratheon brothers,

left Harrenhal betting that he still has time. However, the size of his host immediately

alerted Edmure Tully to his movements and in response, he commanded Ser Helman Tallhart

to leave the Twins and join with Lord Roose Bolton who was positioned at the Crossroads,

in order to take Harrenhal. Edmure believed that once Robb returned from his campaign,

Tywin can be successfully entrapped between Riverrun and Harrenhal defeating him outright.

To return to the Westerlands Tywin had to first cross the Red Fork river of the Trident, which

Edmure saw as his opportunity to strike. Calling the banners of the Riverlords - approximate

eight thousand footmen and three thousand horsemen Edmure moved to the Trident in order

to prevent Tywin’s force, which outnumbered the Riverlords two to one, from crossing the river.

The levies of the Riverlands were organized by Edmure in such a way that every river

crossing South of Riverrun was guarded by a substantial garrison. Lord Jason Mallister

commanded four southern fords, with Lod Karyl Vance taking command of those further upstream.

The West Bank of the Fork was higher than the eastern and consisted primarily of woodland,

allowing them to hide archers and place scorpions to assist in their operations against

the Lannisters. Furthermore, caltrops and iron spikes were placed sporadically along the Fork,

with Edmure keeping his finest Knights in reserve in order to join the fray wherever the fighting

is fiercest. At the same time, ravens were sent to Robb in order to inform him of the Lannister

march and of the events in the Stormlands. The battle began with the Lannister probing

attacks attempting to find a weakness in the Riverlord’s sound defensive formations. House

Mallister first repelled a contingent from House Brax during the day and later that night another

group of Lannister soldiers attempting to take them at unawares. The next morning word reached

Edmure that Ser Flement Brax was defeated six leagues to the South by a combination

of archers and scorpions under the command of the Mallisters, while House Vance also

successfully hold back a Lannister advance. The front grew quiet until three days later

when Tywin ordered crossing in a dozen places, hoping to overwhelm the defenders, but each of

these attacks was successfully repulsed by the Riverlords. Ser Addam Marbrand was forced to

retreat three times, Ser Robert Brax was killed in combat, Lord Leo Lefford drowned in his attempted

crossing and Ser Lyle Crakehall was taken captive in this fighting. The battle however was

the fiercest at Stone Mill where the Lannisters under Ser Gregor Clegane were able to cross the

Western Bank of the Fork and make a foothold. They were unable to hold it however suffering

heavy casualties and eventually being driven back with heavy casualties as Edmure’s reserve

turned the tide and The Mountain wounded by a dozen arrows withdraws. Tywin’s casualties were

in the thousands and unable to sustain the assault with the current rate of casualties, he drew his

forces back marching to the South-East. Edmure who lost a handful of soldiers was triumphant, but

little did he know that his unsanctioned battle against Tywin actually spoiled Robb’s plans.

While Robb was fighting in the Westerlands and Tywin was failing to cross the Red Fork,

other players were eager to strengthen their position and the events were

transpiring in the southeast. [1] Stannis who had the smallest army of

all the pretenders to the throne took the advice of the Red Priest Melisandre, and made his way

to the castle he had once defended for his older brother - Storm’s End to lay siege to Renly’s seat

as Lord of the Stormlands. Stannis and his five thousand men immediately set up a well-organized

blockade of the borderline impregnable fortress in order to draw his brother out.

When the news of this reached him, Renly had already reached Bitterbridge en route to King’s

Landing. In spite of the advice given to him, the young Baratheon immediately split his forces

and at the head of some twenty thousand cavalry made his way to Storm’s End in order to confront

his brother and lift the siege. This led to the parley between Renly, Stannis, and Catelyn Stark,

and unwilling to put aside their differences, or consider the pleas of the Stark Matriarch,

the brothers decided that the battle between them is to begin at dawn the next day. However,

events were not to transpire in such a manner. That night Renly’s tent was entered by a black

shadow in the image of Stannis and this shadow cut through Renly’s throat in the presence of Brienne

of Tarth and Catelyn Stark. Although Brienne was blamed for the assassination and hunted

by Renly’s supporters, the true assassin was the product of Melisandre's magic.

With Renly Baratheon dead, the majority of the warriors who had accompanied him to Storm’s End

now defected to Stannis. However, a fifth of Renly’s knights commanded by Ser Loras Tyrell

made their way to Bitterbridge refusing to grant Stannis their fealty. The siege of Storm’s End was

not yet over, as Ser Cortnay Penrose, fearing for the safety of Robert’s bastard Edric Storm

refused to hand over Storm’s End to Stannis. Penrose offered a challenge of single combat,

but it was rejected along with all other options to end the siege.

Stannis turned to his most trusted servant Ser Davos Seaworth, who smuggled Melisandre

inside the castle using the skills from his past life. Here the Red Priestess gave birth

to another Shadow assassin who made his way into the castle killing Ser Cortnay which

led to the surrender of the fortress. Sixty thousand men were now encamped at

Bitterbridge where fierce fighting broke out between those who wished to support Stannis,

those who refused to do so, and the ones who just wanted to return home. It continued until

the Tyrell vassal Lord Randyll Tarly took control of the situation putting many dissenters to the

sword. His initial charge gave the pro-Renly forces an opportunity to reform themselves and

lord Tarly led them away from Bitterbridge, knowing that Stannis is on the way. Still,

many joined Stannis, bringing his total strength to around 30 thousand men. Tarly retreat opened up

the road to King’s Landing for Stannis and his newly enlarged army and the Baratheon brother

started moving toward the poorly defended capital. This proved to be the grimmest point in the war

for the Lannisters, as Tywin lost all his gains in the Riverlands, his son was taken hostage,

and his home base was scoured. The Crownlands were in chaos and the ever incorruptible Stannis

Baratheon was marching to take King’s Landing, with the clear goal of putting every Lannister

supporter to the sword. Although the Vale, Dorne, and the Iron Islands remained neutral,

unwilling to commit to any side in times of such uncertainty, the Lannisters were

effectively surrounded by enemies. Yet, as sometimes is the case, the defeats on the

battlefield would be reversed by the successes on the diplomatic front and general luck…

In the aftermath of the victories at the battles of the Fords and Crag, the Starks

and Tullies were celebrating and planning their next moves, but events transpiring to the south

would change their outlook very soon. Tywin had at this stage received word that Stannis

had taken Storm’s End and was now marching and sailing his swollen army towards King’s

Landing. This necessitated a course correction from the Lannister Patriarch - he left a small

force under Gregore Clegane to continue harassing the Riverlands and turned Southeast on a forced

march towards the headwaters of the Blackwater Rush. Here he met the Lords Tarly and Rowan,

agreeing to an alliance between the Lannisters and Tyrells, which changed the balance of power.

Stannis Baratheon didn’t know about this alliance and was marching northeast towards the King’s

Landing hoping to take the capital and the throne. However, this would prove to be less

simple in practice than it was in theory: the son of Tywin Lannister Tyrion was appointed the Hand

of king Joffrey. He had inherited all of the guile and intelligence from his father and made what

preparations he could to defend the city. In order to prevent any defections, false rumours were

spread claiming that Stannis intended to raze the Great Sept of Baelor to the ground as a sacrifice

to his new deity Rhollor. Likewise, stockpiles of wildfire were secured for the siege and the Vale

Mountain Clans were sent out to harass and harry Stannis’s advance. The number of the city guard

- Gold Cloaks was increased threefold, artillery constructed and sellswords hired for the defence

of the city. Most importantly of all, however, Tyrion ordered the construction of a great

chain boom across the mouth of the Blackwater. The total garrison of King’s Landing amounted

to seven to eight thousand men, with the primary contingent being 5,700 Gold Cloaks,

supplemented by 800 sellswords, 300 knights, squires, and men at arms, hundreds of engineers

manning ballistae, scorpions and catapults, alongside contingents of House’s Stokeworth and

Rosby, while the navy consisted of a paltry 45 war galleys complemented by vessels requisitioned from

traders and what was described to be a swarm of hulks, skiffs, ferries, and barges. Tyrion

also had 150 or so members of the Mountain clans which were his personal allies and he

sent them towards Stannis to harass his forces. By way of comparison, Stannis commanded a force

of 16,400 cavalrymen primarily hailing from the Reach as well as contingents from the Stormlands

and Crownlands. He had also embarked some 4,600 infantrymen upon his ships who were

primarily raised from the Crownlands, Lys and Myr on 200 ships, with 60 war galleys,

40 smaller Myrish war galleys, 80 carracks and lumbering great cogs as well as 25 Lysene pirate

galleys under the command of Salladhor Saan. At the urging of Ser Davos Seaworth, Lady Melisandre

is left behind in order to ensure the victory is deemed to be Stannis’ and Stannis’ alone.

Despite the attempts of the Mountain Clans of the Vale, who utilized scorched earth and hit-and-run

tactics in order to slow the advance of Stannis’ warriors the former Lord of Dragonstone duly

arrives before the Lannister Tyrell host. The Baratheon host countered the threat posed to their

baggage train by setting the Kingswood alight, effectively smoking out their harassers. So began

the largest and most decisive battle of the War of the Five Kings, the Battle of the Blackwater.

Stannis vanguard of five thousand men consisting of Houses Fossoway, Estermont and Florent under

the command of Ser Guyard Morrigen arrived early and a number of Joffrey’s war galleys meet them

head on exchanging arrow fire between them. The remainder of the fleet was delayed by the

treacherous water and terrible weather conditions causing the loss of a dozen ships. Overall command

of the fleet was granted to Ser Imry Florent who took up his position on Stannis’ flagship Fury,

while Stannis commanded the host on the South side of the Blackwater

ordering the creation of rafts and also arrows. The battle began properly when Ser Imry Florent

ordered the fleet up river in order to engage Joffrey’s ships, entering the visual range of the

city by the late afternoon. Stannis’ commanders were overconfident due to superior numbers,

scouts were not sent ahead and the entire navy moved forward with the exception Salladhor Saan’s

Lysene Galleys who were kept as a rearguard in Blackwater Bay. Florent organised the ships into

ten battle lines of twenty ships each, the first three composed of war galleys belonging to the

royal navy and Lords of the Narrow sea. The Myrish ships behind them were tasked

with landing their embarked soldiers to attack the city before joining the first three lines,

while the far slower and smaller sailed ships were to ferry the remainder of Stannis’ soldiers.

As they continued their approach Ser Davos noticed the newly constructed watchtowers

and the chain in the water, but at this stage, it was too late and the ships continue forward

irrespective of the imminent danger they now face. Trebuchets on the city walls began to

hurl stones at the oncoming fleet, while pots of pitch were also flung at them. It is at this

stage Tyrion’s plan to save the city came to the fore. A number of Joffrey’s ships have been filled

with wildfire and as Stannis’ fleet was lured into its doom, they imploded,

setting the ships and the river itself aflame as wildfire continued to burn even on the water.

To the horror of Stannis’ commanders, they realise they were now trapped within the torrent of heat

and flame as the chain has been drawn up behind them - the casualties were substantial. However,

the first two battle lines were well upstream of the roiling inferno which emerged behind them when

the hulks bearing the wildfire passed by them. Between thirty and forty galleys escaped the

initial blast, with eight landing under the city walls, allowing their man to make it to dry land,

likewise, the Myrmen were able to escape with their lives by sailing for the South Bank.

Within the walls of the city, Tyrion Lannister took charge of the defences, however, the first

threat he faced came from within the walls, as some drunkards in Flea Bottom begin looting and

Lord Jacelyn Bywater sent some of the Gold Cloaks tasked with defending the city to deal with them.

Tyrion then organized sortie parties of mounted men-at-arms and the miniscule number of knights

he had available to him under the command of Sandor Clegane and Ser Balon Swann to harass

the disembarking soldiers of the besieging host. This was initially successful in holding back

the onslaught of Stannis’ superior force, the casualties however are grievous. Tyrion learned

of a further complication with Stannis’ men successfully landing upon the tourney ground and

now preparing to ram the King’s Gate. He made his way to the King’s Gate, where Sandor Clegane has

already led three sorties. The knight who has been visibly spooked and drained of his courage by the

wildfire now embroiling the battlefield refused to venture out again. Those gathered at the Mud gate

seeing the warrior who towered above faltering, started losing heart. Tyrion recognized this and

seeing that desertion in can be imminent, elected to lead the next sortie himself. The fact that one

with such a short stature was willing to fight shamed many of the defenders gathered there and

they found courage to join their Hand. Chroniclers would later write “That shamed them well enough.

A knight mounted, helmetless, and rode to join the others. A pair of sellswords followed. Then

more. The King’s Gate shuddered again. In a few moments the size of Tyrion’s command had

doubled. He had them trapped. If I fight, they must do the same, or they are less than dwarfs.”.

While Tyrion made his way out to disperse the attackers, the Mud Gate fell under attack.

Fearing for the safety of her son Joffrey, who was commanding the soldiers nearby,

queen-mother Cersei ordered him to be brought to the Red Keep. Before he left, the king ordered

members of his kingsguard Mandon Moore and Boros Blount to assist Tyrion. Still, king’s departure,

destroyed the morale of the defenders there who desert en masse slaughtering their commanders

among them Ser Jacelyn Bywater. Tyrion proves more successful however driving off the attackers at

the King’s Gate before wheeling around and making his way towards the lost Mud Gate. At this point

Ser Balon Swann alerted the acting Hand to a less than ideal situation developing on the River.

The galleys of which their commanders had lost control had smashed into one another creating a

bridge of sorts, which allowed the boldest among Stannis’ ranks to cross the river joining the

fray on the part of their lord. Sensing imminent disaster once more, Tyrion alongside his sortie

party made their way out onto the bridge in order to halt their opponents' advance.

The bridge was quickly breaking up however and Tyrion turned to retreat from the tenuous ground.

However, at this point, he was betrayed and attacked by Ser Mandon Moore,

who was possibly ordered to do so by Joffrey, who hated his uncle. Before he could slay the

Hand of the King outright however, Ser Mandon was himself killed by Tyrion’s squire Podrick Payne.

The bridge was now breaking and as the defenders thought that Tyrion was slain in the fighting,

they retreated behind the city walls. Their resistance continued here for a few hours,

but it was soon clear that Stannis’ troops are going to enter the city soon. Fortunately for

the defenders, soon they noticed that some kind of commotion was happening behind the enemy lines,

almost as if they were fighting among themselves. That was actually the relief force of between

twenty and fifty thousand Tyrells and Lannister soldiers - Tywin had arrived just in time to save

the city and his family. Moving from their initial position on the Blackwater Rush,

the Lannister host had force marched to Tumbler’s Falls where they joined with Lord Mace Tyrell’s

larger army and make use of the fleet of barges he has in place. Together they made their way

downstream before disembarking a half day’s ride from the capital and arriving at the battle around

dusk crashing into Stannis’ rear and taking the otherwise meticulous commander at unawares.

Lord Tywin took command of the right wing on the river’s North side, Randyll Tarly held the centre

with Mace Tyrell commanding from the left. The greatest shock of the day came in the form of

spectre of Renly Baratheon come to take his revenge on his brother for his assassination.

