#dornish war

[asoiafandotherbooks]

TWOIAF/Fire & Blood: Maegor's War With The Faith

Warning, Spoilers Ahead…

Maegor has awoken from his coma. Remember the Ghost of High Heart’s quote: “…but when her eyes opened, oh, I woke from terror”? Well, the Faith Militant is soon to feel that same terror.

Cue “No Mister Nice Guy” by Alice Cooper. (Not that Maegor was ever nice).

The king awoke with the rising of the sun. Maegor appeared on the walls of the Red Keep, standing with Alys Harroway and Tyanna of the Tower. He was met with cheers from the population of King’s Landing. The celebration turned to dread when Maegor mounted Balerion and set the Sept of Remembrance (the location of the Warrior’s Sons) ablaze. Archers and spearman waited outside to finish any who escaped the flames.  Seven hundred men died. The annihilation of the King’s Landing Warrior’s Sons marked the downfall of the order. The Warrior’s Sons still retained chapterhouses in Oldtown, Lannisport, Gulltown, and Stoney Sept, but would never regain their former strength.

Maegor’s ability to awaken from a month-long coma and immediately lead an attack on the Warrior’s Faith indicates his recovery was magical in nature. It’s not normal for a man to lay comatose for a month and be able to spring into action within 24 hours of awakening.

Maegor’s first proclamation as king was to order the Poor Fellows to lay down their weapons under penalty of “proscription and death”. When the Poor Fellows ignored his orders, Maegor commanded all leal lords to “take the field and disperse the Faith’s ragged hordes by force”.

The High Septon responded by ordering the “true and pious children of the gods” to take up arms in defense of the Faith and put an end to “the reign of dragons and monsters and abominations”.

The High Septon is giving me Meria Martel flashbacks. The difference being the Faith is provoking the Targaryens instead of the Targaryens’ unprovoked attack on Dorne. The similarity between the High Septon and Meria Martel is that both knew the Targaryens vastly overpowered them, but still committed to their cause, ensuring thousands would die in the process.

The High Septon, the Faith in general, has overstepped. Are incestuous marriages bad? Yes. Should you send thousands of men to die to overthrow the ruling dynasty because of it? No. The Faith gained so much ground because Aenys was an indecisive idiot. Maegor’s attack on the Warrior’s Sons demonstrated that he wasn’t afraid of taking a violent, hardline stand. Maegor’s response was violent but he’s not wrong in ordering the mobs of Poor Fellows to disperse – it’s not good to have mobs of armed individuals roaming the streets.

The High Septon is delusional if he thinks he stands a chance against Maegor. Maegor is not Aenys. He is decisive and not afraid of violence. He might even prefer it.  How does the High Septon think he stands a chance against Balerion/Vhagar when all the Seven Kingdoms failed? Yes, I include Dorne in that count. Did the Targaryens conquer Dorne? No. Did Dorne spend decades recovering from the destruction unleashed on Dorne from the dragons? Yes. At best it’s a draw.

Let’s backtrack to the First Dornish War for a minute. I read a theory a few weeks ago that I loved but it was after I covered the First Dornish War. Near the end of the First Dornish War, Deria Martell arrived in King’s Landing with a letter. Aegon read the letter and ended the war the next day. No one know the letter’s contents as Aegon burned it. The theory speculates that the letter stated Rhaenys survived the crash near the Hellholt but was later killed by Aegon/Visenya during the “Dragon’s Wrath” attack on Dornish castles.

This is one of my favorite ASOIAF theories. It explains why Aegon had such an emotional reaction and promptly ended the Dornish war. Aegon realized he killed his beloved Rhaenys and no longer had the desire to continue the war. Brilliant!

Back to Maegor’s war with the Faith. The battle lines have been drawn, and the commanders have summoned the troops. The first battle was at Stonebridge in the Reach. Six lordly hosts battled nine thousand Poor Fellows led by Wat the Hewer.  The battle was one-sided as Wat’s poor, untrained followers had no chance against the charge of armored knights. The grievous slaughter caused the Mander river to run red for twenty leagues. The town/castle the battle was fought at became known as Bitterbridge. Wat was taken alive but not before slaying Lord Meadows of Grassy Vale, the commander of the king’s host. Wat was delivered to King’s Landing in chains.

