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catofadifferentcolor · 1 year ago

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Terrible Fic Idea #78: Rhaegar Wins, but make it a fairy tale

After posting #77, it occurred to me that the most realistic course of action for an orphan upon learning his real parents are a king and queen is not one of revenge for crimes he may be too young to understand against his mother. It's of wanting to run away and live with his real parents in a castle instead of having to stay with his evil stepmother. So I thought: why not lean into the fairy tale aspect?

Or: What if Rhaegar found his long lost son living among the Starks?

Aka: The Lost Prince Fic

Just imagine it:

Everything goes according to canon until the Trident. Rhaegar defeats Robert Baratheon in single combat, but does not kill him, and forces his surrender. An injured Robert is imprisoned and the combined royalist/rebel army marches on King's Landing, overthrows Aerys II, and installs Rhaegar on the Iron Throne.

Robert is stripped of his lands and titles and sent into exile. Stannis, who was only following his liege's orders, is made Lord of Storm's End and in one stroke becomes Rhaegar's fiercest supporter.

Rhaegar, hesitant to leave his capitol so soon after coming to power, sends Ned to retrieve Lyanna from the Tower of Joy.

Ned finds Lyanna dying in childbirth and claims her son for her own, telling Rhaegar both died in childbed.

Years pass, and Jon grows up in Winterfell with a stepmother who is understandably disgruntled by his presence. (Dealer's choice on how wicked a wicked stepmother Catelyn actually is, whether truly evil or just appearing so in the eyes of a young child.) And so when a 6-year-old Jon overhears Ned and Benjen talking about his real parentage, Jon decides to run away and find his real father, the king.

This is made easier by a royal progress touring the Seven Kingdoms Rhaegar is undertaking after stabilizing his kingdom, which is on the way to Winterfell - indeed, it's why Ned and Benjen were discussing what to do about Jon in the first place. So instead of needing to run all the way to King's Landing, Jon just has to wait a few weeks and find a way to speak to Rhaegar.

He does, slipping into the king's guest rooms and doing his whole Rhaegar, I am your son speech - which, after some tears and confusion, Rhaegar wholeheartedly accepts. Rhaegar promises to take him home to King's Landing, where Jon - rechristened Aemon - will be loved and treated like a prince.

All this has unfortunate consequences for House Stark. Ned is sent to the Wall for his treason, Catelyn is sent to the Starry Sept to become a septa, and their three children are left in the care of a distant cousin, Lord Ondrew Locke. Though young Robb is named Lord of Winterfell, Lord Locke wields all real power in the north.

Jon - Aemon - is not immediately aware of this. He's too happy to be surrounded by his real family, who love him and treat him well. Rhaenys and Aegon are excited to have another playmate, and even Queen Elia enjoys his quiet, calm presence - and the pressure it takes off of her to birth further heirs.

As the years pass, cracks begin to form. On top of the guilt Aemon feels for depriving his cousins of their parents - he never receives any replies to his letters, though that may be Locke's doing - he's slowly becoming aware that there are many in the court who would like to use him, either to gain power for themselves or deprive the Dornish of the power they'll surely gain when Aegon becomes king.

Add to this the fact that Rhaegar, while initially pleased to have a piece of Lyanna return to him, is still obsessed with his prophesy. The dragon must have three heads - but who? His sons and daughter? His son, daughter, and sister - and if so, which son? Or maybe it's his sons and his brother? His favorites shift as goes from one interpretation to another, which leads to him playing his family against each other - and the younger members of his family seeing each other as rivals for their father's/brother's attention.

And Elia? While initially Aemon's greatest ally, she's unable to help comparing her own sickly, bookish son with her knightly stepson - and knows he'll be a danger to Aegon for as long as he lives, whether he wishes to be or not.

It all comes to a head in 298 AC, when Rhaegar dies of wounds gained while jousting against the captain of his Kingsguard, Ser Arthur Dayne, ten days before.

Aegon - in Sunspear for the installation of Arianne Martell as Princess of Dorne with his mother and aunt - is named Lord of the Seven Kingdoms as soon as the ravens arrive. And that should be that, except Aemon - who'd stayed behind in King's Landing - is immediately named king by those who stand the most to lose by Aegon coming to the throne.

And so Westeros falls into civil war over which son of Rhaegar should rule.

At first it seems clear Aegon VI will prevail - he has Dorne behind him, and, with his sister's marriage to Wilias Tyrell, the Reach. Add to that the Riverlands - which have hated Aemon since he was still the bastard Jon Snow - and the North - whose regent, Lord Locke, owes all his power to his Targaryen masters - and that's four kingdoms at his side. And with the Iron Islands in open rebellion, only three could possibly back Aemon.

