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A History of the Spartan and House Stark by Maester Benjymen

Volume I

Volume II

Volume III

Volume IV

-A Collection of One-Shots by Avalor0n

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"King Cregan Stark would rule many long years in the North, and would aid House Targaryen in binding up the wounds inflicted upon the realm during the Dance of Dragons. He would outlive Aegon III, whom he had fostered for five years at Winterfell, and would go on to see Aegon's sons and even his brother, Viserys, succeed him. First came King Daeron I, soon to be remembered as the Young Dragon, who sought to finish his ancestors' work of conquering Dorne for House Targaryen. Wisely, he didn't attempt to wholly follow in his forebears' foot-steps, as he remained in good relations with the Kingdom of the North, at least at first. When Daeron asked for the North to aid him in his campaign, Cregan plainly refused the boy of fourteen, seeing little reason to involve House Stark in affairs that were so far removed from the North. Indeed, he forewarned Daeron that Dorne could not be conquered by force of arms, as even Aegon the Conqueror had failed to do so, when House Targaryen still had dragons. Daeron, perhaps feeling insulted, mocked Cregan as a craven, and instead stated perhaps the Spartan would surly aid in the cause of uniting the South, to which Cregan had reportedly guffawed so hard that his maester had to treat him for chest pains. Once more, Cregan kept the North out of the South's intrigues, and while his more eager sons chaffed at being denied the chance to go to war, once more it would prove to be the wiser choice. Daeron's conquest of Dorne would quickly prove to be a disaster, with Daeron losing ten thousand men to claim it, fifty-thousand more to hold it, and then his own life of eighteen years when Dornishmen ambushed and murdered him under a banner of peace.

When Baelor I ascended the throne after his brother, it seemed a more amiable return to the norm of peace for Westeros. Baelor was a man of peace and piety, who was beloved by the people for his benevolence. But the latter years of his reign would be seen as the start of a long embitterment between the North and the South--an embitterment which would become so terrible that thrice the continent would nearly go to war. Cregan at first believed Baelor a somewhat zealous yet ultimately harmless ruler, and continued to maintain good relations with the South for a time. But Baelor's very piety towards the Seven caused him to alienate himself from the Starks, whom were devoted to the Old Gods of the First Men. Soon, Baelor was repeatedly and incessantly attempting to convert the Starks towards the Faith through many means, sending a great number of septons to the North to turn the First Men towards the Seven Pointed Star. It would ultimately culminate when Prince Rickon, Cregan's eldest son and heir--sent was on a diplomatic mission to King's Landing to secure a marriage to one of Baelor's sisters in the hopes of binding the two realms together--was seized by Baelor's Kingsguard, and forcibly made to kneel before the statues of the Seven against his will. When he refused to convert to the Faith upon Baelor's instruction, he was purportedly stripped of his cloths, made to wear the garb of a begging brother, and confined to Baelor's recently finished Great Sept, made to do menial work as any common septon.

This incensed the now two-and-seventy King Cregan to such an extent, he sent ravens to call for his banners, before sending another to King's Landing, demanding the release of his son and an official apology from Baelor for the insult, or that he would drive out all septons of the Faith from his lands by force, march on King's Landing himself to free his son, claim a daughter of House Targaryen to wed into House Stark as retribution, and to have Baelor beg his forgiveness to him in person and on his knees. When this ultimatum came to Baelor, he began a fast which would end in his, perhaps arguably, unfortunate demise. His uncle and successor to the Iron Throne, King Viserys II, was swift in undoing the damage of his nephew's ill-begotten zealotry, immediately releasing Prince Rickon. As he had been fostered alongside his brother at Winterfell, Viserys knew Cregan well, having arguably learned the best between them in the Starks' court, and had likely contributed to his adeptness in his years as Hand of the King. When Viserys extended the proverbial olive branch to him, Cregan's anger softened, as he had often corresponded with Viserys over the years through ravens, having been both a mentor and a sort of father figure to him as he was with Viserys' brother, Aegon III. The two kings readily agreed to put an end to the bad blood between them, and to seal this reconciliation, Prince Rickon would wed Princess Rhaena, daughter of Aegon III and Viserys' niece. This marriage pact would be remembered as the Second Pact of Ice and Fire, which Cregan had, as history so ironically recalls, rejected so many years before. While this brought peace to the realm, Cregan and Viserys both would meet most untimely and much mourned deaths within a year of this auspicious union, after both had striven so long to ensure that their two realms would prosper together. Rickon and his Targaryen bride would be crowned as the King and Queen in the North, whilst Viserys' son Aegon VI and his sister-wife Naerys would ascend the Iron Throne, and the enmity between Rickon the Cold and Aegon the Unworthy would threaten to undo everything their fathers had accomplished.

Rickon and Rhaena's relationship was strained in their first years of marriage, primarily due to their differing religious beliefs. Rickon was a steadfast believer in the Old Gods, and his disgrace at the hands of Baelor had in no great way endeared the Faith of the Seven to him. Inversely, Rhaena was nearly as pious as her brother had been, and had shared his belief that all should come to worship the Seven-Pointed Star. For the sake of the realm, they did their utmost to make the marriage work, but when Rhaena purportedly wept on their wedding night, Rickon could not bring himself to consummate the marriage. It was only a few years later, when her husband lay feverish and half-delirious from wounds taken in his suppressing of a rebellion on the Isle of Skagos, that Rhaena finally gave her maiden-head to him. Their marriage was happier after that night, and made only happier when she fell pregnant shortly afterwards, and bore him a son, Prince Jon Stark, nine months later. She would go on to give Rickon sixteen more children, all of whom would be raised in equal faith to both the Old Gods as well as the New.

But of all of Rickon and Rhaena's children, it would be their second child--and eldest daughter--that would by far have the most intriguing of lives. Not but a few days before her birth, a most peculiar event had taken place in the Dawntown. The Spartan, in the utter breaking of his tradition of emerging only when a Stark called upon him to save the North from peril, came out of the Forward Unto Dawn of his own accord, shocking the whole of the North. The Aglow Lady was with him as well, though some claim something seemed amiss--her glowing form, said to be of a tranquil, comforting celestial blue, seemed to shudder and flash an eerie red, and her kind voice seemed to suddenly speak in a disturbing tone, ominous words escaping her lips. What the Spartan did or what befell the Maiden of Light remains an utter mystery to this very day; only that the Spartan flew with some great haste southward, and months later, traders from Dorne would report he had flown into the most inhospitable part of the Red Mountains, in a place where even Balerion the Black Dread was said to have not dared fly near. It would be the last the world would see of the Algow Lady, for she never appeared after that unsettling day, and none dared to inquire the Spartan afterwords of what had occurred. All that was known was that the Spartan had returned to Winterfell the very night Queen Rhaena gave birth. It is speculated he came at Rickon's behest, as Rhaena's birthing of their second child was reportedly an arduous one, and that the Spartan had helped ensure that both babe and mother survived the delivery. What words passed between them afterwards is entirely unknown, but some witnesses claim that the Spartan seemed somehow smaller when he departed that next morning, and when the royal family had come to see him off, he lingered to look down at the newborn girl, before he whispered some mystery to the sleeping baby, and then slowly--almost reluctantly, some would claim--he departed in silence, returning at once to his slumber within the Dawn.

That princess's name would be Cortana Stark, and the day of her birth in the hundredth and sixty-ninth year after the Conquest would not be the last she would see of the Spartan.

The princess was born with the dark hair of House Stark, though her beauty seemed certainly to have been from her mother--by the time she had come of age, men said that no fairer maiden lived in all of Westeros in her day, and many songs praised her countenance. Of all her features, the most striking were the vibrant blue eyes which seemed too vivid and lively for mere mortals, seemingly alive with a celestial blue light only the Aglow Lady could match. It was an oddity as to why the princess possessed such eyes, when neither the Starks nor Targaryens were known to carry them, but by the very word of her parents, when the Spartan had helped deliver her into the world, he had lain a blessing upon the child with his otherworldly healing, which her eyes' otherworldly beauty was a consequence of. Some even claimed that, as she ripened into a woman grown, Princess Cortana seemed of the very likeness of the Maiden of Light, which only reinforced the notion, and would only be further added to as she grew. From the accounts of Winterfell's maesters, the princess never once came down with infirmity or aliment, and indeed was reported to be the healthiest of all the Stark children. And from her earliest years, she would display an exceptional intelligence, quickly outpacing her siblings in their learning. She delighted in books and study, and absorbed knowledge at a unrivaled pace, with many accounts from Winterfell claiming that she could memorized great manuscripts and histories in a single day if she was not caught in the night and sent to bed. So clever and intelligent she became, that by the age of two-and-ten, she sat on her father's council, and advised him in sundry affairs of state and law. She also loved the arts and music, and became a harpist and singer so haunting in melody that she could reduce even the most stony of warriors to tears, or bring cheer to even the most downtrodden of souls. She was also known to greatly cherish the lives of even the common people, and would daily walk out into the streets to sing to the smallfolk of Winterfell, and see to the needs of everyone she met. For her kindness, charm, and wit, she was soon so beloved by all the North that she was hailed 'The Joy of Winter'. Many suitors came, from Sunspear to Last Hearth and even from the Free Cities, to beg her hand in marriage, some offering lavish sums of gold, others great swaths of land, rare gifts of exotic origins, and even promises to conquer cities in her name--all of which were refused.

But for all the knowledge, fame, and love she received, Princess Cortana held from her earliest days an insatiable curiosity of the Spartan, and of the Aglow Lady, and of the mythical Forward Unto Dawn; always eager to hear tales from her father of the great deeds and epic legends which concerned them. So great was her desire to learn of him, that upon turning thirteen years of age, she asked her father bid her leave to enter the Dawn and speak to the Spartan. While it was not a strictly brazen request, her father told her the Spartan would likely not answer, as he was meant to be called only in great times of need, and not before, and warned her further still that the Spartan had endured a great loss when last he had gone to sleep, and would thus be even less like enough to answer. Nevertheless, he could not deny his beloved daughter, and so bade her enter the hallowed halls of the Forward Unto Dawn.

But to the stunned shock of the realm, the Spartan did indeed come out of the Dawn beside her. To this day, it is unknown as to why the Spartan awoke to the whims of a princess. Some claimed it was her great beauty and spirit which compelled him, causing the hero to be enchanted by her as so many other men had. But many a maiden had desired the Spartan, more than a few being Stark princesses before Cortana, and all had been rejected. Indeed, the Spartan never professed any romantic love for the princess, though the actions he would take on her behalf nevertheless indicated an astounding care which he held her with. Others stated that he was drawn to her intelligence, and that he had found a kindred spirit whom shared in his ideas and machinations. Regardless, the Spartan would return with her to Winterfell, where he was received as a guest of the utmost honor. King Rickon offered the Spartan a place in the great fortress-palace, but the Spartan contented himself with a small abode within the city, as humble and unassuming as legends say. For almost a year, he would remain there, and would display a most unusual compliance to the wishes of Princess Cortana, teaching her of the history and wonders of his people, and familiarizing her with the mysteries of his technology, to which she displayed a miraculous adeptness to understanding and comprehending. And each night, she would regale her younger siblings with fantastical tales and stories she had learned from the Master Chief's culture. And for the first time in the North's history, the Master Chief had not come out of necessity to end some war or deliver the people from some dire peril, and now walked among the people in peace longer than he had even been recorded to do. There was a great excitement in King Rickon's court, chiefly over the widely-speculated relationship between the Spartan and Princess Cortana. While there was no indication that it was anything more than a close partnership, perhaps even a friendship, it nevertheless filled the people with thoughts that the Spartan would wed the princess, and from their union would bring a golden age for all, as the Starks would join their house with the North's fabled champion of yore and form a doubtlessly matchless alliance. Some even whispered that the princess would soon be great with child by the Spartan, and that she would give birth to demigods and heroes by his holy blood, and that Rickon should pass over his own sons and name the Spartan as the future King of the North. All of these, however, were firmly rejected by both the Starks as well as the Spartan, whom were swift to publicly denounce the rumors. Nevertheless, many could not deny the way Princess Cortana smiled whenever she was in the Spartan's presence, nor could they ignore the way the Spartan seemed more at ease when he was in hers. Accounts left behind by her own writing indicate the princess had intentions of releasing new innovations to medicine and science, breakthroughs which would doubtlessly help to further the advancement of the Kingdom in the North, perhaps all of Westeros and beyond--but sadly, fate was not so kind as to permit it before events in the South would halt her efforts.