Ser Horys Hill led 13,000 Poor Fellows, two hundred mounted Warrior’s Sons from Stoney Sept, the household knights and feudal levies of a dozen rebel lords from the westerlands and riverlands. Lord Rupert “the Fighting Fool”Falwell, Ser Lyonel Lorch, Ser Alyn Terrick, Lord Tristifer Wayn, Lord Jon Lychester were among these knights. The army totaled 20,0000.

King Maegor’s army was similar in size, twice as much armored horse, plus a large contingent of longbowmen. Oh, and a small advantage named Balerion.

The two forces met at the Great Fork of the Blackwater. The battle was savage. The Fighting Fool slew two (unnamed) members of the Kingsguard before being cut down by the Lord of Maidenpool. Big Jon Hogg, fighting for the king, was blinded by a sword slash but still led a charge that broke the lines of the Faithful, and put the Poor Fellows to flight. A rainstorm dampened but did not quench Balerion’s flames as Maegor descended time and again to set his foes aflame. King Maegor’s forces achieved victory by nightfall and the remaining Poor Fellows scattered away in all directions.

Up next, the Faith licks their wounds, Rhaena gives birth, and Maegor takes a third wife.

[atopvisenyashill]

that arianne chapter reconvinced me of that theory that the rest of dorne Does Not Fuck With House Dayne Anymore, like, to the rest of Westeros Arthur is a shining example of chivalry and knightly ideals, but Dorne is like “Lewyn had to be blackmailed into fighting for Rhaegar, where the fuck were you when Elia and the babies were slaughtered you useless binch?!” i just think even the other characters do not take gerold dayne even a little serious, they all are aware he’s skilled but it feels like they’re laughing at him behind his back and he knows it.

[ladystoneboobs]

westerosi ruling ladies/acknowledged heiresses outside of dorne, listed by region:

the north

lady jonelle cerwyn, lady of castle cerwyn after the murder of her younger brother, lord cley cerwyn, by ramsay snow. (cley did not long outlive their father, lord medger cerwyn, who died of his wounds as a pow at harrenhal, after fighting in roose bolton's host when tywin lannister defeated them on the green fork.) we first hear of lady jonelle when robb stark calls his banners and lord cerwyn means to bring his old maid daughter with him, and the next we hear of her is when asha greyjoy gets her letter from ramsay, co-signed by a lady cerwyn and lady dustin, among the other northern lords in the bolton camp. cerwyn men-at-arms and the cerwyn maester are noted with roose at wf, and presumably if their lady did go south with her father, she must have returned north in roose bolton's party.

lady barbrey ryswell dustin, widow of the late lord willam dustin, apparently the last of his line since no surviving male dustins are ever mentioned. the widow of barrowton rules in his place for the remainder of her lifetime, and (unlike poor lady hornwood) rules with power uncontested, as barrowton's closest neighbors are the ryswells, also her closest kin, father and brothers. however, without any children from the late lord dustin, unclear what would happen after lady barbrey dies.

lady lyessa flint, head of the branch of house flint of widow's watch. lady flint's son, robin flint, led their forces in robb stark's army and died with the king at the red wedding, but was not the head of house. lady flint is listed such in the appendices, and was said to be pregnant in acok, meaning she likely had a living husband at the time, but he goes unnamed as only her consort.

lady alys karstark, heir to her eldest brother lord harrion karstark of karhold (whose location and current status is unclear after being captured by the lannisters a 2nd time), following the deaths of their brothers in the battle of the whispering wood, and the execution of their father by king robb as a murderer and traitor. at jon snow's instigation she has taken sigorn, magnar of thenn, as her consort.

lady wynafryd manderly, elder granddaughter of lord wyman manderly, by his son and heir ser wylis. should be the next heir to white harbor after her father, unless her parents should produce a son.

lady maege mormont of bear island, the only ruling lady listed here to also have a daughter as her heir. first this was dacey mormont, but after her murder at the red wedding, the new heir is second daughter alysanne aka aly the she-bear. but since aly told asha greyjoy she had a son as well as a daughter back home, that means there likely won't be a 3rd ruling lady in a row, as the mormonts may have a history of women warriors, but there's no sign they don't still practice male-preference primogeniture when there is a son to inherit. where the mormonts do step out of northern convention, however, is the ruling ladies fucking whoever they want without feeling the need for a husband and still naming their fatherless children mormonts, not snows, a practice rhaenyra targaryen would surely envy.