Garlan Tyrell wearing the easily recognizable armour of the fallen king cut a bloody swathe

through the dismayed Baratheon lines at the head of the vanguard, causing many more to defect to

the Lannister side believing their liege had returned. Ser Garlan then slayed Ser Guyard

Morrigen who commands Stannis’ van, causing further chaos among his ranks. According to the

chronicles: “They plunged through Stannis like a lance through a pumpkin, every man of them howling

like some demon in steel. And do you know who led the vanguard? Do you? Do you? Do you? It was Lord

Renly! Lord Renly in his green armor, with the fires shimmering off his golden antlers! Lord

Renly with his tall spear in his hand! They say he killed Ser Guyard Morrigen himself in single

combat, and a dozen other great knights as well. It was Renly, it was Renly, it was Renly! Oh!

the banners, darling Sansa! Oh! to be a knight!”. Salladhor Saan seeing how the tides were turning,

put his ships ashore taking as many survivors as he could fit, while Rolland Storm fought

a desperate rearguard action, allowing for Stannis and some of his remaining soldiers

to board the galleys with at least half of the remaining loyalists being Florents.

Due to the limited capacity of the galleys for soldiers to embark thousands were left behind,

and they began to turn on one another in an attempt to save their own lives.

Stannis was left with a bare fraction of the soldiers he had brought with him due

to defections and casualties respectively with his only remaining ships being those belonging to the

sellsword Saan as they retreated back towards Dragonstone. The garrison also suffered much

in the way of casualties with 1600 Gold Cloaks either killed in the fighting or having deserted

alongside the majority of the Sellswords, Knights and Men-at-arms having been killed,

however, the relief force suffered only minimum casualties in the ensuing chaos they caused.

The victory was simultaneously a decisive victory for the Lannister-Tyrell alliance as well as a

devastating blow to all others who claimed the Iron Throne. Joffrey at the behest of the High

Septon set aside his betrothal to Sansa Stark instead taking Margaery Tyrell as his bride,

cementing their alliance and immediately making the Lannisters the most powerful force

in the realm easily outnumbering the forces Robb Stark could bring to bear. While Tywin Lannister

relieved of much of the pressure he had previously been under in Harrenhal, took up the role of Hand

of the King proper. He was further proclaimed Saviour of the City setting himself up in a

position as the true strength behind the crown and setting about to bring the conflict to a swift

conclusion. While Tywin enjoyed the adulation of the people of King’s Landing a small few would

recognize the telling role the now grievously injured Tyrion had played in saving the city,

however, the youngest of the Lannister siblings stewed in his anger and resentment a concoction of

emotion which was to have devastating consequences for his family: “My hirelings betray me,

my friends are scourged and shamed, and I lie here rotting. I thought I won the bloody

battle. Is this what triumph tastes like?”

sent Theon Greyjoy back to the Iron Islands to get his father's support. Instead of securing

this support, Theon joined with his father Balon and betrayed his former Stark wards by

launching an invasion of the North. In this, Balon envisaged a three-pronged approach,

ordering his brother Victarion to take Moat Cailin, his daughter Asha Greyjoy to seize

Deepwood Motte and Theon to raid the Stony Shore. These attacks were successful, and the North,

unable to defend itself with most of its fighting men down south with Robb, is slowly bled dry.

Theon, unhappy with his position of minor authority compared to his sister Asha,

decided on his own initiative to attack Torrhen Square. This in turn draws out the majority of

the garrison of Winterfell, allowing the Grayjoy Prince to take Winterfell with little resistance,

capturing both Rickon and Bran in the process and declaring himself to be the Prince of Winterfell.

Theon then freed Reek from the dungeon, taking him into his service alongside Maester Luwin, who

pleaded for him to show mercy and tolerance. This fell on deaf ears however, as Bran and Rickon,

with the aid of Osha, Hodor, Meera and Jojen Reed, escape from the Castle. Furious at his failure,

Theon takes the advice of Reek, killing two boys of similar age and stature and

mounting their heads upon the castle walls. Meanwhile, Robb, having suffered a relatively

severe wound whilst storming the crag, was being tended to by Jeyne Westerling: the daughter of

the Lord of the hold. However, word soon arrived that Theon Greyjoy, having taken Winterfell, had

executed both Bran and Rickon, this was of course a ruse in order to establish the young Greyjoys

authority, but Robb was unaware of this. Grieving the loss of his brothers, the Young Wolf fell

into the arms of Jeyne Westerling and took her maidenhead. Much like his father, Robb was a man

driven by honour. Therefore, in order to ensure he had not dishonored her, Robb married Jeyne

immediately, disavowing his previous betrothal agreement to the Freys. This infuriated the

Frey contingent in his army, who withdrew their support and headed back towards the Twins, with

Black Walder Frey going so far as to threaten to kill Jeyne due to the disrespect to their house.

After recovering from his wounds, Robb withdrew from Lannister territory;

however, he was soon to learn that his mother’s reaction to the supposed death of his brothers

would be equally catastrophic to the Stark cause. Catelyn, heartbroken by the loss of her children,

had visited the Kingslayer and come to an accord with him. In return for his freedom,

Jaime was to be accompanied by Brienne of Tarth, who would exchange him for the safe return of her

daughters Sansa and Arya from King's Landing. This move angered many of Robb’s

bannermen, in particular, in particular the patriarch of the Stark cadet branch:

Rickard Karstark, as the Kingslayer had slain his two younger sons: Torrhen and Eddard, at the

Battle of the Camps, in an attempt to reach the Young Wolf. Infuriated, the Lord of Karhold sent

a contingent of his bannermen to recapture Jaime, but they failed in the attempt. Failing that,

Rickard led a small group of Karstark men out to murder the captive Willem Lannister, as a sort of

twisted consolation prize. As a result, Rickard was arrested by Stark forces, and incarcerated.

Following the Karstark insurrection, Edmure further advised Robb to keep Rickard as a

hostage in order to ensure the fealty of the Karstark warriors particularly in the wake of

the Freys returning to the Twins. Robb dismissed this advice, declaring Rickard to be a traitor,

and sentencing him to death, following the advice of his father that “the man who passes the

sentence should swing the sword” Robb personally beheaded his bannerman. Prior to his execution,

Rickard made use of his last breath in order to curse his liege, citing the blood ties between

the Starks and Karstarks, he declared Robb to be a kinslayer: an ill omen for Robb’s cause.

While the Stark war effort was becoming increasingly troubled, the Lannister one

was quickly rebounding. Although the Battle of the Fords had been a decisive Lannister defeat,

it also afforded Tywin the opportunity to wheel his troops around and meet Stannis Baratheon in

open combat outside King’s Landing. Crushing the supposed rightful heir to the Iron Throne,

Tywin simultaneously gained an immensely powerful ally in the great house of Tyrell. To cement

this alliance, the High Septon set aside King Joffrey’s betrothal to Sansa Stark in favour of

one to Margaery Tyrell. By way of comparison, when Robb arrived from the Westerlands with

his newly betrothed Jeyne Westerling, his mother Catelyn bemoaned the fact that he had not married

someone such as Margaery who could bring a sizable force to the Stark cause. However,

it was not all plain sailing for the Royalists, for through the combined efforts of an escaped

Arya Stark and the faceless man Jaqen H’ghar, the Stark prisoners at Harrenhal were freed. Harrenhal

then fell under the control of Roose Bolton, which ostensibly was good for the Stark cause,

but would soon prove to be anything but. Things would soon go from bad to worse for

the Northerners as their situation continued to deteriorate. Although they managed to free

Castle Darry from Lannister occupation, it would fall to Gregor Clegane just two weeks

later. After re-reclaiming this fort, the Mountain who Rides was not in a forgiving

mood and instead sacked the castle, killing the eight-year-old Lord of the Castle Lyman Darry

and eliminating the male line of that house. The Mountain would not hold the castle for

long either, for when Ser Helman Tallhart laid siege to it, Gregor had to retreat,

for he only had a token force under his command. Word soon arrived from Roose Bolton, who ordered

Ser Helman to put the castle to the torch and slaughter all of the Lannister captives, under the

pretense of acting under the orders of the King in the North. Tallhart was then to join Robett

Glover and Harrion Karstark with the remaining Karstarks at Harrenhal to aid in the assault on

Duskendale. Roose played up the unbridled fury of the leaders of this group, which made up

some third of the Northerners footmen, due to the occupation of Torrhen’s Square and Deepwood Motte,

as well as the execution of the patriarch of the Karstark family. In truth, Lord Bolton was

deliberately spurring these men to act rashly, for at this point the ever-cunning Roose had

begun to plot the demise of his own faction. The Northmen made their way through the

Crownlands, pillaging the area on their way to Duskendale. Unfortunately for the

respective leaders of the contingent following on from the defeat of Stannis Baratheon at the

Battle of Blackwater, the Houses Tyrell and Lannister had combined their forces,

making them the most numerically superior faction in the Seven Kingdoms. Tywin, now acting as Hand

of the King to Joffrey I Baratheon, sent his most competent general, Lord Randyll Tarly,

at the head of a large army made up of men from both the Stormlands and the Reach in order to

beat back the invading Northmen at Duskendale. Simultaneously, he sent Ser Gregor Clegane along

with a contingent of Kingsmen to cut off their retreat along the Kingsroad, effectively ensnaring

the unaware Northmen within the Crownlands. When the Northerners arrived, they were surprised

by the size of the force now facing them. However, this did not kill their courage, and they resolved

to fight. On the Northern side Houses Cerwyn, Glover, Hornwood, Karstark, and Tallhart made

up the bulk of the King in the North’s army. On the opposing side, warriors from the Houses Tarly,

Leygood, Ambrose, Fossoway of Cider Hall and Fossoway of New Barrel made up the bulk.

Randyll Tarly’s excellent strategic noose would ultimately win the Royalists the day, as he caught

Robett Glover outside of Duskendale, pinning the Northmen to Blackwater Bay. The battle was

ferocious in nature, being fought in the fields and farms surrounding Duskendale, and it was

here that Helman Tallhart was killed while leading his men in the assault. As the battle continued,

casualties on both sides began to mount, with as many as one thousand Northmen falling around

the fields of Duskendale, never to rise again. Robett, taking command of the battered force,

began a hasty withdrawal to Harrenhal, only to run directly into Ser Gregor Clegane on the Kingsroad,

who utterly shattered the army of the King in the North. Ser Gregor then took Robett Glover

and Harrion Karstark as his prisoners, while his men hunted the stragglers. Although Robett was

eventually exchanged for Martyn Lannister, Harrion Karstark remained in captivity at Maidenpool.

The Northern Foot which made up some third of Robb’s infantry was utterly broken at Duskendale,

severely diminishing Robb’s chances of retaking the North, requiring him to turn to the Freys

once more for support. When word reaches Robb of the defeat at Duskendale, he is left at a loss as

to why the reliable Glover and Tallhart attacked the town to begin with, although at this stage he

remains unaware of the treachery of the Boltons. The slain Northmen were buried in a common grave

close to the sea, with nought more than a wooden sign stating “Here lie the Wolves” to mark their

passing, whereas the fallen royalists were buried in heroes’ tombs beneath the septs of Duskendale.

Robb’s weariness at this stage in the war had finally begun to catch up with him. In

an attempt to repair his relationship to the Freys, he convinced his uncle Edmure to marry

one of Lord Walder’s daughters in order to make up for the affront he committed when he

married Jeyne Westerling. Jeyne was left at Riverrun, with the Blackfish being appointed

as Warden of the Southern Marches. Thereafter, Robb marched North to the Twins, where Edmure

was to marry Lady Roslin Frey, thereby reviving the Stark-Frey alliance before pushing upwards

to retake the North from the Grayjoys. Stopping at Oldstones along the way, Robb

discussed matters of succession. Acknowledging the death of his brothers and the possibility of

Lannister domination of the North through Sansa, Robb suggested acknowledging his bastard brother,

Jon, as a true Stark, which his mother Catelyn vehemently disapproved of. At Hag’s Mire,

Robb sent Maege Mormont and Galbart Glover North to reach Howland Reed,

whose Crannogmen, still loyal to the Starks, would serve as guides through the Neck,

allowing them to take the Ironborn at unawares. At that same point, Catelyn, Edmure, Maege,

Galbart, Jason Mallister, and Greatjon Umber were gathered in order to witness Robb’s choice

of successor which was rumoured to be Jon Snow. Meanwhile, Vargo Hoat, a mercenary currently in

the service of Lord Bolton was growing anxious at the resurgence of Lannister power. He had

previously been in the Lannister’s employ, but had betrayed them in favour of the Boltons,

selling out Harrenhal in the process. Fearing what Lannister retribution might entail,

when Ser Jaime Lannister and his escort Ser Brienne of Tarth were captured near Maidenpool,

Vargo instructed one of his fellow Brave Companions, Zollo, to cut off Jaime’s sword hand.

However, when Roose received Jaime from the leader of the Brave Companions, he assured the Kingslayer

that Vargo had been acting independently from Bolton orders. In return, Jaime assured Roose

that he would not be held responsible for the injury which Vargo inflicted. Lord Bolton

then released Jaime, sending him back to King's Landing, into the hands of his father Tywin. Thus,

Roose became a full on traitor to the Stark cause. Unaware of this, Robb called upon Roose Bolton

to join him at the Twins, as the retaking of Moat Cailin from the Ironborn would require all the men

the Young Wolf could muster. Marching Northwards to join with his supposed liege Lord, Roose

dragged his feet, tarrying at the Trident, causing his rearguard to be mauled by Ser Gregor Clegane.

Upon his arrival at the Twins, Gray Wind was immediately aggressive towards the Freys,

leading to the direwolf being penned up. Soon after, Robb’s men crossed the Green Fork to the

Eastern shore, where a few thousand Freys were encamped within the three great feasting areas,

with the forces of the Late Walder Frey setting up a perimeter wall of numerous wagons and carts to

pin the Starks in. Robb attempted to make amends at the wedding feast by apologizing for his rash

actions to Lord Walder, who instead forced the Young Wolf to beg for the forgiveness of his

assembled daughters and granddaughters. Following on from this ordeal, at the behest of Catelyn

Stark, Robb asked Lord Frey for food and wine in order to gain guest right. When Roose arrived at

the Twins, bringing with him five hundred horsemen and three thousand infantrymen, he discussed the

disaster that was the Battle of Duskendale with Robb, convincing the Young King that the defeat

was due to the foolishness of Robett Glover, and that Theon Greyjoy should be kept in the Dreadfort

following the bastard Ramsay’s reclamation of Winterfell. Catelyn, seated between Ser

Ryman Frey and Lord Roose Bolton, remained uneasy, thinking: “Was there ever a wedding less joyful?”

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to all those gathered, the outlawed Sandor Clegane had brought Arya Stark to

the Twins, in order to hopefully gain some reward from the King in the North for her safe return.

After the wedding, a feast for the highborn was held in one of the castles, with a second bastard

feast being held for the lesser nobles in the second castle, and the common soldiers celebrating

in the feasting tents, with ale, mead and wine provided by the Freys flowing. A multitude of

common songs were played at the feast, with Greatjon Umber bellowing out his own rendition

of the Bear and the Maiden Fair, indicating that he was deep within his cups. Roose then toasted

Lord Walder’s grandsons Big and Little Walder, who were now in the care of Ramsay Snow. Then,

as was the custom Edmure and Roslin, departed the hall for the bedding custom.

