I liked this post, scrolled for like another minute before I went “SHIT FUCK SHIT” and scrolled back to reblog it
I always reblog this one when I see it on my dash. When someone posts their own art, writing, or music here they are really hoping you will share it.
“When Rhaenyra bestowed her garter on Ser Harwin, her new husband laughed and gave one of his own to Ser Joffrey.”
Laenor Velaryon and Joffrey Lonmouth for Pride Month 🌈
THAT’S the right spirit
Little Daemon braiding his mommy's hair 🫶
A commission for r0guesdelight on twt!
Portrait commission for @atimeforroses , thank you so much!!!
L to R: Alys Arryn with Aelor, Aelora and Prince Rhaegel. Behind, Matarys, Kiera of Tyrosh and Valarr with Jena Dondarrion and Prince Baelor Breakspear. King Daeron II and his Queen Myriah Martell. Behind them Prince Maekar, his sons Daeron (the Drunken) and Aerion (Brightflame). Sitting in front of them Dyanna Dayne with little Rhae, Daella, Aegon (Egg), and Aemon. To their right Prince Aerys and Aelinor Penrose.
Bethany Bracken didn’t deserve to be murdered even if she did cheat on Aegon IV, but I am curious as to why you think Aegon lied about catching her in bed with Terrence Toyne. What would be the possible reason for him being so furious with her? He typically dismisses mistresses, not kills them. I think it’s possible that he just caught her flirting with Terrence one too many times and was overcome with jealousy. Then made up that he walked in on them in bed.
I think your alternate version of Bethany/Terrence makes sense. GRRM was trying to make a historical parallel with Katherine Howard and courtier Thomas Culpeper, who were never confirmed to have had an affair; Thomas and Katherine met in private several times and seemed to be close friends, but neither admitted to ever sleeping together (although there was likely some romantic attraction giving the content of their letters). The idea that Aegon himself found them in bed together is incredibly fantastical for 1) a young woman in a precarious position as mistress and 2) a Kingsguard who is sworn to serve his king faithfully no matter what; they would’ve had to have been even less cautious than Cersei and Jaime for the king to walk in on them having sex in presumably his own chambers/those he visited frequently. We know they had to have been more cautious than that if anything had really been going on because Aegon brought Bethany with him in 177 and the “affair” wasn’t discovered until the following year. It was noted that Aegon was growing “fat and foul-tempered” since he visited Stone Hedge, and he may have been getting more paranoid if the Morgil affair was any indication. He was an incredibly jealous person and may have feared some sort of plot against him (from Naerys and Da3ron sure, maybe from Lord Bracken and Terrence as well), so he made up the excuse that the two were in bed (with no other apparent witnesses?). Let’s also consider Bethany and the Brackens weren’t popular in court and owed their position to Aegon, so no one would really care if they were killed by his hand (in fact, I’m sure their enemies thought “they got what they deserved”) and thus were easy targets for his paranoia no matter what they actually did.
To be entirely honest, I have a full tinfoil theory about Aegon IV setting Bethany and Terrence up to try them for treason and rid the court of Brackens. The idea that he found them naked and in bed together seems entirely too convenient for me. What feels much more likely—in my opinion, at least—is that Aegon was looking to punish Lord Bracken as his Hand for some offense (either minor or even invented, since anything major prior to the affair would be noteworthy) and was likely growing tired of Bethany and her obvious distress at his attentions. Add to that Terrence and Bethany having a friendship and possibly some unconsummated romantic feelings (I can’t imagine Bethany taking anyone to her bed after Aegon traumatizing her), and the fact that Aegon IV has proven himself fickle and capricious in the past, and suddenly it doesn’t seem far-fetched that he would ruthlessly rid himself of his Hand and his current mistress with the help of some scandal for sake of expediency. My personal theory for how the “affair” was discovered is that Aegon summoned Terrence and Bethany to his bedroom, had them seized and stripped by the Kingsguard, and proceeded to “discover” the affair and loudly proclaim it to get the gossip circling. All of Aegon’s pandering courtiers, especially those with reason to dislike the Brackens, would no doubt be happy to pile onto the “affair” and essentially invent the whole thing from the ground up. Aegon kills all involved parties as punishment for “treason” and neatly rids himself of “those pesky Brackens” in a single bout.