lady eddara tallhart, an heiress and then nominal ruler of torrhen's square, before the age of 10, after her elder brother benfred was killed by theon greyjoy's ironmen and then their father ser helman was killed when roose bolton sent him into an ambush at duskendale. listed as still a captive inside her family's seat, besieged by dagmer cleftjaw again, in the adwd appendix.

the riverlands

lady barbara bracken, eldest daughter of lord jonos bracken of stone hedge, who has multiple daughters by two of his three different wives, but no surviving sons.

lady amarei frey lannister, married to lancel lannister at castle darry as a granddaughter of a previous lord darry, then left to rule on her own after lancel abandoned her and repudiated their unconsummated marriage

lady eleanor mooton, eldest daughter of lord william mooton of maidenpool, listed as his heir in adwd appendix, at the time of her marriage to dickon tarly. (meaning presumably his sons mentioned in acok died during the war.)

lady carellen smallwood, (likely?) heir to acorn hall as the only known surviving child of lord and lady smallwood, whose only known son died years before.

lady liane vance, eldest daughter of lord karyl vance of house vance of wayfarer's rest, listed as his heir in the affc appendix

lady shella whent, last of the line of the whents of harrenhal, disposessed by tywin lannister, and allegedly dead by the time of affc, according to littlefinger. text is somewhat inconsistent on whether she or her husband inherited harrenhal, just as it's unknown what happened to all their children if they were the same whents hosting the tourney at harrenhal years before, nor even how they were related to minisa whent tully, the late lady of riverrun.

the vale

chella, daughter of cheyk, clan chief of the black ears

lady anya waynwood, lady of ironoaks, an older lady with multiple sons and grandsons still ruling in her own name, a formidable power in the vale, perhaps second only to the main branch of house royce as chief bannermen of house arryn

the westerlands

cersei lannister, lady of casterly rock as well as queen regent, following her father, lord tywin lannister, being murdered by her younger brother tyrion, an attainted traitor and fugitive, with her twin brother, jaime, unable to inherit as a knight of the kingsguard

lady alysanne lefford, lady of the golden tooth after lord leo lefford drowned in the battle of the fords against edmure tully's army. (whether the previous lord was her father, brother, or even uncle or cousin is unknown, all we know of her is her entry in the affc/adwd appendices after lord lefford's death in asos)

the reach

lady alysanne bulwer, the lady of blackcrown as the only known child of the late lord jon bulwer, frequently referred to as lady bulwer. (lady fatherslastname not being a style otherwise used with a lord's unmarried daughters, lady housesurname usually referring to a lord's wife using her husband's name). there is an inconsistency with taena merryweather telling cersei that there was talk of megga tyrell being betrothed to lady bulwer's brother (which a nondornish heiress cannot have and is not listed in any appendix), but this is either a mistake by grrm or misunderstanding by taena unless she's referring to an unknown brother of alysanne bulwer's mother, the last lady bulwer. (i'm taking multiple mentions of her as lady bulwer in sansa's pov over any gossip from taena.)

lady arwyn oakheart, lady of old oak, a widow with multiple grown sons who commanded her own forces in renly baratheon's army, even if she did not mean to fight on the field.

the crownlands

lady ermesand hayford, the last of the hayford line, a babe ruling in name only, married to the squire tyrek lannister before she was weaned, a husband now missing since his disappearence during the riot in kl on the day of princess myrcella's departure

the ladies tanda, falyse and lollys stokeworth, three would-be rulers of castle stokeworth dispossessed by the schemes of queen cersei and ser bronn of the blackwater. lady tanda ruled for years with falyse as her heir and younger daughter lollys as the only heir to the barren falyse, until such time as lollys was wed to bronn and lady tanda took a griveous fall from a horse. bronn started calling himself lord stokeworth when tanda and falyse were still alive, chasing off falyse after her husband attempted to kill him at cersei's behest. falyse died painfully in qyburn's dungeons, while tanda was left to die at castle stokeworth, making lollys even more a ruler in name only than baby lady hayford, as her husband is inside the castle with men loyal only to him, not to any stokeworth lady.

