#pureborn

[wcrstarter]

pretty much everyone on my dash is posting HC about injuries/scars/traumatic events their muses went through. tempting to do a meta on scars/old injuries and the ways vampiric rapid healing complicates that for sonja.

[perditty]

Dany on her way to visit the Pureborn of Quarth

[witchqueenvisenya]

this has most probably been noted by others but it hit me just now that dany's dragons actually do act like the people they're named after, not just in terms of how they were as real humans and their relationship with her but how dany chooses to remember them.

viserion is notably the most affectionate, and this is because viserys was affectionate and kind to dany when they were younger. drogon is the one that she bonds with as a rider, and the one that's the most fearsome, because drogo was the first man that dany derived power from (my sun and stars made a queen of me); drogon becomes her ultimate symbol of power.

rhaegar was the brother that she never knew, but idolises and tries to emulate, especially when she is taking big decisions. she takes rhaegal with her to petition the pureborn, because that is still early stages of her becoming queen in her own right, and rhaegar was the crown prince and it makes sense that one of her first diplomtic attempts are with her almost-king brother at her side. i'm not saying that this is what she was thinking, but that symbolically i like the choice. she doesn't really know him, only anecdotes, and this is probably why rhaegal is the one that is most... free in personality. there's simply not enough to establish a relationship with rhaegar and dany so that transfers to rhaegal and dany, but rhaegal has been noticeably more sharp than viserion, snapping at ser barristan and irri. he is quick to act when dany is irritated, or conflicted, but he also snaps out in defense of her when she meets with that slaver outside yunkai, so... i believe that kind of transfers back to how rhaegar and dany's relationship could have been had he lived. makes sense because she is so much younger than her eldest brother that she is the age of his children. rhaegal is also the one that kills quentyn martell who tries to "tame" viserion.

all of this also makes me think that viserion will be the one that euron greyjoy binds with the dragon horn, but because viserion is named after viserys, and dany believes "his dragon will do what he could not".... i think viserion will be reunited with dany. viserys was lost to dany by the end, so much that she had to effectively view him as dead before he was actually killed (this man who had once been her brother) so there's probably going to be a lot of angst surrounding this period, but viserion will win out in the end somehow. especially because dany tried multiple times to help viserys when they were with the dothraki and he rebuked at her every turn, so this time her efforts will not be in vain.

[cinematic-phosphenes]

ASOIAF as historical paintings (6/∞) Young Dany wearing her mother's crown

Years past they had been forced to sell their last few treasures, and now even the coin they had gotten from Mother’s crown had gone. When Viserys sold their mother’s crown, the last joy had gone from him, leaving only rage. And the Tourmaline Brotherhood pressed on her a crown wrought in the shape of a three-headed dragon; the coils were yellow gold, the wings silver, the heads carved from jade, ivory, and onyx. The crown was the only offering she’d kept. The rest she sold, to gather the wealth she had wasted on the Pureborn. Xaro would have sold the crown too—the Thirteen would see that she had a much finer one, he swore—but Dany forbade it. “Viserys sold my mother’s crown, and men called him a beggar. I shall keep this one, so men will call me a queen.” And so she did, though the weight of it made her neck ache. (GRRM, A Game of Thrones)

Princess with a spindle by Hanna Hirsch-Pauli

[starryrosebud]

Joff at least died trying to save the dragons,meanwhile the only important thing Jaehaera did was dying 🤷‍♀️

greens are mad that grrm favored blacks and killed jaehaera like he didn't also kill joffrey for nothing. should i cry for joffrey who added nothing important to the story?

[daedeloths]

BLOOD MOONLIT — Fire and Blood / House of the Dragon

Few figures in Westerosi history remain as concealed as QUEEN TAENYSA, formerly of the exiled House Mehpare — now known as the Pureborn of QARTH.

Having arrived in King’s Landing in 123 A.C, the girl was wedded to King Viserys’s eldest son, later known as Aegon II, Second of his Name and The Usurper.

Initially beloved by the smallfolk, her husband’s role in the tumultuous civil war elevated Taenysa's position to the Queen of the Seven Kingdoms for a short period of time.

This later gave rise to the epithet of 'The Serpent Queen' for her duplicitous nature, and suspected use of poisons on rivals.

Following the end of the devastating Dance of the Dragons, [illegible].

READ HERE! 💗

comment, message or ask to be added to the taglist 💌

[diamondperfumes]

Culture is a central aspect of Dany's arc. As such, it is a central feature of interpretations of her character, whether such interpretations are positive or negative.

The majority of ASOIAF fans dislike Dany's relationship with culture. What I find interesting, however, is that ASOIAF fans end up rejecting Dany's place in every culture she's part of.

Dany was born on Dragonstone, and immediately fled to Braavos when Rhaella died. When Viserys and Daenerys were forced to leave the Sealord's Manse, they traveled through the Free Cities: Lys, Myr, Tyrosh. Dany speaks Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent/dialect. Six months before the events of AGOT, Viserys and Daenerys land up in Illyrio's manse in Pentos.

Dany unequivocally adopts Dothraki culture as her own. She worships the Dothraki Horse God, speaks Dothraki fluently, wears the hrakkar when she wants to be comfortable, prefers her Dothraki riding leathers, painted vest, and medallion belt to the Meereenese tokar (and wears such an outfit when she wants to project strength), wears bells in her hair, considers Dothraki funeral rites for her own eventual death, loves horse riding, and sees herself as part of the Dothraki land. She is a Khaleesi of her own Khalasar, and also foreshadowed to be the Stallion who Mounts the World.

Dany spends time in Qarth, recovering from the perils of the Red Waste, figuring her leadership style out as a beggar queen, before she is kicked out of the city. There she meets Quaithe, who recurs as an ambiguous guide and mentor in her arc. She also receives various prophecies from the Undying, before they try to devour her. Xaro becomes an ally, and then enemy, and she learns important lessons from him. She gets her three-headed dragon crown, wrought in jade, ivory, and onyx, from the Pureborn of Qarth.

Dany conquers Slaver's Bay, moving from Astapor, to Yunkai, to Meereen, before ruling Meereen as Queen. She tries to free slaves and abolish slavery in each city. She wears the Meereenese tokar, speaks Ghiscari in court, marries Hizdahr zo Loraq in the Meereenese fashion, re-opens the fighting pits, trains her child hostages as cupbearers, and tries to be the "queen of rabbits." The bulk of the exploration of her leadership style and ideology is in Slaver's Bay.

Dany wants to reconquer Westeros on behalf of the Targaryen dynasty, and idealizes Westeros as a beautiful land. She names the habitat Drogon carves out for himself as Dragonstone.

Dany longs for the house with the red door and lemon tree. The two places she admits to being happiest in are Braavos (the house with the red door) and the Dothraki Sea. She once wanted to be a sailor. She has dreams of living a simple life with Daario. She also wants to be queen.