Aside from an attempted invasion of the North by the King Beyond the Wall, Raymond Redbeard--which was swiftly averted when the Spartan met with the freefolk king and negotiated his army's disbandment in exchange for an increase in the settlement of freefolk around the Dawntown--the Starks continued to enjoy the peace that had lasted for generations. And with the Spartan aiding them, and with him the promise of newer innovations and technologies to further advance civilization, a new day was seemingly on the horizon. But in the South, it was decadence, not prosperity, that was the watchword of the ruling court. Aegon the VI, later known as the Unworthy, had proven himself one of the worst Targaryen kings. While he was handsome and charming in his youth, he was a man ruled by his desires, and proved to be a depraved, glutenous, and lustful man. He was infamous for very publicly taking many a mistress to his bed, and of siring many a bastard between them; all of this, to the shame and disgrace of his sister-wife, Queen Naerys, and the outrage of his younger brother, the famous Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, Lord Commander of Aegon's Kingsguard. He filled his courts with sycophants, granting titles and fortunes to men who could satiate his lusts, and soon the court became as bloated and corrupt as Aegon had become. He also attempted to start an unprovoked war with Dorne, though his two attempts both ending in humiliating disasters for him. Rumors even circulated that he had dreams of conquering the North, though this was never confirmed. The news of the Spartan's return would have doubtlessly scattered such follies to the wind in any case. Nevertheless, soon enough, King Aegon caught wind of Princerss Cortana's now-famed beauty, and many believe he came to lust after her as he had so many other women of noble birth. He invited the Stark princess to his court, allegedly to hear her harp music and to share the knowledge she had learned from the Spartan with the South--though King Rickon feared this was little more than a veiled attempt for Aegon to try and ensnare his daughter, as he had heard of the Targaryen's debauchery. But Princess Cortana herself swayed him to allow her to leave, for the sake of sustaining good relations with the Iron Throne, under the condition the Spartan would go with her as a deterrent to any possible advances on King Aegon's part. The Spartan did agree to this, and in the year 183 After the Conquest, when Princess Cortana was but a few days away from her fourteenth nameday, the two arrived in the Spartan's great Steel Eagle at King's Landing, and the Spartan landed in the derelict Dragonpit--where, in the days of the Dance of Dragons, he had cleared away the roof to land his flying machine in as he oversaw the city's protection. Whilst their arrival was abrupt, they were nevertheless received with great ceremony, as there still lived men from the days when the Spartan had brought an end to the Dance of Dragons.

Their time in King's Landing would be remembered by many to be of impeccable timing, for not a week after they had landed in the Dragonpit, an assassination attempt was made on King Aegon's life. Whilst in hindsight it would not have been any loss to the realm had he died there, Prince Aemon the Dragonknight nobly defended his king despite the defamation and insults he had suffered at the hands of his brother over the years. There, he would have died, had it not been for the Spartan's timely intervention and his summary use of his advanced healing arts to heal Aemon's otherwise fatal wounds. Thereafter, Aemon and the Spartan would be known to practice and train together, and many accounts wrote of how the two formed a deep respect for each another, perhaps out of a shared sense of martial honor and nobility. A year later, Princess Cortana would aid in the delivery of Naerys' youngest child, and while she did ensure the queen survived the birthing, she could not save the child, who died days later. Despite this, Naerys would maintain good relations with Cortana, and the two shared a love of the harp. It was no surprise that afterwards they, as well as Naerys' son, future King Daeron II, shared a great rapport between all five of them.

But, true to King Rickon's fears, Aegon the Unworthy was not content to keep the princess as a guest in his court. Indeed, it is likely only the Spartan's presence at her side that deterred the king from attempting to seduce her. Unfortunately, an opportunity arose for him when disaster struck the city. In an event which seemed all too convenient for Aegon's interests to be considered coincidence, the Alchemists' Guild reported that a grave error had been made. They had been commissioned by an unknown employer to produce a great cache of wildfire, and that some hapless apprentice had allowed some to burn. The Wisdoms allegedly warned that such a vast concentration of wildfire would lay King's Landing low in one fell moment unless someone could stop it. The Spartan, ever courageous and selfless, opted to enter the breached chambers himself, bidding no man to follow him in--but not before he advised Prince Aemon to evacuate and burn the surrounding houses around the Guild. It would prove to potentially save the city from great destruction, as the entire guild would minutes later erupt with such intense force, it shook all of the capitol. But as the surrounding buildings had already been put to the torch, the wildfire had nothing to feed upon, and soon died out. The city was saved... but of the Spartan, there was no trace, and many people, noble and commoner alike, mourned deeply--believing that the Spartan had given his life to save the city. Princess Cortana had tried to go out and search for him, but was barred from leaving the Red Keep by Aegon's Kingsguard. That very night, she was escorted from her room, summoned by the king, even as Prince Aemon and his men tried to assess the damage done upon the city, and searching for any sign of the Spartan. Taken to his bedchambers and locked inside, it is widely believed Aegon attempted to seduce, or possibly even rape her--but the guards outside burst in when they heard King Aegon's screaming. Inside, she was found clutching a dagger close to her, her garments half-ripped, and the king was found writhing on the floor in agony, with blood seeping out between his legs; King Aegon was so fat that they could not see it at first, but it was later confirmed by the Grand Maester that he had been emasculated in his entirety.

King Aegon had the Stark princess immediately arrested for attacking his royal person, and thrown into the Black Cells, much to the protests of Queen Naerys, Prince Aemon, and Prince Daeron. While they did prevent him from summarily executing her, and instead have her put on trial, they found the trial to be entirely in Aegon's favor--later it would be confirmed that Aegon had rigged it so she was assuredly found guilty--and he summarily sentenced her to be burned at the stake. When Daeron warned his father that it would result in an inevitable war with the North, the king allegedly replied, 'Then let me see them to the flame with her and their precious champion.' This only further supported the suspicion that Aegon had in fact orchestrated events to see the Spartan eliminated. The next day, Princess Cortana was led before the Great Sept of Baelor, where Daeron, Aemon, and Naerys could only watch as she was tied to the stake. When she was given a chance to publicly confess her guilt, Cortana instead defiantly stated the king had wrongfully attempted to rape her, and that she had simply tried to defend herself. When her protests fell on deaf ears, she only furthered her defiance by proclaiming that Aegon would not succeed, for the Spartan would emerge to stop him. Even as the King's Justice neared the pyre with his torch, the confidence in her eyes did not falter, though men claimed to have nevertheless seen tears running down her cheeks.

But before King Aegon could have his vengeance against Princess Cortana, a great clamor arose in the city--and what would follow would be the subject of a thousand songs, stories, and mummers' shows. For on the lips of the smallfolk soon chanted a single word--the same word that they had shouted when they opened the gates of the city in the Dance of the Dragons, the same name they had proclaimed their savior when he had ended the tyranny of Maegor the Cruel--'SPARTAN! SPARTAN! SPARTAN!' And lo, the crowds parted, and to the shock of all gathered, came the Master Chief himself, miraculously alive in his seemingly untouched battle armor and holding his fearsome thunder weapon, the Battle Rifle. Charging forward with the swiftness of the north wind and the force of a thunderous storm, he charged forward to rescue Princess Cortana. Aegon ordered that the Spartan be stopped, and commanded his men to kill him before he reached the princess. It would avail them nothing, as all who dared to stand in the Spartan's way were shot down and smitten by his legendary armament. Those who somehow managed to evade the Battle Rifle's fire were received the Spartan's fists and kicks, each so powerful they sent men flying through the air or crushed them within their own armor. So did Aegon the Unworthy's men die by the score, turning the yard before the Great Sept red with blood. Countless numbers assailed him from all sides, and he felled them all with otherworldly might, and allegedly he killed more than a hundred men that day. The King's Justice, in an effort to spite the Spartan, set the pyre alight, hoping that the princess be engulfed in flames before the Master Chief could reach her. This, too, failed, as the Spartan leaped into the air so high that he was at her side within the blink of an eye. Tearing her bonds with his own hands, he picked her up in the crook of his arm, and rescued Cortana Stark before the flames could reach her.

King Aegon seethed and trembled with rage at this, causing his morbidly obese body to quake with a hideous quiver. He shouted for his men to slay the Spartan, but none who remained dared approach, and indeed many fled screaming for their lives, so struck with terror at the Spartan's massacring of their comrades. Seeing this, Aegon commanded his brother Aemon to attack the Spartan, which Aemon refused, as he claimed the Spartan's slaying of so many men left him duty-bound to protect his king above all else. Aegon then shouted that there would be war between them, and that as long as he lived, he would not rest until both the Spartan and Cortana Stark were dead. But that would prove a fatal mistake, as the Spartan wordlessly raised his thunder weapon until it was level with Aegon--then opened fire. The shots fired so quickly that Aemon had no time to try and shield his brother, and before the entire court and the onlooking smallfolk, the king was riddled with an entire volley of the Spartan's lightening-quick missiles, ripping through him with ease. As he lay dying, however, he gave one last command, even as blood came from his mouth--and in one fell swoop led to generations of conflict--and used his last moments of life to legitimize all of his bastards, before he expired. So passed Aegon the Unworthy--the third Targaryen king to fall at the Spartan's hand. To ensure a riot did not break out among the already-riled smallfolk, Prince Daeron instantly ordered his father's men to stand down and assail the Spartan no further, stating that his father had indeed been in the wrong by trying to have Princess Cortana executed for simply defending herself from his advances. He summarily pardoned Cortana of all charges put against her, and received both her and the Spartan back to the Red Keep and seeing that both were treated for any possible injury. It was only after restoring order to the city that Daeron allowed himself to he crowned, and immediately set about to righting his father's mistakes. While he set about to reform his father's court and ridding it of it's corruption, the Spartan and Princess Cortana furiously flew back and forth between King's Landing and Winterfell, and ensuring that Aegon the Unworthy's foolish actions did not lead to war between the Starks and the Targaryens.

But for all this, many still saw the Spartan's actions, however heroic, as a blatant insult upon the Iron Throne's honor to allow him to so handily dispatch their king without retaliation. Many of Aegon's former court, especially among them Aegon's bastards--lead by Daemon Blackfyre--demanded that honor had to be satisfied and that the Spartan face some form of justice for slaying King Aegon. Further, King Rickon was furious at the travesties which his daughter suffered, and the whole of the North was in an uproar over what many believed was the attempted murder of their hero. To resolve the issue, the Spartan plainly asked if there was any who wished to face him in a trial by battle to satisfy the honor of both parties. And to this in turn, Aemon the Dragonknight accepted, though many believed it was only his honor as a knight of Kingsguard that moved him to do so, having failed to protect his king--not on account of any affection held for Aegon.