the stormlands

lady brienne of tarth, heir to lord selwyn tarth the evenstar as his only surviving child

lady mary mertyns, listed as lady of the mistwood in the adwd appendix

you'll notice the iron islands is the only (nondornish) region missing here. ofc they did have a possible heiress to pyke and all the isles but then asha greyjoy was soundly rejected as such at the kingsmoot after balon's death. the lack of other present-tl ruling ladies/acknowledged heirs afab may be down to this being the smallest region, aside from the crownlands. however, there are no historical ruling ladies in their section of the world book either, iirc.

AND there is another case of a possible heiress, again meaning asha, wrt harlaw. her uncle lord rodrik harlaw tried to dissaude her from the kingsmoot by offering to name her heir to his castle, while allowing a cousin to inherit all his other titles and power over the whole island of harlaw. but shouldn't asha have already been in line for all the harlaw lands and titles, above all the harlaw cousins? her aunt gwynesse's complaint of being the true heir as rodrik's elder sister may not work outside of dorne, but even on the nondornish mainland, a lord's sister (and therefore their children, ie asha) still come before a lord's uncles and cousins. isn't that the whole point of alys karstark's plight, that her older cousin had to marry her to try to claim her birthright? so the harlaw line of succession should go rodrik>gwynesse>alannys>asha before any cousins come into it.

that this would not be the case and that asha is only presented with the option of being lady of ten towers by doing homage to a cousin as her overlord for the whole island of harlaw suggests imo that the islands are particularly resistant to a woman as head of house, with all male kin following her in place of a patriarch. women may serve as castle stewards and the right sort may prove themselves as captains (not common, but not too rare either) but ruling on land, ruling over male kin, and fellow captains is a different matter. perhaps not too surprising from a people whose religon sees rape of foreign women as a key and holy part of their way of life. an ironwoman may not disapprove of her men doing so, but cannot fully participate without the cock to forcibly spread seed across the world. how can a captain who cannot fully perform manhood as the drowned god proscribes for his captains be rock king over any island, let alone all of them? in this light, balon's choice of asha as heir is even more radical, though likely it came not from a view of equality between the sexes but from a feeling that his own daughter was the very much singular special exception, more a son than greendlandized theon.

[arwyd]

“Yeet”

-Meria Martell to Lord Rosby moments before pushing him from the top of the Spear Tower, probably

[icediamonds]

Aegon and his sisters are not colonizers, they are conquerors and genocidal.

Loren I Lannister and Mern IX Gardener formed an alliance between the Reach and the Westerlands in order to resist Aegon I Targaryen. Together, they commanded an army of fifty-five thousand men, but Aegon still killed them all, that army are people, they are smallfolk.

When Rhaenys died invading Dorne Visenya and Aegon, grief-stricken at her death, set every castle, keep, and holdfast in Dorne ablaze at least once, with the exception of Sunspear and its shadow city. Do you all realize how many people have died in that invasion? And all of this for what? Because Dorne defended themselves? That's why they had to almost destroy Dorne?

[baashirdayne]

The Dornish War || The Valyrian War

Month 1: The Fall of Alicent

Week 1: Alicent dies in the infirmary, with Doran Uller playing a role in her death to prevent her from leaving the West. Her discovery sparks a series of covert actions.

Week 2: First Minister Baashir Dayne's brother impersonates him to maintain the facade of stability while Lord Baashir Dayne and Armaan Yronwood sneak off to the Crownlands disguised as men of House Marbrand.

Month 2: Chaos in New Valyria and the Marches

Week 1: In New Valyria, chaos erupts as smoke and flames rise, igniting the pit. An explosion occurs, leading to crumbling walls and widespread panic, attributed to Baashir Dayne and Armaan Yronwood. Simultaneously, the keep of Hayford is set ablaze by Lords Dastan Allyrion and Ryon Wyl, who have returned to Dorne with valuable secrets.

Week 2: The Wyl of Wyl returns from the Westerlands, where the fighting intensifies in the Dornish marches. He captures a Dondarrion lord as a hostage, signifying a shift in tactics with intentions to take more captives.