Dany speaks Ghiscari, High Valyrian, Tyroshi Valyrian (and likely other Valyrian dialects, like Pentoshi Valyrian), the Common Tongue, and Dothraki. She worships both the Faith of the Seven and the Dothraki Horse God. She has a connection to R'hllorism. She's lived in various Free Cities, the Dothraki Sea, Qarth, and Meereen. She's been through the Red Waste, Vaes Dothrak, Astapor, and Yunkai.

ASOIAF fans reject every one of Dany's relationships to these locations and cultures.

She is considered entitled, and imperialistic, for wanting to reconquer Westeros. Most theories of her dying center around the futility of conquest, the violence of House Targaryen, the selfishness of holding on to its name, the fact of her exile, and even that she is "foreign" to the land and culture. Many point out that she doesn't know "anything" about Westeros, that her father was Aerys II, that her family are "oppressive conquerors," and that her family lost the throne. Some will come up with convoluted reasons to claim that Jon Snow or Young Griff are ahead of her in the line of succession (so the throne belongs to a Targaryen, just not her). She won't "respect" Northern independence, Dornish independence, Ironborn independence, etc.

She is considered violent, tyrannical, and a threat to Westeros because of her connection to the Dothraki. She is accused of being an enabler of slavery and rape for being Drogo's wife, and then a she-Khal. The stallion who mounts the world prophecy is used as "proof" that she will go mad, or that she will burn Westeros to the ground in her conquest. She is accused of romanticizing Dothraki culture. She's blamed for what happens to the women of the Lhazarene village, particularly Mirri. Phrases such as "she is a white woman whose arc is propped up by the suffering of women of color/characters of color" are usually located here.

Dany is accused of not really caring about slavery because "she didn't do anything about it in Qarth," and stayed in Xaro's manse as a guest.

At the same time, Dany is seen as a white/Westerosi character "imposing her foreign/Western values" upon Essos. She is accused of "trying to civilize" Dothraki culture and "appropriating/mimicking" it. The phrase "white man's burden" is usually thrown around here. She's accused of raping Irri, her arc being built on Irri and Jhiqui's suffering, and the Dothraki being painted as "savage" for her own trauma. She is mocked as naive and ignorant for not appreciating the beauty of Qarth and wanting to return to Westeros in spite of being there, accused of being unfair toward Xaro in expecting an alliance from him, accused of being a cultural imperialist for burning down the House of the Undying.

Her time in Slaver's Bay receives the lion's share of the critique. She ruins its political economy. She destroys the region. She profits from slavery while claiming to be antislavery. She causes the freedmen to face poverty, violence, murder, rape, and suffering. She doesn't do enough against rapists and looters. She chooses fire and blood over the Meereenese peace, which is seen as a negative. She colonizes Slaver's Bay. She is like the US in Afghanistan or Iraq––invading for selfish reasons and then leaving, causing a rightwing insurgency to grow. She commits war crimes by torturing the wineseller's daughters and crucifying 163 Great Masters of Meereen, leaders of the city.

Yet the irony of this is captured in how people criticize her presence in Meereen: she is accused of ruining the city as an imperialist and is then criticized for wanting to sail away to conquer Westeros. So essentially, she has no place in Meereen, but she is also a bad person for wanting to leave it for Westeros.

As a Targaryen, and a Valyrian in general, her presence is seen as oppressive to both Westeros and Essos. Westeros because of the Targaryen conquest, Essos because of the legacy of the Valyrian Freehold. She's criticized for being "allies" with Illyrio Mopatis, a slaveowner, and people theorize that Braavos will hate her for being a Valyrian with dragons. Yet she is also criticized for not resettling in the house with the red door (presumably in Braavos, no?) and instead wanting to conquer Westeros. She is "too stupid" to appreciate how "beautiful and advanced" Essos is, and too focused on idealizing Westeros, but she is also too Westerosi/white/foreign to Essos.

In other words, for ASOIAF fans, Dany does not deserve to belong to any culture. Seeking a place in Westeros means that she is entitled, selfish, privileged, and oppressive. Being a Dothraki Khaleesi means that she simultaneously romanticizes slavery and is trying to civilize brown people. Conquering Slaver's Bay is an act of imperialism from a Western tyrant seeking resources, but leaving Slaver's Bay is an act of imperialism from a Western tyrant fleeing a war they started. Staying in Qarth means that she romanticizes slavery, but not fitting in there and idealizing Westeros means she is like an American tourist in the Global South, who cannot appreciate the real value of where she is in favor of a backwater Global North (Westeros). Being Valyrian means she is inherently responsible for slavery, and thus does not belong in Braavos or Westeros, but if she lives in Qarth, the Free Cities, or conquers Slaver's Bay to abolish slavery, she is trying to make Old Valyria rise again. She ruined Meereen and will burn Volantis, but she will also burn King's Landing and maybe even Sunspear.

If I ask ASOIAF fans what culture she belongs to, or which continent she should be part of, doubtless I will get multiple answers. But those answers will end up contradicting themselves. The reality is that these are not scattered rejections––the people rejecting Dany's place in each culture will, at different times, reject all the places Dany occupies in said cultures. Someone who on one day says Dany is a backwater white person who can't appreciate the beauty of Qarth will on the next day claim that she is reviving the violence of the Targaryen dynasty upon Dorne and the North by planning to invade Westeros. Someone who will wax lyrical about how she is a white woman whose arc is built on the suffering of women of color, and thus that she is a Nazi, or white supremacist, will on another day call her a rape enabling slave profiteer for being Drogo's wife and a Khaleesi.

Perhaps this is the natural conclusion of a character who is intentionally written as stateless and homeless. A nomad, an exile, a diasporic teenage girl, who longs for various "homes" and has different ideas of "home" in her head. But what does it say about ASOIAF fans that they reject her relationship with every culture? They don't want her in Essos or Westeros. We don't know what's west of Westeros, as we never hear the outcome of Elissa Farman's voyage. Doubtless the same fears people have of Dany living and thriving in Essos or Westeros would apply to any lands west of Westeros too. So where do they want her? There is an answer to this, which only a few ASOIAF fans are honest enough to admit: that Dany should have died in childbirth, or on the journey to Braavos, or on the Dothraki Sea, as Illyrio intended. Sadly, most ASOIAF fans are not brave enough to admit that their rejection of Dany's various cultural "places" is actually just a disguise for their dissatisfaction at her existence in the narrative.

(Whether or not that dissatisfaction is merited, whether or not it is motivated by genuine, "progressive" literary reasons, is another conversation. ASOIAF fans are indeed free to be upset about her presence as a character, or to theorize that she will be a villain because of her cultural statelessness. Right now, though, this post focuses on the question of "what culture could Dany be a part of without being a threat." The answer, for most ASOIAF fans, seems to be that Dany, child of storm, was born a threat to the entire world of ice and fire).

[aegor-bamfsteel]

Do you think show did wrong to Xaro character? They also changed his race.