Unbeknownst to the Starks, the musicians at the wedding were actually sellswords and knights,

who signaled the beginning of the massacre in a rendition of The Rains of Castamere. It all

happened very quickly. Very few of the Northerners were even able to react, as most were butchered

on the spot by the “musicians” crossbows, or by Frey knives. Soon after, Ser Ryman Frey,

supplemented by the traitorous Boltons and Karstarks, slew Robb’s personal guard,

including Smalljon Umber, Dacey Mormont, and Ser Wendel Manderly. Robb himself had been struck by

multiple crossbow bolts at this stage and stood in the centre of the hall in shock, with his mother

Catelyn grabbing Lord Walder’s lackwit grandson Aegon and offering to trade his life for Robb’s.

“Catelyn: On my honor as a Tully, on my honor as a Stark, I will trade your boy's

life for Robb's. A son for a son. Walder: A son for a son, heh. But

that's a grandson ... and he never was much use.” In response Roose Bolton strides forward and stabs

Robb in the heart stating, “Jaime Lannister sends his regards”. Catelyn then opens Aegon's neck, and

in response, Ser Raymund Frey slits her throat. Not all of the Northerners were killed, however,

with the Greatjon, Patrek Mallister, and Ser Marq Piper, overwhelmed and taken captive. Meanwhile,

Gray Wind was killed in his pen from a number of crossbow bolts. In the camp on the Eastern bank,

the three feast tents collapse and are set alight with fire arrows,

having been oiled earlier in the night. As the intoxicated Northerners burned underneath the

tarpaulin of the tents, Walder Rivers led a contingent of heavily armored Frey men-at-arms

against the Stark loyalists. Sandor fought off three men attempting to capture Arya, before

escaping with the girl still safely in her care. Although the casualties were never definitive,

Robb lost most of his soldiers that night while the Freys lost a mere fifty men in

the slaughter. Robb’s body was decapitated, and vengeful Frey soldiers had Gray Wind’s

head sewn upon his body with a crown nailed to it. To add further insult to injury, Catelyn’s

body was thrown into the river entirely naked, as a harsh mockery of House Tully’s funeral customs.

Through grim and underhanded slaughter, the Northern Rebellion was effectively ended.

Roose Bolton was named Warden of the North, and House Frey was given the lordship of Riverrun,

at the cost of their honour, for they had violated the ancient guest right.

“Tywin: Explain to me why it is more noble to kill ten thousand men

in battle than a dozen at dinner.” Through the Red Wedding, the Lannisters

gathered a number of valuable prisoners, which helped resolve hostilities around Westeros, with

most river lords swearing fealty to King Joffrey. With Edmure Tully captive, Ser Jaime Lannister was

able to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the siege of Riverrun. Meanwhile, Black Walder Frey

threatened to hang Patrek Mallister outside his father's castle, which resulted in Lord Jason's

surrender at the siege of Seagard. Moreover, Greatjon Umber and Ser Marq Piper were held

as hostages to ensure their houses' loyalty to the Boltons: the new overlords in the North.

However, despite having ostensibly triumphed over all their enemies, trouble and tragedy was in the

forecast for the House of Lannister, as the eldest of Cersei’s children was soon to meet his end,

triggering a set of events which would ultimately undermine their dominance over the Seven Kingdoms.

While Robert Baratheon ruled in the Seven Kingdoms, content in the defeat of his great

rival Rhaegar Targaryen and the death of the Mad King Aerys, the Targaryen line had not been

entirely snuffed out. The youngest scions of the house, a brother and a sister, still drew breath.

At present, their continued existence in Essos posed no immediate threat to the Usurper, but time

would prove to be a great equalizer in this tale. Princess Daenerys Targaryen, also referred to as

Daenerys Stormborn due to the circumstances of her birth, was the youngest child of King Aerys

II Targaryen and his sister-wife, Queen Rhaella Targaryen. She was initially conceived during the

last month of Robert’s Rebellion, which as we have already detailed was not a great time to be a

Targaryen. Shortly after this conception, Rhaella was sent to Dragonstone, the ancestral home of

House Targaryen, with the unborn Daenerys’ older brother, the young Prince Viserys, in order to

avoid the rebel army headed by Ned Stark following their victory at the Battle of the Trident.

Daenerys was born in inauspicious circumstances, as a great storm

raging about Dragonstone destroying what remained of the Targaryen fleet, while her mother would not

survive the birth of her daughter. The Targaryen family had been decimated in the war, with Aerys,

Rhaegar, and his children Rhaenys and Aegon murdered by the Mountain,

leaving young Viserys and Daenerys as the last of the Dragons. Viserys was therefore named King

on the island of Dragonstone, while Daenerys, as his heir, was named Princess of Dragonstone.

Their time on Dragonstone was to be a fleeting one, as Stannis Baratheon was

building a mighty fleet to take the island. Fortunately for the House of the Dragon,

one Ser Willem Darry, the former Master-at-Arms of the Red Keep, smuggled the children to the

Free City of Braavos, where they lived under Darry’s protection until his death.

In 297 AC, the Targaryens were taken in by Magister Illyrio Mopatis of the Free City of

Pentos, who sheltered them for half a year and offered to help in reclaiming the Iron

Throne. In order to do so, he brokered a marriage to the Dothraki Khal Drogo,

who would marry Daenerys in return for providing her brother, Viserys, with the army required to

reclaim the Kingdom he deemed to be his by right. The two were wed outside the walls of Pentos,

with the most important gift of the day being three petrified dragon eggs provided by Magister

Illyrio, and the sworn service of the exiled and disgraced Knight Ser Jorah Mormont to Viserys.

Although she had initially dreaded marrying such a violent and barbaric man in Khal Drogo,

during the Khalasar’s journey to Vaes Dothrak, the only true city of the Dothraki,

a loving relationship ensued between the unlikely pairing. Moreover, Daenerys also became aware of

her brother’s weakness and ineptitude as a ruler, finally shedding the fear she had so long held for

him. On her fourteenth name day, Daenerys revealed to all that she was now pregnant, and they finally

arrived in Vaes Dothrak not long after. Daenerys’ marriage, pregnancy, and overall

upturn in fortunes did not go unnoticed, and the revelations were to have massive implications back

in King's Landing. When King Robert learned of Daenerys’ marriage through his Master

of Whispers Lord Varys, it caused friction between the King and his Hand Eddard Stark,

and the further revelation that she was now pregnant led Robert to command that

a price be put on Daenerys and Viserys’ head. At Vaes Dothrak, Daenerys was presented to the

Elders of the Dothraki, the Dosh Khaleen, and took part in a ceremony for her unborn child,

eating a raw stallion heart in the process. Following this, the Dosh Khaleen named

Daenerys’ child the Stallion who mounts the world. Meanwhile, Viserys would cause a fair

share of difficulties on that same evening, as he first attempted to steal Daenerys’ eggs,

only to be foiled by Ser Jorah, before arriving at the ceremony with his blade in hand, which was

forbidden. He then drunkenly threatened Daenerys and her child, which led to Khal Drogo melting the

gold medallions on his belt before giving him the crown he had asked for. So it was that the eldest

of the Targaryen’s died screaming far from the Kingdom he had striven to reclaim his whole life.

The brutal death suffered by her brother left Daenerys the supposed last surviving Targaryen,

and as such, she felt the need to take up the deceased Viserys’ cause of reclaiming the Seven

Kingdoms. However, her husband Khal Drogo was uninterested in such a plan, until assassins

attempting to claim King Robert’s reward were barely foiled by Ser Jorah. This ignited the fury

of the great Khal, who made a solemn vow to reconquer the Seven Kingdoms for their unborn

son. This vow caused him to lead their Khalasar South, in order to enslave as

many people as possible, with the plan to exchange them for ships in Slaver’s Bay.

During this incursion, they ran head first into a Lhazareen town which was being assaulted by

another Khalasar led by Khal Ogo. The two Khalasars proceed to engage in battle,

with Khal Drogo coming out on top and gaining some ten thousand captives, who Daenerys put under her

direct protection to prevent their rape, causing furor among the Dothraki. During the battle, Drogo

was injured and was unable to be seen immediately by the healers, leading to Daenerys turning to the

aid of a Lhazereen god's wife called Mirri Maz Duur. However, the poultice Miri provided itched

and burned Khal Drogo, who tore it off, replacing it with a plaster formed primarily of mud. This

did little to stem the pain and the wound began to fester, causing the mighty Khal to become weaker

and weaker until he eventually fell off his horse. Daenerys sensed the danger in this, as a Khal who

cannot ride a horse cannot lead a Khalasar would not remain a Khal for long. Acting quickly,

Daenerys ordered that camp be made before asking for Mirri Maz Duur to be brought to her. Rumours

of the Khal’s fall had already begun to spread however, and by the time Jorah came to their

tent and examined the wound underneath the mud plaster, he concluded that Khal Drogo

was as good as dead already. Despite urging her to leave, for fear that the power struggle that

would ensue following Drogo’s death, Daenerys instead sent the Knight to put on his armour.

When Mirri arrived, Daenerys asked her to save Drogo using Blood Magic. However,

Mirri warned her that, “only death may pay for life” even though it would not be her life that

acted as the counterweight in this bargain. As the ritual began, a battle erupted between

Drogo’s bloodriders and Daenary’s personal guard - khas, as the unborn Rhaego began to kick wildly,

causing Daenerys to go into labour. The midwives would not attend her however, due to the black

magic ritual which was ongoing, this caused Jorah to carry her back into the tent in the

hopes that Mirri could do something. Daenerys too weak to protest acquiesced and soon passed out.

Daenerys came to some days later following several horrific fever dreams,

and was holding one of her dragon eggs. Her predicament was a brutal one. Her son, Rhaego,

was stillborn and malformed: the price of blood magic, and Drogo, although alive, was now in a

catatonic state. When Daenerys demanded to know when he would return to his prior wakeful state,

Mirri responded: “When the sun rises in the west and sets in the east. When the seas go

dry and mountains blow in the wind like leaves. When your womb quickens again, and you bear a

living child. Then he will return, and not before" Mirri had purposefully brought about this waking

nightmare for Daenerys in retribution for the burning of her temple and slaughter of

her people. Due to this, the Lhazareen god's wife was arrested under Daenerys orders, and

realizing that Drogo was now past the point of no return, Daenerys euthanized the man. She further

declared herself to be Queen, freed her slaves, and created a Khalasar of sorts. Furthermore,

Jorah was named as a knight of her Queensguard. The Queen then ordered a pyre to be built for

the deceased Drogo, and placed upon it her three dragon eggs. Mirri was bound to it,

with Daenerys informing the witch that, “only death can pay for life”. The pyre

was set alight just as the first star, which happened to be a red comet, was seen in the

sky and once the fire was at its greatest extent and ferocity, Daenerys walked into the flames.

The next morning, as the flame had died out and the ground had cooled,

the makeshift Khalasar found their Queen naked, yet alive, among the ashes. Her

being unharmed would cause enough consternation for the everyday Dothraki, however, it was the

three newly hatched dragons which brought the greatest shock to her people. These dragons,

the first to live since the year 153 AC, caused all gathered to drop to their knees and swear

oaths to Daenerys, oaths which would make them more loyal to her than they ever were to Drogo.

The three dragons were named Viserion, after Daenerys’ brother Viserys, Rhaegal, after her

brother Rhaegar and Drogon, after her deceased husband. Unable to remain where they were with

several powerful Khalasars nearby, decisive action was required. Daenerys elected to follow the red

comet, which she saw as a herald of her coming, causing her to take her people through the red

waste. They soon came to an abandoned city that the Queen named Vaes Tolorro. Here the Khalasar

began to recover from the terrible journey, while her Bloodriders were sent out to look for a way

forward. Two of the three returned empty-handed, however, Jhogo returned accompanied by three

citizens of the city of Qarth. The merchant Xaro Xhoan Daxos, the warlock Pyat Pree, and the

shadow-binder Quaitje of Asshai. They escorted Daenerys and her people to Qarth, with Xaro

inviting them to stay in his palace; it is at this point that she learned of the death of King Robert

and the ensuing conflict over his succession. Daenerys was not idle during her time in Qarth,

attempting to find backers in her reconquest of the Seven Kingdoms, this proved to be less than

successful, and before long she was left with only one faction to turn to, the Warlocks. Daenerys

went to the House of the Undying where Pyat Pree gave her shade-of-the-evening, and she entered

the building alone. She soon experienced several strange visions, and when she finally reached the

hall of the Undying, a prophecy was spoken, apparently dictating her future:“we know… the

shape of shadows… morrows not yet made… drink from the cup of ice… drink from the cup of fire… Mother

of Dragons… Child of Three… three heads has the dragon… three fires must you light: one for life

and one for death and one to love… three mounts must you ride: one to bed and one to dread and

one to love… three treasons will you know: once for blood and once for gold and once for love…

daughter of death, slayer of lies, bride of fire…” More visions followed as the undying attacked her,

fortunately, Drogon, set them alight allowing her to flee. As she ran, Daenerys was attacked

by Pyat Pree, however, a combination of her bloodriders Jhogo and Rakharo, and Drogon,

saved her from the infuriated warlock. This destructive act, which resulted in the destruction

of the Qarthi palace, turned the Qartheen against the Targaryen Queen as Pyat Pree was now

gathering the remaining Warlocks to confront her. After she rejected a marriage proposal from Xaro,

he offered her ships in exchange for one of her dragons. Daenerys rejected this too,

and led her people out of the Palace. She visited the docks in the hopes of finding

passage for her and her people, Jorah warned her that they were now being followed by two

strangers. Focused on the strangers, Daenerys was caught unaware when another individual,

which happened to be a Sorrowful Man, one the foremost assassins in the world, handed her a box

from which emerged an extremely deadly manticore. One of the strangers, acting with immense haste,

knocked aside the manticore before it could sting her, which saved the Queen’s life.

The two strangers were Belwas, a massive eunuch and former pit fighter, and his supposed squire

Arstan Whitebeard, who revealed that they had been sent to Qarth by Magister Illyrio. They

had with them three ships meant to escort Daenerys and her people back to Pentos,

on the orders of her former benefactor. Daenerys then renamed the ships provided to her as Vhagar,

Meraxes, and Balerion, after the dragons of Aegon I Targaryen and his sister-wives Rhaenys and

Visenya, as they began the voyage towards Pentos. During the journey, Ser Jorah convinced Daenerys

to change course to Astapor due to his distrust of the Magister. This city within Slaver’s Bay

produced the finest eunuch spearmen in the world, the Unsullied, who were known to have defeated

even the Dothraki in open battle, and he further believed that having a loyal army behind her would

increase her bargaining power with Illyrio. At this point, the exiled knight also expressed his

deep-seated love for her and offered to be one of the three heads of the dragon as her husband.

When they arrived in Astapor, Daenerys began to treat with the Good Masters, with the arrogant

Kraznys mo Nakloz using a translator, Missandei, insulting the Targaryen Queen, as he believed she

could not understand High Valyrian. In spite of the protests of Arstan Whitebeard against

the usage of slave soldiers, Daenerys informed the Good Masters that she would exchange all of

her ships, goods, and Drogon in return for all of the eight thousand six hundred Unsullied and

the five thousand boys in training. The slavers agreed to this transaction and presented Missandei

as a gift, who Daenerys promptly freed. The following day, Daenerys assumed control

of her soldiers and betrayed the Good Masters when she ordered Drogon to attack the slavers

and her Unsullied to conquer the city. She then freed all of the slaves there and set

up a council to rule the free city. She further freed all of her Unsullied that she possessed,

who then elected to continue in her service. At the head of her new extremely effective army,

Daenerys set her sights on the city of Yunkai. The slavers there aware of the Sack of Astapor,

hired two sellsword companies: the Stormcrows and Second Sons, to supplement their slave army

of four thousand. Daenerys met with the delayed envoy from Yunkai and the leaders of the mercenary

companies, offering to pay them more than the Yunkish in order to get them to switch sides.