Westeros has a dowry system, where a woman is given wealth (commonly in the form of portable property) by her father’s family upon her marriage; in medieval Europe the property is usually hers or her children’s to use, but in Westeros her husband has significant rights over it and can be the chief reason for their marriage. The most notable example is Walda Frey’s marriage to Roose Bolton, where the dowry was her weight in silver paid by her grandfather Walder to Roose. Furthermore, Lord Lyonel Corbray is even more “well pleased” with his second wife’s “immense” dowry than with the girl herself, as she is the daughter of a wealthy Gulltown merchant. Westeros is based on medieval Europe and is clearly patrilineal (lineage is traced from father to son) and patrilocal (the family resides near the husband’s parents); dowries were offered in such societies where land is valued more than manual labor, due to the concentration of land ownership in the hands of the few (the aristocracy).
We don’t have many detailed instances of Tyroshi marriage, but the cases we do know about seem to indicate that Tyrosh has a system of bride price, where a man or his family give a woman (or, more specifically, her parents) property or service either just before or even during their marriage. Aegon IV explicitly promised some form of wealth to the Archon for Daemon to marry Rohanne of Tyrosh, which Daeron II had to pay for the marriage to take place; Yandel referred to the exchange as a dowry, but he is clearly looking at this situation from a Westerosi lens, as dowries outside of the Daemon/Rohanne marriage are only mentioned as being settled on women. Rohanne’s bride price may seem like a special case akin to Daenerys’ wedding to Hizdahr zo Loraq, where the bride is of a much higher status than the groom and so their union necessitates a reversal of custom, but Fire and Blood introduces another Tyroshi wedding that seems to follow the practice of bride service: that of Orryn Baratheon and the Archon’s daughter. We are most familiar with bride service from the biblical Genesis, in which Jacob serves Laban for seven years in order to marry Laban’s daughter Rachel (although Laban tricked him into marrying his eldest daughter Leah, so Jacob had to labor seven more years for Rachel’s hand). Orryn, exiled from Westeros for 10 years, took service with the Archon and within one year had married his daughter, although after the marriage he continued to serve the Archon until his term was over (in real-world societies including in ancient Jewish law, sometimes the service/price is not paid all at once and the groom enters a contract where he promises to pay what he owes). Orryn’s exile status meant that he had no family to pay bride price, so he needed to take bride service under the Archon to wed his daughter. Bride price/service occurs in societies where manual labor is more valuable than land, and we can infer Tyrosh, a heavily urban, small, “bleak and stony island” does not value land as the main source of economic wealth; rather, manual labor seems to be essential, whether through the institution of slavery (slaves are said to outnumber freeborn Tyroshi three to one) or from mercenary companies. According to an evolutionary psychology theory, bride price also originates from polygamy since there is a relative scarcity of unmarried women, and we know from Racallio Ryndoon’s dozen wives that some polygamy is practiced in Tyrosh.
Some inferences about how Tyrosh’s bride price custom and how that may have impacted Tyroshi-Westerosi relationships under the cut:
As a cultural anthropology nerd, I STAN matrilineal/matrilocal Tyrosh!
Dalton Greyjoy, Lord of the Iron Islands during the Dance of the Dragons, was only 20 when he was killed and died without any heir of his body, leaving a dispute for the lordship between the illegitimate sons of his numerous salt wives.
His eldest surviving son, Toron Greyjoy, was three or four when the Dance began and presumably five or six when the Dance ended. Toron Greyjoy’s mother, one of Dalton Greyjoy’s salt wives, was killed by Toron’s aunts and their husbands who were all vying for the Regency, had to see two of his aunts die when Johanna Westerling and Lord Leo Costayne invaded the Iron Islands in retribution for Dalton’s invasion of the Westerlands.