I think the show did wrong by most of the Essosi cast, because they weren’t sure why they were written. Xaro is no exception. (His race was changed, and I know GRRM said he was white, but the Qartheen live in the far east and surrounded by people described as darker-skinned, so it makes sense to me to cast actors of color as Qartheen. It’s making him into a 1D villain to kill rather than the opportunistic sometime ally as he is in the books in addition to casting an African actor for him that I object to). In the books he’s no more evil than the other Qartheen, he actively distrusts the Undying, doesn’t care about becoming King of Qarth (not that the Qartheen ever has kings), it’s implied he’s uninterested in women (though I’m rolling my eyes that him not looking at Dàny’s breast indicates that. She’s 14 and he’s a lot older plus he’s from a culture where breast-baring is common), he apparently defends her from the Pureborn. Yes, he does want one of the dragons, but after she refuses his marriage proposal he just tells her to leave the city, not work with his perennial enemies the warlocks to steal one. Then in ADWD he and Dàny have a talk about slavery and while he’s clearly in the wrong viewing freedom as useless to slaves, he does expose how valuable her idea of freedom is, with the story of his penniless friend forced to dig a ditch and begging to be bought into slavery. There’s more to him than “violent warlord seeking to conquer and seduces a maid who is loyal to the end in the books in order to get dragons by force”; he and the evils he represents (the well spoken, wealthy elite merchant slavers) are a lot subtler. Ultimately I don’t think the show understood what GRRM was doing with the character (nor Doreah, Irri, or really any of Dány’s khalasar), and once again were prioritizing the spectacle over themes about morality and corruption.

[stromuprisahat]

Hardly had one child departed the Red Keep than another arrived, however, for it appeared that the Mother Above was not yet done blessing Alysanne Targaryen. In 73 AC, she gave birth to her eleventh child, a son named Gaemon, in honor of Gaemon the Glorious, the greatest of the Targaryen lords who had ruled on Dragonstone before the Conquest. This time, however, the child came early, after a long and difficult labor that exhausted the queen, and made her maesters fear for her life. Gaemon was a scrawny thing as well, barely half the size his brother Vaegon had been at birth ten years earlier. The queen eventually recovered, though sad to say the child did not. Prince Gaemon died a few days into the new year, not quite three moons old.

As ever, the queen took the loss of a child hard, questioning whether or not it had been through some fault of her own that Prince Gaemon had failed.

...

The joy was therefore not entirely unalloyed when Her Grace was found to be pregnant once again. Prince Valerion was born in 77 AC, after another troubled labor that saw Alysanne confined to her bed for half a year. Like his brother Gaemon four years earlier, he was a small and sickly babe, and never thrived. Half a dozen wet nurses came and went to no avail. In 78 AC, Valerion died, a fortnight short of his first nameday. The queen took his passing with resignation. “I am forty-two years old,” she told the king. “You must be content with the children I have given you. I am more suited to be a grandmother than a mother now, I fear.”

King Jaehaerys did not share her certainty. “Our mother, Queen Alyssa, was forty-six when she gave birth to Jocelyn,” he pointed out to Grand Maester Elysar. “The gods may not be done with us.”

He was not wrong. The very next year, the Grand Maester informed Queen Alysanne that she was once more with child, to her surprise and dismay. Princess Gael was born in 80 AC, when the queen was forty-four. Called “the Winter Child” for the season of her birth (and because the queen was in the winter of her childbearing years, some said), she was small, pale, and frail, but Grand Maester Elysar was determined that she would not suffer the fate of her brothers Gaemon and Valerian. Nor did she. Assisted by Septa Lyra, who watched over the babe night and day, Elysar nursed the princess through a difficult first year, until finally it seemed as if she might survive. When she reached her first nameday, still healthy if not strong, Queen Alysanne thanked the gods.

Fire and Blood (George R. R. Martin)

“Our mother, Queen Alyssa, was forty-six when she gave birth to Jocelyn...” Yeah, and died during the birth. This is the same man, who dragged Rogar into the room to face what he caused. Character development? No! Character regression!

“The gods may not be done with us.” Gods? More like “I’m not done with her.”, you disgusting misogynist swine! “Love” my ass! Alysanne’s just a piece of meat for him. Warm cunt to stick his dick into to produce more pureborn Targs!

“He was not wrong. The very next year, the Grand Maester informed Queen Alysanne that she was once more with child, to her surprise and dismay.” King Jaehaerys and his beloved Queen Alysanne?! More like King Jaehaerys and his beloved Baby factory.

[hordraomin-sketches]

A turned speidek called Fergei

lore that i dumped into the server chat under the cut

His name is Fegrei and he is a Turned (meaning he willingly underwent a permanent transformation ritual) Speidek.

Speideks are keepers of the night and nature, protecting forests and keeping humanity from overtaking too much or spreading too far. There are Firstborn, Pureborn, Humanborn, Turned and Cursed speideks. >Firstborn were the first speideks ever, appearing as spirits of specific locations and geological features (like cracks in the mountains, natural shrines, rivulets, ponds and such). >Pureborn are speideks born from two speidek parents (no matter their origin). >Humanborn are speideks who have one human parent (male or female). They are always full speidek though, never really half-speideks the way half-elves are for example. >Turned are those who learned speidek culture and are allowed to undergo the turning ritual. >Cursed are, well, the ones who were enemies to speideks and discriminated against them racially. It's like turning a racist into the race they want dead. Those share markings on their body signifying their origin.

their skin is always dulled/unsaturated, and can be any of the color spectrum (but never white, gray or black).

their tails have unique spade formations, combining the forms of playing card suits, as well as other shapes (teardrops, leaves, geometric shapes et cetera). the tail is usually from two to three times their height.

their feet have an opposing thumb and claws - all Firstborn, Pureborn and Humanborn have them being really similar to those of an owl, sometimes with feathers

they have horns that merge together behind their head. this serves as a protective helmet in some situations. the merging of horns is considered a mark of maturity

speideks do not need food, water or sleep, and their comfort temperature range goes from winter blizzards to the raging blaze of a wildfire

speideks are able to hide features of their bodies such as: tail spade, claws, navel, nipples, breasts, mouth, nose, pupils, genitals, butthole. as well, all speideks are capable of assuming the "neutral essence", or "kohp foi" - a universal and impersonal shape that is one and the same for all speideks, hiding all personal appearance features, from height to skull shape and posture

speideks can:

cast strong powerword magic, like "fall" or "begone" which is very hard to resist

talk telepathically (in sight range)

see telescopically, limited only by the horizon

possess darkvision (on level with cats) and echolocation (optional skill for them to learn)

can teleport anywhere limited by a patch of grass (say, in a park square, in a triangle of grass between three roads, they could teleport anywhere within the triangle while standing on it. it looks like they get "sucked" into the grass and appear out of it again

cast other magical spells, only limited not to harm the forest

command animals, animate and command flora

absolute nature knowledge

speideks are weak to:

metal (toxic to them, wounds from it are almost always lethal)

direct sunlight (blocks teleportation abilities and covers the areas they can teleport to on the grass)

destruction spells

divine magic

Here's some extra info on speidek types, compressed:

Basically Firstborn are superior, but the cost is being fuckin' Bald.