The envoy from Yunkai, Grazdan mo Eraz, arrived last and offered Daenerys gold to turn back,

she refused and ordered that all of their slaves be freed within three

days or she would sack the city. Once the Yunkish envoy had left,

Daenerys revealed her intention to attack the city that same night. The Stormcrows leaders continued

to argue about her offer, while the Second Sons became drunk on the wine she had given them.

Just before the battle was to begin however, Daario Naharis walked into the Targaryen camp

and presented the Queen with the heads of his fellow captains: Prendahl na Ghezn and Sallor,

before pledging the Stormcrows to her cause. As the army attacked Yunkai, Daenerys remained in

camp. Though Mero, the captain of the Second Sons escaped, thousands of soldiers were taken captive,

with Daenerys agreeing to spare any slave or sellsword who would swear their loyalty to

her. Daenerys then made her way to the gates of Yunkai, but waited until the morning of the third

day before she took any further action. That same morning, the gates of the mighty city were opened,

and the slaves of Yunkai streamed forth, hailing Daenerys as “Mhysa”, which in the

Ghiscari tongue meant mother. They welcomed her as a saviour and liberator: the Breaker of Chains.

With the defeat of the Yunkish forces outside the gates of their city, Daenerys had become

ever more confident in the necessity of her continued crusade against slavery and

oppression within Slaver's Bay. This emboldened the young Targaryen to cast her eyes even further

North to the mighty city of Meereen. At this point, however, the residents of Slaver's Bay

had become wary of the potential that this upstart of Old Valyrian blood had to upend

the existing balance of power that had emerged following the doom of the Freehold. As a result,

preparations were made far in advance of the Mother of Dragon's arrival outside their gates.

The Meerenese withdrew all of their soldiers behind the immense walls of the city and left

the lands behind them bereft of any resource which could be of use to the oncoming Targaryen

army. Moreover, they added an element of terror into the equation. With the majority of Daenerys'

host being composed of former slaves, a hundred and sixty-three enslaved children were nailed

onto the mileposts along the coast road. Thus, as the Targaryen army made its way from Yunkai

to Meereen, they were confronted with the very embodiment of the horrors Daenerys wished to

bring to an end, mile by mile of their journey. Following this harrowing march, Daenerys decided

to encamp her host just outside the walls of Meereen as an act of defiance. To show that

despite their best efforts, the Slavers would not break the spirits of the freedmen and women

of Yunkai and Astapor. By now, Daenerys' host numbered some 80,000 individuals,

even if less than a quarter of them were active combatants. The Meerenese then sent forward

their finest warrior: Oznak Zo Pahl, the Hero of Meereen, who challenged the Targaryens to single

combat. Atop his white charger and holding a fourteen-foot lance, Oznak taunted the

besieging army. At the same time, discussions commenced between Daenerys and her closest

advisors regarding who should be sent to face him. Eventually, Daenerys decided upon her bodyguard,

Strong Belwas. The reasoning behind this decision was twofold: as Belwas was an ex-slave,

his death would not bring prestige to the Hero of Meereen. Likewise, should the former pit

fighter defeat Oznak, it would bring shame to Meereen and strengthen Daenerys' reputation.

Thus the duel was joined, and Oznak immediately charged at Belwas, who injured his horse, forcing

Oznak to dismount and draw his sword. As was his tradition, Belwas allowed his opponent to wound

him on his scarred stomach before beheading the horseman with his arakh. The colossal eunuch then

held aloft the decapitated head of the nobleman for all upon the great walls of Meereen to see,

who began to loose stray arrows at him in spite of the fact they were out of range. In response,

Belwas squatted in the direction of the city, defecated, then used the cloak of Oznak to wipe

himself, killed his horse, and looted the body before returning to the Targaryen camp triumphant.

While this represented a minor victory for the Targaryen cause, the imposing walls of Meereen

remained an issue. The newly appointed commander of the Second Sons, Ben Plumm, suggested entering

through the sewers, which Daenerys rejected out of hand. She then visited a camp of freedmen

where she was assaulted by the former Head of the Second Sons, Mero, who had hidden among her

followers. Fortunately for Daenerys, Arstan intervened and slew the sellsword with ease.

However, the skill Arstan demonstrated caused Jorah to question his true identity,

and Arstan revealed that he was, in fact, Ser Barristan Selmy. Jorah would then inform Daenerys

that following on from the Battle of the Trident and the death of her brother Rhaegar at the hands

of the Usurper Robert Baratheon, Ser Barristan had betrayed House Targaryen. By bending the knee and

joining the Kingsguard of Robert Baratheon, Barristan did not deserve to be trusted:

a point Ser Jorah pushed to protect his position at Daenerys's side. Barristan initially countered

this point by stating that he had shied away from revealing his identity for fear that

word would make its way back to the Lannisters that he had joined her cause. Unfortunately,

the angered Queen did not accept this as sufficient cause. However, the former Lord

Commander of the Kingsguard, having traveled so far to find a liege worthy of his service,

would not be undermined by Ser Jorah, a man who, by all rights, should have been executed for his

actions. Ser Barristan, therefore, revealed that Jorah had acted as an informant for the Iron

Throne since Daenerys' wedding to Khal Drogo, and despite his protests, Jorah was forced to

admit the truth of the aged knights' words. Infuriated by what she deemed a betrayal on

both their parts, Daenerys ordered both Ser Jorah and Ser Barristan to lead the assault through the

sewers, half-heartedly hoping they would perish in the attempt. As the main assault composed of

barrages of arrow fire upon the walls, while a ram broke down the city's gates, Jorah, Barristan,

Belwas, and nineteen others entered through the sewers. They subsequently defeated the guards who

were not defending the walls and freed the slaves of the city, who promptly revolted,

allowing the Targaryen forces to take the city. In retaliation for the vile acts conducted before

Daenerys arrived in the city, the last of the Targaryens had one hundred and sixty-three of

the Great Masters rounded up. Each and every one of those assembled was subsequently nailed to

posts on the plaza that stood outside the Great Pyramid of Meereen, which avenged the children

crucified upon the coast road. The Queen's next course of action was now to deliberate upon the

fates of the traitors within her midst. She could find it within herself to forgive and

pardon the aged Knight Ser Barristan. However, the same could not be said for Ser Jorah.

Unable to overlook such a blatant breach of her trust, the former Lord of Bear Island

was exiled again, with the ominous warning that should he return to Meereen, he would be executed.

Fortunately, the void left in Daenerys' only genuine connection to Westeros was filled by

Barristan, who spoke to her of her Grandfather, King Jaehaerys II, while further elaborating

upon the life of her forebear Aerys. In doing so, he provided context to the unspoken truth

that when each Targaryen is born, a coin is tossed by the Gods as to whether the madness

inherent in their family would overtake that particular scion of Old Valyria. In doing so,

he informed the Queen that initially, Aerys had not been mad, but it had overtaken him

as the years passed. Although Daenerys did not want to hear of this at that moment,

she informed the old Knight that she would like to hear more in the days to come before naming

Ser Barristan Lord Commander of the Queensguard. In this role, Barristan trained a number of the

nobility in the ways of Western Chivalry, as well as some sixty formerly enslaved people,

with thirty persevering and the most promising among them being squired to him personally.

Further ill tidings came to the court of the Mother of Dragons, as in Astapor,

the ruling council that she had installed had been deposed, with each of the councilors executed. A

former butcher named Cleon, who was once enslaved to Grazdan mo Ullhor, was now King of Astapor,

and one of his first mandates was to have all of the city's former nobility enslaved. Further,

Yunkai had begun raising new levies and sending out envoys, hoping to garner allies in the fight

against the Breaker of Chains. Daenerys blamed herself for the failings of the cities she had

once liberated and decided upon a change of tact in her approach going forward. Therefore,

Daenerys called all of her most loyal lieutenants to her side and informed them that she would

remain in Meereen to learn to rule one city before embarking upon the far more ambitious plan

of heading the entirety of the Seven Kingdoms. Word had begun trickling back to Westeros at this

point, with Varys informing the Small Council of rumours of a three-headed dragon hatched

in Qarth. This was not the end of the stories either, as, among the acolytes of the citadel,

word spread of dragons in Asshai, Qarth, and Meereen, along with news of supposed slave revolts

in Essos. Soon, the truth reached Dorne and Kings Landing regarding the hatching of dragons and the

slave revolts. Meanwhile, Euron Greyjoy claimed at the Kingsmoot of the Iron Islands that he

would marry the Mother of Dragons, dispatching his brother Victarion and the Iron Fleet to Slaver's

Bay to bring his soon-to-be betrothed to him. Such tidings also made their way as far as the

Wall before long, which convinced Maester Aemon that Daenerys was the Princess who was Promised,

which prompted the old man and Samwell Tarly to make their way to the Citadel in Oldtown. Aemon,

unfortunately, died on the voyage. Still, Samwell informed the Archmaester Marwyn, who,

upon hearing what Aemon had deliberated upon, decided to travel to Slaver's Bay

to offer the Breaker of Chains his services. Despite all this bubbling support in her homeland,

in Meereen, Daenerys' experiment with rulership had proven to be faltering. The Sons of the Harpy,

a militant order composed of Ghiscari noblemen, had formed in order to resist Targaryen rule. They

subsequently waged a guerrilla war against her, emerging during the night to slaughter freedmen,

Unsullied and Shavepates, before disappearing back into the winding alleyways of the city before they

could be captured. In response, Daenerys founded the Brazen Beasts: a city watch composed of the

people of Meereen, while also placing a bounty of a thousand honors upon the head of each of

the Sons of the Harpy's heads. To fund this costly endeavor, a blood tax was levied upon the noble

families of the city, while two hostages from each of these prestigious slaver families were demanded

in an attempt to stem the bloodshed. Despite all these measures taken,

Daenerys Targaryen's faltering experiment with rulership was to continue. Indeed,

her role as a kind-hearted ruler grappling with the realities of a world that stubbornly refused

to consent to the changes she wished to implement would soon begin to bear heavily upon her.

Following their founding as a militia hellbent on deposing Daenerys' rule, the Sons of the

Harpy remained unrelenting, offering a hundred slave girls to anyone who could bring them the

silver-haired head of the city's ruler. This was not the end of their promises, for suffering was

to be dished out to any who supported what the nobles deemed unfair occupation of their city. As

the murders continued apace, Daenerys' kind heart again got in the way as she found herself unable

to harm the hostages she had taken from the city's noble families to deter the Sons of the Harpies,

even if it might stop the attacks. Instead, she founded three more companies of freedmen:

the Stalwart Shields, the Mother's Men, and the Free Brothers, who were all charged

with defending the city from the Harpies. While most of Meereen's nobility despised her,

some of the city's upper crust still supported her. This faction came to be known as Shavepates,

a group who, as we mentioned in our story before, had been targeted by the Sons of the

Harpy due to their loyalties. To display their support for the Queen, these men renounced the

Ghiscari culture of old by shaving their heads and abandoning their traditional hairstyle. Moreover,

their leader, Skahaz mo Kandaq, also served as a counsellor to Daenerys. To further

complicate matters in a politically chaotic city, the Queen's dragons had grown wilder,

hunting and slaughtering sheep in the hinterlands outside of Meereen's walls. Daenerys compensated

the shepherds for their losses. However, when another herder presented the burned

bones of his daughter Hazzea, Daenerys' hand was forced. Viserion and Rhaegal were imprisoned in

a pit below the Great Pyramid where they could do no more harm. Drogon escaped his attempted

containment, flying towards the Dothraki Sea. As the burdens of rule continued to mount upon

Daenerys' back, the last scion of Old Valyria was visited by a vision of Quaithe as she slept, who

warned her of more significant dangers to come. "Soon comes the pale mare, and after her,

the others. Kraken and dark flame, lion and griffin, the sun's son and the mummer's

dragon. Trust none of them. Remember the Undying. Beware the perfumed seneschal."

A merchant prince of Qarth, Xaro Xhoan Daxos, offered Daenerys a solution to

her ongoing problems, proposing to give her thirteen ships, which her people could use to

depart for Westeros immediately. However, she soon as the Queen realized that her freedmen

would have to be left behind, she refused the offer outright. At this point in her reign,

all she had strived to build was on the verge of being toppled. In Yunkai, slavery had resumed,

and the Wise Masters had re-established an army comprised of slave levies and sellswords,

complemented by their allies in New Ghis, who sent the formidable Iron Legions to aid them.

With all this new manpower, they set their sights on restoring the old world order in Astapor.

With an army approaching his gates, King Cleon scrambled to prepare for the onslaught,

with Daenerys predictably offering him no aid. As a result, he was defeated at the Horns of Hazzat,

with his poorly trained and inexperienced new Unsullied scattered and slaughtered during a

wild and uncoordinated retreat to Astapor. Daenerys regretted not lending her aid,

yet Meereen would undoubtedly have fallen to the Harpies in her absence if she had. Cleon

the Great, as he had begun to style himself, was assassinated by his soldiers. His successor,

Cleon the Second, would only survive eight days on the throne before having his throat cut.

He was succeeded by his killer, a former barber known appropriately as King Cutthroat. Cutthroat

subsequently surrendered the city, allowing the besiegers to put most of its population

to the sword, while Cutthroat himself was thrown into a pit where a pack of rabid dogs killed him.

After the sack of Astapor, the Yunkish set their eyes on Meereen and began a march

upon the city along the Coast Road, which placed Daenerys under immense pressure. Galazza Galare,

the high priestess of the town, counseled that to appease the nobles of Slavers' bay,

Daenerys should marry a noble of the city. The gentleman Hizdahr zo Loraq was identified as the

most eligible bachelor. An agreement between the two was quickly hashed out, with Hizdahr being

told that if he could stop the murders committed by the Sons of the Harpy within 90 days, he would

earn the Queens' hand in marriage. This bargain was made against the wishes of Ser Barristan,

who vehemently opposed it. Not long after, Daario Naharis returned to the city, and good tidings

came with the sellsword's homecoming. Negotiations with the Lhazareen had been successful, and the

peaceful shepherd people would now trade with Meereen. When Daenerys asked Daario his opinion

on her arranged marriage, the ever-pragmatic leader of the Stormcrows suggested that the

marriage ceremony should be used as a pretense to bring together the nobility and execute

them en masse. Revolted by his Machiavellian instincts, Daenerys sent his Stormcrows back

out of the city to guard the Kyzai Pass. The situation went from bad to worse for

Daenerys when ships from Qarth, Tolos, and New Ghis blockaded the harbor of Meereen. Lacking

a navy of her own, Daenerys' followers were unable to dislodge the blockade. In slightly

gladder tidings, it seemed as if Hizdahr had managed to put a stop to the murders within the

city. However, this success generated suspicions that Hizdahr was a Son of the Harpy all along.

Meanwhile, Astapori refugees had made their way to the town. Since many of them were infected

with the bloody flu, Daenerys was forced to make them camp outside the city's walls so

they would not contaminate the people within. Hizdahr's diplomatic efforts continued when

he contacted the Yunkai'i, who offered a peace that required tribute from the Targaryens and

an agreement that Yunkai and Astapor would return to their former status as Slaver

cities without her interference: an agreement contingent upon Daenerys and Hizdahr's marriage.