They met on the morrow, at midday, and the duel that would ensue would be the stuff of legends; with both King Daeron and King Rickon bearing witness, histories say the two champions struggled against each other for more than an hour with the sun blazing upon them, with Aemon's armor of whited steel and gold glistening in the sun, while the Spartan's legendary blade, Lightbringer, shone with the brilliance of a living star. Again did Dark Sister find itself facing the Spartan, for Aemon had wielded it with honor in his years as a knight, and this time, it would face the Spartan's great might. Each time Lightbringer and Dark Sister clashed, the roar of thunder and the shriek of steel filled the air and made a most terrifying noise. Though the Spartan seemed the better of the two, for even Aemon the Dragonknight admitted he could not hope of defeating the Spartan in combat, the latter was reported to have held back the greater part of his strength that day, out of respect for Aemon and to make the duel a fair one--he even removed his famed gold-visor helm and for the first time revealed his face to the public, stating that he would concede victory to Aemon were he to so much as scratch him. Aemon, out of honor, did likewise, and the two battled long and hard with the utmost conduct of chivalry. The duel only ended when Aemon, in a stunning display, caught the Spartan unawares for a single moment, and thrust Dark Sister forward. The crowd was struck silent, stunned as they watched Aemon the Dragonknight triumph where the likes of Maegor the Cruel, even Aegon the Conqueror himself and the countless armies that had faced the Spartan before had failed--he had wounded the invincible Master Chief. It was little more than a graze to his cheek, and only a small trickle of blood seeped from it, but it was that scratch by which the Spartan conceded defeat, which Aemon accepted, his honor as a Kingsguard satisfied. The crowds cheered with great uproar, and the two champions left the ring with a mutual feeling of the highest respect for one another. The realm was once more brought back from the brink of war, thanks to the efforts of the Spartan, Princess Cortana, and King Daeron. The Spartan would return Princess Cortana to Winterfell, where he was once more received as a hero. He would not remain even the night he brought Princess Cortana back, however, opting instead to return to his slumber. But before he did, he made her a simple promise, the same one that he had, as legend has it, made to Bran the Builder in ages past: 'Wake me, when you need me.'

These words must have had some effect on the young princess, for after that day, she was reported to have rarely smiled, a strange sadness in her ethereal eyes, and would longingly gaze out her balcony west-by-southwest, to the Forward Unto Dawn, and composed songs of somberness and sorrow, in which she lamented the loneliness of the Spartan's sleep. For seven years, she would remain in Winterfell, and her grace and beauty would only grow over the years--though she never married, and many believed she pined after the Spartan with such a sorrowful love that it inspired songs for years to come. Finally, on her nameday of one-and-twenty, her father bade her to follow her heart, and to go to the Spartan's side. She set out the next morning, and tearfully bade her family farewell, and all of the North wept as she left them. Arriving at the Dawntown, she entered the Forward Unto Dawn's hallowed halls alone, and found the Spartan's ancient resting place--a dark, cold room of glass and metal, where the Spartan slept in one of many icy coffins, which according to legend, halted the ravages of time upon the body and afforded those who slept therein a dreamless, ageless sleep. Entering the one beside his, she joined him in his slumber, content to be by his side throughout the ages. Many have come to accept her reasoning for this was that she had seen a great loneliness in the Spartan's solitude, and with the Aglow Lady gone, he would have to face the centuries alone--a fate she could not abide, and instead resolved herself to leave behind the family she loved and accompany the Spartan in both his time spent walking the earth, and in his death-like sleep.

Thus, to this day, she remains the oldest living Stark, counting in this two-hundred and ninety-five years since the Conquest a hundred and twenty-six years of life, being the oldest known person to live after the Spartan himself, and still having all the grace and beauty as the day she first chose to stand at the Spartan's side for all eternity."

--A History of the Spartan and House Stark, Part IV, by Maester Benjymen

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"King Jaehaerys would reign the longest of any Targaryen king, and while he sat the Iron Throne, the realm knew a time of unrivaled prosperity and unabated tranquility. Whilst this history is meant to be focused upon the Spartan and the Starks, it is important to remember that King Jaehaerys I was greatly influenced by the Spartan and the Maiden's work, and is thus relevant to understanding the full measure of just how those two enigmatic figures have so thoroughly changed the realm as a whole. Though the first few years were spent in repairing the damage Maegor the Cruel had done to the realm, and reconciling with the Faith as well as the North, this was only the beginning of a long, illustrious career for the monarch. Once he had secured peace for the realm, he instituted massive reforms to the system of taxation, which while unpopular at the time, helped to fill the royal coffers and fuel the Conciliator's future endeavors.

The first, and arguably his most ambitious project, was the construction of the Realmroad; the vast, expansive network of paved highways criss crossing throughout the realm. The inspiration of this mighty endeavor could be attributed to the famous tour of the North that Jaehaerys and his sister-wife, Good Queen Alysannee, shared early in their reign. The North had, for thousands of years, been the most advanced of all the Seven Kingdoms, due to the great knowledge passed to them from the Maiden of Light. One of the greatest technological feats of the North was it's ancient and famous system of paved roads, which had been built three thousand years prior over the course of the reigns of three Kings in the North; King Rickard the Road-Layer, King Yoren the Road-Paver, and King Robbart the Road-Finisher--and was further expanded by subsequent generations. From the Nightfort to Moat Cailin, from the Rills to the Karhold, from Deepwood Motte to Widow's Watch, this vast system of roads stretched from coast to coast, connecting all but the most remote of the North's holdings, all leading back to that grand and old capitol of the North, Winterfell itself. While it was an immense undertaking, and an undoubtedly even more laborious task to keep it maintained, the Northerners had discovered that keeping the roads in good order promoted trade and travel unparalleled across the north, giving rise not only to great wealth, but also the migration of peoples to found settlements along the roads. Towns which, over the centuries, only grew in number and size, some eventually becoming large enough to be called cities in their own right. White Harbor was the great port of the North, conducting a great deal of trade with the South, the Free Cities, and even as far as Qarth and the Jade Sea; and is home to the great Manderly fleet, the largest and most fearsome of the Western world. The town surrounding Winterfell had long since expanded into an outright city centuries before, it's thatched huts and hovels transformed into great stone houses. While not quite as large as other cities in the North, it was still easily seen as it's crown jewel--ancient, austere, and glorious.

But undoubtedly the most incredible of these cities was known simply to the Northerners as the Dawntown, which surrounded the fabled Forward Unto Dawn. Many ages past, according to the histories of the North, the Forward Unto Dawn had been a center of unrivaled production, which had helped the Starks make the North the greatest kingdom of the West. However, most of it's strange machines had long since fallen silent, and the Northerners so revered it that they refused to disturb the great structure of steel save to preserve it from the ravages of time--indeed, to attempt to enter it without the consent of the King in the North is a crime punishable by beheading even today. The city surrounding the hallowed structure was, and arguably still is, the largest in Westeros. While not as beautiful as Winterfell, nor as wealthy as White Harbor, it is undoubtedly the most vibrant and bustling settlement in all the West. Here, the Spartan and the Maiden's influence is felt most strongly. A city of great peculiarity, it is singular in the fact that it is, in fact, not subject to the Starks of Winterfell. Bran the Builder had supposedly granted the land surrounding the Dawn to the Spartan, that he might rule in his own right and not be made subject to any lord or king. Regardless, the Starks maintain that the Dawntown is wholly independent of their rule, though the city-state had nonetheless sworn allegiance to the Starks. In the walls of the Dawntown, all men, regardless of station or birth, are treated as equals before the Spartan's Law, a truly progressive and comprehensive legal code which reigns supreme over the whole city. Maesters, scholars, artisans, physicians, and men of all walks of learning travel from the four corners of the known world to study and congregate here, basking in the wisdom of the Aglow Lady, who left behind countless tomes of knowledge, all of which are securely and safely cataloged and kept in the Great Library--a depository of knowledge equaled only by the Citadel's, though many claim the knowledge of the Dawntown is less fragmented and more impartial than that of the masters of Oldtown.

Awed by the sights they saw there, Jaehaerys and Alysanne were eager to bring similar prosperity to the South, and they began regularly corresponding with King Brandon Stark, who would come to be one of their closest friends. With his financial support as well as the aid of the latter's road-workers, Jaehaerys began the project of building the Realmroad, a task which would not be completed until well after his death and well into the reign of his grandson, Viserys I. Jaehaerys, with the council of his good friend and Hand of the King, Septon Barth, also oversaw the construction of a great system of sewers, likewise inspired by the Northerners' advances in sanitation. King Jaehaerys had learned from the tomes the Maiden had left him that the cleanliness of a city was paramount to making it prosperous--he had only to see the difference between the North's cities and the Souths to see that truth. In the first century since it's founding, King's Landing was a far-cry from the austerity of Winterfell, nor as rich as White Harbor, nor as bustling as the Dawntown; but Jaehaerys endeavored to make it of nevertheless equal state to them. It was an arduous, tedious task, as it required in many cases the utter demolition of entire sections of the city, but here, too, King Brandon came to his aid, loaning great sums of money to the Targaryen coffers to see to the restitution of those dispossessed of their homes, and commissioning the Dawntown to quarry the materials Jaehaerys would come to need. It was a great expenditure to the whole realm, and took the better part of the Old King's reign to undertake, but when all was done, King's Landing was nearly unrecognizable; the stench of human waste had evaporated, and the outbreaks of sickness dramatically fell in frequency. Much more of the city was comprised of stone buildings as well, and in no time at all, King's Landing had become the crown jewel of the South, truly a capitol worthy of a great dynasty.

With this openness between the North and South came also the spreading of knowledge. Jaehaerys, more than likely inspired by the Dawntown's governance and the idea of a intellectual court, filled his own with scholars, maesters, artisans, and doctors, and was a great patron to both the Order of Maesters and the Night's Watch. Merit, rather than birth, had become the standard by which to earn the king's favor, and while many nobles balked at this, none could deny it did the realm a great service, as the Conciliator and his court brought about the greatest period of plenty the realm had ever known, and a time when the North and South worked more closely than ever before, as well as the time where relations between the two were warmer than ever before.

This golden age would carry on after the Old King passed on after many years on the throne. The full fruits of his labors would ripen during the reign of his grandson and heir, King Viserys I, who completed his grand-sire's endeavor of building the Realmroad, and would come to rule the Five Kingdoms at the very height of the Targaryen dynasty's power. But in the shining brilliance of this time of prosperity and peace, Viserys had been blinded to the division within his own court that came late in his reign. As to the events of what happened during the Dance of Dragons, the Targaryen civil war which had nearly destroyed the realm, a comprehensive history by Grand Maester Munkun does exist, which details the events in the broader scope of the war. For the sake of the relevance of this particular history, the focus of which being the Starks and the Spartan during this time, we shall primarily focus on the actions of the North and the Master Chief during the Dance. Both the Black and Green factions had feared from the beginning an intervention by the Starks on behalf of the opposing side, and were terrified even more the possibility of escalating such a war between the realms to the point it would warrant the Starks to call on the Spartan to aid them. For though the Targaryens counted in all seventeen dragons--the highest number they would ever reach--the memory of the Spartan slaying two of the mightiest of all their mounts, Vhaegar and Balerion the Black Dread themselves; and of the humiliating and decisive defeats he rendered unto both Aegon the Conqueror and to his son, Maegor the Cruel, had haunted the Targaryens to that day. Covetous of the North's superior armies, both Princess Rhaenyra and King Aegon dispatched envoys to ask for his aid. Rhaenyra's eldest son, Jacaerys Velaryon, flew on dragonback to Winterfell, and plead his mother's case to King Cregan Stark, the Old Man of the North. Earlier that very morning, however, he had received a raven from King's Landing in which King Aegon asked for his support in securing the peace for all Westeros.

It must have been by no means an easy decision for the King in the North, who was reluctant to involve his people in another squabble in the South. Yet he felt some familial sentiment for the boy before him, as he was descended from the only child of Queen Wylanna, a daughter who alone of all her siblings had survived Maegor's cruelty, and married into the Velaryon line following the ascension of Jaehaerys I, and thus giving the following Lords of the Driftmark, and subsequently Prince Jacaerys himself, distant kinship to the Starks. Jacaerys even vowed that a daughter of House Targaryen would wed a son of House Stark, in a proposed Second Pact of Ice and Fire. Unsure of what to do, but knowing his decision would be crucial to the future of the North, King Cregan chose in that moment to follow in his grandfather Benjen's wisdom, and entered the halls of the Forward Unto Dawn, to seek the Spartan and the Aglow Lady's council. When he reemerged, he declared that the North would remain neutral, though he did dispatch ravens of his own to both Dragonstone and the Red Keep, calling on both claimants to the Iron Throne to settle the matter in a Great Council and resolve the succession in a peaceful manner.