Also, spedeks (with the exclusion of Cursed) don't age, and upon death reconnect with nature, becoming higher nature spirits.

Cursed speideks though, have their pre-speidek lifespan extended, cannot kill themselves, and can die of old age.

[screwzara]

Forgotten Purity AU Doodles

Squo was a bit too much handle at times when it was younger, still is a little hard to keep up with it but Blis manages

When the trio of Pureborne Siblings finally found Squo after years of being missing, they were...surprised at how protective Bli(x)s was being towards the square... Trigo took that as an act of aggression but Pat and Circe immediately noticed

Anyways, so Squo got pissed off and challenged Trigo. Trigo, not wanting to hurt its sibling, backed off

Blis still can't figure out how the square hasn't gone against him yet, he just hopes it stays that way, only because he's too fond of the cyan warrior to fight it with malicious intent now

Trigo ain't too happy with seeing Squo so happy with their enemy, ehe 🤭

[maid-with-sunset-in-her-hair]

Sansa was wearing silver and purple at Joffery wedding. She also wore that silver hairnet of black amethyst. Dany was shown to wore silver collar with purple amethyst st Qarth and her eyes were compared with amethyst. Sansa was carrying poison which was used for killing Joffery who was her nephew and king. Could be foreshadowing for Dany killing her nephew Aegon who will be king. Plus the rumors about Sansa turning into winged wolf after killing Joffery fits more Dany flying over Drogon.

Hello Dot! You’re probably right that it’s partially foreshadowing about Daenerys killing her nephew like Sansa killed hers. But I also wanted to add that the symbolism for amethysts is slightly different in Daenerys’ chapters and much more prominent than in Sansa's chapters.

Daenerys wore a purple dress and amethyst bracelets together with a gold slave collar to meet with Khal Drogo, who ended raping her until she wanted to die:

The girl slid the gilded sandals onto her feet, while the old woman fixed the tiara in her hair, and slid golden bracelets crusted with amethysts around her wrists. Last of all came the collar, a heavy golden torc emblazoned with ancient Valyrian glyphs. (AGOT Daenerys I)

The scene of Daenrys getting ready to meet him is actually very similar to the scene of Sansa unwittingly getting ready for her wedding with Tyrion. A golden child bride with amethysts and a silver child bride with moonstones, foils and parallels. Like Sansa, Daenerys is also being trapped in an abusive situation.

Her ancestors are described as having amethyst eyes during her wake the dragon dream, and they're encouraging her to pursue a doomed legacy of fire and blood under the belief she’ll find a home and a place to belong:

Ghosts lined the hallway, dressed in the faded raiment of kings. In their hands were swords of pale fire. They had hair of silver and hair of gold and hair of platinum white, and their eyes were opal and amethyst, tourmaline and jade. (AGOT Daenerys IX)

Xaro gifted her an amethyst collar top ward off poisons, but it's implied he's sabbotaging her attempts to gain the support from others in Qarth and trying to get her killed so he can steal her dragons:

"A dream delayed, no more." Dany's tight silver collar was chafing against her throat. She unfastened it and flung it aside. The collar was set with an enchanted amethyst that Xaro swore would ward her against all poisons. The Pureborn were notorious for offering poisoned wine to those they thought dangerous, but they had not given Dany so much as a cup of water. (ACOK Daenerys III)

For Sansa amethysts are poison, for Daenerys they’re supposed to protect her from poisons, but are a poison of another kind. She paid for the Unsullied with a box of black amethysts:

Jars of saffron, jars of myrrh, jars of pepper and curry and cardamom, an onyx mask, twelve jade monkeys, casks of ink in red and black and green, a box of rare black amethysts, a box of pearls, a cask of pitted olives stuffed with maggots, a dozen casks of pickled cave fish, a great brass gong and a hammer to beat it with, seventeen ivory eyes, and a huge chest full of books written in tongues that Dany could not read. And more, and more, and more. Her people stacked it all before the slavers. (ASOS Daenerys II)

We don’t know if those are actually black amethysts or if it’s just a slang for the Strangler, but during the whole transaction, Kraznys is telling Denerys to sack the small cities and bring the captives back to be sold in Astapor, tempting her to participate more deeply in the slave trade.

Hizdahr is probably working with The Harpy to undermine Daenerys and bring slavery back to Meereen, guess what he’s wearing the first time he appears on page?

The nobleman had wings of wiry red-black hair sprouting from his temples. They made him look as if his head were about to take flight. His long face was made even longer by a beard bound with rings of gold. His purple tokar was fringed with amethysts and pearls. (ADWD Daenerys I)

And finally Xaro was wearing an amethyst nose ring when he threatened Daenerys after he failed to convince her to sail to Westeros and abandon Meereen to the slavers:

Tears welled from his eyes, creeping down his nose, past emeralds, amethysts, and black diamonds. "I told the Thirteen that you would heed my wisdom. It grieves me to learn that I was wrong. Take these ships and sail away, or you will surely die screaming. You cannot know how many enemies you have made." (ADWD Daenerys III)

The central symbolism of amethysts in Daenerys’ chapters seems to be about slavery. Being sold to Drogo like a slave, her family’s legacy of fire and blood that can be traced back to Valyria, buying slaves, Xaro and Hizdahr who are supporting slavery in a way or another.

[essayofthoughts]

Turnabout's fair play, 👀👀👀👀

It is fair indeed.

That "Hogwarts" AU. Like it's barely a Hogwarts AU at this point, because I've smushed together so much of my own specific HP Worldbuilding with snippets of CR canon so... it's very much it's own thing and I've got a bunch of ideas but it's also very messy? And for me to really go into what I'd be doing would involve me going into that divergent worldbuilding but... hell that's what this is for so: a person's ability to perform magic is tied to a few different things, but the essential parts are the production of magic, the transference of magic and the use of magic. Some people can produce and transfer magic around their bodies, but can't meaningfully use magic. Some people just don't produce magic but have the transference ability and may or may not have the potential ability to use it (in theory they could channel ambient magic in a ritualised context, as they are "hollow" of magic). Some people don't have any of those three parts and regardless, they're considered "tacit" - quiet in magic. Grog is the former kind of tacit - he has magic, he just can't use it meaningfully. It makes him very strong and hardy, but useless at spellcasting. Percy, meanwhile, is not tacit. Percy was born with magic, not much of it, but very precise transfer and use ability. He was from a very old Pureborn family, magic all the way back, Poludnitsa having married into the family to give them an inborn touch of sunlight. This makes them very interesting to, say, a vampire that may not be entirely happy about the restrictions of their new unlife, the vampire's magical researcher wife, and their pet general researcher. Except. Magic gets fucked up by trauma. Percy's magic - never much to begin with - has been warped and suppressed due to him not wanting to give Ripley any kind of information and so now he is, functionally, tacit. He has magic, he just can't meaningfully use it. Vex is perceptive. Things get interesting. (No one likes Ripley.)