After this, Daario returned to the town again, bringing news that the Second Sons had defected to

Yunkai. The Yunkai'i force now consisted of four sellsword companies, Tolosi slingers, Qartheen

camelry, and six Iron Legions of New Ghis. With the immense stress of the situation

bearing heavily upon her, Daenerys gave in to her urges and took Daario as her lover.

A mere day before her wedding to Hizdahr, Daario introduced the Mother of Dragons to the Windblown,

who had defected to their side. One man among them revealed himself as Quentyn Martell,

a Prince of Dorne. Quentyn had brought with him a signed wedding pact to marry his sister,

the Dornish Princess Arianne, to Daenerys' brother Viserys. Upon learning Viserys was, in fact, dead,

Quentyn offered his hand in marriage to Daenerys. In an attempt to keep her earlier promises,

Daenerys rejected the proposal out of hand and instead married Hizdahr.

Hizdahr then invited the captains of the Yunkish army into the city to celebrate the peace treaty

and the reopening of the fighting pits, with Meereenese hostages being sent to the Yunkish

camp to ensure the Yunkish captain's safety, with Daenerys despising the entire ordeal. The

Queen attempted to convince Quentyn Martell to return home for his safety while visiting her

dragons before making her way to Daznak's Pit for the festivities. As the celebrations at the

pit commenced, everything went south incredibly quickly. Wishing for Daenerys to try some of the

local cuisines, Hizdahr urged Daenerys to try a Meereenese delicacy: locusts. These insects

were instead consumed by the bottomless pit that was Belwas, who promptly dropped to his knees and

began to evacuate the contents of his stomach, revealing that the locusts had been poisoned. At

that exact moment, Drogon swooped into the pit to eat the body of a fallen pit fighter, which

caused panic in the crowd. One man fired a spear at the dragon, which prompted Daenerys to rush

to his side, mount him, and fly from the arena. This flight caused many to fear that Daenerys had

died, and chaos broke out in the city. However, she remained very much alive. Drogon had brought

her to the Dothraki Sea but would no longer listen to her commands. As such, she began the

long walk back to Meereen. During his trek, she fell ill, retching and suffering from diarrhea,

suffering a fever dream of Viserys before finally being able to call Drogon to her

side. At this point, the Khalasar of Khal Jhaqo came upon both dragon and rider.

Back in Meereen, the chaos that had engulfed the city resulted in an unlikely alliance between Ser

Barristan, Grey Worm, and Skahaz. Barristan was infuriated by what he deemed to be a

plot by Hizdahr to assassinate Daenerys. However, he did not act against Hizdahr,

believing that in the absence of the Queen, it was not his place to make such decisions. However,

the grandfatherly Barristan's anger came to a boiling point when Bloodbeard, the leader of

the Company of the Cat, informed him that one of the Meereenese hostages had been executed.

Barristan, alongside the Brazen Beasts, reacted by arresting Hizdahr, slaying the massive and

imposing pit fighter Khrazz in the process. Unfortunately, despite Barristan having urged

Quentyn to leave the city for his own sake, the Dornishman attempted to tame one of Daenerys's

dragons and was mortally wounded by Dragonfire, with Rhaegal and Viserion escaping as a result

of the Martell Prince's folly. Faced with enemies on all fronts, Barristan was forced to assume the

role of Hand of the Queen. A council session was then called, where the plan for the city's defense

was decided upon. Matters were complicated when the news was brought to Ser Barristan

that the Yunkish catapults had begun flinging corpses into the town infected with the bloody

flux. Ordinarily, Ser Barristan would have defended the city from behind its stout walls,

yet for this fight, he made the bold choice to ride out and meet the besiegers in the field

rather than watch the pale mare bring Meereen to its knees. As a result, Barristan assembled the

forces available to him. On the evening before the offensive took place, he gave a speech to

the newly anointed knights he had been training in the city up until this point. Then, at the coming

of the Dawn, Barristan ordered the attack. This brings us up to date with the tale of

Daenerys Targaryen at the time of writing. However, we remain hopeful that the Winds

of Winter will bring us to the culmination of the Second Siege of Meereen in due time.

When all was said and done, Robert Baratheon sat on the Iron Throne, forever altering the

course of the history of the Seven Kingdoms. Of all the dramatic twists in that seminal war,

perhaps the most surprising was that Eddard Stark, the noblest man in the realm, had besmirched the

very honour he held so dear by way of siring a bastard son. Following the defeat of the Mad

King and the death of his sister Lyanna, Ned made his way back to his ancestral seat of Winterfell,

bringing with him not only his retinue but also the bastard son he had named Jon. This drew a

frosty reception from his wife, Catelyn, and this animosity was only furthered by

the patriarch of the Stark family’s abject refusal to speak of the boy's parentage.

Jon was raised amongst the Stark children, with Ned displaying a fierce protectiveness

towards the boy, ensuring that he received an education befitting a true scion of House

Stark. As a result, the bastard grew close with his trueborn siblings Robb and Arya,

yet less so with Sansa, who treated him with disdain as her mother did. This relatively

comfortable existence was soon to change with a portent of the coming of Winter, which was

encountered when the Stark retinue returned from the execution of a deserter of the Night’s Watch.

During their home journey to Winterfell, the party discovered a dead Direwolf who had left a litter

of pups. Upon Jon’s suggestion, the pups were not executed but instead given to each of the

Stark children to raise. Jon received the runt of the litter: an albino pup whom he named Ghost.

Due to his bastard status, Jon was deemed unworthy to sit with his trueborn siblings at the feast,

welcoming King Robert to the North. During the festivities, he spoke with Benjen Stark,

the First Ranger of the Night’s Watch. Here, Jon set his heart upon joining the brotherhood, fully

aware that his prospects as a bastard were limited even despite the kindness his father has displayed

throughout the years. This process was hastened by Ned’s acceptance of the title of Hand of the King,

which necessitated that he head toward King's Landing. Catelyn was unwilling to keep Jon

in Winterfell in her husband's absence, and Ned could not bring his bastard to court. Therefore,

it was agreed that he would go North to the Wall. This arrangement pleased Catelyn, as due to the

vows Jon would have to take with the watch, he would be unable to sire sons who would challenge

her own offspring’s claim to Winterfell. Jon’s dreams of joining a brotherhood

of likeminded, stalwart guardians of civilization were soon dispelled when,

upon arriving at the wall, he discovered that the Night’s Watch of old had been fundamentally

altered into an unrecognizable tapestry of criminals and exiles. Initially, Jon allowed

his resentment of his current station to bleed into how he treated fellow recruits, resulting

in a confrontation between them. Only after a conversation with the armourer of Castle Black,

Donal Noye, Jon realized he had treated the others in much the same way he had once been treated due

to his status as a bastard. After this, Jon won the respect of his fellow recruits by displaying

the characteristics of a great leader, mentor and, most importantly, friend. However, his

popularity also won him the undying hatred of the master-at-arms Ser Alliser Thorne. Jon’s closest

friend at the Wall was Samwell Tarly, a rotund man most unsuited to the rigours of the Black and

who could only take his vows due to Jon convincing Maester Aemon to take him as his personal steward.

Following the end of the training period among the recruits, Jon believed he had proven himself

to be a worthy candidate for the rangers. Thus, he was shocked and dismayed when Lord Commander

Mormont named him his personal steward. This fury was somewhat tempered when Samwell informed Jon

was being intentionally kept close at the Lord Commander’s side to groom him for a leadership

position. Jon and Sam decided to take their vows before a set of weirwood threes North of

the Wall. During this time, Ghost returned with the hand of Jafer Flowers. This led the Brothers

of the Night's Watch to their fallen companions, Jafer and Othor, who were brought back to Castle

Black. That same night, the two corpses arose as wights and came within a hair’s breadth of

taking the Lord Commander’s life had it not been for Jon’s timely intervention. As a reward for

his valiant efforts, Jon was awarded Longclaw: a Valyrain Steel bastard sword and treasured

heirloom of the Mormont family. In recognition of House Stark's blood that ran through his veins,

Jon had the Mormont bear's head pommel replaced with that of a dire wolf.

Jon’s heart was torn when news reached Castle Black that Robb Stark had called his banners and

marched South. Despite the counsel of Maester Aemon, who was revealed to be a Targaryen,

Jon still decided to abandon his vows despite the death penalty which came with it and ride

South to join his brother. He was swayed from this course of action when his friends

among the Watch pursued him and convinced him to return to the Brotherhood. The following morning,

the Lord Commander berated the young bastard and, properly chastised, Jon fully committed to the

Night's Watch. This would come at a pivotal point, serving as a crossroads for the watch. Benjen

Stark had gone missing in the interim, which in conjunction with other ill tidings from Beyond

the Wall, made Jeor Mormont certain of only one true path forward. The Nights Watch would lead a

ranging North in a show of force that had not been seen in generations and discover for themselves

if the casualties could be attributed to the wildlings alone or something even more sinister.

The great ranging began with all preparations having been made,

yet the initial portents left an uncertain picture for the party. The two-hundred-strong

company from Castle Black, supplemented by a further one hundred rangers from the Shadow Tower,

were encountered by nought more than silence. The wildling villages they rode past, including

Whitetree, were abandoned. Only at Craster’s Keep were they informed of a new King Beyond the Wall

who had united the fiercely independent wildlings in the Frostfangs. This man was not unknown to

the Night's Watch, for it was none other than the former ranger Mance Rayder, who had even visited

Winterfell during Jon’s youth. This news, though disheartening, did not alter the conviction of the

Lord Commander, who ordered that his men continue onwards towards the Fist of the First Men.

Upon their arrival at the fist, the Night’s Watch discovered that the defences were in a state of

disrepair. Jeor quickly ordered renovations to the site to defend against any oncoming assault,

regardless of the foe which marched out to meet them. The breaches in the low ringwall were

filled in with timber, while an additional set of timber stakes were set up. In addition, the

slopes surrounding the hill were outfitted with caltrops. Meanwhile, while following his direwolf,

Jon came across an old mound which Ghost dug up, uncovering dragon glass weapons and an old warhorn

wrapped in a Night’s Watch cloak, which Jon distributes among his brothers. Not long after,

the hundred men of the Shadow Tower led by the living legend Qhorin Halfhand arrived

at the fist. Qhorin reported that they had been waylaid by a wildling scouting party commanded by

Alfyn Crowkiller. Fortunately, they prevented the Wildlings from reporting the encounter to Mance,

the ensuing skirmish had come at a relatively high cost, as four brothers lay slain and a further

dozen wounded. A wildling prisoner Qhorin took during the battle subsequently informed the Lord

Commander that Mance was currently searching for a form of magic capable of bringing down the wall.

The Halfhand subsequently selected Jon to be among the three scouting parties to assess the mountain

passes. The other two were commanded by Jarmen Buckwell and Thoren Smallwood, respectively.

Following the ascent up the treacherous mountains, Qhorin’s party ambushed several wildling sentries

in the Skirling Pass. Jon killed the first sentry with little difficulty, however, his blade was

stayed when he discovered his second target was a woman. Rather than execute her on sight,

he took the distinctly fiery-haired wildling as a captive. As they continued their trek

through arduous terrain, Qhorin ordered Jon to execute the wildling sentry. Despite his duty,

Jon’s blade stayed once more, for he could not bring himself to kill an unarmed woman. Instead,

Jon let her go free. In her parting words, the woman promised Jon that Mance would

welcome him among the free folk should he ever defect from the Night’s watch to join them.

That night, Jon dreamt through the eyes of Ghost and, in doing so, laid eyes upon

the massive host that Mance had assembled against the Watch. Thousands of Wildings,

supplemented by giants and mammoths, were shown to him, only for his vision to be cut

short when an eagle attacked Ghost. Jon informed the group of what he saw. Surprised, the watchmen

supposed that the young bastard was a warg, an unusual talent in the current age. The situation

turned from bad to worse when the Night’s Watch came across a wounded Ghost and spotted the

Eagle had attacked the hound flying overhead. This caused Qhorin to decide to return to the Fist with

all haste. The wildings remained in hot pursuit, and to delay them, Qhorin ordered Dalbridge,

a veteran ranger of the Shadow Tower, to buy them as much time as possible in a desperate rearguard

action. The Halfhand further ordered Ebben and Stonesnake, the other company members, to make

their way to the Fist as quickly as possible to inform the Lord Commander of what they had

seen. This left Qhorin alone with Jon, with the former ordering the latter to join the Wildings

and to do what was required to win their trust. Although Dalbridge fought with the true ferocity

of a member of the Night's Watch, it was not long before the wildling party with Rattleshirt

at their head came upon the pair. Jon immediately yielded to their superior numbers and renounced

his loyalties to the watch, which drew the feigned disdain of his companion. Nevertheless, further

proof would be required of the bastard’s loyalty before the wildlings could accept him among their

number. To that end, Rattleshirt demanded that Jon slay the Halfhand. A duel ensued,

and Jon was initially hard-pressed against the wily Shadow Tower veteran. Ghost intervened,

mauling the warrior, and with a sufficient show put on, Qhorin allowed the younger man to bring

an end to his watch. Although Rattleshirt was disappointed by the intervention of the direwolf,

he kept his word and brought Jon back to their camp to meet the King Beyond the Wall.

To ensure that Qhorin’s sacrifice was not in vain, Jon would have to set aside his honour and vows

for his imminent meeting with the unifier of the Wildings, an act which would not come easily to

any scion of House Stark. Yet in this instance, Jon was, fortunately, able to achieve what his

father could not and set aside his principles even momentarily for the sake of his brothers.

Although Jon initially did not recognize the true King Beyond the Wall, believing Tormund or Styr

to be Mance, he quickly regained his footing and addressed the man who presented himself

as nought more than a bard. Now addressing the true King, Jon feigned anger at those who raised

him for his apparent poor treatment due to his illegitimate parentage. As a result, Mance Rayder

could empathize with the young man and perhaps see something of himself in the boy who seemed intent

on setting aside the Black. Furthermore, Mance allowed Jon to be privy to his plans,

which would not be limited to the Night’s Watch’s destruction and the Wall’s storming. Rather the

King Beyond the Wall wished to invade the Seven Kingdoms and in doing so carve out a dominion

for his people, free from the infighting and harsh conditions which had long engulfed the far North.

However, a greater reason pushed Mance desperately to unite the disparate far North, for the Long

Night was approaching, and the denizens of the dark, icy depths of the Land of Always Winter were

rising once more. This was a fact that those who dwelled within Westeros’ Seven Kingdoms remained

blissfully unaware of, including the brothers of the Nights Watch, despite the initial reasoning

behind their order’s founding. These beings of myth and legend would soon become a stark reality

for those camped upon the Fist of the First Men, bringing a premature end to the great ranging.

