The Dragons Song

Born a decade into the Conqueror’s rule, Baelon, the son of Visenya Targaryen, from an early age made his own way, raised and educated on Dragonstone far from his half-brother Aelyx who was the ‘Prince of the Aegonfort' in the newly risen city of King's Landing. Where Aelyx was holding books by three name days, Baelon at that age had taken up his first sword, which his detractors say he immediately used to butcher a cat and terrorize the castle cook. What is certain is that by the age of eight name days, Baelon had skewered a palfrey that kicked him, and slashed open the face of a stable boy who came to offer defense to the poor animal. With the realization that Baelon’s tenacity needed focus, he was set to train beneath Ser Grover Celtigar, the master-at-arms of Dragonstone.

While Aelyx had wed Alys Velaryon who soon gave birth to Rhaela Targaryen, Baelon was betrothed to Meryl Hightower, the niece to the High Septon. By twelve he was unhorsing full-grown men, by thirteen he was beating hardened knights in courtyard mêlée, a feat that earned him his mother’s sword, Dark Sister as a name day present. At fifteen, Baelon refused the gift of a hatchling despite the great number of eggs on Dragonstone. When taunted by his good-sister Alys Velaryon, Baelon was quick to reply that only one Dragon was worthy of him. This ambition would persist well into adulthood.

Despite wedding Meryl Hightower, Baelon focused more on accomplishments of might than marriage and traveled the Realm competing in tourneys where he became well known for his military might, besting three Kingsguard in a single joust, and besting the finest knights of the Realm in every mêlée he entered.

With the death of the Conqueror, King Aegon I royal responsibility moved as all suspected it might, to the eldest son of the conqueror, Aelyx I whose first act as King was to announce to all assembled that he was not nearly the Warrior's Baelon was, granting Blackfyre, the sword of the Conqueror to the young Prince, who proceeded to also claim the Conqueror’s Dragon fulfilling the ambition shared with Alys Velaryon years earlier. Both would subsequently be used to great effect in the following years putting down rebellions in the Vale, the Westerlands, and the Reach.

As time went on and Baelon fell into a comfortable rhythm of fighting his brother's battles across the Vale, the Riverlands, and Reach it became more and more clear to him, and everyone at court, that his marriage with Meryl Hightower was a fruitless one. After fifteen years the marriage had failed to produce Baelon children. Baelon announced that Meryl was barren and within the week took a second wife, Lady Mina Hayford. Many across the realm were furious when news of the wedding reached them, King Aelyx among them. He, Marcus Hightower, Meryl’s brother, and the High Septon among others demanded that Baelon set Mina aside.

The argument surrounding Baelon’s marriage to Mina Hayford carried on for nearly a year with Baelon citing Aegon’s marriage to Aelyx and Baelon’s own mothers as precedent, eventually leaving Aelyx no choice but to demand Mina be set aside, or Baelon live in exile for five years. Baelon was quick to choose exile, leaving for Pentos with his new bride on Dragonback, taking Blackfyre as well despite Aelyx demanding the sword be left behind. The resulting rift leads to Prince Vaenor, son of Aelyx, being named heir, and Prince of Dragonstone.

Without the might of Baelon, Aelyx is soon bullied by the Faith who use Baelon’s disregard for custom to push for more representation of the Faith in the Realm. In an attempt to placate the High Septon, Aelyx names Septon Darristan as Hand of the King. Not long after the wedding of Rhaela and Vaenor is announced, leading to further condemnation of house Targaryen by not just the High Septon but many Lords of the realm. Septon Darriston performs the ceremony and the newlyweds begin a Royal Progress that ends when the keep at Crakehall is attacked by lowborn and Faithful. Septon Darriston is expelled from the faith with the High Septon, naming the cause as ‘King Abomination.” When the High Septon names the King a tyrant and pretender, the Faith Militant rises up, butchering Darriston outside the Sept of Remembrance, hanging parts of him along the street leading to it with signs that list his and house Targaryen’s sins. Days later two men are killed after intruding on the King’s Manse in an attempt to assassinate Aelyx I.