Week 3: Lord Deimos Velaryon also captures a Dayne brother in the Marches, escalating the situation further.

Month 3: Siege and Naval Conflicts

Week 1: Lord Wyl and Fowler manage to break the siege at Nightsong, discovering the young Caron lord dead, though the Caron line persists.

Week 2: The Summer Islanders provide ships to Dorne during their visit. These vessels are utilized to launch an attack on the Weeping Town, unaware that Lord Tarth has been guarding the seas.

Week 3: A naval confrontation ensues as Lord Tarth and forces from Houses Wylde and Swann push back against the Wyl men at sea and in the town.

Week 4: In the Marches, First Minister Baashir Dayne and Lord Armaan Yronwood find themselves engaged in a tough battle against the Unsullied, with both sides stalemated. A temporary lull occurs as Silverwing appears in the sky, prompting the Dornish to retreat underground and conduct night attacks.

Month 4: The Wrath of King Jaehaerys II

Week 1: King Jaehaerys II Targaryen dismounts his dragon, intending to join the fray himself. He rallies his troops, engaging in fierce combat with the Dornish fighters. As the battle intensifies, he signals his dragon to take to the skies for a brief respite, planning for her to fly away and rest before returning.

Week 2: However, as Jaehaerys II fights on the ground, the dragon is forced back into action. She swoops down, unleashing fiery destruction upon the Dornish lines, incinerating clusters of warriors. The Dornish forces are compelled to regroup to prevent the Unsullied from advancing too deeply into their territory.

Week 3: In a desperate countermeasure, a coalition forms among the Dornish leaders. Prince Ravi Martell, First Minister Baashir Dayne, and Lord Doran Uller each oversee the deployment of giant crossbows, known as Scorpions. These massive weapons are strategically positioned to target the dragon as she reigns fire from above.

Week 4: The tension reaches its peak as the battle rages on. As Jaehaerys II’s dragon soars above, the three leaders coordinate their efforts, launching a volley of bolts into the sky. The sound of the Scorpions firing echoes across the plains of Dorne, with each bolt seeking its mark as the Dornish forces hold their breath in anticipation.

Climactic Moment: Suddenly, one of the Scorpion bolts strikes true, finding its target. The dragon emits a deafening roar before plummeting from the sky, engulfed in flames and smoke. Chaos ensues on the battlefield as soldiers scramble in shock. It remains unclear whose bolt delivered the fatal blow—whether it was Prince Ravi's forces, Baashir Dayne's, or Doran Uller's—that finally brought down the beast.

Aftermath: The death of the dragon shifts the tides of battle. Dornish fighters, now emboldened by their victory, push back against the Unsullied, reclaiming lost ground. The atmosphere is charged with a mixture of triumph and sorrow as the Dornish forces honor their fallen while preparing for the challenges that lie ahead, knowing the conflict is far from over.

[ Note: All muses in Dorne and New Valyria (Males Only for New Valyria) can take part in the fighting happening in the various locations in the Dornish marches. This is a timeline for about three months in the time after leaving the West. A post of plotting and planning from the New Valyria side ]

[revindicatedbyhistory]

dorne probably would be my favorite ASOIAF region if so much of its writing didnt have all these orientalist undertones

[kingsmakers]

Me but it's just creating female characters for HOTD who have genuine rage and cruelty in their bones because I can't trust the show to do it.

[stromuprisahat]

Visenya twice wielded Dark Sister in Aegon’s defense when he was set upon by Dornish cutthroats. Suspicious and ferocious by turns, she trusted no one but her brother. During the Dornish War, she took to wearing a shirt of mail night and day, even under her court clothes, and urged the king to do the same. When Aegon refused, Visenya grew furious. “Even with Blackfyre in your hand, you are only one man,” she told him, “and I cannot always be with you.” When the king pointed out that he had guardsmen around him, Visenya drew Dark Sister and slashed him across the cheek so quickly the guards had no time to react. “Your guards are slow and lazy,” she said. “I could have killed you as easily as I cut you. You require better protection.” King Aegon, bleeding, had no choice but to agree.

Fire and Blood (George R. R. Martin)

Peak older sibling energy. She even has “I’ll do it myself!” attitude.