While Jon had worked his way into the ranks of the Free Folk as an undercover spy for the

Night’s Watch, the position of the Night’s Watchmen on the expedition beyond the wall

soon proved to be untenable. Lord Commander Jeor Mormont sent out search parties to ascertain the

Wildlings' position while ordering the rest of his men to refortify their position. However,

the works conducted on the already lacklustre defences would prove to be little more than a

mild inconvenience for what was to come. While Jeor waited for the last of the search parties

to return to the main force, a horde erupted from the winter mists, hundreds of wights ranging from

reanimated humans to animals assaulting the Fist. The watchmen quickly formed a defensive line,

with archers upon the Fist repeatedly firing volleys into the trudging horde of wights. Yet,

to their fear and dismay, this had little effect on their undead foes, who continued

their interminable ascent. As they did so, the wights began to fall upon the defenders,

making quick work of what had already been a meagre force. Lord Commander Mormont soon realized

the situation was a desperate one. In a hail mary manoeuvre, he gathered a cadre of fifty men and

broke through the never-ending tide of wights that continued to assail the fortification. Having made

their way out of danger for the time being, Jeor Mormont ordered a forced march to Craster’s Keep,

as the remaining two hundred and fifty men of the Night’s Watch were slaughtered at the Fist. The

Free Folk would come upon this scene soon after. Gazing lachrymosely upon the corpses, the King

beyond the wall would highlight the futility of the defence mounted at the Fist of the First Men:

“Had I been fool enough to storm this hill, I might have lost five men for every crow I slew

and still counted myself lucky. But when the dead walk, walls and stakes and swords mean nothing.”

Although Jon feared for his friends who may have lay amongst the ranks of the dead at the Fist, he

shirked not the oath he had sworn to Qhorin prior to his death. Continuing his defector’s facade,

he accepted the mission which Mance presented to him, agreeing to go South of the Wall with

Ygritte as they joined the company commanded by Styr and Jarl for the treacherous crossing. Here,

in what was to prove an uncharacteristic lapse of the heart, Jon fell in love with Ygritte

and broke his vow of chastity. Meanwhile, by the time the remaining

forty-four Nights’ Watchmen had completed their forced retreat to Craster’s Keep,

most of the survivors began to question the leadership of Lord Commander Mormont. Trapped

within the hall due to horrific weather conditions raging outside the Hall, a further four men died

while another eight were left incapacitated by way of wounds previously sustained or illness.

This left a force of thirty-two men who were still capable of fighting,

all of whom soon began to strain Craster’s resources and patience. The tension came to a head

when such members of the Watch demanded more food from Craster. When this was tersely turned down,

they lost their temper and called Craster a bastard. Sufficiently angered, Craster vaulted

the table to assault the black cloaks. Almost immediately, his throat was slit by a watchman,

Dirk. Dirk then placed the still bloody knife to the throat of one of Craster’s Wives,

demanding that she show them where the food stores were kept. Lord Commander Mormont

attempted to intervene, demanding that Dirk unhand the woman. Here, the altercation became a mutiny.

Garth of Greenaway stood in his way while Ollo Lophand stabbed his commander in the stomach.

The chaos that ensued resulted in the death of several Brothers, among them the Lord Commander,

with a dozen loyalists returning to Castle Black to inform the now leaderless Watch of what

had transpired upon the Great Ranging. Meanwhile, Jon successfully scaled the

Wall. Others in his party were unsuccessful and plunged thousands of feet to their deaths. The

survivors of the party would then descend at Greyguard, entering the Gift. At this point,

Jon was forced to make another difficult decision that was to haunt him in the days to come. Whether

he should abandon Ygritte, the love of his life, and return to the Watch, or embrace his lover,

forever turning his back on the oaths he had sworn to the Brotherhood. This decision was

effectively made for him when the company came to the abandoned Queenstown, and Styr ordered

Jon to kill an elderly man who had been unable to evacuate the condemned village. When Jon refused,

Ygritte killed the man instead. Before the wildlings could turn on Jon, the direwolf Summer,

commanded by Jon’s half-brother Bran, attacked the group. This allowed Jon to escape on horseback,

however, he was wounded in the attempt as an arrow shaft pierced his leg during the escape.

Further South, Robb Stark, the King in the North, was heading toward the Twins and deliberating upon

his potential successor. The King now believed his younger brothers Bran and Rickon to be dead

due to the invasion of the Ironborn led by his former comrade Theon Greyjoy. Moreover,

Arya was also believed to be dead, and Sansa was now wed to Tyrion Lannister. Therefore, to ensure

the North did not fall under the dominion of the Lannisters, Robb was left with little choice but

to decide upon his heir with the utmost haste. Dismissing the harsh objections of his mother,

Catelyn, he is believed to have legitimized his bastard brother Jon. This decision was apparently

witnessed at Hag’s Mire by Catelyn herself, Edmure Tully, Galbart Glover, Jason Mallister,

Maege Mormont and Jon Umber prior to the events of the Red Wedding at the Twins.

In the meantime, Jon Snow, mortally wounded and barely conscious, arrived at Mole’s Town

on the back of his ardent steed. From here, he was brought to Castle Black, where his injuries were

tended to by Maester Aemon. Soon, his health began to improve. Unfortunately for Jon, he woke up to

the tragic news that his brothers were ostensibly dead due to the treachery of Theon Greyjoy.

In spite of Jon’s efforts to warn the men at Castle Black of Mance’s plans, Lord Steward

Bowen Marsh had taken the bait set for him and left with the remaining fighting men to pursue

the diversionary force who had struck to the West. On paper, this left the old and senile castellan,

Ser Wynton Stout, with the old, the sickly and the greenest of recruits to defend Castle

Black. In practice, the one-armed blacksmith Donal Noye effectively took command of the

Castle in Ser Stout’s place. Moreover, Jon’s warning was not entirely in vain, as Noye

was now aware of the secondary group of raiders commanded by Styr, the Magnar of Thenn, who was

ordered to attack Castle Black from the South. Donal quickly ordered the brothers available to

him to retreat to the King’s Tower, as the rest of the Castle was not defensible from the South. He

also offered refuge to the people of Mole’s Town if they would be willing to aid in the defence.

Despite Noye’s best efforts, hundreds of Thenns quickly overwhelmed the defenders, pushing them

from their positions before claiming the stairs from them. The Night’s Watch was soon forced to

retreat to the Wall, however, unbeknownst to the Thenns, who believed that they had already carried

the day, Noye had prepared for just such an eventuality. He had previously drenched the last

landings with oil and ordered his smaller force to loose flaming arrows upon the steps, which caused

the Thenns to die to a man. Among the dead was Ygritte, who passes away in Jon’s arms, having

been shot by a Brother of the Night’s Watch during the foray. Jon was left utterly heartbroken.

However, there was little time left to wallow in such heartbreak, as Mance’s main force would

soon arrive outside the gates of Castle Black, and Donal Noye required all the capable men

available to him. Mance initially camped his host a half mile North of the Wall, which the Watch

spotted during the dark of night. Two sentries sounded their horns, alerting Noye to the danger,

who ordered that barrels of burning pitch be fired from the wall by trebuchet to obtain a

greater view of what forces were arrayed against him. A dozen jars of lamp oil were set ablaze by

the watch, which were shoved over the edge one by one to further add to the conflagration. Satin,

a brother of the Watch, estimated the total size of the Wildling host to be 100,000,

which Jon Snow lowered to some thirty to forty thousand, supplemented by hundreds of giants and

mammoths. On the other side, the wall was defended by some 34 able-bodied brothers.

Command of the wall was given to Jon when Donal realised that the Free Folk had no ladders capable

of reaching the wall's summit. The one-armed blacksmith instead acknowledged that the battle

would be decided at the gate of Castle Black. As a result, he took with him two archers and

two spearmen in order to ensure the gate was held. Upon the Wall, the defenders continue to let loose

arrows at will, unable to properly aim due to the overall dark of night and distance from their

targets. More effective was the hail of rocks thrown by the catapults, however after a number of

hours of this barrage, one of the trebuchets broke down. The Wildlings were, therefore, able to avoid

the places where the rocks were launched by the remaining trebuchet, rendering it ineffective as

the battle continued blindly throughout the night. The Free Folk brought a ram towards the gate

as the Sun rose. The Wildling forces were arrayed with some hundred mammoths mounted

by giants at the centre, with giants on foot at either side of this central portion of the

line. The flanks comprised horsemen, archers, spearmen, slingers and bone chariots on either

side of the heavyweight centre. Once within range, Jon Snow ordered that the men upon the

wall let loose continued volleys of arrows while spiked steel caltrops were fired upon

the attackers. This onslaught was continued until the giants carrying the ram were either

dead or too wounded to carry on, with the remaining force routed by a combination

of fire arrows and barrels of burning oil. Despite driving back most of the wildling host,

the day was not a total victory for the defenders. The Giants below had managed

to break the outer studded oak gate, and Mag Mar Tun Doh Weg, the chieftain of the Giants, was able

to crawl through and reach the Iron Gate. The five warriors of the Watch engaged in a desperate final

stand with the Giant, and in the end, all six are slain, sacrificing themselves to a man to bring

down the King of the Giants. Jon and three other members of the Watch, including Maester Aemon,

subsequently entered the tunnel, however, in a turn of good fortune, they found that

a slain mammoth now blocked the entrance to the damaged gate. Jon ordered that the secondary gate

be blocked up with rubble ice and whatever debris could be found in short order. As he attempted to

yield command to Ser Stout as the last remaining knight in the castle, Aemon informed him that

Ser Stout was no longer able to fulfil such a role and command had, in fact passed to Jon.

The battle would drag on for many days, with neither side capable of fully exhausting the

other. However, this was not a stalemate, for the longer the conflict continued, the more likely it

was for the wildlings to grasp victory. This was due to the fact that the Watch was already

running low on supplies, having run out of oil and barrels of pitch, along with their stockpile

of arrows. Word soon reached Castle Black of the victory at the Bridge of Skulls, where

the greater force of men from Castle Black led by Bowen Marsh defeated a wildling force led by the

Weeper at the Gorge near the Shadow Tower. Jon was now fully aware that no further aid from the Watch

would be forthcoming, and when he called upon the people of Mole’s Town to join in the defence, he

discovered that the settlement had been abandoned. In the interim, the free folk had constructed a

device which came to be known as the turtle, it was described as “a hull turned upside down and

opened fore and aft; a long hall on wheels.” The turtle had a rounded top and eight huge wheels,

and beneath it was a stout wooden frame covered with numerous layers of raw mammoth skin atop

sheepskin and pelts in order to avoid it being set alight. The fire arrows which the Watch loosed

upon it were therefore rendered redundant, and it was only due to the quick thinking of

Jon that the defence held. Realizing that this huge siege engine could be crushed as it drew

close enough, Jon sought out the aid of Grenn, Owen the Oaf and Kegs and with them, pushed four

stout oaken barrels filled with crushed rocks off the side of the wall. This caused the wildlings to

flee as the turtle splintered from the front, leaving the free folk attempting to clear the

debris vulnerable to a barrage of arrows. This had bought the Watch time in their

defence of the Wall, yet this was but a momentary respite in the unfurling

onslaught which had been loosed upon them, as the Watch now stood alone, or so it seemed.

Time and time again the Night's Watch had thrown back the tide of Free Folk which

sought to overwhelm the defences of Castle Black, however, each successful repulsion came at a huge

cost to the already depleted Brotherhood. One would believe that the return of Ser Alliser

Thorne and Janos Slynt would bring with them a degree of experience and leadership nous,

which could prove pivotal in the dying embers of the conflict. However,

this perception would prove to be a misguided one, as the duo immediately sowed discord within the

ranks by having Jon Snow imprisoned for desertion. To strengthen their charges against the bastard of

Winterfell, the already imprisoned Rattleshirt was brought forward to testify against the

nascent Jon Snow. Rattleshirt subsequently confirmed the accusations, informing the

Nights Watch of Jon’s actions in slaying Qhorin Halfhand upon the Frostfangs. This was all the

testimony Ser Alliser and Janos required, and they subsequently ignored any explanation given by Jon,

who tried in vain to explain Qhorin’s final instructions to his jailers. Maester Aemon was

then forced to intervene to ensure Jon was not summarily executed by sending a raven to Cotter

Pyke at Eastwatch. This swift and pertinent action saved the life of the Bastard of Winterfell,

confined to the ice cells for four days as the stalemate outside the wall continued.

Fortunately for the Nights Watch and the denizens whom they protected from the Wildling tide,

this was not to be the only act of Maester Aemon which was to pay dividends, for the elderly

maester had sent ravens far and wide throughout the Seven Kingdoms seeking the intervention of

the great Lords of the land. The vast majority of these ravens fell upon deaf ears, with events of

a supposed grander scale transpiring throughout Westeros. One such letter would, however,

made its way to Dragonstone, where a certain Stannis Baratheon now resided after his defeat at

the hands of the Lannisters in the Battle of the Blackwater. Although the rightful heir of Robert

now found himself at as equally a low ebb as that of his compatriots now manning the wall, the

importance of wise counsel at a crossroads moment was once more to be shown. In this instance,

it was to come in the form of the ever-loyal and honest-to-a-fault former smuggler, Davos Seaworth.

At the time, Davos’ position in court was anything but secure. This was due to the fact that the red

woman Melisandre, through her dark machinations, counselled to have Robert’s bastard Edric Storm

sacrificed to wake a stone dragon beneath the fortress. To ensure this would not come to pass,

Davos, alongside several men who had recanted from the faith of R’hollor, smuggled the bastard

from the island to leave him under the care of Ser Andrew Estermont. The response of the King evoked

the words of House Baratheon, “Ours is the fury,” as Stannis believed that Davos had now thrown away

their final chance at a hasty resolution to the War of the Five Kings. Davos was, fortunately,

able to sway the unruly Baratheon from the dark path Melisandre was leading him down. Urging his

King to set sail for the Wall, he handed him the letter from Maester Aemon before stating,

“A king protects his people, or he is no king at all.” Stannis, a man wed to duty,

accepted this call for aid and allowed Melisandre to sacrifice a man to R’hollor, which gained the

fleet favourable winds on their voyage North. His wife and daughter, Selyse and Shireen, were left

at Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, before marching with all haste and in full force to meet the King beyond

the Wall and fulfil his duty of protecting his people as the rightful King of the Seven Kingdoms.

At the Wall, the Night’s Watch, unaware of their impending salvation,

continued their dogged defence in the absence of their charismatic young leader. However, having

suffered four days alone within the ice cells, Jon is required once more to fulfil his role as

a brother of the Night’s Watch. The King beyond the Wall, Mance Rayder, had requested a parley,

which Ser Alliser and Janos believed to be a ploy. As such, they selected Jon Snow as their envoy

to the Wildlings, believing they were sending the bastard to his death. Exhausted and still feeling

the effects of his time within the ice cells, Jon was carried over the Wall by way of the winch cage

with the secret order of assassinating Mance. Tormund escorted the young crow to Mance’s tent,

where the negotiations would take place. The King beyond the Wall took a hard line throughout these

negotiations and immediately informed Jon that the warg Varamyr Sixskins had utilized his eagle to

assuage the number of Night’s Watch men remaining. The depleted numbers of the defenders had given

Mance cause to be confident, a confidence which was further bolstered by his possession of the

Horn of Winter, which, if the legends were to be believed, was capable of bringing down the Wall.

However, in a moment of candour, Mance revealed that it was not his wish to destroy the wall.

Rather he would utilize it to protect his people from the looming threat of the White

Walkers. Therefore, the former ranger suggested a compromise whereby he would hand over the Horn if

he and his people were allowed to pass through the gates and make a home for themselves in the South.