But the infamous death of Rhaenyra's second eldest son at the hands of Aemond Targaryen, and the retaliatory murder of Aegon's eldest son and heir, would shatter any notion of peace between the Blacks and Greens, and soon all the South was awash in dragonflame as the dynastic dispute transformed into a war of annihilation. Cregan's decision to stay out of the war would earn him some derision from his vassals, but would ultimately prove to leave the North untouched by the conflict. But as more refugees came flooding in from the South, and reports of the Targaryens' dragons burning and sacking the countryside become increasingly dire, Cregan could not help but feel pity for the smallfolk, and became convinced that something had to be done to end the violence in the South. For the second time, he entered the Forward Unto Dawn, and news quickly spread that the Warrior Made Flesh and the Maiden of Light had emerged from their slumber, and coming out the Dawntown's great ironwood gates, led at their head by the Spartan himself, was an army unlike any Westeros had ever seen. For the soldiers which marched from the Great Arsenal carried weapons of unprecedented might called 'muskets', and even larger, monstrous contraptions called 'cannons'. Both of which appeared to be archaic imitations of the Spartan's legendary thunder weapons and the great war machines he rode into battle, respectively. The science behind these weapons remains a closely guard enigma of the Dawntown to this day, much to the consternation, dread, and envy of the rest of the known world--for any attempt to learn it's secrets have led only to the vanishing of many spies, and the consternation of many a blacksmith or maester attempting to unlock it's secrets. The Spartan marched this force south to the Neck, gathering along the way a force of Northerners eager to march south with him to ease the burdens of their families in the coming winter, who would become known as the Rogue Wolves. Upon arriving south of the Neck, near the Twins, he declared he had come to defend the people of the South from further suffering at the hands of the squabbling dragonlords, demanding each side to reach an armistice and end the violence immediately, and that any further harm done to the smallfolk would result in him bringing an end to the fighting on his own terms--namely, defeating both the blacks as well as the greens.

Publicly, Cregan never endorsed the Spartan's actions, indeed decrying it as an unlawful and unauthorized move on the Spartan's part, though many believe he may have had a hand in the events, as he made no move to stop the Spartan, nor punished the men who had followed him into war.

Almost predictably, the Targaryens' vainglory got the better of them, in spite of the initial terror they felt at the news of the Spartan's return, and went right back to their warring. At this point in the Dance of the Dragons, Rhaenyra had just suffered a defeat at the Battle of Rook's Rest, and had planned to ship her two younger sons off to the Free Cities for their protection. However, enemies of her husband from the Kingdom of the Three Daughters had intercepted them, and only her nine-year-old son, Aegon, had managed to escape on the back of his wounded and dying dragon, while his younger brother Viserys had been made a captive. Prince Jacaerys himself rode off on his dragon Vermax to rescue his brother, and led the Velaryon fleet against the enemy. There, his dragon was caught by grapnels and dragged into the sea, and nearly drowned. He himself would have met his end at the hands of Myrish crossbowmen if not the waves taking him to a watery grave... when a terrible roar filled the air. To the utter shock of all, the Spartan had flown his great Steel Bird from out of the sky, using his armaments to soundly crush every ship which dared to oppose him, before lowering his ship and rescuing Jacaerys from the Blackwater, and freeing his dragon from the driftwood and netting which trapped him. It is unknown why the Spartan chose to save the boy's life--some speculate Cregan had asked it of him, in remembrance of their shared blood, while other state it was simply the Spartan's nobility that caused him to rescue the young prince. The Spartan then used his flying machine to scour the fleet of the Three Daughters, cutting his way through hundreds of men with a small band of hand-picked soldiers at his side, until he found and rescued also the young Prince Viserys, and then immediately flew to Dragonstone, where a stunned, confused, but ultimately relieved Rhaenyra was returned her two sons. But the Spartan did not stay to hear her gratitude for his bold rescue, immediately flying back into the battle, where he turned the tide in the blacks' favor single-handed, and prevented the greens' fleet from sacking the Driftmark. After ensuring the Gullet was safe, and the sorry remnants of the enemy was well on their way back across the Narrow Sea, he then left without another word.

News of the Spartan's intervention at the Battle of the Gullet soon spread, and the greens became panicked at the notion of the Spartan seeming in favor of the blacks. With Aegon burnt, broken, and poppy-addled from his injuries sustained at Rook's Rest, Prince Aemond and the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, Ser Criston Cole, immediately marched north, and after securing Harrenhal, marched further to face the Spartan's army--when baffling news reached them. Reports came in that an army of riverlords, led by Elmo Tully, had mustered at Riverrun and was on their way to meet Aemond and Cole's host in battle... only for the Spartan's army to halt them, before scattering them to the four winds. As Elmo was a supporter of Rhaenyra, it astounded and confused the greens as to why the Spartan would thwart an army loyal to the blacks. The truth of what had happened was that the riverlords, on their march, had turned to pillaging many villages to sustain their army, as well as sacking whatever holdfasts had not declared for Rhaenyra, even burning fields to deprive the greens of crops and food. When word had spread to Riverrun of the Spartan's intervention off the coast of Dragonstone, Elmo had assumed the Spartan had declared for the blacks, and therefore marched with confidence to meet the greens' host. However, when word had reached the Spartan of the riverlords' beleaguering of the smallfolk, he immediately wheeled his army around and confronted them, demanding they disband and return to their homes, as well as surrender all persons and spoils they had taken from the people. When Elmo and his men refused, and instead demanded the Spartan swear allegiance to the blacks' cause, the latter set his army against the former. The following clash, remembered today as the Battle for the Crossroads, was a battle only in name--more accurately, it was butchers work. The riverlords outnumbered the Spartan's smaller army by nearly one-and-half, and whereas Elmo commanded a cavalry force of over a hundred knights and four-hundred mounted men-at-arms, the Spartan had no cavalry whatsoever. Elmo thus thought to simply rush the Spartan with his sheer numbers, and advanced his infantry forward. This was the first mistake Elmo Tully would make that day. As soon as his foot were within range, the Spartan unleashed his cannons, blasting into the riverlords' ranks with explosive missiles and tearing apart their vanguard with seven devastating volleys. What few unfortunate or foolhardy riverfolk who pressed forward were met with the thunder of musket fire, and many men, terrified of these new weapons and of the fact they had not even reached the enemy without being torn to shreds, turned tail and fled. Elmo, seeing that his infantry was on the verge of collapsing into a mass rout, gathered together the whole of his cavalry, and charged the Spartan in a great thunder of heavy horse, steel plate, and all the chivalry of the Trident.

It would avail him nothing but the death of many riverlords. The Spartan's cannons bombarded the Tully cavalry, killing lords and knights with the same brutality as they had with their levies. Even worse, the horses were frightened by the noise of the cannons, and crashed into one another in panic, causing terrible disorder and killing many in the charge. Then came the musket-fire, which tore through steel armor and horse like parchment, wreaking even more devastation and havoc on Elmo's cavalry. When the riverlords finally closed in, they sought to at last take their revenge on the Spartan's men, believing their lack of pikes and spears would make the Spartan's army easy prey for the stampede of red steel and war horses. But then, as they came to bear down upon the Spartan's center, they saw that the musketeers had fixed long blades upon the ends of their thunder weapons, which, combined with their tight formation into squares, negated any and all advantages the riverlords' cavalry possessed. For their horses refused to charge into the bristling lines of blades, and their armor availed them not against musket-fire. Elmo and many of his knights were cut down or captured, and seeing the best of their knights so utterly devastated, the rest of the Tully army routed, fleeing for the hills and forests and back to their homes. A score of noble houses were ended that day, torn and pierced and blown to pieces alongside the levies they had march to war. Among those few who were captured was Kermit Tully, son of Elmo, and, with the death of his father, the new Lord of Riverrun. The Spartan treated the young lord with surprising mercy and respect, tending to his wounds as well as the wounds of what Rivermen lay wounded in the battle that had not been slain, and granting merciful ends to those too far gone to be saved. Shortly after, he made a pact with Kermit--in exchange for the young lord putting up his sword and disbanding his armies, and allowing his men to return home, the Spartan would release Kermit as well as all other prisoners taken, and would march south to defend the Riverlands from the greens, who would doubtlessly seek to consolidate the Trident for the cause of Aegon, and put the riverlords to the sword for siding with the blacks. Kermit, left with little other choice, agreed to the terms, and returned to Riverrun shortly after. Many noble houses of the Trident would despise the Spartan for years to come for the humiliation and devastation he rendered them that day, but the smallfolk would remember that he had gone to war on their behalf, and at every turn took pains to see to their safety and survival, as he brought great amounts of food to replace that which their lords had deprived them, and saw to the safe return of their fighting men, whom he sought out in the wilderness and guided back to their homes as best he could, as well as helping to train and outfit them to defend their villages.

The greens, upon hearing of these accounts, were wary as to the intentions of the Spartan, and could not discern to which side he had taken in the war--for while he had come to the blacks' aid in the Battle of the Gullet, his victory over the riverlords had doubtlessly aided the cause of the greens. Ser Criston Cole felt it best to avoid engaging the Spartan, and to depart south and aid the Hightowers in their campaign in the Reach. Prince Aemond, though, believed that the Spartan had to be dealt with, to ensure he did not interfere further in their war, as well as to prove the strength of the greens over the blacks by dispatching the enemy that the riverlords had failed to overcome. But regardless of what course they intended to take, dark news reached them: Rhaenyra had descended on King's Landing with her dragon, and had claimed the defenseless capitol as her own. In a black rage, Aemond mounted his dragon, known to history only as Cannibal, and rain fire and death down onto the countryside. Cole, unable to stop him, marched the army back towards the capitol, intent on retaking it from the blacks, but feared that Aemond's reckless fury would only invite the Spartan's wrath. He would be proven right not even a week later, when the Spartan tracked down Aemond and Cannibal in his Steel Bird near Fairmarket, as the Prince intended to set it aflame with dragonfire. Aemond arrogantly sought to triumph where his greater sires had failed, and chose to meet the Master Chief in battle when all sense dictated he flee like the Seven Devils were upon him. Surely enough, the Spartan handily defeated them, his thunder weapons tearing through one of Cannibal's wings, and sent both dragon and rider plummeting into the Blue Fork--an end seen by many as all too fitting, as it was the same fate he had inflicted upon his cousin, Prince Lucerys Velaryon. Whether or not the crash had killed him, or if he drowned in the Blue Fork's waters, is unknown; but smallfolk downriver would find his bloated corpse days later, still strapped in his riding chains atop his dead dragon. They stripped him of his armor and silks, and dumped his naked body back into the river whilst they carved his dragon to make a feast of it's flesh and a fortune of it's scales and bones.