Even worse, a younger son of Dalton by the name of Rodrik Greyjoy was raised up as a rival to Dalton by some of the ironborn lords. Rodrik was, in turn, taken prisoner by the Lady Johanna Westerling, gelded, and made the fool of young Lord Loreon Lannister. This is a child who could be five at the most, if not younger, and all that Archmaester Haereg of the Citadel recorded of him is “A fine fool he proved, yet not half so foolish as his father”.
If anyone has need of me, I will be screaming into the void for GRRM to do some basic math when building family trees for his historical ASOIAF fiction, and adding the poor Greyjoy children to the list of characters to suffer needlessly at his hands.
“The great love of her life was her cousin, Alyn Velaryon, the seafarer and admiral known as Oakenfist, to whom she bore a bastard son and daughter, Jon and Jeyne Waters. She married thrice in later years, twice at a king’s behest and once for passion. She gave birth to seven children, then declared that if seven was sufficient for the gods it would do for her as well.”
Cersei Lannister’s children + genderswap (requested by thegoldofwinterfell)
Lady Elinor Costayne was a member of House Costayne and one of the many brides of King Maegor I Targaryen. Along with Lady Jeyne Westerling and Princess Rhaena Targaryen, she was one of the so-called “Black Brides”.
Elinor was married to Ser Theo Bolling and had already given her husband three children. Theo was arrested by knights of the Kingsguard, accused of conspiring with Queen Alyssa Velaryon to place her son, Prince Jaehaerys, on the throne, and was executed. After seven days of mourning in 47 AC, Elinor was summoned to wed Maegor.
Along with 2 other women, Jeyne Westerling and Princess Rhaena Targaryen, daughter of his late brother Aenys, Elionor wed the King. The 3 women were deemed the ‘Black brides’ and they were chosen because they had been proven to be fertile. Elinor eventually became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn abomination said to have been born eyeless and with small wings. She was one of the two wives who survived the king.
Tamsin Egerton as Elinor Coastayne
The Wives of King Maegor the Cruel: Tyanna of the Tower
Tyanna of the Tower was a Pentoshi woman and was rumored to be the natural daughter of a Pentoshi magister who began as a tavern dancer and rose to become a courtesan. She was also said to dabble in sorcery and alchemy. The beautiful Tyanna became Maegor’s lover during his exile in Pentos; she was rumored to be Queen Alys Harroway’s paramour as well.
After Maegor was crowned king in 42 AC, his rule was challenged by the Faith of the Seven with a trial of seven. Maegor won but was grievously wounded. Twenty-eight days later Alys arrived from Pentos with Tyanna. The Dowager Queen, Visenya Targaryen, after meeting with Tyanna, gave the king over to her care alone, which troubled Maegor’s supporters. Tyanna married Maegor in the same year.
The Dowager Queen died in 44 AC. In the confusion after her death, Aenys I Targaryen’s widow, Queen Alyssa Velaryon, slipped away from Dragonstone with her children, as well as with the sword Dark Sister. Alyssa and Aenys’s second son, Prince Viserys, had been kept at the Red Keep as the king’s squire, however, and he suffered for her flight. He died after nine days of questioning at the hands of Tyanna of the Tower.
Tyanna served as mistress of whisperers on her husband’s small council and was dubbed “the king’s raven”. When Queen Alys gave birth to a monstrosity in 44 AC, Queen Tyanna convinced Maegor that it was due to Alys having secret affairs. This led to the extinction of House Harroway. However, Tyanna eventually confessed her responsibility for the abominations that were born of Maegor’s seed, claiming she had poisoned his other brides. She was killed by Maegor’s own hand in 48 AC, her heart cut out with the sword Blackfyre and thrown to his dogs.