Elaina Lives AU - See the thing is I have actually written some stuff for this and I have ideas for it and I really like it, it was genuinely one of my first ideas I had when watching CR (before Perc'ahlia devoured my brain) but also it's centered on a minor/background character who's dead before canon begins and so it probably won't get much attention if I do write it? Because people always prioritise ship content over genfic (which infuriates me). But anyway, in this AU Elaina survives Thordak's attack, and, for reasons I shall not get into, ends up at the Raven's Crest in Vasselheim. Perhaps the party has another cleric when they go to Marrowglade. Perhaps a different deal is struck over Vex's cooling body. After all, it is not the brother's duty to protect their sibling. It is the parent's duty to protect their child.

Daemon AU - Look, you can have so much intimacy with daemons and the touching/not touching thereof, and Separated daemons and- look, I really want to write this but again, this is one of those small minor AUs that isn't ever going to be as long as the others (crosses my fingers and hopes to hell and back) so even if I do get to it, it probably wouldn't be terribly long. I do think that in Exandria you could have a lot of fun with immense cultural differences of opinion about daemons, about whether those daemons are their same or different genders to their people (in HDM they're usually a different gender, but not always), about people with daemons who Settle in the same form, about Separated daemons. And also - longer lived, slower maturing races, would the existence of daemons change perspectives on shorter-lived races? Daemons Settling earlier indicating these shorter-lived groups are still mature by the metric of daemons, even if an elf of the same age is a child? Without the Magisterium in play and a multitude of gods there's also the idea of clerics who have daemons that are linked to or in some way symbolic of their gods - does Pike's Settle as a bird of some kind, in honour of Sarenrae's wings? Do members of the Grey Hunt tend towards wolf daemons? Does planar ancestry affect daemon manifestation - do tieflings have infernally touched daemons while aasimar or genasi have celestial or elemental ones? How does the existence of daemons intersect with summoned or pacted familiars? There's so many possible questions to dig into and I just don't have the time. But suffice to say, Percy as a magpie is an idea I have loved for a long time, and as everyone knows - one for sorrow. Also, if daemons are Dust and Dust is souls, and demons and devils feed on souls, obviously infernal deals drain away the Dust of one's Daemon. It's not gone, per se - that would have nasty consequences for the person - but it is... held in escrow (ha!), as it were, tied to the deal. Percy might think his daemon has fled him after all their trauma and loss, but mostly she's just furious with him.

Eros & Psyche Perc'ahlia - Look. Look. It is the original Beauty and the Beast story. I love it so much. And part of the story is that Psyche was forbidden from looking upon Eros. Orthax's smoke is very good at obscuring Percy's face. There's a lot of bits and pieces of this I haven't yet fully hammered out, but I love this AU, I love it so much, I love the visuals I can try to tease out as Percy's glasses flash through the smoke when he sits in sunlight with Vex, the smoke no longer roiling shadow because he's soothed and calmed by her company, so it steadies. She glimpses him even if only fragments at a time, before the first time the smoke peels back entirely and she gets to see him for real. (It is still as much a shock as it was in the myth. There are still challenges to overcome.)

Send me a “👀” and I’ll ramble about an au I have but don’t know if I’ll ever get to writing it.

[aurora-light-blog]

Bastard Sons Impact on Dance of the Dragons

I had originally thought that Rhaenyra’s three sons being bastards would have been propaganda at least. However, after discussing the matter, I realized I was wrong. As a person living in modern times, it’s easy to distort the situation. For example, when King Viserys ordered the Velaryon men’s tongues removed for claiming Princess Rhaenyra’s three sons are bastard, we take that as clear solid proof of guilt. However, the characters or the people of Westeros wouldn’t view it this way.

Why do I say this? Today, if a person slaps you, it’s considered assault. In medieval times, a slap was considered the appropriate response to being insulted. Remember some punishments in ASoIaF like rule of thumb (adultery beating), cutting off fingers for stealing, gelding for rape, beheading and crow cages. Cutting someone’s tongue for supposed lying wouldn’t wave any red flags. How would people view the allegations against Rhaenyra? Sad to say, people are bias. Like my dog who won’t let me touch her paw, but the cute baby girl could almost yank her fur off, the people were in favor of Rhaenyra. She was the Realms’ Delight, and her father was considered a good king.

Next, examine the facts without the knowledge that her sons are bastards. The allegation was made many years later (126 ac after she bore her last son Viserys) and conveniently during the naming of an heir, which if the allegation is true, he would get the inheritance. Common folk and especially nobles are going to perceive the situation like this “greedy usurper relative slanders Realms Delight in order to steal the Driftmark. Good King Viserys justly punishes him for his treachery.”  

How do we know this didn’t influence people, or the rumor of Strong Bastards didn’t influence the kingdom? Again, this isn’t modern times. Distribution of information for the most part is very limited. There is no internet or phones. There is a raven or word of mouth on a horseback. So, the best proof is the testimony of the nearby opposition. Lord Borros Baratheon, a Green supporter, was annoyed that Luke wasn’t trading marriage to one of his daughters for an alliance. If he believed Luke to be a bastard, why would he even entertain the idea of marriage? Then, there was Jasper Wylde, a Green, who is a member of the small council. He was in a position to literally see the Strong features and brown hair. Yet, he only called out Rhaenyra for being a woman, since he believed male heirs always came first.

As of right now, there is no evidence to suggest that even bastard sons was a secondary factor in the war. The probable reason is that it didn’t matter or no character except Alicent’s family believed it.

2) What if they were pureborn sons?

A scientist hands out placebos to test subjects as a control. He or she wants to see if their product actually works, because if the placebo has the same effect as the drug, it’s worthless. If Rhaenyra’s sons had been Laenors, would the same effects happen? Yup ☹ The real-life example of this is Princess Elizabeth Tudor. Her mother Anne Boleyn was falsely accused of adultery, and poor Elizabeth was falsely accused of being a bastard. Why were these false accusations even entertained? Because they benefited King Henry’s agenda of marrying again.

How does this relate to Dance of Dragons? The Hightowers wanted to the throne. They would have still claimed the boys are bastards to benefit themselves. An ASoIaF example of this is the baseless accusation of Daeron the Good being a bastard. You might be thinking if they weren’t bastard boys then there is a chance of better relations between Alicent’s sons and Rhaenyra’s son. Highly unlikely. Before Rhaenyra was married for the first time, Alicent proposed her son Aegon marry Rhaenyra. King Viserys rejected it on the grounds that they didn’t like each other at all. Alicent wanted her son on the throne, and Rhaenyra wanted herself on it. Even in Aegon’s list of demands from Rhaenyra for peace, there was no mention of her three bastard sons. Why? It wasn’t a concern. He was warring against her and not her sons. There would have still been conflict between the two groups because they both want the throne. This reminds me about Princess Mary Tudor who still insulted her sister Elizabeth by calling her a bastard, despite knowing it wasn’t true. She wanted it to be true because she hated Anne Boleyn for destroying her life. Aegon and Aemond would have still hated Jace, Luke, and Joff simply because they took away the throne from them. Aemond would still pick a fight with the three of them over Vhagar and lost an eye. As nobodysuspectsthebutterfly      blog showed Martin original idea was to have the three boys as pureborn son with the same effects and/or storyline occurring.