The Spartan would remain in the Riverlands, seeing to it's defense and overseeing shipments of food, supplies, and munitions being sent from the Dawntown down the Kingsroad. The Old King's commitment to the construction of the Realmroad would greatly benefit the Spartan's cause, ensuring that the smallfolk were given food and goods where needed, and that his army was replenished of their necessities. And true to his word to Kermit Tully, he took up the task of defending the Riverlands when an army of westermen, led by Jason Lannister, a supporter of the greens, came from the River Road with the intent of taking the Trident in King Aegon's name. But the Spartan had no intention of meeting the Lannister host on their own terms. Instead, in a feat of daring and audacity, he came upon Jason's host in the dead of night, accompanied by but two of his most trusted men, riding in his great battle carriage known as the 'Warthog'. Using the great thunder weapon mounted atop it, they smashed into Jason's camp, causing great mayhem and barreling through as swift as the north wind, until they came across Jason's pavilion, which the Spartan hurled two of his thunder-stones into. In an instant, Jason was killed, and in the mayhem so too were several of his chief commanders. Before the Lannister host could properly retaliate, the Spartan had fled, leaving the whole of the Westerlands shaken and in disarray in one terrible moment. The westerlords still chose to press on, hoping to avenge the death of their liege lord, but when they came to bear against the Spartan's army at the Battle of Wayfarer's Rest, they met the same fate as Elmo Tully--all the more impounded by their lack of leadership--and the Lannister army was sent reeling back in a chaotic rout towards Casterly Rock. Instead of pursuing the shattered Lannister host, where he likely could have pressed as far as Lannisport and lay siege to Casterly Rock itself with no significant resistance, the Master Chief remained in the Riverlands, content to have merely repelled the invaders. Indeed, he wrote to the now-widowed Lady Johanna Lannister, and offered a truce with House Lannister provided they withdraw their support of the greens. As an incentive, he released all captives taken during the battle, and also forewarned her that Dalton Greyjoy, Lord Reaper of Pyke, was likely to attack the now-weakened Westerlands. At first, she wished only to avenge her husband's death at his hands, and did not heed his warning, which would cost the Westerlands dearly when the Red Kraken fell upon Lannisport and sacked it, and proceeded to raid the coasts with no significant force to stop him. When the smallfolk of the Westerlands cried out for the Spartan to come and save them, however, Johanna relented, and called for his aid in halting the Iron Fleet. It is inferred that she recognized House Lannister was in desperate need of allies, and with the greens more concerned with battling the blacks to the south-east, and the Lannister army scattered, the Master Chief stood as the only local force capable of stopping the ironborn raids, and that if she did not act, the people would have likely rebelled against Casterly Rock and turn to the Spartan for protection, as he had so ably and reliably done so for the Riverlands.

The Red Kraken at first only laughed when he heard the Spartan was coming to stop him, not believing in the legends of how the Spartan had summoned a great storm to sink the ironborn in ages long past. The Spartan would correct him as he swept up and down the Westerland coast, using his Steel Bird to attack any ironborn ships it could find, thwarting raids on coastal villages and reclaiming territories the ironborn had seized, rescuing captives taken into thralldom, and sending many ironborn back into the sea and down to their Drowned God. The Spartan gave a single warning to Lord Dalton, ordering him to turn his fleet back to the Iron Isles and cease his attacks on the coast. When Dalton refused, the Spartan hunted him down and slew him in single combat. In an occurrence far too convenient for many to believe was mere coincidence, King Cregan Stark dispatched Lord Mormont and his great fleet southward from Bear Island, under the pretext that he did not wish to leave the Northern shores at risk of the now-unleashed ironborn. Carried aboard that fleet was a formidable army and siege equipment doubtlessly meant to take the Iron Islands while their fighting men were away. Between the string of defeats the Spartan rendered them, the bitter power struggle that followed the death of Lord Dalton, and the threat of a Northern invasion, the ironborn at last conceded to peace, and withdrew back to the Iron Islands, with nothing but bitterness and humiliation for spoils to take home.

With the Riverlands, Westerlands, and Iron Islands pacified, the Spartan had greatly reduced the strength of both the greens and the blacks, and both sides were now terrified of what his next move would be. As more and more lords struck their banners and laid down their arms, and as more and more of the realm came to know peace, the Spartan's honor and his commitment to protecting those caught in the fires of war made him a hero to the smallfolk, while the causes of both Rhaenyra and Aegon were seen in increasingly negative lights, the devastation caused by the Dance of Dragons doing nothing to endear either to the people. Princess Rhaenyra, perhaps sensing this, dispatched her son, Prince Jacaerys, to treat with him. On his mother's behalf, he offered the Master Chief lavish sums of gold, the hand of a future Targaryen princess, and even to nominate him to the station of Protector of the Realm if he would aid her cause, citing she only wished to restore peace to the realm. The Spartan famously retorted to the prince that, if Rhaenyra had truly wished for peace, she would have listened to King Cregan's advice by meeting with Aegon at a Great Council, and settled the succession peacefully, rather than drag out the war and inflicting more suffering on the people, before sending the prince back to King's Landing with a firm refusal to take either side in the war. Rhaenyra reportedly trembled with rage at the Spartan's rebuttal at her offer, and at the perceived insult of her warmongering. But she had more pressing matters to attend to--the Hightowers had taken the city of Tumbleton with the aid of two turncloak dragonriders, while King's Landing itself was being laid siege to by Criston Cole. Another dragon rider came to meet with the Spartan--this time, Prince Daemon Targaryen, the Rouge Prince, and Rhaenyra's husband. He told the Spartan of how Cole would take the capitol if he did not intervene, and of the butchery Cole's men would undoubtedly mete out upon the inhabitants of the city if they breached the gates. The Spartan knew this was merely an attempt by the blacks to have him destroy their enemies, but nevertheless felt that the inhabitants of King's Landing should not be made to suffer any more than they already had due to the war, and ultimately agreed to march his army to the relief of the capitol. The Spartan's arrived ahead of his army alone, but Cole knew he had little hope of winning a battle against both the Spartan and Rhaenyra's dragons, the latter of which which had been strangely held back during the siege. Instead, he challenged the Spartan to single combat, stating that they should decide the outcome of the battle with a contest of arms rather than sacrifice thousands of men. On that, the Spartan agreed, and accepted Cole's challenge. Before their duel could begin, however, three of the five dragons in King's Landing were suddenly unleashed, led by Rhaenyra and her husband Daemon, and began incinerating Cole's army. Rhaenyra had laid a trap for both the Spartan and Cole, and hoped that the sheer number of her dragons would succeed where the likes of Belarion the Black Dread and Vhaegar had failed.

They would not.

While Cristen Cole and most of his army were indeed bathed in dragonflame, the Spartan's armor proved impervious to the dragons' fiery breath, and while he had been separated from his Steel Bird and his thunder weapons, he would demonstrate then and there that he had no need of it. First came the unmounted Dreamfyre, who had once been the mount of late Queen Helaena, whom had died but the night before. Perhaps the most tragic confrontation that day, she swooped down low to the ground to snap the Spartan in her jaws, only for him to leap above her, before slamming a crushing kick downwards into her neck, and breaking it and killing her instantly. Then came Daemon, riding his dragon Caraxys, who blew fire down onto the Spartan. The flames proved useless, and the Spartan jumped so high into the air men claimed he seemed to almost fly, and delivered an uppercut which crushed the dragon's throat and sent it falling to the ground. Daemon, who had never fastened his riding chains, leaped from his saddle, and in his hand was Dark Sister, the Valyrian sword of Visenya, Aegon the Dragon's sister-wife. Wildly he swung his sword in the air even as he fell, attempting to land a killing blow on the Spartan, but it was for naught, as even Blackfyre in the hands of Maegor had failed to breech the Spartan's armor. Not even deigning to kill Daemon, the Master Chief simply left the Rogue Prince's fate to the fall, and when all three impacted the ground, Damon and his dragon were both dead, while the Spartan landed on his feet, seemingly unharmed even from so great a fall. When Rhaenyra saw her husband's broken body, a black dread filled her alongside the rage and grief of losing her husband. But another, arguably even worse blow befell her that day--when her two eldest sons saw their mother in peril, they both mounted their dragons and flew to aid her, and joined the fray. Whatever screams Rhaenyra had shouted to save them availed her not over the roars of the dragons, and she could only watch as Princes Jacaerys and Joffrey both met their fates that day, the Spartan slaying their mounts from under them and sending them crashing to the ground.

Whatever Rhaenyra planned next is unknown, as an uprising in King's Landing erupted, led by a man only remembered as the Shepherd. Seeing the Spartan destroy all but one of Rhaenyra's dragons, which the Shepherd had convinced the people were monstrous demons, the smallfolk rioted in the streets and chanted the Spartan's name. They demanded vengeance for Queen Helaena and her murdered sons, under belief their beloved Queen had been likewise killed by Rhaenyra, and proceeded to overwhelm the goldcloaks and black soldiers in the city with sheer numbers and madness. First flinging open the Dragon Gate to welcome the Spartan as their savior, as he had been decades before when he ended the tyranny of Maegor, they called on him to once more save them, this time from 'Maegor's Teats'. Realizing that only two precious sons remained her, the princes Aegon and Viserys, and that the city was all but lost, Rhaenyra flew her dragon Syrax back to the Red Keep, before fleeing to Dragonstone with the two of them, abandoning the city and all of her supporters therein. Within a few hours, the Spartan's army caught up to their leader, and with their help, the Master Chief quelled the riots, restored order, and peacefully occupied the city. The smallfolk rejoiced, hailing him a liberator, and as they had when he had slain Maegor, again pleaded he take the Iron Throne and proclaim himself king. But he again refused to take the crown, stating he had come to protect the people, not rule them--even though, in the eyes of many, he would have made a great king. He instead busied himself with helping to undo the damages inflicted on the capitol over the course of the war, as he and the Algow Lady worked with the Small Council in the re-opening roads, rebuilding damaged properties, attending to the sick, poor, and injured, and helping to see food delivered to the city. Once the city was in good order, he then marched his army west to confront the green army camped in the ruins of Tumbleton. When the Spartan saw the atrocious state of the city, and of the reprehensible behavior of the green army, he demanded they lay down their immediate surrender. Ser Ulys White and Ser Hugh Hammer, the traitorous dragonseeds whom had turned their allegiance and saw to the city's fall to the greens, both refused and instead mounted their dragons to challenge the Spartan. The greens mourned little when he dispatched them as he had all the dragon riders before them, as the dragonseeds were not much loved by them, and they themselves were terrified of the Spartan's fury, and the green army disbanded. The Spartan only returned to the capitol after he had seen to the pacification of any and all black forces remaining in the Reach, but when he returned, he found the long-missing King Aegon II camped outside the city walls.

The Spartan learned that he had been spirited away to Dragonstone when Rhaenyra had claimed the capitol, and when she had returned to House Targaryen's ancestral seat, his men, whom had secretly occupied Dragonstone since, captured her, while his wounded and dying dragon Sunfyre had fallen upon Syrax, killing her with the aid of his men, before he turned Sunfyre on Rhaenyra herself, and the once gleaming and magnificent dragon bathed her in a blast of dragonflame before swallowing her whole, whilst her two sons were made to watch as their mother was devoured right in front of them. King Aegon believed his victory was total, and sailed to King's Landing and sit on the Iron Throne. But the city's gates were closed to him, and with no dragons and scarcely an army left, he could not hope to take it. Enraged that even with his half-sister dead he was still barred his perceived birthright, Aegon demanded the Spartan surrender the city and bend the knee to him, or else he would call on an army of sellswords from the Free Cities, and take it by force.