Eva Green as Tyanna of the Tower
Lady Alys Harroway was the second of Maegors Wives. At the time, the Hand of the King was Lord Lucas Harroway and when it was suggested that Maegors current wife Ceryse Hightower was barren, he suggest his daughter as a replacement. Alys secretly married Maegor in 39 AC in a ceremony officiated by Dowager Queen Visenya as no Septon would perform the marriage. The marriage angered the Faith of the Seven, and King Aenys felt forced to exile his brother when Maegor refused to set Alys aside. As such, Maegor was send to Pentos, where he was to stay for five years.
When King Aenys eventually died, Visenya rode her Dragon Vhagar to Pentos to bring her son back to Westeros. Rebellion rose up against Maegor however when he usurped the throne from his Brothers Son Aegon. In order to try and Quell the Rebellion, Visenya challenged those who questioned her son’s right to rule to prove themselves. Ser Damon Morrigen, the captain of the Warrior’s Sons, challenged Maegor to a trial of seven.
Though Maegor was the only survivor out of fourteen, he took a blow to the head and collapsed just as the last Warrior’s Son died. On the twenty-eighth day of Maegor’s coma, Queen Alys Harroway returned from Pentos, bringing with her Tyanna of the Tower, a courtesan who had become Maegor’s lover during his exile. Tyanna took over his care, and Maegor woke from his coma on the thirtieth day. Years passed and Maegor’s marriage to Alys Harroway remained as childless as his marriage to Ceryse Hightower. Maegor took his lover Tyanna to wife in 42 AC, naming her to his small council as his mistress of whisperers. In 44 AC, Alys gave birth to Maegor’s first child. However, the child was a monstrosity, eyeless and twisted. In his fury, Maegor had the midwives, septas and Grand Maester Desmond executed. Tyanna, however, convinced Maegor that the child had come forth from a secret affair of Alys’s. Maegor ordered the executions of Alys, her father Lucas, and every other Harroway he could find. In a single thrust, House Harroway became extinct.
Hanna Mangan Lawrence as Alys Harroway
The First of Maegors many wives, Ceryse’s uncle, the High Septon, protested strongly when Queen Visenya Targaryen suggested that her son Maegor should be wed to Princess Rhaena Targaryen, and suggested his own niece. Ceryse and Maegor were wed in 25 AC.
The ceremony was held at the Starry Sept of Oldtown, with Ceryse’s uncle, the High Septon, performing the rites. Ceryse was twenty-three, whereas Maegor was thirteen years old. Maegor boasted to having consummated the marriage several times the day after the wedding, and those who had seen the bedding agreed that Maegor was a lusty husband. However, their marriage remained childless, while Maegor’s half-brother Aenys had five healthy children.
After the birth of Aenys’s sixth child, Vaella, in 39 AC, Maegor decided that Ceryse was barren, and took Alys Harroway to wife, entering a polygamous marriage. The High Septon demanded that Maegor should leave the “whore of Harroway” and return to Ceryse. When Maegor was presented with choosing between setting Alys aside, or being exiled for five years, he chose exile and left for Pentos, leaving Ceryse behind in Westeros. Septon Murmison was tasked with making Ceryse fertile, but failed. Ceryse eventually returned to her father in Oldtown.
Maegor returned to Westeros in 42 AC and claimed the Iron Throne. Ceryse died in 45 AC of a sudden illness, though it was rumored she was killed at King Maegor I Targaryen’s command.
Sarah Gadon as Ceryse Hightower.
One of the oldest houses in the region, the Westerlings claim descent from the First Men. The Westerlings were of old blood, but they had more pride than power. The Westerling mines had failed years ago, their best lands had been sold off or lost, and the Crag was more ruin than stronghold. A romantic ruin, though, jutting up so brave above the sea.