3) Legal Ramifications of the Bastard Allegations

There are some who believe that would be no legal issues since Laenor, her husband, was fine with her siring children with another man.  Normally, this would be true of lords and ladies. In the matter of royalty, it’s probably not. Royal adultery in medieval times was a death sentence, hence Queen Rhaenyra within her right charging Nettles with death for seducing the prince consort. Though Andal laws does stated that the punishment is only six hits, jerk King Jaehaerys could have set a precedence of breaking the rule. According to medieval laws (not sure about Westeros), premarital sex is not a punishable offense. King Jaehaerys had no right to kill Braxton Beesbury for having consensual sex with his daughter Saera. Due to him getting away with it, King Viserys could have had the power to have his daughter executed (though more likely she would be sent to a motherhouse) or at the least killed Harwin Strong. Still, it’s doubtful Queen Rhaenyra would just legalize her sons. It would be perceived as a smear to their ascension to the throne. Likely, she would continue to simply claim them as pureborn sons.

[imaginarianisms]

“   Even in the darkest night, if you strike a match, the shadows will flee. This is a law of nature; the darkness yields to the light, no matter how small the flame. ”- Shaera to Dany

Daenerys looks at the Lady Velaryon from behind her shoulder as she turns to face her, with the green dragon Rhaegal snorting smoke and staring directly at Shaera. The Queen of Meereen slowly nods in agreement shuddering as she recalls the House of the Undying in Qarth, the way shadows grasped and clawed at her. It was only through Drogon that she was able to escape that place alive, leaving it a ruin. Clad in the colors of House Targaryen and a crown of amethyst and three dragons upon her silver gold hair with bells interlaced with them, Dany sits on her pillows. It was an exhausting law of nature, truth be told. Soon, House Targaryen was leaving Meereen and Dragon's Bay behind to begin her conquest of Essos... then Westeros.

After the rest of the slavers were crushed by Ser Barristan Selmy, the Unsullied and her supporters while she was away in the Dothraki Sea, the siege had been lifted momentarily but only enough for them to buy some time with the slavers' remaining soldiers establishing themselves further down the Ghiscari coastal roads. Victarion Greyjoy's Iron Fleet and the magic of the red priests of Rh'llor utterly crushed the Volantene fleet capturing hundreds of ships in the process and Tolos quickly being defeated by Victarion and the Meereenese fleet in Yaros and the Battle of Fire took longer than expected, that is, until Daenerys rode forth to Meereen with all the might of her now united khalasar, sworn to her under Vaes Dothrak. The arrival of the dragon queen and her horselords in such sheer numbers sent many of the slavers' armies into a frenzied panic, with many sellsword companies either deserting or turning their cloaks for her and the masters were forced to return to their walls. The Dothraki considered such a thing a sign of cowardice and they had been proven right.

She had just returned from making quick work of razing Yunkai to the ground and burning Astapor for their insolence leaving Ghiscar and the Skahazadhan open again. Elyria surrendered willingly by sending tribute; Tolos resisted and sent a pitiful excuse of an army up the demon road to blockade the Painted Mountains only to be taken quickly by storm by Victarion and the combined Meereenese fleet and later Yaros while the army was away. Qarth had been a short, bloodless siege for the city of merchants were meek, especially when she flew over the three walls of Qarth on Drogon. She had rejected all peace proposals to execute those who betrayed her including the Pureborn, and the Ancient Guild of Spicers, both of whom wished for her death, and Xaro Xhoan Daxos for the Qartheen had scorned her most when they betrayed her. Xaro, the thief so sick with greed, had told her that the Qartheen loved the clink of gold most of all so after she had her bloodriders drag him out of his palace she gave him all the gold he could ask for by pouring molten gold into his eyes, ears and mouth just as Khal Drogo gave her brother Viserys so many years ago, his face seared inward and spilling at her feet. She would have their complete submission and nothing else. She decreed that the Tourmaline Brotherhood give portions of their wealth to the common people, that all the thrones made of great woods, gold, amber, onyx, lapis and jade be destroyed so that the gemstones and woods be used for her supplies, trade routes and house the poor and seven of the Thirteen must be chosen by freedmen henceforth forevermore and left with several chests of riches, precious jewels and spices, treasure ships, eight hundred ships from the Tourmaline Brotherhood, all thirteen hundred ships from the Ancient Guild of Spicers that she'd taken after executing every single member in the guild, a thousand ships from the Thirteen and camelry, all the things that the Qartheen once denied her she took it herself. New Ghis surrendered shortly afterward and sent an elephant cavalry as tribute; it was wise to do so after all they'd heard. Qarth and her colonies Qarkash, Port Yhos and the island of Qal followed suit. The Jade Gates were hers. Daenerys then used a glass candle to gaze upon Asshai beneath the Shadow and touched the dragonhorn Dragonbinder gifted to her by Victarion Greyjoy after he had told her the dangers of King Euron I Greyjoy, how he'd traveled to Valyria, taken Valyrian armor and glories and riches beyond imagining and his intentions for the kraken to marry the dragon much to her horror, and read books on dragonlore and sorcery given to her by Marwyn the Mage of the Citadel. With every passing day, Daenerys Targaryen felt more like a dragonlord sorceress.

Now she has finally returned to Meereen to consolidate her forces and has destroyed the Sons of the Harpy once and for all and executing her royal husband Hizdahr zo Loraq for conspiracy and treason, sending ravens to every daughter of Valyria save Braavos, proclaiming herself as the successor to the Freehold, and all must submit or be brought fire and blood. She would leave Meereen to bring her enemies to heel. She would fight so that no child would ever know what it meant to be bought or sold, and she had every intention of continuing that fight here and beyond. She intended to marry off the sisters, daughters and cousins of previous khals still fiercely loyal to Khal Drogo's cause to her vassals so they could rule those cities in their husbands' names then have them killed in the frontlines of war, reward those loyal to her and place them in high positions in her armies and households, highborn or lowborn, and forbade the selling of slaves, theft, fighting among the Dothraki, hunting of animals during the breeding season, and exempted the poor and the clergy from taxation.