No one knows for certain why the Spartan did what he did next. Some believe it was Aegon's arrogance, or the threat of seeing the capitol sacked, or the barbarity he had inflicted on Rhaenyra's sons by forcing them to watch their mother's gruesome death, or perhaps it was the simple desire to see the war ended there and then. What is known is that, as Aegon stood before him, and before he had even finished his tirade of threats and demands, the Spartan suddenly struck Aegon with a slap to the face, except his otherworldly strength afforded his backhand slap to Aegon's cheek with such inhuman force that Aegon's entire head jerked violently to the side, and a loud, sickening crack filled the air, his neck broken instantly. Thus died Aegon II, the second Targaryen king to die at the hands of the Spartan. Following this, the Master Chief immediately took custody of Rhaenyra and Aegon's surviving children, two sons and a single daughter, respectively. Aegon, as the eldest son to survive the Dance of Dragons, would succeed his uncle and sit on the Iron Throne. But until he could come of age, a regency needed to be formed to govern in his stead. The Spartan also sensed that, despite the war's end, the sentiments of the blacks and greens still lingered among many nobles, and he deemed it unsafe for the children to be left vulnerable to the South's intrigues. To those ends, he first assigned seven regents from both sides to govern the Targaryen regime, while the young King Aegon, his brother Prince Viserys, and Aegon's only surviving daughter, Princess Jaehaera, were transported to the North by the Spartan himself, to be fostered by King Cregan Stark until Aegon was old enough to return to the capitol and rule the South in his own right. Aegon would eventually marry Jaehaera to unite the greens and blacks, and the Spartan's medicines saw to it both she and her future children would be healthy and of sound mind. Thus ended the Dance of Dragons, and with it the apex of House Targaryen's might. The period in which Cregan fostered the Targaryen children would be known as the Years of the Wolf, where the North helped to keep the South at peace through the rumor of their force of arms. Cregan would come to be a great influence on Aegon's future rule, and the latter would consider the former something of a second father figure. The Targaryens would have to again rely on an alliance with the Starks to ensure their dominion, as the few Targaryen dragons hatched thereafter would never reach the size of their forbears, indeed dying off during Aegon's reign.

As for the Spartan and the Aglow Lady, the both of them returned to their slumber at the Foreward Unto Dawn after sending their army back to the Dawntown, with the Rogue Wolves coming to live out the winter alongside them. The Spartan would be immortalized with a new moniker for his exploits in the Dance, and for bringing about the end of the age of the great winged beasts of House Targaryen--The Dragonslayer."

--A History of House Stark and the Spartan, Volume III, by Maester Benjymen

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< [INDEX] >

"The War of Three Kings--known as the Dragon-Hunt to the North, Robert's Rebellion to the supporters of the Baratheon regime, or the War of the Usurper to Targaryen loyalists--was not directly instigated by a single occurrence or action. Rather, it was what many saw as an inevitable conclusion began at the Field of Thunder, where King Torrhen the Defiant and the legendary Spartan defeated Aegon, showing the whole of Westeros how even the might of the dragonlords were rendered meek by the otherworldly might of the Forward Unto Dawn. It was not apparent during those first years, when Aegon sat the Iron Throne. Indeed, though many had thought the sudden and crushing halt of the Dragon's advance would give rise to rebellion and sedition from his conquered territories of the Southern kingdoms, Aegon's reign on the Iron Throne was astoundingly peaceful. It is widely believed by scholars that it was indeed fear that kept the South in line, as many believed that disunity among the Andal kingdoms could very well render them vulnerable to invasion and subsequent conquest at the hands of the reinvigorated and undoubtedly mighty North. Rather than risk being made prey to the triumphant Direwolf, the lords of the South instead pledged their fealty to the wounded Dragon, though it's three heads had now only one still living. It is also likely inferred that Aegon himself was shielded by the presence of his new Northern queen, Wylanna Stark, the daughter of King Torrhen, whose hand sealed the Pact of Ice and Fire after Aegon's prior defeat. While their marriage proved to be fruitful, and even inferred to have eventually become a happy one, trouble would begin shortly after Aegon's death, the first in a long list of grievances between House Targaryen and House Stark.

While Aegon himself had decreed his son by Rhaenys, Aenys, would inherit the throne after him, there was considerable tension in the court over the matter, particularly due to the controversy caused by Aegon's issue. The Faith had viewed Aegon's marriage to his sister-wives as a blasphemy only begrudgingly tolerated due to the sheer might Aegon wielded, and therefore considered his issue by them, the future kings Aenys I and Maegor I, as less legitimate to the throne as Aegon's issue by Queen Wylanna; despite the fact she herself was detested by them due to her staunch faith in the Old Gods of the North, which she had passed on to her children. To further complicate things, her only son, Prince Jon, was seen as the ablest of all Aegon's heirs; although known to be stern and humorless, he was nevertheless seen as a balance between the genial but indecisive Aenys and the powerful but brutal Maegor. To the relief of the realm, Prince Jon himself held no public interest in pursuing the throne. He chose instead to support his half-brother's claim, publicly bending the knee and swearing fealty to Aenys in a display of great humility and subservience--a decision likely due in no small part due to the known friendship between them.

Unfortunately, Aenys, while gentle in rule and a patron of the arts, proved to be a less than able ruler, indecisive and hesitant for fear of offending. This left him incapable of stopping the enmity between Jon and Maegor, which only worsened over time. When the Faith Militant Uprising began, and Aenys suddenly died of cramps, Jon hastened to quell the dissent sown by the Faith Militant, leaving the capitol with a small host, but in his haste did not give pause to be appointed an office of regency over Aenys' heirs. This Maegor exploited when he unexpectedly returned from the Free Cities with an army of his own, quickly seizing control of King's Landing and declaring himself the rightful heir of Aegon, seizing the Iron Throne in direct opposition to the laws of succession, which stated that Aenys' son, Aegon, should inherit the throne. When Grand Maester Gawen protested this, Maegor beheaded him with the Valyrian sword Blackfyre, and held the royal family hostage. When Queen Wylenna refused to acknowledge Maegor as anything but a usurper, Maegor had Balerion the Black Dread bathe her in dragonflame, before swallowing her whole.

Outraged and mad with grief at the news of his mother's death, Prince Jon immediately declared for Aenys' son, Aegon, and called upon the lords of Westeros to war against Maegor's usurpation of the throne. His maternal uncle, King Rodrik Stark, immediately declared war against Maegor as well, vowing to not rest until House Stark's Valyrian sword, Ice, had run through Maegor's blackened heart, and his sister's death had been avenged. Thus began the Second War of Ice and Fire. When Maegor challenged any who opposed his rule to fight him, Jon immediately answered, challenging Maegor to a Trial of Seven, and was joined by Ser Damon Morrigen as well as five champions of the Faith to battle Maegor and six of his Kingsguard. In the ensuing melee, Jon and Maegor both immediately sought each other out, their long-standing enmity climaxing in a brutal, raging clash of blades between them. It was only when Blackfyre shattered Prince Jon's sword and clove him near in two that the White Dragon fell, but not before he dealt terrible wounds upon the Red Tyrant. Maegor alone survived the Trial, falling into a coma after the last blow was dealt, and woke only just in time to learn that, as it is said in the North, Winter was Coming.

King Rodrik raised an army of forty-thousand Northmen to march south of the Neck, and was joined by Prince Aegon with forces loyal to his cause. Maegor, meanwhile, mustered the royal army and marched north to meet him, each king intent on finishing his father's work of crushing the opposing side once and for all. The Dragon and the Wolf would run the rivers of the South red with the clash of their armies, and the years of fighting between them would be remembered as the Red Winter. While the Northmen had superior warriors, armaments, and tactics, and Aegon possessed the dragon Quicksilver, their supplies were stretched thin from the long march, and the Northerners did not have the vaunted might of the Spartan as they had when King Torrhen had led them, allegedly because the Spartan refused to stir from his timeless slumber for a war that was, ultimately, a squabble of houses fighting for the throne. Maegor's host, meanwhile, had greater numbers and a knowledge of the terrain, as well as supplies that could more readily be replenished from the surrounding countryside. While Rodrik and Aegon won many victories against Maegor's forces at first, their allied forces became weaker and weaker with each engagement, until Maegor ultimately defeated them at the Battle of Darry, where Quicksilver was slain with wildfire, killing Aegon with him. The Tyrant Dragon and the Wild Wolf met in personal combat as the battle raged around them, Rodrick wielding Ice and Maegor Blackfyre. Maegor, tormented by the wounds the late Jon had prior inflicted upon him, could not match the Stark King's ferocity, and would have perished there had his men not riddled Rodrick with crossbow bolts, killing the King in the North even as he held Ice aloft to deal the killing blow. With their sovereign dead, the Northmen retreated back to the North, utterly defeated.

Maegor, arrogant and bloodthirsty in his triumph, then declared he would finish his father's work and take the North, vowing to raze Winterfell to the ground and snuff out House Stark. And many believed he would, for his victory over the Starks had seemed so complete that his army could likely march unopposed at the very place his father had been defeated. But, much like his father, his arrogance would be his undoing. For in his pride and in his cruelty, and in his intent to see the North burn, and the Faith bent to it's knees, he awoke that sleeping giant that he had overlooked--that enigmatic warrior whom he believed would not oppose him. King Rodrik's young son, the newly crowned King Benjen, came in tears to the Forward Unto Dawn at the news of his father's death and their army's crushing defeat. The boy, no older than ten, pleaded that the Spartan rise to defend them, for all other hope had seemed to die in that dread hour. Many thought the boy king craven for doing so... until he reemerged with the Spartan and his companion, the Maiden of Light, at his side. The cries of a humbled and frightened child had triumphed where the pride and strength of a great warrior had failed, and the North rejoiced, their once-shattered morale rekindled by the return of their savior. Instead of rallying the remnants of the Stark forces under his banner, though, the Spartan insisted they be disbanded and sent home, solemnly stating he himself would suffice to end the tyranny of Maegor.

As Maegor marched northward, he and his army found Moat Cailin guarded by a lone warden--the Spartan himself, wielding the legendary Hammer of the Smith, and the fabled thunder weapon called 'Sniper Rifle'. Maegor, in hopes of restoring Balerion the Black Dread from his crippled state and into his former glory to face the Warrior Made Flesh, had allegedly used the blood of his own kin and the burnt body of Quicksilver in some dark sorcery. Regardless of the veracity of such reports, it was known that on that day, Maegor did indeed mount Balerion one more, the first time the great dragon had been ridden since it's defeat at the hands of the very enemy Maegor now intended to face.

But what followed was not the final triumph of the Tyrant King over the champion of the North. What followed was a duel immortalized in song, chronicle, and shows alike. Taking his thunder weapon in hand, he shot two deafening blows to the Black Dread's wings, forcing the monstrous beast to remain aground. Then, lifting his great war hammer, the Spartan did battle with the Black Dread, his weapon landing thunderous, crashing blows into the great dragon. Balerion's flames, black as night and hot enough to melt steel, failed to so much as singe the Spartan's legendary armor, his spear-like claws, sword-like fangs, and battering ram-esqe tail all too slow and lumbering to land a single blow against the Master Chief's otherworldly speed--Just as it had failed to do so to his great war machines so many year before. After felling many terrible strikes against the dreaded wyrm's body, the Immortal Last Hero landed one last, terrible blow into the drake's spine-crowned skull, felling the Black Dread one and for all. Maegor, still somehow whole, charged him in madness and fury, holding Blackfyre aloft--only to be casually hurdled through the air with a single fell blow from the Spartan's gauntleted fist, obliterating his skull in an instant. So ended the reign of Mageor the Cruel--or perchance, the Fool, as the Northmen still mockingly call him--a reign filled with blood, terror, and tyranny.

Following the death of Maegor, the Spartan made his way south, where he was justly received as a liberating hero by the whole of the realm for ending the terrible rule of the Tyrant Dragon. The smallfolk and the Faith rallied behind him and many shouted him to be named king. But in yet another astounding move, the Spartan and the Maiden of Light both instead helped to ensure that King Aenys' last living son, the future King Jaeherys I, was received his rightful place on the throne. They only remained long enough to help the young ruler secure peace for the whole of the realm, with the Luminous Lady leaving instructions of guidance for him to follow in his duties as king, before they both returned to the North, and back into their deathless sleep.

King Jaeherys was quick to restore relations with the Starks and the Faith, and would be remembered as perhaps the greatest ruler of the Targaryen dynasty, and together with King Brandon, helped to rebuild Westeros from the years of bloodshed of Maegor's reign, and bringing about a golden age of peace and prosperity for the whole continent. His own rule would be heavily influenced by the writings the Aglow lady left for him, helping to institute great reforms and innovations across the breadth of his domain."