So many knights came forward to offer themselves as candidates for the Kingsguard that King Aegon considered holding a great tourney to determine which of them was the most worthy. Visenya would not hear of it, however. To be a Kingsguard knight required more than just skill at arms, she pointed out. She would not risk placing men of uncertain loyalty about the king, regardless of how well they performed in a melee. She would choose the knights herself.

The champions she selected were young and old, tall and short, dark and fair. They came from every corner of the realm. Some were younger sons, others the heirs of ancient houses who gave up their inheritances to serve the king. One was a hedge knight, another bastard born. All of them were quick, strong, observant, skilled with sword and shield, and devoted to the king.

[warsofasoiaf]

What does Gyldayn mean when he says in regards to the Dornish victory in the first war “if victory it was.”?

He's just trying to softball Aegon's defeat.

Thanks for the question, Ekendall.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[lostchildofthenewworld]

westeros failed as a society because there was no solange, beyonce, destiny’s child, or mary j blige and that’s just the truth

[west1rosi]

i made my peace with season 8 in some way but my god rewatching it to make icons of gendry is making me boil.

[tweedfrog]

The Dayne shunning theory is my absolute favorite! Like yes!! Consequences for what happened to Elia and her kids!! Whether it’s fairly handed out or not, it’s satisfying to see. I particularly love it in rhaegar wins fics when Arthur is alive to experience it.

youve probably already read my Elia fic A Tigress not a woman but if you havent i think youll enjoy the Arthur bullying scenes in it because hes basically getting Dayne Shunning in my au

but yes i think theres something so natural about Doran managing to barely keep a hold on dorne after Elias death but the anger has to go somewhere so it all coalesces around the Daynes who can be punished unlike the Lannisters and Robert Baratheon and Rhaegar Targaryen. It's very unfair to Ned and Allyria (and possibly Ashara and Lord Dayne if they werent involved) but also super understandable to lash out at an easy accessible target.

[navree]

Hey I saw your post of rhaenys and the dornish letter that her body was returned to aegon and all that stuff but wouldn't that be traumatizing like it s defo bones not even flesh or normal face just abroken skull body not even like full one every piece of her bones.... wouldn't that make aegon more enraged like how you imagine his first reaction while holding her remains ??

Oh, sorry if it wasn't clear but I'm of the opinion that Rhaenys was either returned to Dragonstone still living or having only recently died. So, the sequence of events as I see them is:

1) Rhaenys and Meraxes are shot down but, as seen with Baela and Aegon II, you can survive your dragon falling from the sky so she lived

2) She was then taken into the custody of the Ullers as she was shot down over Hellholt, their keep (whether there was torture or just imprisonment is a complete unknown so I flipflop as is narratively convenient)

3) At some point the Martells, a more egalitarian society in Westeros who at the very least respected the Targaryens as warriors in their own rights and Rhaenys as a warrior in her own right as well, found out that Rhaenys was still alive and captive and were Not Pleased

4) As the Ullers' liege lords, they pulled rank and then took custody of Rhaenys from them and likely attempted to give her better care than she was getting at Hellholt

5) Rhaenys likely wouldn't have survived that fall without serious injuries, and if there was torture involved, the situation would have been even worse, and at some point around the war's stalemate it became clear she wasn't going to live for very long

6) Nymor, as the Prince of Dorne, decides that, while offering peace, he'll make a gesture of good will to Aegon as well to keep Dorne safe from Targaryen wrath for at least his and Deria's reigns

7) Nymor writes a letter to Aegon in which he says that the Martells found Rhaenys at Hellholt and, being decent folks, they're going to be sending her on a ship to Dragonstone so she can at least spend her final days in the place where she was born, or at minimum, can have a funeral there with the family who loved her

8) Deria gives this letter to Aegon, which explains his emotional reaction, his desire to keep things under wraps until he could verify the thing, and his immediate flight to Dragonstone, essentially stalling all peace talks until he returned the next morning, and his immediate agreement to Nymor's terms, as well as his subsequent good relations with the Martells for the rest of his reign - he went to verify the Martells' claim and found it both true and cathartic

9) As mentioned above, Aegon goes to Dragonstone, and considering that a journey both by land to King's Landing and by ship to Dragonstone would take a while but still be of the same length to each other, likely did find Rhaenys either alive on the brink of death or her recently deceased body, had her cremated according to Targaryen tradition, and then went back home

10) Also as mentioned above, Aegon is both sick of the war for various reasons I've outlined in other responses, and grateful that the Martells at least tried to take care of Rhaenys while they had her, kept her in relative comfort in her last days, and allowed him the opportunity for some closure, so agreed to the peace, and because of how they acted when it came to this, was willing to be amicable and even visit Sunspear himself later in his reign.