This compromise came with an important caveat that the Free Folk would not yield to the laws of

Southern Lords and would abide by their own rules and customs. If the offer were rejected, dire

consequences would follow for the Brotherhood, for Tormund would sound the horn at dawn some

three days later, ending the defence of Castle Black in one fell swoop of mythical proportions.

At this point, Jon was left with yet another of the difficult decisions which had come to

define him. Whether to sacrifice his honour and kill Mance, saving the Watch in the process,

or return to the Wall with the offer which had been presented to him. However,

just as Jon was to make his choice, the King and envoy's attention was drawn to the sound of a war

horn coming from the East. Mance immediately jumped into action, attempting to organize a

hasty defence of the camp. This defence was to be in vain, and the hope of yet another King beyond

the Wall was to be dashed just as they reached the moment of their supposed inevitable triumph.

A combined force of some 1,500 knights, mounted soldiers, mounted bowmen and men-at-arms,

supplemented by an unquantified number of experienced rangers from Eastwatch,

had swept down upon the camp. The oncoming charge of the heavy Baratheon horse was comparable to

the strength and ferocity of a tidal wave, and the onslaught proved unstoppable, decimating the

Wildling lines in a matter of moments. Melisandre likewise played her part in the conflict, burning

Varamyr’s eagle from the sky, which caused the wildling wargs to be cast to the ground in brutal

spasms of pain. Events went from bad to worse for Mance when his wife Dalla went into labour due to

the stress of the situation, leaving only Jon and Val to assist her within the tent. Harma Dogshead,

who led the vanguard of the Wildling force, was quickly cut down in this initial charge, while

Tormund’s son Dormund was also slain by a knight presumed to be Ser Richard Horpe. The chaos which

ensued even caught Jon at unawares, who, rather than join the battle, defended Mance’s tent,

unsure of who his would-be saviours even were. “And through the smoke another wedge of armored

riders came, on barded horses. Floating above them were the largest banners yet,

royal standards as big as sheets; a yellow one with long pointed tongues that showed a flaming

heart, and another like a sheet of beaten gold, with a black stag prancing and rippling in the

wind. Robert, Jon thought for one mad moment, remembering poor Owen, but when the trumpets

blew again and the knights charged, the name they cried was "Stannis! Stannis! STANNIS!”

The battle, if one would deign to call it such, was effectively ended when the horse of Mance

Rayder was slain beneath him, which caused the wildling lines to break in their entirety. The

giants, however, would not surrender or flee and fought desperately against the Southrons,

with Ser Godry Farring bringing low one of their number, a feat which earned him the moniker

Giantslayer. At the conclusion of the slaughter, Mance, alongside one thousand other members

of the Free Folk, was taken prisoner. Amongst their number were Val and Mance’s newborn son,

who would be named Aemon Steelsong, for whom Dalla had given her life in childbirth.

After his triumph, Stannis took up residence in Castle Black, occupying the King’s Tower,

from where he was to plan his next move in order to claim his birthright of the Iron Throne. The

former Lord of Dragonstone was quick to assess the options available to him and offered to legitimize

Jon Snow and name him Lord of Winterfell in return for helping him secure the loyalty of the

North. Moreover, Jon was to be wed to Val, which Stannis believed would ensure the loyalty of the

Free Folk, who could potentially bolster his own forces in the fight with the Boltons. The Night’s

Watch was also forced to begin the vote for the new Lord Commander following the death of Jeor

Mormont at Craster’s Keep. However, the Watch remained a disunified organization, and after

ten days of deliberations, no such Lord Commander had been decided upon. This frustrated Stannis,

who wished to negotiate over possession of the New Gift and a number of the castles of the Watch.

Stannis’ patience continued to wane during this stalemate, and he threatened to choose a

Lord Commander for them if they could not do so themselves. Samwell Tarly quickly

realized that Janos Slynt was on the verge of winning the vote. Through his own initiative,

Sam negotiated with Ser Denys Mallister and Cotter Pyke, who held command of the

Shadow Tower and Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, to give up their claim to Lord Commandership and support Jon

instead. As a result, Jon Snow was elected to the position of Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch,

entirely unaware of his own candidacy and during a period in which he was still deliberating

upon Stannis’ offer. Having refused the offer of the King, a disbelieving Jon

was subsequently elected the 998th Lord Commander, to the chagrin of Stannis, who had hoped to use

him in a role which could quickly turn the tide against the Boltons throughout the North.

However, Stannis remained a practical and rational man and quickly pivoted in order to ensure he

could still make the most of his current position. Having gleaned what he could of the White Walkers

from those present in Castle Black, word was hastily sent to the castellan of Dragonstone,

Ser Rolland Storm, to begin mining dragonglass to counter the threat posed. Allowance was also

made for the Free Folk to pass through the Wall and settle within the Gift. However, this offer

hinged upon the willingness of the wildlings to convert to the worship of R’hollor, an offer which

was taken up by the Lord of Bones and the newly minted leader of the Thenns, Sigorn, who led their

followers South. Mance Rayder was supposedly burned at the stake for treason and defiance,

but unbeknownst to those who would witness the execution, the individual who was killed was not

Mance but Rattleshirt. Stannis would require a man of Mance’s talents in what was to come and,

as such, allowed Melisandre to place a glamour upon the unfortunate Rattleshirt, leading the

majority of those living within the North to believe the King beyond the Wall had perished.

Those who came South only made up a minority of the Wildlings who had survived the battle. A

far greater proportion of the remaining Free Folk had fled into the haunted forest. Many followed a

rider who led them to the Milkwater, with hundreds more following a warrior of dour temperament to

Thenn. The vast majority followed Mother Mole to Hardhome, a number estimated by Bowen Marsh to

be some six thousand wildlings, while a further three thousand wildlings followed Tormund. As

one of his first acts as Lord Commander, Jon Snow sent Val into the haunted forest to find

Tormund and begin negotiations with his one-time friend and ally. However, Jon’s amiable and

reconciliatory treatment of the wildlings would ultimately widen the rift amongst the brotherhood,

which, even in the direct aftermath of the Battle beneath the Wall, had begun to fester.

As the dust settled upon the twin shocks of the victory over the Wildlings and the election of

Jon Snow to the post of Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch, an uneasy status quo was

established. Stannis took up residence within the King’s Tower, whereas Jon Snow assumed the

quarters of the now-deceased Donal Noye. Jon’s first act as Lord Commander was to institute

mandatory archery practice for all members of the watch stationed within Castle Black. Immediately,

his tenure was beset with tension, for Jon quickly realized that his new royal ally

Stannis may pose a threat to Maester Aemon and Mance’s son, who may consider burning them at

the stake for his Red God due to their royal blood. As a preventative measure, Mance’s son

was swapped with Gilly’s child and Samwell Tarly was sent away to train to be a steward at the

Citadel with Aemon, Gilly and the child in tow. Stannis, meanwhile, had taken on the title of

King of Westeros and had already hatched plans to use Val to seal the peace between the men

of the North and the Wildlings. Furthermore, as part of the agreement between Jon and Stannis,

food and shelter were to be provided to Stannis’ warriors. This was in conjunction with Stannis

assuming control of and garrisoning the Nightfort and also being granted leave to settle those

amongst the Free Folk who would come South of the Wall. Ravens were also sent to the Lords

of the North demanding fealty to their rightful King, however, only House Karstark responded,

swearing their allegiance to Stannis. Events in the North had not gone unnoticed in

Kings’ Landing, where Queen Cersei, dangerously deprived of her father’s better judgement and

steady temperament, assumed the reins of power. Soon after becoming aware of Stannis’ movements,

the Lannisters assembled an expeditionary force with the intent of capturing Dragonstone. Cersei

considered two thousand Lannister soldiers to be sufficient for this operation,

which were ferried across Blackwater Bay by the Redwyne Fleet and encamped outside the fortress.

Before Dragonstone could be claimed, urgent threats elsewhere arose. The newly ascendant

King of the Isles and the North, Euron Greyjoy, had recently seized the Shield Islands, and the

only fleet in Westeros capable of going toe to toe with his was the Redwyne one. Knowing his homeland

to be under dire threat of Ironborn raids, Ser Loras Tyrell begged Cersei to send word to Lord

Redwyne to lift the siege and meet the Iron Fleet in battle before they could ravage the Reach.

Callously dismissive of the Reachmen’s plight, Cersei refused this request, believing the

threat posed by the garrison at Dragonstone to be a higher priority. Thus, in an act of desperation,

Loras begged to be sent to Dragonstone so he could help the siege there earlier, thereby freeing up

the Redwyne fleet to defend the Reach. Loras quickly made his way to the island, whereupon

he immediately took command of the operation. The youthful yet talented Kingsguard immediately

offered single combat as a method of resolving the conflict, hoping to force Dragonstone’s

garrison leader, Ser Rolland Storm, to duel with him outside the walls. This was declined,

and as such, Loras pressed for time and was left with little option but to storm the fortress. In

the ensuing assault, Loras led from the front, and the gate was breached with much loss of life

on the attackers' part. Following this breach, the defenders hastily retreated to the Keep,

which was assaulted in short order. During his reckless charge, Ser Loras was grievously wounded,

suffering a blow from a mace, feathering by an arrow and a crossbow bolt, and boiling oil being

poured on top of him. However, as a testament to his grim bodily sacrifice, the Lannisters

successfully captured Dragonstone, with massive casualties of some one thousand men, most of which

were the youngest and most promising flower of King Tommen’s army, in the aftermath. Ser Loras

was now ostensibly on death’s door on the shores of Dragonstone. However, the Redwyne fleet was now

free to return and counter the Ironborn incursion. Cersei would also task Lord Roose Bolton, now

assuming the mantle of Warden of North, to deal with the direct threat of Stannis and his freshly

victorious army. Cersei was likewise furious over appointing a scion of House Stark to the role of

Lord Commander of the Nights’ Watch, bastard or not. As a result, the Small Counsel agreed that

Lord Snow must be removed from command. Initial suggestions for dealing with the matter included

Grand Maester Pycelle’s proposition that the crown should refuse to send any further recruits until

Jon was removed from command. However, Qyburn’s proposal was much more to the Queen Regent’s

liking, for he suggested that a hundred recruits should be sent to the Wall with specific orders

to execute the bastard son of Ned Stark. Cersei bought into this plot and made arrangements to

send one Ser Osney Kettleblack as the head of such a force. However, before this plan can

move beyond the conception stage, both Cersei and Osney were imprisoned by the Faith of the Seven.

Back in the North, matters were proceeding less than smoothly for the nascent Lord Commander as

he suffered constant harassment from the Queen’s men amongst Stannis’ warriors. This culminated

in the red priestess advising Jon to keep his direwolf Ghost nearby at all times due to the

threat of daggers in the dark. However, the full capability of Melisandre to provide true and

accurate portents of the future remained in doubt as Maester Aemon, on his journey to the Citadel,

became convinced that she had been mistaken in declaring Stannis as Azor Ahai reborn.

Perhaps due to the fact that through omen and the tenuous interpretation of ancient prophecy,

it was Jon who set to become the leader his people require in such uncertain times. As such,

Jon found the will to resist the indomitable Stannis and rejected his proposals to assume

control of all of the unoccupied castles upon the Wall, thereby asserting the Night’s

Watch’s sovereignty from the Baratheon army. Further pressures also mount from within the

Night's Watch in the guise of a certain Janos Slynt, who had played an active role in the death

of Jon’s father. Jon ordered the former leader of the Gold Cloaks to garrison the abandoned fortress

of Greyguard, however, believing himself to be above such a task, Janos rejected him outright.

For the crime of refusing the direct command of the Lord Commander, Slynt was sentenced to death

by hanging. However, in recalling the lessons of his father and the laws of the First Men,

Jon decides to personally behead Janos Slynt himself. The man who passes the sentence should

swing the sword, an act which gained the respect of Stannis and effectively cemented Jon’s position

among the Watch’s newfound allies. In a further attempt to reoccupy some of the abandoned forts,

Jon would then send his friends Grenn and Pypar to Eastwatch and Halder and Todder to the

Shadow Tower. Unfortunately, still a relatively inexperienced and naïve leader, Snow was unaware

of the fact that this sending away all his allies left him dangerously isolated within Castle Black.

This would lead to greater cooperation between the two men, although disagreements over Mance’s fate

would lead to the burning of the glamoured Rattleshirt, which members of the Watch

subsequently shot under Jon’s orders. Stannis would then order the glamoured Mance disguised

as Rattleshirt to serve Jon. The next element of Stannis’ plan was the taking of the Dreadfort and

the defeat of Roose Bolton in order to retake the North, which he planned to utilize as a launchpad

for his further conquests. Ser Davos was sent to White Harbor in order to sway Lord Wyman

Manderly to his side for the conflict to come. The support of half of House Umber was also won, with

their leader Mors Umber pledging his men for the battle, however, the House was still divided as

the Greatjon remained a captive of the Lannisters. Now with as much support as he believed necessary,

Stannis made preparations for an immediate march upon the Dreadfort, which had been

left vulnerable after Ramsay Bolton had left to retake Moat Cailin from the Ironborn. Fortunately

for the last surviving Baratheon, Jon offered his counsel, forcing him to acknowledge that

the plan was doomed to fail as his wildling warriors would turn the North against him,

and they would be spotted long before they reached the Dreadfort. Jon instead advised that Stannis

meet with the Mountain Clans, foremost amongst them the Flints, Wulls, Norreys and Liddles,

who would be more likely to pledge to the King. Jon further suggested the target of Deepwood

Motte, which could be more easily taken from the Ironborn. Meanwhile, Ser Davos Seaworth was taken

captive by Ser Wyman Manderly, who pretended to execute him to appease the Boltons while

secretly working against his new overlords in the Deadfort, secretly promising Ser Davos his support

if the old Smuggler could find Rickon Stark. Stannis began his march South, swaying many

of the Mountain Folk to his side and engaging the Ironborn at Deepwood Motte. Stannis’ four

to five thousand soldiers were able to quickly overwhelm the 200 Ironborn led by Asha Greyjoy,

who was captured attempting to retreat from the battle. In the aftermath, Deepwood Motte

was returned to the Glovers, which won much popular support for Stannis throughout the

North. Meanwhile, Roose Bolton had returned to the North at the head of a combined force of Boltons

and Freys, yet most surprisingly of all, with Arya Stark in tow. However, this woman who was hastily

married to the newly legitimized Ramsay Bolton was not actually Arya Stark but an imposter whose name

was Jeyne Poole, the daughter of the deceased steward of Winterfell. Therefore the Boltons,

with their dubiously aligned allies from House Dustin, Hornwood, Umber, Cerwyn Ryswell and

Manderly, remained holed up in Winterfell, anticipating the coming of the Baratheons.

This resulted in schisms within Stannis’ army, for the Northerners within it advised a march

upon Winterfell to save Arya, while the Southrons disagreed, with Stannis favouring the former,

“We all know what my brother would do. Robert would gallop up to the gates of Winterfell alone,

break them with his Warhammer, and ride through the rubble to slay Roose Bolton with his left

hand and the Bastard with his right. I am not Robert. But we will march, and we will

free Winterfell …. Or die in the attempt.” So began the march upon Winterfell. Led by

guides provided by Lady Sybelle Glover, the Baratheon forces made great time upon their

march for the first three days. However, on the fourth, the snow began to fall, grinding progress

to a near halt. A combination of the freezing cold and depleted supplies caused casualties to

mount. Upon the thirty-fourth day, while little more than a few days march from Winterfell,

the entire army found itself snowed in. Further north, Mors Umber and Arnolf Karstark had earlier

begun their march to Winterfell, but treachery lay in their midst. Arnolf was secretly in league

with Roose. Having earlier attempted to trick Stannis into marching upon the Dreadfort, Arnolf

instead planned to wait for a signal from Roose before betraying the would-be King of Westeros.