--Maester Benjamyn, A History of House Stark and the Spartan, Volume II

[kyubicled]

[INDEX] >

"When his conquest of Dorne failed, Aegon the Conquorer hoped that his fire would be more the bane to the Kings of Winter. His councillors begged he reconsider, for of all the Seven Kingdoms, none were so feared as the North. Aegon, in vainglory, ignored their caution, believing not in the legends of The Spartan, fabled guardian of the North, the legendary Immortal Last Hero, Warrior Made Flesh, Bane of Winter, and the Storm God Decended. But he did not deny King Torrhen as his greatest rival.

Thus, he sent his sister-wife Visenya, astride the mighty Vhaegar, to treat with the King in the North, stating he would render him the same lesson he did to the Kings of the Rock and Reach at the Field of Fire unless he bent his knee and swore fealty to Aegon.

King Torrhen's famous defiance would be the greatest challenge to House Targaryen's hegemony, and would threaten to crush Aegon's rule in its infancy--in a war that would be immortalized as the War of Ice and Fire. While King Aegon prepared his armies for a full-scale invasion, and mounted Belarion the Black Dread, King Torrhen entered the hallowed and revered halls of the Forward Unto Dawn, the mythical resting place of the Spartan, held most sacred by the people of the North.

Histories and legends alike told that in ages long past, the Kings of Winter would come to this mysterious hall of steel and sorcery in times of utmost peril for the North, begging the Spartan to awaken from his deathless slumber and arise once more to protect them. It was said that in the Long Night, Bran the Builder befriended the Spartan, and his eternal companion, the Maiden Made of Light, who both subsequently rallied the First Men and Children behind them, and the Spartan used his sword of living fire to drive back the Others. The Maiden Made of Light, else-wise known as the Bringer of Harvest, Mother of Knowledge, and the Great Peacecrafter, gave Brandon great gifts of knowledge, including the secrets of writing, farming and irrigation, iron and steelcraft, medicine and sciences, and many others, before she and the Spartan returned to their shared slumber, offering to return in times when they would be most needed, but not before.

When the Andals came, King Theon the Liberator rallied the North behind the Spartan, and marched south of the Neck to aid their First Men brethren in the south. Armed with the secret arts of steelcraft and the Spartan's terrible might, the Starks soundly crushed every Andal army that dared challenge them, and swore to fealty all who did not. Strangely, they never conquered the lands they took, instead liberating them from the Andal yoke and restoring their holdings to their rightful lords and rulers. Legend has it it was the Spartan's command, as he had not come to conquer, but to liberate. Other tales state that it was the Maiden who stayed the Spartan's wrath, as even to the conquering Andals she showed mercy. When King Horrar Hoare of the Iron Islands sought to reave and sack the North, the Spartan was said to have called upon a great and terrible storm to sink the Ironborn into the sea, sending down Horrar's son to the Drowned God before flying in his mythical steel bird to Great Wyk, slaying King Horrar in his very hall, and left a warning of doom to the Ironborn to never again sail to threaten the North again. Together with the remaining First Men kings, including King Monfyrd V Durrandon of the Stormlands, King Trystifer V Mudd of the Rivers and Hills, King Tybolt Lannister of the Rock, and King Gwayne IV Gardener of the Reach, as well as what few Children of the Forest remained, Theon and the Spartan drove back what Andals resisted them back into the Vale of Arryn, where legends state the Spartan took the Bloody Gate alone, and the Andals fled in terror of him. Knowing they faced certain destruction, the Andals sued for peace, and swore to never again invade the lands of the First Men in the name of their faith. Following this, the Spartan and the Maiden returned to the Forward Unto Dawn and continued their eternal sleep. In the years to comes, the tenuous peace they bought for the Seven Kingdoms would be lost to wars and petty fighting, and the Andals' faith would spread over the South, but the memory of the terror and awe he inspired nevertheless kept the Andals from crusading and conquering, and the Ironborn would not dare send another longship to plague the North for near a thousand years.

The threat Aegon the Conqueror posed was the most dire the North had faced since the Long Night. All of the South, save Dorne, stood behind the Targaryen banner, and they came to bring fire and blood as never before. It is unknown what transpired withing that ancient hall, but when King Torrhen emerged, out came with him was two figures; one, clad in the legendary armor and bearing the fabled thunder weapons of the Spartan, and the other a beautiful maiden who glowed like the full moon. From Last Hearth to the Neck, the North rose united behind them, in awe that their legendary heroes had returned to drive back the dragonlords.

Aegon came with his two remaining dragons, his sister-wife, and sixty thousand men to bring Fire and Blood to the North. Torrhen met him with half that number, but the sight of the Spartan, his fabled war machines, and the fearsome arms and armors of the North, gave Aegon pause. The Spartan flew his flying machine right into Aegons camp, and with him was King Torrhen. Torrhen demanded Aegon turn his army and his dragons back, lest he feel the full might and fury of Winter. Aegon arrogantly replied he would melt away Torrhen's winter with Fire and Blood. The next day, the great battle to decide the fate of Westeros commenced. Astride Balerion, and with his sister-wife Visenya astride Vhaegar, the Conquorer sought to blast Moat Caitlin as he had Harrenhal, and allow his army to storm the North. But the Spartan denied him this, intercepting the Targaryens in the skies with his great steel dragon. Though Aegons dragons were mighty, their fire could not melt the Spartan's mount, nor could their claws and teeth repel it. And where dragons roared with fire, the Spartan answered with thunder. First he struck down Vhaegar with a roar of lightening, ripping through Visenya's dragon like so much cloth, and sent dragon and rider both crashing to their deaths. Aegon, mad with wroth, sought to destroy the Spartan with Balerion, but even the Black Dread could not prevail, and was too sent crashing down. With the Dragon King defeated, the North was saved, and the battle forever afterwords known as the Field of Thunder was won for House Stark, and one of the most crushing defeats House Targayen would ever suffer.

To the shock of all, Aegon and Belarion both survived the fall. Belarion was crippled, and Aegon was burned so badly in some places his armor was fused to his flesh, but the Spartan, in an act of compassion, saved and spared their lives, and the Maiden tending to Aegon's wounds, and had Visenya's body pulled from the waters of the Neck. Though Torrhen's Bannerman urged him to kill Aegon, Torrhen instead chose to allow the Spartan to decide his fate. And in an act that would astonish and befuddle many great thinkers for centuries to come, the Spartan allowed Aegon to return south. In exchange for the North's independence, the Spartan would acknowledge Aegon as ruler of all the lands he had united, citing that Aegon could give unity and progress to the South where petty warring kingdoms could not. To seal this Pact of Ice and Fire, Torrhen's daughter would wed Aegon, and she would be his new queen. Eventually, a daughter of House Targayen would be promised to a son of House Stark.

Following Aegon's defeat and returned to his own domains, the Spartan and Maiden again returned to the Dawn to slumber, helping to forge a lasting peace between the North and the South, and ironically helping to ensure House Targayen would endure as long as it remained in friendship to House Stark. Indeed, it would not be until the Mad King murdered King Rickard and his son, Prince Brandon, near three hundred years later, that the Targaryens would eventually fall. Let this be a grave warning to all who would imperil the North and it's people."

~Maester Benjamyn, A History of House Stark and the Spartan

[kyubicled]

Someone: "You know what would be interesting? An iron bank empoleyee SI."

"In managerial games, you win or you get sent to Ibbenese branch. There is no middle ground."

"Shareholder meeting is coming."

"Chaos is not a pit. Chaos is an investment opportunity."

"The man who passes the sentence should hand out the pink slip."

"Any man that must say "I am the accounting head" is no true accounting head. I'll make sure you understand that once I've won this audit for you."

"The Night is dark and full of IRS auditors."

[kyubicled]

"By the shortest day, in the longest night.”

“A thousand dead souls march without light.”

“Without blades, without axes, a spear or arrow to wield”

“Look around in the endless frost for a weapon to yield.”

“Be it snow, be it fire, be it stone or wind, whatever it takes so that you can win”

“For all it took was a handful of obsidian to return to my kin.”

[kyubicled]

@dopefanficwriter was so kind to commission me a family portrait of Daenerys, Sansa and her children, for his fanfiction White Winds Blow! It was a pleasure working with you, thank you!

Commissions | ko-fi

[kyubicled]

“Everything all right here?” Arya’s voice had Sansa turn around, seeing her sister stand behind her watching with an appropriate amount of suspicion, reading the tenseness of her posture and of her expression quite accurately. 

“Yes,” Sansa told her quietly and in a collected manner. 

“You’re ready to go then?” 

More than ready, Sansa thought and gave her sister a nod. “Yes, let’s go.”

“My ladies,” Tyrion offered a small bow and disappeared only after a last insistent look towards Sansa.

“What was that about?” Arya wondered after he was out of earshot. 

Sansa’s eyes stayed on his reclining figure as closely as Arya’s did. “He offered his council in regards to Margaery.” 

When she forced movement into her limbs then and turned to go into the other direction, Arya fell into her sister’s pace easily. They walked alongside in the direction of the Great Hall.

 

“That explains the look on your face,” Arya noted. “For a minute there I thought I would need to stop you from lunging at him.”

Sansa breathed deeply. There had not been a lot missing. “That would not be very diplomatic of me,” she returned. 

“Diplomacy is overrated. And he has just the right height to have his face smashed against the banister.”

from Chapter 26 of Risen From The Ashes

[kyubicled]

“Your Grace!” The man in the gray robes jumped as she entered and slammed his book shut, as if caught in a compromising position.

He was the doctor of the Dreadfort—a maester, they called them in Westeros—a man of knowledge and healing. Daenerys found him an altogether distasteful creature. How could a man of knowledge and healing turn a blind eye to the horrors that happened here? Was it even possible he was unaware of the atrocities his formers lords had committed in this very castle?

He bowed as she entered his apothecary. “I was, er, not expecting a visit, Your Grace. How may I assist?”

She looked about the room. There was the usual fare—dried herbs and flowers hanging from the rafters, jars of powder lined along shelves, cutting implements along the wall. There were also old blood stains everywhere, and all the herbs in the world would never block out the cloying scent of rot in the air. She resisted the urge to wrinkle her nose against it. The smell of medicine always brought back…memories.

“Do you have anything to ease stomach pain?” she asked simply.

He eyed her up and down in a way that was not entirely appropriate. “Your Grace, if you are in need of moon tea…” He gestured to the assortment of jars on his shelves. “May I ask, are you experiencing the pain of your moon blood or…?”

She breathed in sharply through her nose. The truth was, she hadn’t bled since she’d miscarried, and the reminder from this man that she would never have a child from her own flesh set her off-guard. He had not meant it as a slight, she had to remind herself. It was a normal conclusion to come to for such a request.

“It’s not for me,” she answered. “One of the men who came out of the dungeons is suffering stomach pain.” To put it mildly. Theon Greyjoy had been weeping with it, writhing. He had soaked the sheets with his sweat, unable to sit up or even roll onto his side.

“Offering no disrespect, Your Grace, but you could have sent someone else to fetch this medicine.”

“And accepting no disrespect,” Daenerys replied levelly, “this man is under my special protection and I would see to his recovery personally.”

“Ah.” The maester gave her that same up-and-down look, knowing. “Reek?”

“Theon Greyjoy,” she corrected. She would not hear that name again.

“Ah, yes, of course.” The maester lifted his shoulders in an apologetic shrug, as if it were an easy mistake to make. To this man, torturing and mutilating a prisoner was normal and forcing a humiliating name on him was all the same. Truly he would have been just as at home among the Wise Masters of Astapor. She did not want such a man in her service. “I was a bit surprised to hear you had taken an interest in him. You fed him, I imagine?”

“Of course I fed him,” Dany snapped. “You know what was done to him, what was done to all the prisoners here. He was tortured and near starved to death.”

Another apologetic shrug. “If he’s suffering from stomach pain, you fed him too much and too quickly.” He cast his eyes towards his shelves of medicine. “I can either induce vomiting, or he can ride out the pain. There’s not much else to do, I’m afraid.”