Daenerys' next destination was westward henceforth to Mantarys then Volantis where she intended to throw the masters she'd spared into moats by catapults before crushing them with siege weapons, use her elephantry to charge her enemies, break their ranks instilling fear and terror in them, fly over the Black Walls and set the Old City aflame and let the slaves revolt against their masters like the red priests preached. Most of the work would be done for her, really. Volantis likely didn't require much of a siege or a battle at all, it was simply set up for failure. High Priest Benerro had made certain of that, the red priest Moqorro had reported, with the way thousands of slaves and freedmen gathered in the temple plaza every night to listen to him scream of bleeding stars, a sword of fire that will cleanse the world, that Daenerys Stormborn was the one who was promised, from the fire of Khal Drogo's pyre she was reborn to remake the world, breaking the chains and liberating the slaves, crucifying the masters for their sins and her dragons were firemade flesh. With the Volantene fleet destroyed in Meereen, they would be unable to defeat her armada at sea and lost any advantage they had, the most prominent sellsword companies were either in Westeros as the Golden Company were currently fighting in Westeros for Aegon VI Targaryen, changed their cloaks to Daenerys or destroyed in Meereen, and the majority of the tiger cloaks followed the Lord of Light Rh'llor, and not to mention the popular support she already had amongst the followers of the red god. The siege would be short. Who knows, perhaps the grand revolution would already begin before she even arrived. The true doom of Volantis was its slaves, for it had more slaves than anywhere else in the known world outside of the recently liberated Slaver's Bay, and with the Masters utterly destroyed, Volantis was now the last major practitioner of slavery from the Bones Mountains to the Sunset Sea. Most of the slaves would know this. The rest would be left unsaid. Volantis and all her holdings along the Rhoyne would fall to Daenerys, with many of the city's elites slain.

After Volantis falls, she would reach a zenith, for there would be no one left on the continent of Essos to put up significant resistance to her after she brought the entire coalition of slavers and the most powerful of the Free Cities to heel. With the common people behind her, a few Westerosi knights, several sellsword companies, the Unsullied, a united Dothraki horde at her back, an elephantry, a camelry, large siege weapons taken from Dragon's Bay and some bought from Yi Ti, her armada, and three massive firebreathing dragons, no one in Essos could stop her. With Volantis and her holdings upon the Rhoyne defeated, she would claim the Rhoyne and sail up the river to capture the northern Free Cities of Qohor and Norvos after the others—the Quarreling Daughters Lys, Myr and Tyrosh—would wisely submit, end slavery and welcome her as House Hightower of Oldtown once welcomed Aegon the Conqueror.

Perhaps there was some level of merit to being raised in the Free Cities with Viserys. Dany had loved seeing the ships that came in and out of Braavos as a child so when she asked a sailor from the Summer Isles if she could have a ride on one, the man kindly agreed, and it was one of the most lovely experiences in her life but when she came back to port, Viserys was furious and she'd woken the dragon as he pulled on her hair, screaming that that man could have been one of Robert Baratheon's assassins and he'd kept a closer eye on her ever since, and she'd been grounded in the Sealord's palace for a month. The girl didn't necessarily mind, however, because she could play with the animals in the Sealord's menagerie. She remembered begging Viserys to attend the Festival of the Unmasking and he accepted once they'd received Ser Willem Darry's permission. Dany had worn a dragon mask of crimson and ebony fabric and purple silks that night while she had fun amongst the common people. That was one of the rare times that she enjoyed her girlhood. She'd loved to sit under the cherry blossom trees in Illyrio's manse in Pentos, where it was said that he'd gotten them from the fabled lands of Yi Ti. Dany recalled absolutely adoring the painted glass artisanry, the Myrish lace dresses but most importantly how she desperately wanted to attend academy to learn more about the world, but Viserys thought it would be too great a risk, but in subtle rebellion, she would sit closely nearby when a class was taken outside and listen very carefully. She remembered Viserys having them dye their hair with Tyroshi dyes in multiple different colors in shades of blue, red, green, indigo and even purple to always be one step ahead of Robert Baratheon's assassins. It'd taken his pride but it was better than having their throats slit; she'd wondered if the Tyroshi would make an intricate set of armor for him one day. She barely remembered Lorath and Norvos save for the freezing temperature, mazes created by the mazemakers and the three beautiful bells. Dany recalled having watched a ritual sacrifice to the Black Goat in Qohor in horror and fascination. She used to play in the Rhoyne in on one very long and hot summer day with other children while remembering being absolutely in awe with the Long Bridge and the Black Walls of Volantis while they were under the protection of a noble Volantene family known as the Qoheros, who were heavily involved with the gold and spice trade in the Far East and having three separate manses, one within the Black Walls, one in the city of Volon Therys and the last in the city of Valysar. She remembered playing on the beaches in Lys, running for hours along the sand under the palm trees and into the clear blue waters, and on the rare occasion, she'd managed to get Viserys to make castles of sand where they'd make their ancestral homelands in the sand and to come play with her in the water as she laughed when he'd carry her on his shoulders pretending she was the Queens Rhaenys or Visenya on dragonback; it had been one of their only fleeting happiest moments.

Using her knowledge of the cities and the magisters, archons, and merchant princes who once welcomed the last Targaryens in their homes (only for them to shut them out the longer Robert Baratheon the Usurper reigned) to her advantage, she intended on splitting her forces into two to strike northern and southern Essos at once before the rest of the smaller slaver cities formed another alliance against her. While Daenerys and her main host took Volantis, the Dothraki horde would ideally take both Qohor and Norvos. Daenerys had need for the beautiful colorful armor for her Westerosi knights and sellswords said to be superior to the armor made in Westeros and unrivalled Valyrian steel forges of the Qohorik, for they were the only ones in the world to this day who still possessed the knowledge on how to rework Valyrian steel. Archibald Yronwood had told her that the late Quentyn Martell's mother was Mellario of Norvos and she'd intended on sending Gerris Drinkwater home to Dorne with Quentyn Martell's bones while Archibald Yronwood stayed behind with her to give the Norvoshi noblewoman the news of her son's death intent on winning her and her ex husband Prince Doran Martell of Dorne's allegiances after explaining everything that had happened with Yronwood as her personal witness. Lorath did not practice slavery so she had no need to march further north, the Lorathi along with Saath the last city of the Sarnori people would submit to her rule without any complaints nor objections; she'd intended to use the famed scythed chariots pulled by teams of bloodred horses and driven by both men and women of Sarnor for it was custom for men and women to make war together; the kingdoms of Sarnor and the Valyrian Freehold were once allies, perhaps a renewal would be beneficial. Pentos had no army. It would offer no contest, though she had every intention of paying Magister Illyrio Mopatis a visit after the words that Tyrion Lannister had told her about his treachery. She would give Pentos to the Tattered Prince and ideally Tyrosh to Daario Naharis. The Three Quarreling Daughters would likely have little if any sellsword forces left to defend them and if she played her cards right, she would make the Lyseni family of Rogare powerful both in Lys and in Westeros as they had been centuries ago in the Lyseni Spring after the Dance of the Dragons, for her ancestor was no other than Larra Rogare. It was wise to have more than one financial center for a country as the Rogare Bank and Iron Bank were long ago, too. King's Landing prospered due to the Rogare Bank and increased trade with the Free Cities of Braavos, Lys, Myr, Pentos, and Tyrosh, and other cities and towns of the Seven Kingdoms greatly benefited as well, including Duskendale, Gulltown, Hull, Lannisport, Maidenpool, Oldtown, and White Harbor, and with the financial debt caused by the Baratheon Dynasty, it would be wise to bring more trade back to Westeros. After her conquest of Westeros was over, she had every intention of making trade in Westeros flourish once more. Perhaps she would begin her network of spies in Lys with the help of Daella Velaryon. Myrish lenses would be critical for her armies and scouts, too. Braavos was her final destination in Essos. House Targaryen owed a great deal of gratitude for the Braavosi, particularly the ailing Sealord of Braavos, and she'd have need of the Iron Bank; perhaps she could hire a faceless man or two. She had no intentions of using her armies nor her dragons on Braavos. Most of all, though, Daenerys Targaryen wanted to see her childhood home, that house with the red door and the lemon tree one last time before sailing for Westeros.