In an attempt to pacify the growing crowds and end the siege of Crakehall that has trapped his children, King Aelyx rides to Rhaenys’s High Hill to speak to the people. There he, and a number of the Kingsguard who accompanied him are slain and ripped to pieces in a similar fashion to Darriston. As the story goes, Visenya is noted to have said when informed of his death. “I counseled him to bring Fire and Blood to the Sept of Remembrance.” She departed the following morning upon Vhagar to retrieve Baelon and inform him of his brother’s death. Despite Vaenor being the heir to the Iron Throne, Baelon’s first act upon his return was claiming the Throne. He was crowned at Dragonstone with Aegon’s steel crown and coronated by the house Septon, some say under duress. When Grand Maester Doran protested, Baelon beheaded him with Blackfyre returning to Balerion to set off for King’s Landing.

Baelon set his sights on the Sept of Remembrance and before he even considered landing, he set fire to the hill and all those upon it, destroying the Sept, the Poor Fellow’s and Warrior's Sons and any who would share their company, while also incinerating the street and the bodies of Aelyx, Darriston, and the Kingsguard hung along it. He then landed on Visenya’s Hill, stating that his brother had been given his funeral pyre and it was time to rally those loyal to his cause.

Dowager Queen Visenya challenged those who questioned her son’s right to rule to prove themselves, and Ser Kevan Morrigen, a Warrior's Son who had not been caught in the flames that still burned on Rhaenys’s High Hill stepped forward. Baelon wanted to settle the matter with steel, so Kevan called for a Trial of Seven. Six others of the Warrior's Sons stepped forward, however, Baelon stood alone, as many Kingsguard had fallen beside Aelyx and the others were at the siege of Crakehall with Aelyx’s children. Baelon called to the crowd for champions and was met with silence until a man named Rick Dean, a common man-at-arms carrying a spear and wearing a piss pot helmet stepped forward. Many knights shamed by the commoner's bravery joined him and Baelon picked his fellows.

Baelon and Rick Dean were the only survivors of the trial. Baelon himself was in a dire state having taken a serious blow to the head as he felled the last Warrior's Son before being carried from the field by Rick Dean and Visenya. While Baelon was tended at the Aegonfort the remnants of the Warrior's Sons in King’s Landing debated and prayed for guidance in the ashes of the Sept of Remembrance, some claimed that Baelon’s swift destruction of the Sept, and his victory in the Trial by Seven was a clear sign he was the rightful King, others claimed his desecration of the Sept and comatose state were signs he was unfit if he even survived his wounds. In either case, they did not linger in prayer long as Visenya deployed the men of House Targaryen to the hill to arrest any Warrior's Son that remained, most fighting to the death with many others fleeing rather than accepting arrest.

Twenty Eight days after the trial, Baelon remained comatose as Queen Mina Hayford arrived in King’s Landing bringing Teneah of the Tower, a companion from Pentos. The maesters who had failed to provide a cure to Baelon’s state were dismissed by Queen Mina and the Dowager Visenya, with Teneah being given an opportunity to provide care of her own. Two days later King Baelon stood on a balcony proclaiming to his ‘adoring public’ that he was going to rid the realm of the Warrior's Sons poison. Rick Dean had been among those who stayed by the King’s side through his recovery. ‘Mean’ Rick Dean was never far from House Targaryen after this. The man became practically untouchable in King’s Landing with as much influence in court as any High Lord.

Baelon presided over a slew of victories against the Faith Militant, one after another, first at Stonebridge, another on the great fork of the Blackwater, a third from Balerion’s back burning the village of Brindlewood where an army of Faithful had formed with the intent to take Hayford Castle to punish Mina Hayford. The intensity of Baelon’s war on the Faith leads to the disbandment of the siege on Crakehall, leaving Vaenor and Rhaela a chance to flee, and they take this opportunity to return to Dragonstone. Following his victory Baelon announced he would be marrying again, as he was still without an heir. He announced Teneah of the Tower, his savior, as his third wife and claimed all were invited to stand witness. Days later at the ceremony in the ash that had once been the Sept of Remembrance and the Warrior's Sons who had held it the wedding began with the beheading of Grand Maester Thoros who objected to the union claiming Baelon’s true wife was at the Hightower. It is also said that Baelon had to kill a dozen Septons before he found one willing to perform the ceremony. This, among other acts saw the High Septon in Old Town again denounce ‘The abomination and his whores.’