Stannis’ army began to cut holes in the ice lakes near the Crofters village where they were

now encamped, but not enough fish could be found, and the casualties continued to mount. The Queen’s

Men would then begin to conduct human sacrifices by way of burning those accused of cannibalism

in the hopes of ending the storm. Soon after, Tycho Nestoris, a banker from Braavos, arrived,

accompanied by Theon Greyjoy and the escaped Arya Stark. The Banker was to prove pivotal,

as he informed Stannis of Arnolf’s treachery, who was taken captive and his men were subsequently

disarmed. Roose, meanwhile, in an attempt to deal with the discord among his ranks within

Winterfell, sent out the forces of House Manderly and Frey. However, Ser Aenys died from falling

into a pit dug by Mors Umber outside the main gates and breaking his neck. Stannis, confident

of victory in the battle to come, lay in wait within the village, prepared to end the Bolton’s

tenure as Wardens of the North for good and all. Back at Castle Black, Jon Snow has suffered

similar setbacks in his attempts at leadership in such darkening days. In order to study the wights,

the corpses of dead wildlings were left in the ice cells in the hopes they would arise, whilst the

glamoured Mance Rayder was sent to retrieve Arya. Val was sent to treat with Tormund Giantsbane,

which infuriated the old guard of the Night's Watch. This situation, which was not aided by

Eddison Tollett being sent to Long Barrow, further isolated Jon. A loan was also agreed with Tycho

Nestoris before he headed South toward Stannis, and Jon quickly and efficiently dealt with a

potential dispute with the Karstarks. However, now realizing the true potency of the White Walkers,

Cotter Pyke was sent to bring the wildlings at Hardhome South, in order to avoid adding

greater numbers to the hordes of the undead. Val also successfully brought Tormund to Castle

Black to treat with the Lord Commander, which would force a number of hard discussions with the

likes of Torghen Flint and Brandon Norrey as to the necessity of bringing Wildlings South of the

Wall. Despite the harsh opposition to this plan, Jon did what he felt was right and allowed Tormund

to bring his three thousand Wildlings South. Jon subsequently intended to relieve Cotter at

Hardhome, who had experienced difficulties there and remained effectively trapped. However, a

letter from Winterfell was to alter the course of Jon’s future. Ramsay Bolton had written indicating

that Stannis had been defeated and Mance captured, which caused Jon to give up command of the ranging

to Hardhome and announce his intention to ride South and put the Boltons to the sword.

Jon was unwilling to command the Night's Watch to aid him in this endeavour. However, he welcomed

any support from wildlings and any brothers of the watch who volunteered their service. The majority

of the wildlings within the shield hall ardently declared their support for Jon, but the discontent

amongst the upper echelons of the Watch’s command was soon to turn deadly. In a scuffle

which resulted in the Giant Wun Wun slaying Ser Patrek of King’s Mountain, Jon was attacked in

what came to be known as the mutiny at Castle Black. In response to the breaking of his oath,

the Brothers, led by Bowen Marsh, began to stab Jon. Amongst their number was Wick Whittlestick,

who plunged his blade into his former Lord Commander with tears in his eyes whilst repeatedly

muttering, “For the Watch.” The Lord Commander and supposed bastard son of Ned Stark lay despairing

upon the snow, staring into a darkening sky as he continued to bleed out and grow ever colder

having fought for so long, his final well-deserved rest seemed imminent, or so we are led to believe.

At this point in our retelling of A Song of Ice and Fire, we have reached the end of the line,

at least until the pending release of the Winds of Winter. Before we sign off on this series for the

foreseeable future, we will detail the entrance of the newest pretender to the Iron Throne and the

supposed third head of the Dragon. The one known as Young Griff, believed in some quarters to be

Aegon Targaryen, son of Rhaegar, and in others to be a descendant of the Blackfyre bastards,

presents the newest and most intriguing mystery in Martin’s mythos. His role in the story up until

the eventual release of Winds of Winter remains shrouded in mystery. Whether Young Griff is the

true Prince who was Promised or a mere pawn in a wider game of which he is not yet fully

aware remains to be seen, but in the meantime, we will tell his story as it exists up to this point.

It was in the dying days of Robert’s Rebellion that the exiled Jon Connington received a double

blow of immense proportions. Firstly, it was revealed that the man to whom he had dedicated

much of his life, Rhaegar Targaryen, had fallen to the overwhelming strength of Robert Baratheon and

his mighty Warhammer. Secondly, it was soon made known to him that he had failed House Targaryen

further by allowing for the deaths of Elia Martell and her children Aegon and Rhaenys,

for as the Lannisters ravaged the capital, the Mountain who Rides,

possibly under the orders of Tywin Lannister, slaughtered the children and raped their mother

before putting her to the sword. This was to have far-reaching consequences throughout Westeros,

foremost amongst them the establishment of a feud between Houses Martell and Lannister. Furthermore,

it is hard to quantify how Jon must have felt upon hearing the news, however, his relevancy

in Westeros was non-existent at that point. The former Hand of the King joined the Golden

Company upon his exile to Essos and served with distinction in this illustrious unit for

five years. The ever-capable Connington was to quickly rise through the ranks,

eventually obtaining a lieutenant-like position at the right hand of the Company’s captain-general

Ser Myles Toyne. A few short years into his tenure with the company, Myles and his right-hand

man were approached by a certain Illyrio Mopatis and the spider himself, Lord Varys.

The information these two shared with the Golden Company shocked both men. In

a stunning revelation, it seemed as if Aegon, son of Prince Rhaegar, had survived the Sack of King’s

Landing and required a guardian and mentor, a position for which Connington was well suited.

Jon agreed to this, and a plot was contrived to free himself from his oaths to the Golden

Company. Charges were fabricated wherein Jon was accused of stealing from the company coffers and,

as such, banished from the Company, with word further being spread that he had drunk himself

to death in Lys. Although Jon disagreed with this course, believing that spreading false

news of his death was a dishonourable ruse, he nonetheless went along with the deception for the

love he bore Aegon’s father. Ser Connington soon made contact with the ostensible son of Rhaegar,

upon which they both took aliases to hide their identities, with Jon taking on the name Griff and

Aegon that of Young Griff. The two proceeded to spend twelve years together, with the old

knight mentoring the pretender prince. During this time, the two men dyed their hair blue

in order to create greater a familial resemblance and also to hide Aegon’s more Targaryen features.

Soon, the father-son duo commenced a voyage to Volantis upon the sturdy vessel Shy Maid with

Aegon’s loyal companions Haldon, Rolly Duckfield, Lemore, Ysilla and Yandry in their company.

They embarked upon this voyage in order to meet with Queen Daenarys Targaryen of Meereen, fresh

from her conquest of the cities of Slavers Bay, for she would be forced to pass through the Free

City on her path to Westeros. As a result, the company planned to await her coming to Lys. There,

an unexpected present arrived at their doorstep courtesy of their benefactor Illyrio Mopatis.

As we recall, a certain Tyrion Lannister had been condemned to death for the murder of King Joffrey

Baratheon, and a failed attempt at a trial by combat resulted in the death of Oberyn Martell

at the hands of the Mountain. Having been afforded a chance at escape, Tyrion slew his father Tywin

before being spirited away, where he eventually washed up upon Essosi shores and delivered to

Aegon to serve as his capable advisor. Tyrion’s true identity is only ever revealed to Jon,

who deigns it prudent not to inform the remainder of the company of their newest recruit’s lineage.

The Shy Maid subsequently began its journey down the Rhoyne, and it was during this long and

perilous trip Tyrion revealed that he was aware of the true identities of Jon and Aegon alike.

Further misfortune befell the aged Connington when the stone men, crazed individuals afflicted by the

late stage of the greyscale disease, assaulted the company in the desolate ruins of Chroyane.

Jon managed to save Tyrion from one of the stone men. However, in the process, he was

infected by his assailant, contracting greyscale, an affliction he subsequently kept quiet from the

rest of the group for fear of the repercussions. Soon after, the company reached Selhorys, where

the news that Daenarys had not yet left Meereen scuppered the initial plans of Illyrio. Young

Griff also revealed to Tyrion that during Robert’s Rebellion, it was a tanner’s infant son born at

Pisswater Bend, a less-than-affluent street in King’s Landing, who had died in his stead. Varys

had offered the tanner a jug of wine which he readily accepted in return for one of many sons,

stating that he had never tasted Arbor Gold. Varys then exchanged the tanner’s son with Elia,

receiving into his custody the real prince Aegon, or so Young Griff had been led to believe. Tyrion

expressed his skepticism over the plan to marry Griff to his aunt Daenerys and instead provided

an alternative scheme. Tyrion believed that Aegon, with his supporters in tow, should invade Westeros

and, in so doing, take advantage of King Tommen’s weakened Small Council in the wake of Tywin’s

death. Tommen’s position was further weakened by the debt incurred by Robert Baratheon during his

feckless reign and the further financial turmoil caused by the War of the Five Kings. Before the

dwarf could put any further ideas in Young Griff’s head, he was captured by Ser Jorah Mormont,

who intended to bring him to Daenarys in order to regain the favour he had lost when Ser Barristan

Selmy revealed his treason. Jon didn’t look too hard for the missing Lannister, who he had never

much liked to begin with, and opted to continue onwards without him, soon reaching Volon Therys,

where the Golden Company was stationed. Jon immediately made his way to the Company,

where he revealed the true identity of his ward. However, upon their arrival,

it was revealed that Harry Strickland had already made his officers aware of the situation at hand.

The Company was not the unified force that Jon remembered under Myles, and the officers, dismayed

by Daenarys’ decision to remain in Meereen, soon gave way to bickering amongst themselves.

Some among the Company wished to continue with Illyrio’s plan, while others deemed it necessary

that they join the conflict in Slaver’s Bay on the side of Daenarys’ besieged forces.

Fortunately for Connington and Illyrio alike, it was at this point, roused by the words of

his alcoholic already-disappeared advisor that the first buds of leadership sprouted within

the young Aegon. The supposed rightful heir to the Iron Throne forwarded his own plan:

that the Company would head West and claim his birthright on his own terms. In spite of the

protests of the cowardly Harry Strickland, the officers clamoured their approval for

the young King’s proposal immediately. Aegon further explained to his men that

his aunt Daenarys would be welcome to maintain Meereen and her holdings in Slaver’s Bay. However,

Westeros was to be his through the direct line of succession of his father, Rhaegar. The plan,

which was originally formed by Tyrion during their discussion in Selhorys, was firmly subsumed by the

ambitions of this newest scion of a dynasty which dated back to Old Valyria. Young Griff

pushed for a course which would involve a hasty strike upon mainland Westeros and from there

the Company would establish a foothold before the weakened Lannisters could possibly react.

“If my aunt wants Meereen, she's welcome to it. I will claim the Iron Throne by myself, with your

swords and your allegiance. Move fast and strike hard, and we can win some easy victories before

the Lannisters even know that we have landed. That will bring others to our cause.” – Aegon Targaryen

Prior to further movements being undertaken however the Officers of the Company in conjunction

with their captain general Harry Strickland swore an oath to keep Aegon’s identity a secret from the

rank and file soldiers until they eventually landed in Westeros. However, the hope shared

by the majority of those gathered in Volon Therys was that upon hearing of the invasion,

Daenarys would come West and join her forces to theirs, overwhelming the Lannisters and their

dwindling list of allies. Jon Connington in particular, was overjoyed by the plan

and the growth which Aegon had demonstrated. However, he privately worried that he would

never get to see his ward on the Iron Throne as the greyscale continued to engulf his hand.

The journey to Westeros was a difficult one due in no small part to the autumn storms which scattered

the ships. As a result, the Volantene fleet hired to ferry the Company across the sea was

forced to drop them off in multiple locations, which leaves Jon and Aegon with a weakened

force. Jon prevented any of the commanders from displaying the banners of the Golden Company of

Houses Connington or Targaryen, hoping to mislead the Lannisters into believing that an exiled lord

was merely returning to reclaim their seat. “Let the Lannisters suspect Stannis Baratheon,

pirates from the Stepstones, outlaws out of the woods, or whoever else they cared to blame. If the

reports that reached King's Landing were confused and contradictory, so much the better. The slower

the Iron Throne was to react, the longer they would have to gather their strength and bring

allies to the cause.” – Thoughts of Jon Connington Although the full strength of the

ten thousand members of the Golden Company who initially made the journey are not immediately

available to Jon, he believed that enough soldiers were present to make the invasion stick. Jon

assumed command of a quarter of the available strength in order to retake his ancestral home

of Griffin’s Roost, while Ser Tristan Rivers and Ser Laswell Peake took a further quarter of the

forces each to take Crow’s Nest and Rain House, respectively. The remaining quarter was left to

protect the King at the arrival site under Gorys Edoryen and also to await any stragglers who may

have survived the voyage. Marq Mandrake also took five hundred men from other ships, and soon after,

Greenstone on Estermont, Mistwood, Tarth and half of the Stepstones were taken in the name of King

Aegon. Further plans were made to assault Storm’s End, which Ser Gilbert Farring held in the name of

Stannis Baratheon. The taking of this castle would act as a massive boost to Aegon’s campaign, not

only due to the significance of the fortification but also through the symbolism involved.

As a result, Aegon demanded that he lead the assault, much to the surprise of Jon Connington.

In the meantime, letters were sent to Lords who may be willing to lend their support,

foremost amongst them the Martells of Dorne, who remain unscathed by the War of the Five Kings,

bar the death of Prince Oberyn at the hands of the Mountain. In order to unearth whether or not the

letter sent by Jon to Doran Martell is truthful or mere fabrication and that a Targaryen once

more graced Westeros, Arianne Martell was sent to discover the truth of the matter. In so doing

she may yet through her diplomatic entreaties potentially reform the alliance between both

Houses. Of all of the young Prince’s allies, the most useful to his cause was Lord Varys,

who ensured that word quickly reached King’s Landing of the happenings propagated by the

exiled Connington. The small counsel conducted a hasty meeting and helmed by the capable Ser Kevan

Lannister, the crown prepared an appropriate response against this invasion. However,

in the immediate aftermath of the meeting, Varys assassinated Grand Maester Pycelle

and Kevan Lannister in order to maintain the Seven Kingdoms' current chaotic state, which

will continue to favour Aegon in the days to come. “This pains me, my lord. You do not deserve to die

alone on such a cold dark night. There are many like you, good men in service to bad causes ...

but you were threatening to undo all the queen's good work, to reconcile Highgarden and Casterly

Rock, to bind the Faith to your little king, unite the Seven Kingdoms under Tommen's rule.” - Varys

This brings us to the cliffhanger which now defines the tale of Young Griff, a true scion

of the House of Targaryen poised to restore the glory and prestige of his house or a Blackfyre

in disguise as a pawn in a larger game would bring further death and destruction to Westeros. However

this is a story to be concluded upon the release of Winds of Winter, but in the meantime we are

planning to cover the battles of many other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes,

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Game of Thrones - Full Story Before the Winds of Winter - Lore DOCUMENTARY

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