“You don’t have anything to help him?”

He moved his gaze back to her. She would have felt dirty under his stare, but she’d faced much worse than him. There was a hint of admiration in his eyes when she didn’t flinch. “Even if there were, it would be foolish to waste it on that wretch.”

“I’ll say what’s foolish.”

He held up his hands in surrender. “I merely meant, Your Grace, that your compassion is…admirable, but perhaps misplaced. You were made aware of his crimes, yes?”

Her back stiffened at that. “He’s a turncloak, a traitor. Yes, I am well aware.”

“Ah, so you don’t know.” He shook his head. “It gives me no pleasure to tell you this,” he began, with pleasure in his voice, “but the man you’ve taken into your bed is a murderer. And not just a common one at that.”

Prologue of Iron and Ire, sequel to Iron and Fire, Part 4 of Iron and Blood.

[kyubicled]

And we still waiting...

Saeko's Boutique and Occasional Toture Store everyone.

~@pompadourwampus

this is exactly what I wanted

[kyubicled]

Dany sat next to the dying Stannis Baratheon in a room that smelled of blood and rot. The maester had cleaned Stannis’ wounds with boiled wine, but an infection had set in. Stannis was a big man, said to be a brilliant battle commander, and Dany thought he had likely been a formidable warrior once, as well. The maester did not think he would live more than a few days more, though.

Stannis looked at Dany and she was quiet for a moment. His eyes were slightly unfocused, but he frowned, as if willing himself back into lucidity.

“When are you leaving?” he asked her.

“Two days from now. We wanted to give the soldiers some time to rest, but we need to get to the Wall.”

He nodded. He wouldn’t be able to make the journey with them.

“The lady, Melisandre…” he started to say, but then he trailed off. He shut his eyes and for a moment, Dany thought he had fallen asleep. But then he opened them again. He didn’t speak, so she did.

“King Stannis, you have won more battles than anyone here. What would you do? How would you fight the dead?” she asked him.

Stannis shook himself a little and his eyes grew more resolved.

“Every soldier you lose is one that they gain, so you’ll want to lower the risk to your men whenever you can. Use the dragons as scouts, but keep them away from the Others. Send some cavalry, mounted archers mostly, past the Wall to hit the fringes of the dead army. Keep the assaults quick and then retreat before they can hit back. Give command of the Wall to Snow, he knows it best. If the Wall falls, pull back to the Last Hearth, or Winterfell if you can. Don’t stop the cavalry assaults. Slow the army as much as possible, and all the while you must figure out how to kill the Others.”

What little energy he had managed for the speech drained out of him and he slumped back in the bed. Dany reached out and patted his arm, thanking him. He grabbed her hand before she could pull back.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

When Ser Willem Darry had smuggled young Dany and Viserys to Essos from Dragonstone, it had been Stannis that they were running from. Dany thought that was what he was apologizing for. She had too much else on her mind, though, to hold any anger for a dying man. She excused herself and left him to sleep.

...

Dany climbed up to the top of the inner wall, where Sycorax was laying on the rampart, looking out at the surrounding land. Arya Stark was up there, as well, not too close the dragon, but watching her. Dany pet Sycorax for a moment and then went over to Arya.

“She’s amazing,” said Arya, her eyes still flicking over Sycorax.

“She is. She used to be so small that I could carry her in my arms.”

“So was Nymeria.”

Dany looked back at the yard, where the wolfpack was laying. They had just returned from hunting in the wolfswood and they were sluggish and sleepy after their meal. The three direwolves were all sitting together. Ghost was a little hard to see against the snow, but Nymeria stood out with her darker grey fur.

“Why does your sister not have one?” asked Dany. All the other Stark siblings did.

Arya looked sadly down at the wolves. “She did. Hers was called Lady. She was the best behaved of all the wolves. But one day, Prince Joffrey attacked my friend and Nymeria bit him on the arm. She was still a puppy and he wasn’t badly hurt, but he wanted to kill her. I chased her away so that she would be safe. But Joffrey demanded that a wolf die and Lady was the only one around.”

The Starks seemed bonded to their wolves in the way that Dany was to Sycorax and Irri to Viserion. It must have hurt terribly to lose one. Sycorax took flight then, moving away toward the south to hunt. Dany and Arya were quiet for a moment.

“Are you good with that sword?” asked Dany, gesturing to the thin blade at Arya’s belt.

“I am,” she said with a grin. She reminded Dany a little of Laeti in the way she smiled.

“I have never used a sword before. I don’t even know how to hold one.”

“Jon gave me my first lesson. Stick them with the pointy end. It has served me very well.”

Dany laughed. Then she took off Widow’s Wail, still in its scabbard, and handed it to Arya.

“That is good advice, but I think you should have this,” Dany said.

Arya reached for it, but then pulled her hands back. 

“I can’t,” she said. “That’s Valyrian steel. It’s too great a gift.”

Dany lowered the tip of the sword to the floor and leaned on the handle.

“Do you know what this sword is?” she asked Arya.

Arya shrugged. “A Valyrian steel that the Lannisters bought?”

“They didn’t buy it.”

Arya frowned, a little confused.

Dany continued. “Tyrion and Jaime told me about it. After your father’s execution, Tywin had his sword, Ice, melted down and split into two arming swords. I think it’s only fitting that one should be returned to your family. It’s called Widow’s Wail.” 

She held out the sword again and this time Arya took it. Arya pulled it partially out of the scabbard, examining it, from the golden lion on the handle to the red Valyrian steel blade.

“Tywin dyed the metal,” said Dany.

“Father never liked showy things like that. Ice was simple, a grey blade and a plain handle.” Arya touched the lion head and then said, “I may take this to Gendry, get rid of this part.”

“You could have it turned into a wolf, like your brother’s sword.”

“I don’t need showy things either.” Arya paused. Then added, “Thank you.” She turned and walked back down the staircase of the inner wall. 

Dany leaned on one of the crenels in the battlements, looking down over Winterfell. Men and women were preparing for their march to the Wall, loading up wagons with food and other supplies. Two cartfuls of dragonglass had arrived at Winterfell from White Harbor so far, with more on the way. They still needed more, but they would make due for now.

from Chapter 39 of Queen of No Kingdom

[kyubicled]

Another person to remember...thought Tyrion, fear rising in him.

He put on a brave face burying his disquiet, “And dear uncle Emmon?” Tyrion asked, “Does he remember as well?”

Aunt Genna snorted in a very unladylike fashion, “Emmon is cowering under his bed,” she pursed her generous lips in annoyance, “Though whether he's hiding from Arya Stark or the Dead is anyone's guess.” she explained in disgust. She paused and pursed her lips, “I shudder to think of the chaos that may be happening currently at the Twins, if they remember as we do.” She stopped and gave Tyrion a very calculating look, “You said you had a plan? A plan for what?”

from Chapter Six of The Raven's Plan

[kyubicled]

Obliviate (potential HPHM novella)

So I have a new story in mind–possibly a short of sorts–partially inspired by @slytherin-puffskein ‘s Cinderella post and also from the actual events of Hogwarts Mystery itself, if the villains actually won. Here’s the plot synopsis I have right now.

-0-0-

I never imagined myself losing a battle I thought I would win.

‘R’ got to the last Cursed Vault first. They took the treasures within. None of us were able to stop them. Then there was the messed up part where the leader held me captive and Obliviated everyone else present, leaving them with no memory of me or the Cursed Vaults.

At least, everyone else except Merula and Ismelda.

They stayed with me and ‘R’, constantly tormenting me every day. I was constantly set to do their bidding, leaving me no room to mourn for my loss. The wounds kept flaring with pain every time I closed my eyes, the last moments of the final battle flashing before my eyes. I couldn’t go home to my family. They controlled me now.

When Hogwarts announced a graduation ball, I knew this was my chance to convince my friends to help me with the fight once more. But how could I when they forgot about me? It doesn’t help that ‘R’ also issued an order for me–to kill my brother before the strike of midnight.

Can I really set things right? Or will ‘R’ win the war?

-0-0-

If this is something you’d like to read, let me know and I can post up snippets on Tumblr! I don’t know if I will publish this on Wattpad yet, but it will be up on Tumblr for sure.

[kyubicled]

Did Freyja ever asked about her magic heritage to her parents, or her family?

The magic heritage isn’t talked about much in the family. Freyja knows that her parents were both magical, but hasn’t asked too many questions about it.

Her father Daniel is a Muggleborn. He was left at a Muggle orphanage soon after he was born and raised by several Muggle families who couldn’t handle his outbursts of Magic.

Her mother Lidia’s side isn’t so straightforward. At school, she would just say she was a half-blood, and leave it at that. Even though technically both her parents were magical.

Lidia’s father, Luis, was from a Spanish pureblood family living in Peru, and her mother,Marisol,was a local girl hired as a domestic worker in their home. There is a huge difference between the European style magic that the Spanish introduced and the magic practised in pre-colonial Peru, resulting in a huge class difference between the two, not just on the basis of race. Marisol didn’t use a wand, but her magic was limited to moderately powerful curses and potion-making.

When Marisol fell pregnant with Freyja’s mother and aunt, she was disowned by her family. Luis denied ever being in a relationship with her, going so far as to accuse her of using one of her “folksy love potions” on him. Rejected by Luis and his family, Marisol cursed them, stole a bunch of their valuable heirlooms and ran off to make a life for herself and her as-yet-unborn children far away from her home country. She is not recognised as a witch by the British Ministry of Magic.

[kyubicled]

Jaqen: A man sent a girl to kill a queen. A queen is not dead, yet a girl says the gift was given. How is this so?

Arya: *serious faced* My innocence, she killed it. Repeatedly. For many days. It’s very dead now.

[kyubicled]

Sample...

But as she watched them, the queen's eyes landed on her and she watched her with muted interest for a moment before leaning over to say something else to her mother, who smiled before meeting Arya's eyes, as well. Her stomach plummeted into her shoes and she quickly stood, hoping if they couldn't see her, they'd forget she existed and couldn't make any plans for her future.

She could hear Robb calling after her but ignored him, desperate for the cold air to clear her head and ease the knot in her stomach. The great hall was so cluttered, she had to duck and dive between dozens of Northmen, even passing by the King himself sitting out amongst the people, a Northern woman with massive breasts sitting atop his lap. She glanced over her shoulder as she walked to see him bury his face in the woman's chest. She shifted her eyes to the high table, wondering if the queen could see this occur, when she smacked right into someone.

She opened her mouth, an apology forming on her tongue, but it dissolved away when she realized who it was. Her eyes trailed up the length of his intricate, golden armor to find the equally golden man. "Pardon," she muttered, barely loud enough for him to hear it as she moved to go around him. Jaime followed her movements to block her path. "Excuse me," she said more firmly.

"Am I keeping you from another mud puddle?" he wondered, watching as her jaw clenched and overly thick eyebrows knitted together.

"Have you something important to discuss with a horse faced Northern girl?" People had been calling her Arya Horseface for years and it had stopped bothering her long ago. Sansa was the beautiful one, she always had been. "Or has everyone else at the feast already grown weary of you and you're so desperate for companionship you've resorted to blocking my escape?"

"A bit mouthy, aren't you," observed Jaime. The comparisons between Ned and his daughter seemed to stop at appearance. He'd known Lord Eddard Stark for over a decade and had probably shared fewer words with him than he had in the past thirty seconds with his daughter. He was almost grateful that not all Starks were so monosyllabic.

"Ah," said Arya, her eyebrows rising and falling. "The latter, then."

"I do hope you'll be less unpleasant on the King's Road," he said. "A month is a very long time for … this." He gestured vaguely at her, watching as confusion spread across her features. "Ah, haven't they told you?" he asked, a smile forming as he stepped aside to finally let her pass. "You're to come to King's Landing."