But what a three they are. The Stormlands, Westerlands, and Vale all side with Aemon for a variety of reasons - power, hatred of Dorne and/or the Reach, fondness for the Starks - and can easily field an army to match Aegon's.

The war rages without much input from its figureheads. Aegon is kept safely in Sunspear, hastily married to his aunt Daenerys to secure his line and claim, and is largely a puppet of his cousin Princess Arianne. Aemon is kept safely in King's Landing, hastily married to his self-proclaimed Hand's granddaughter Myrcella, and is largely a puppet of Tywin Lannister.

But Arianne is not the careful planner her father was. While calculating, her fierce temper often gets the better of her, alienating many of her allies. Equally Tywin is feared, not loved, and growing old enough that many are willing to shake his hold if pressed.

Just when it seems like all Aegon's army has to do is march on King's Landing, the unthinkable happens: Aegon VI is killed by a shadow in the safety of Sunspear. Many think Arianne ordered it sent if she didn't conjure it up herself - especially as she declares her husband, Prince Consort Viserys, Aegon's successor. Much of her army deserts to the Reach, which declares for Wilias Tyrell's wife, Princess Rhaenys.

Around the same time, Robb finally frees himself from Lord Locke's control, ordering the man sent to the Wall. Though he has little love for the cousin who destroyed his family, he is Northern enough to acknowledge that after Aegon's death Aemon is the legal heir, and so the North switches sides.

Meanwhile, Aemon is devastated to learn of the death of his brother. When he eventually learns it had been sent by Stannis and his Red Witch, he arrests the both and executes them on the steps of the Baelor's Sept for sorcery and regicide. Quite naturally, much the Stormlands abandons his cause - a course of events which very much displeases his Hand.

Into this mess arrives Robert fresh from exile, with the Golden Company at his back and Blackfyre in hand. He's joined by many of the Stormlords who'd deserted Aemon, and they make strong progress against both the Dornish and Reacher forces.

A war of five kings rages.

Eventually Robb subdues the Riverlands, forcing Edmure to submit to the North's overlordship - and to marry his sister Sansa, who in the absence of Catelyn grew quite quickly into the shrewd woman we see later in canon.

Similarly, Robert with his fresh troops takes Highgarden and plans to marry himself to the newly widowed Rhaenys - only for Viserys' Dornish forces to poison the lot at the wedding, to devastating losses on both sides. It is said Robert's squire and Rhaenys' handmaid, trysting in the stables, were the only ones on either side to survive.

That same night, Tywin is found dead in his bed. (Either of old age or very carefully poisoned by Tyiron, who is installed as Aemon's Hand the next day.)

As autumn turns to winter, Aemon leads his armies south into Dorne. Weary, isolated, and largely dispirited by the war, the Dornish nevertheless put up a strong resistance - but Viserys is nonetheless captured and brought in chains back to King's Landing, where he was imprisoned in some comfort until he broke his neck trying to escape his tower prison some months later. His wife Arianne kills herself rather than be taken prisoner. The lordship of Dorne passes to her brother Quentyn on the condition he wed Aegon's widow, Daenerys - which suits both just fine, as they'd been lovers since at least Aegon's death.

The Ironborn are quickly mopped up and the long winter does much to defuse lingering tensions.

Aemon rules for sixty years and spends much of his time dealing with the consequences of the War of Five Kings - chief among them massive loss of life on all sides. There are multiple invasion attempts from various alliances of Free Cities, all of which are repelled - gaining Aemon a strong reputation as a warrior king. Tensions flare up at least once a decade between the Reach, Stormlands, and Dorne, and the fact that Aemon manages to maneuver them each time from all-out war gains him a reputation for shrewdness as well. By his death the Seven Kingdoms are more stable than they've been in generations - but at great cost.

Bonuses include: 1) An exploration of how family dynamics and loyalties often play a great role in Medieval warfare. Of particular focus should be the relationship between Aemon and Aegon, which starts strong until forced apart by outside tensions - and the relationship between Aemon and Robb, which starts strong, ebbs after Aemon is taken to King's Landing, and regains a shadow of its former strength after the War ends; 2) An exploration of familial love in every form it takes, from Catelyn's understandable preference for her own children to Rhaegar's utilization of his kin as pawns in a prophecy that never comes to Elia's fear for her son overriding her love for her stepson, and so forth; and 3) Meditations on the inherent meaninglessness of title, wealth, and temporal power, somewhat along the lines of Book II of The Consolation of Philosophy - perhaps even with Aemon penning something similar during the years he's under the thumb of Tywin Lannister.

And that's all I have. As always, feel free to adopt this plot bunny, just link back if you do anything with it.

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