She'd already had plans for Victarion, the Iron Fleet and her armada to sail around Valyria while having already sent one of her bloodriders Aggo with a large section of her khalasar to threaten Qohor in the north while her main host of sellswords, her legions of Unsullied and freedmen, her two other bloodriders Jhogo and Rakharo and the vast majority of her khalasar and her dragons crossed the demon road she'd intended on renaming to the dragon road by right of conquest. With Yunkai and Qarth defeated, Daenerys intended to march across the dragonroad to defeat the last of the slavers' coalition. The Mantaryan army would be crushed and the city would fall soon after; she would punish the leaders of Mantarys for executing her envoys, leaving Volantis open. The Dosh Khaleen already called her The Stallion That Mounts The World whom her son Rhaego would have been before the Mother of Mountains and the Womb of the World after slaying her rivals Khal Jhaqo and Khal Moro with dragonfire avenging Eroeh and showing the Dothraki that she indeed was the Unburnt and uniting those who gathered in the Khalar Vezhven all into one khalasar.

She would never abandon her quest to end slavery in favor of the Seven Kingdoms, the slavers' vile retribution had done nothing but harden her resolve and Daenerys realized upon the Dothraki Sea that slavery must be ended everywhere root and stem before sailing for Westeros. Upon the Dothraki Sea, she knew that she was above all else a dragon, not meant to rule Dragon's Bay nor Westeros, but all of it, she was Valyrian and of the blood of Old Valyria and as such she would claim all of the realms of the old Valyrian Freehold and then Westeros like her ancestors Aegon, Rhaenys and Visenya Targaryen the Conquerors. This time, however, it was for a much nobler cause.

Daenerys was finally ready to leave Meereen and Dragon's Bay behind with a set of instructions for Skahaz mo Kandaq the Shavepate who she'd commanded to stay behind with her trusted Meereenese officials Galazza Galare the Green Grace of Meereen and several of her Brazen Beasts in the city after sending her cupbearers home to their families and pyramids. The Ghiscari and the Qartheen were now her vassals and Volantis was next. Dany had taken both Daario Naharis whom she'd recently freed in Yunkai and Irri into her bed that night to relish in their victory.

The armor and saddles she'd commissioned Tyrion for her dragons were just about complete and she'd need to talk about breeding them with him at some point. The ships in her armada were unlike any other, built like swan ships and a combination of techniques of both the Velaryons from their Summer Islands heritage, the fastest ships in the known world and the Greyjoys from the Ironborn reavers. Incredibly quick upon the open seas, it would greatly benefit her and her armies.

Dany would miss these gardens, her persimmon tree and the view of Meereen. The Red Keep of King's Landing was her true home, however. Drogon and Viserion flew above the Great Pyramid and over the armada that had recently just been completed, the red three headed dragons on black sails accompanied by ships of the silver Velaryon seahorse on teal, great ships of red Celtigar crabs on white, ships of the Greyjoy kraken on black, ships of the golden Tyrell rose on green and ships of the red and yellow Martell sun and spear on orange making her heart swell with proud joy.

She'd invited Shaera Velaryon who'd been the closest thing she ever had to a mother and one of her fiercest supporters since the beginning to her gardens in the queens' apartments to discuss important matters before they set sail westward to Volantis.

❝I have decided that as a reward for your loyalty to House Targaryen, I will grant House Velaryon and House Celtigar access and a base of its own in the Jade Gates as your ancestor Corlys Velaryon the Sea Snake and their ancestors sailed past them centuries before to contact Yi Ti, Leng and beyond to bring eastern trade back to Westeros. Now... Lady Shaera, do you perchance recall the House of the Undying in Qarth?❞ the Khaleesi asks, hoping that the other woman did, because it left bitter memories. The Warlocks were not forgiving, yet while she was in Qarth they were no more. ❝The warlocks were trying to consume me... but in that house of dust I received many visions. One of them... I recall discussing it with Ser Jorah. My brother Rhaegar stood with the Princess Elia Martell with my nephew nursing. He said that his son Aegon was 'the prince that was promised and his is a song of ice and fire' and 'there must be one more, the dragon has three heads'...❞ Rhaegal crawls forward, neck lowering slightly, bronze eyes changing from contracted slits to dilated slits and gives a friendly chirps as a greeting, almost as if asking for pets should Shaera be bold enough as the sun's rays illuminate his scales an emerald sheen, tail lashing. Daenerys looked visibly confused, her brows furrowed. Quaithe's visitations didn't help matters either.

❝I've half a mind to bring it up to Marwyn the Mage of the Citadel but I ask you first. You once told me you served my mother the Queen Rhaella Targaryen. You knew my brother well. Did Rhaegar ever speak to you of such things when he was alive? Lord Tyrion tells me that there is a pretender waiting to take my throne in Westeros as we speak. According to him the exile Griffin Lord Jon Connington assists him and Magister Illyrio Mopatis of Pentos has manipulated and lied to me, raising this pretender in secrecy and safety while he sold me to Khal Drogo. He claims to be my nephew Aegon VI Targaryen from the grave.❞ Her voice wavered with pain and venom. She had always wanted a family for so long she would've done anything for it. Was this truly her nephew back from the grave? Rhaegal screeched, several rows of teeth peeking out from his gumline as he growled, taking to the sky to join his brothers, ❝I believe that Rhaegar was right. The dragon has three heads. Three riders for three dragons. Two husbands, perhaps. Long ago, as I'm sure you know, Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and the Blacks called for dragonseeds, Targaryen bastards and descendants to ride other dragons to war promising knighthood, lands and wealth to anyone who would master a dragon. I intend to do the same. I may be their mother, but there has never been a rider who mounts more than one dragon; I will require control over the other two dragons if my conquest of Westeros is ever going to succeed like Aegon and his sisters have before me. Lady Shaera, whom would you suggest be capable of riding Rhaegal and Viserion? Whom would you suggest would be capable of such a task? I am the last trueborn Targaryen.❞

@velcryons || some meme idr

[s0nia246]

I wanna read a story about a born/ pureborn male vampire x female werewolf.

Two supernatural creatures are online friends/pen pals. They have been talking for a few years now and finally get the chance to meet in real life. The two don't know that the other is supernatural.

A soon as they meet the two can sense that the other is supernatural but they still like each other and want to pursue the relationship. Now they must hide thier relationship from each families.

Don't even get me started when they accidentally have triplets hybrid children. One of them ends up turning evil and what's to turn everyone, humans and supernatural, into one new species where everyone is equal and don't have to hide from humans.

Inspired by Twilight and Hotel transylvania.