Despite a number of battles being waged, the Warrior's Sons refuse to yield and abide by Baelon’s commands, they and the High Septon both naming him ‘Baelon the Brutal.’ In response, Erryn Mertyns, the Master of Law publishes a slew of new laws that forbid holy men or those bearing holy symbols larger than a palm from carrying arms. The laws also outlaw those who speak against the suppression of the Faith. Despite this, the laws are not truly enforced for nearly a year, with Baelon allowing the rebellion to grow. Dowager Queen Visenya however burns a number of Reachland houses that support the Faith, hitting five in one night, soon after Baelon burns the seats of a handful of Westerland houses that refused a summons to King’s Landing to answer for the freedom they gave the Warrior's Sons to move between the Westerlands and Riverlands. These attacks come to be known as the "Nights of Bright Candles."

A week later, Vhagar and Balerion were circling Old Town and a company of Targaryen men were demanding the gates of Old Town be opened to allow the arrest of the High Septon, else the Starry Sept would be burned, along with the rest of Old Town. The next day the High Septon was found having tragically killed himself with several stab wounds to the back, chest, face, and neck. Lord Marcus Hightower opened the gates allowing King Baelon, Dowager Queen Visenya, and the Targaryen soldiers into the city where they remained for six months presiding over trials that sent a number of Warrior's Sons to the wall, and a larger number to be burned alive at what is now known as ‘Blackfield' up the road from Old Town on the other side of the Roseroad from Honeyholt. Before leaving Old Town Baelon offers standing bounties of a gold dragon for the scalp of a Warrior's Son, and a silver stag for the scalp of a Poor Fellow.

From Dragonstone Prince Vaenor announces his claim to the Iron Throne with the support of several Westerland and Riverland Lords. Vaenor marches an army of fifteen thousand on King’s Landing. Though many others remain silent Baelon is warned by his Mistress of Whisperers Queen Teneah that House Arryn, Lannister, and Baratheon were considering raising their banners for Vaenor ‘the Uncrowned’ if he took the city. King Baelon sent his mother Visenya to Dragonstone to secure any of Aelyx’s family who might remain and flew for the Gold Road to intercept Vaenor’s army, calling all the loyal Lords of the Crownlands, Riverlands, Westerlands, and Reach to his cause. Vaenor’s army was intercepted at the great fork of the Blackwater Rush. Despite being well outnumbered much of it was burned by Balerion the Black Dread, but the ranks that broke and aimed to retreat were crushed by Baelon’s loyalists and pushed back to the split of the water where they were unceremoniously slain.

Vaenor who landed to surrender as he watched his men burn, was killed along with his Dragon Quicksilver personally by Baelon, with those who were present saying Balerion’s gigantic maw took Quicksilver and its rider in one bite leaving nothing left. This is however a well-known tall tale because Quicksilver's scales proved to be a treasured, and valuable trophy for the men who were present, some Lords who take pride in their support of Baelon and their presence at the battle of Blackwater Fork have been known to have the scales riveted or sewn to their arms or armor. This however cemented the name the former High Septon had given to Baelon and he was now known from one end of the realm to the other as Baelon the Brutal as the taint of kinslaying now hung from him. The other moniker that came from the battle was the change in some small mocking circles of Vaenor the Uncrowned to Vaenor the Lifeless.