So, it's not that the Martells were returning to him a couple hunks of shattered bone in my view, they either were giving him a proper and not decomposed corpse that he could honor in accordance to Targaryen funerary customs and other ways that might be important to him, or it was actually Rhaenys herself, allowing him an opportunity to say goodbye and tell her loved her and at least get, as I said, closure, certainly more closure than he got from hearing about her getting shot out of the fuckin sky thousands upon thousands of miles away. As for whether it'd be traumatizing, I don't think so necessarily. For one, Aegon's fought in battle, he's seen dead people, so that's not the issue. For two, even if it's Rhaenys specifically, probably not. Aegon ended the war in 13 AC and Rhaenys died in 10 AC, and for that entire time up until the second he read Nymor's letter, he has very much presumed Rhaenys dead. He has likely gone through the cycle of grief as best as he can, he likely came to some kind of terms with himself over the fact that she was dead, that he loved her dearly and will always love her dearly, but she's gone now and he'll only ever see her again in dragon heaven or whatever. So it was far enough away that it wasn't as incredibly raw as it had been when he was burning the entire countryside over it, but not so far removed that it was ripping open a completely healed wound (not least because that likely never fully healed for him). I'd imagine that his reaction that wasn't enraged, it was relieved, that he was getting this briefest of second chances with Rhaenys before she died for good. We also know that, even if it was just the body, that she'd died en route, that probably still wouldn't have bothered him. The Dornish delegation did bring remains with them canonically, they brought Meraxes's skull as a more public token of goodwill and as a gesture of peace. And while others in his inner circle, like Orys and Visenya, publicly took that badly, Aegon very much didn't, he's not recorded as having had any issue and defended the Dornishmen's ability to be safe while in King's Landing. There's no reason to believe that a more intimate and far more important gesture of good will from the Martells specifically wouldn't have engendered a similar reaction.

As to your question on his reaction, I think he was just likely very sad. Aegon's a private person, and appears to have been reserved just as a trait, not someone who would be open with his emotions even in private, because he keeps things close to the vest (same buddy). So his reaction likely wouldn't have been overt, but moreso akin to quiet devastation. Tears, most definitely, but tears only in utter privacy, and some form of stoic blankness in public (Aegon's reaction to Nymor's letter is emotional for him, and that's just holding onto the barbed monstrosity of the Iron Throne so hard he was bleeding while reading it, this man has a master poker face in public settings). And then I think he went and spent a long time with Aenys, just the two of them.

[horizon-verizon]

With the submission of the Three Sisters and the Iron Islands, all of Westeros south of the Wall was now ruled by Aegon Targaryen, save Dorne alone. So it was to Dorne that the Dragon next turned his attention. Aegon first attempted to win the Dornishmen with words, dispatching a delegation of high lords, maesters, and septons to Sunspear to treat with Princess Meria Martell, the so-called Yellow Toad of Dorne, and persuade her of the advantages of joining her realm to his. Their negotiations continued for the best part of a year, but achieved nothing.

Fire and Blood, by George R.R. Martin pg 29

[nobodysuspectsthebutterfly]

#the people upset about Criston being Dornish are constantly stating Dorne is white so why does it really matter? (via @thewitchqueenofharrenhal)

i say ‘i’d love to know why’ but i know the reason people on twitter are actually weird about criston being dornish is that they view media in terms of overwatch diversity points and the team with more overwatch diversity points is morally superior. same as the alicent wasn’t a child bride argument it’s a concern to concede like. abused(5points) woman(3points) dornish(7points) lowborn(6points) because, if diversity is morally weighted, that would imply you think the greens are morally defensible or even superior to rhaenyra. leading to this bizarre refusal to acknowledge these morally neutral traits characters have. anyway clubfoot(10points) so unfortunately larys still 🔛🔝