With Vaenor dead, Baelon turned his attention toward Aelyx’s widow and her remaining children. Rhaela, Daemon, Rhea, and the youngest son Gaemon who he saw fit to summon to court to squire for him. Alys Velaryon and her other children were, for all intents and purposes prisoners, on Dragonstone, cut off from their Dragons and went everywhere under guard. Although Baelon asked for the youngest lad, seeing the young Targaryen boy in court only reminded the King of his lack of heir and he would take to visiting all three of his wives at least once a day. Soon enough Queen Mina announced she was with child, though after three short months, she gave birth to an absolute monster. The babe was twisted and blind, its eyes covered over without the lids one expected. Convinced this was not the child of a King Baelon saw fit to have everyone involved killed, sparing only Mina’s family Jeyne and Hannah. Servants say that night Baelon sat the throne holding Grand Maester Derak’s head in his hands when Queen Teneah informed him Mina had been carrying on an affair with no less than twenty men in her desperation to give Baelon a son. After a brief but thorough investigation held in the lowest level of the dungeons, Baelon received confessions from all but two of the men Teneah had named, executing them all alongside Mina whose death is said to have been the worst of them all. Baelon then marched the banners held in King’s Landing alongside the Targaryen men at hand to Hayford Castle where the entire garrison was slain in the night and anyone who was said to hold a drop of Hayford blood was beheaded and hung naked from the walls of the Castle by their feet.

As the bodies of House Hayford rotted upon the walls a tourney was held to name a new Lord of Hayford Castle. King Baelon allowed any who wished to enter to do so offering armor and weapons taken from the many battles he had won to those who had none to wear. The tourney was eventually won by ‘the Stone Knight’ a mystery entry who was revealed to be a commoner named William of Stonebridge who King Baelon knighted on the spot, and named Lord William Hayford imploring the man to make him forget the scourge that had been brought to the Hayford name. William died soon after of wounds he earned in the contest, his son, Ser Jora, who had, of course, been knighted by his Father, followed him as Lord Hayford.

During the feasting that followed the tourney, the King was informed that his mother, Dowager Queen Visenya, had died on Dragonstone. Realizing he had lost not only his Mother but his strongest supporter King Baelon flew into a rage destroying the table he had been sitting at before storming off and yelling for Balerion. When he reached Dragonstone he discovered the Dowager Queen Alys Velaryon had fled Dragonstone with her children in the confusion while Mean Rick Dean was helping the Maesters tend and secure the Dowager Visenya’s remains. Unfortunately, Rhaela and her daughters from her union with Vaenor were too securely guarded even despite the chaos to be taken by Alys. Among the missing was also Aelyx I’s ornate crown, the sword Dark Sister, which had belonged to Visenya, and the dragons of Daemon and Rhea; Vermithor and Dreamfyre. In response, the young Prince Gaemon was arrested and tortured, and after nine long days of his screams being heard through the windows of the Red Keep, he died. His mutilated body was placed in a crow’s cage in the courtyard of the keep for a fortnight in the empty hope that Alys would return so she might bury her son.

With construction of the Red Keep finished Baelon looked toward the future and had the Master of Coin publish contracts to establish a grand Dragon Pit on Rhaenys’ Hill where the Sept once sat, mysterious circumstances surrounding the men who built the Red Keep however see these contracts slowly filled, many of them still outstanding. Queen Meryl Hightower also fell victim to the Red Keep in a way, falling ill and dying not long after it was finished. Rumors spun of her tongue being removed for a remark Baelon did not enjoy, or her throat being cut by the Kingsguard though many dismiss this still expounding the honor of the white cloaks despite the dishonorable nature of the King they serve. Others argue that many problems over the years would have been solved by Baelon cutting her throat, so why wait so long to do it? Her body was returned to Old Town to be buried and as Lord Hightower raised no armies most accept that her tongue and throat must have been intact.

In the wake of losing two Queens Baelon was back to the field, hunting Poor Fellows south of the Blackwater deciding that he was paying out too much coin for scalps and should earn some himself. Poxy Jeyne Poore, captured during one of these raids, was later used as bait, a public execution announced and administered in the hopes of a rescue attempt. Baelon was able to not only kill and capture a slew of Poor Fellows while Jeyne awaited her execution but on the day of the burning, the King managed to slay a handful more who thought they could stop the burning from the crowd. After a few months of hunting the Kingswood, they say Baelon returned to King’s Landing with two thousand skulls of Warrior's Sons and Poor Fellows, though many believe that if this number is true at least a third were simply lowborn unlucky enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The war and bounty combined with the tourney at Hayford had the added effect of all but emptying King Baelon’s treasury. Despite the Master of Coin consistently raising taxes and tolls to the point that even High Lords were threatening revolt, King Baelon demanded a tribute from the High Lords of Westeros blaming their inability to manage their own regions for why he had to constantly fight a war in their realms.

Despite three Queens and a mania of bedding both when he took them to wife and in recent years, leading to their demise, Baelon sat with no children to show for it. He had all but exiled Queen Teneah in the wake of the ‘failure’ of his other two marriages and for this, among other things, his counselors nearly unanimously agreed he should wed again. Many of those close to him offered suggestions that were both clever, and selfish. In the end, despite being offered sisters, daughters, cousins, and his own kin, Baelon decided to once again take three wives. The three chosen women were all widows of the wars he had waged over the years. Elinor Mallister had lost her husband at the battle of the Blackwater Fork, Ellyn Rowan’s husband had been arrested at Old Town and burned at Blackfield for harboring Warrior's Sons, and lastly, Princess Rhaela whose husband he had eaten with Balerion earning the mark of Kinslayer.

Barely half a year after the wedding Queen Ellyn was pregnant, Queen Elinor’s pregnancy was announced shortly after, though like previous Queens of Baelons, Queen Ellyn after only 3 months birthed a monstrous stillborn child that was twisted and limbless, with a deformed face, and mixed genitalia. Ellyn suffered a number of issues in the birthing bed and though she lived, she has walked quite weakly and looked incredibly sickly ever since, the woman had never really been a beauty but after the miscarriage, she was by all accounts a chore to look at though even still she had a steady crop of courtiers for her shrewd nature. Queen Teneah was quickly seized after the miscarriage for questions raised by the Maesters and in the dungeons she confessed to Baelon that she had poisoned Ellyn, and Mina, and Elinor as well, promising the pending pregnancy would end the same as the other two. Teneah never left the dungeons and goalers say her body is still down there in whatever butchered state Baelon left it. Two months later her promise proved true when Elinor birthed an eyeless child with a withered arm, a tail, and a set of small wings 4 months early. After a few days of painful recovery, Elinor would throw herself from a window to end her misery.

The crumbling Kingdom in Westeros left the exiled Alys Velaryon primed to establish a genuine government in exile. When word of the Dowager's departure reached them there were a number of Lords who sent knights or kin to provide a voice in the court in exile, and just as many who had been banished or outlawed who desired a change in leadership so they could once again see home, the largest among them to lend support being the Company of the Rose, a band of Northerners and their descendants who fled the North when Aegon took power who hope now that aiding the exiled Targaryens might lead to sovereignty for the North. It did not take long for news of the ‘court across the sea’ to reach Baelon. In Westeros, it was presumed that the only Great house to answer Daemon and Alys’ call was Dorne, news that inspired Baelon to look toward a new Dornish war instead of humoring the idea of burning Lys and the traitors that reside there. Magister Mopantis who hosts the court across the sea has used tales of Baelon’s cruelty to build a strong base of support for ‘King Daemon’ in the Free Cities with supporters reaching as far as Braavos.

With the turn of the year 49 AC Baelon would take yet another wife, replacing Elinor Mallister with Mallory Royce, a young woman of twenty name days hoping her youth; And perhaps Teneah’s absence, would provide what the others could not. Baelon wed her in the Sept at Runestone where her family cried in woe. The response to this seventh marriage led to the dismissal of Baelon’s entire small council, the lot of them informed they were lucky to keep their heads as they lost their work. A new council was slowly put together over the following two years and each man would do his best to cobble together a capable office from the mess left by Baelon’s former council, and with a fully filled small council, Baelon calls for the many Lords, Great and small to come to King’s Landing to share in a joyous announcement. The trio of Queens who have over the past few years become the best of enemies also encourage the Lords to bring their Ladies so that the competing Queen’s courts can be fed some fresh blood.