*Jeremy Irons as Gawen Westerling, Angela Bassett as Sybell Spicer, Howard Charles as Raynald Westerling, Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Jeyne Westerling, Amandla Stenberg as Eleyna Westerling, Maceo Smedley as Rollam Westerling
Reading Fire and Blood Volume One, I encountered a section that continues to frustrate me to this day. Regarding Lady Samantha Hightower (née Tarly) and her blatant disregard for the Faith of the Seven and the obvious authorial favoritism and plot convenience around her actions. The sheer affront Samantha Tarly’s story faces towards the established worldbuilding is too great not to notice and so I have to dissect it.
To begin, Samantha Tarly’s short biography places her as the elder daughter of Donald Tarly and Jeyne Rowan, with Gyldayn describing her as “fierce, fiery, and beautiful”, the second wife of Lord Ormund Hightower and a supporter of the greens during the Dance of the Dragons. Nothing particularly upsetting here, so I move on to the events that occur after Lord Ormund dies at the First Battle of Tumbleton in 130 AC.
Lord Ormund’s son, Lyonel, is introduced to us as a fifteen year-old lordling who furiously tears Corlys’ Velaryon’s letter regarding the quarter of the royal treasury residing in the Hightower’s vaults to shreds and promises to write a reply in his blood. We are then informed of Lady Samantha wanting to remain Lady of Oldtown and mistress of the Hightower, as well as her being well-aware of her stepson’s infatuation with her from the time she arrived at the Hightower. Lady Samantha “yields'' to Lyonel’s advances on the condition he makes peace with the crown, citing her desire not to lose another husband at war. Following this ultimatum, Lyonel agrees to Lord Corlys’ terms and returns the gold to the crown, and proceeds to announce his intention to marry his father’s widow.
The High Septon of the time, as Westeros’ High Septons are seemingly wont to do only when marriages between nobility and royalty offend them, forbade the match as a form of incest (an interesting similarity to the medieval Catholic Church’s views on incest between in-laws/step-family). Rather than actively face the problem, Lady Samantha and Lord Lyonel spend the next thirteen years living as lord and paramour and producing six children, which naturally sours House Hightower’s historically positive relationship with the Faith.
However, unlike his predecessor who objected to Maegor the Cruel and his polygamous marriages, the High Septon in the aftermath of the Dance had no Faith Militant to stir into a tizzy over the “fornication” of Lord Lyonel and his stepmother. The High Septon condemned Lady Samantha and ultimately forbade her from setting foot in the Starry Sept until she repented and sought forgiveness. So what does Lady Samantha do? Simply mount a warhorse and burst into the Starry Sept while the High Septon is leading prayer, commanding her knights to bar the sept to all until she was allowed in, and apparently prove such a force of will that the High Septon “had no choice but to relent”, with a later High Septon giving Samantha and Lyonel permission to marry and retroactively legitimizing their six children.
There are quite a few things logistically wrong with Lady Samantha Tarly’s whole arc. To start, her fifteen year-old stepson apparently makes advances on her immediately after his father’s death, or perhaps even during her marriage to his father. Of course, the age gap between them is hardly unsettling by Westeros standards, but the way that Lady Samantha apparently “yielded” to his persistent advances in exchange for winning him over to the black side and ending the war in regards to House Hightower’s involvement struck a sour note with me. It reeks of authorial appeal with nothing genuine to offer the plot aside from the mental image of the medieval fantasy equivalent of a sophomore in high school getting a date with the popular senior cheerleader.
Of course, the ridiculous infatuation Lady Samantha’s stepson has for her pales in comparison to her motivations for the affair with Lyonel. Lady Samantha’s motivations of staying Lady of Oldtown and the Hightower by marrying her stepson stand in complete opposition of the Queen Alysanne Targaryen’s Widow Law. According to the Widow Law, Lady Samantha would remain entitled to a place in the Hightower and the role of Dowager Lady, with Lyonel being legally unable to send her away from the Hightower, as well as being obligated to supply the servants, clothing, and income entitled to her as Ormund’s widow. The only thing Samantha would stand to lose in the event of Lyonel marrying any woman other than her would be nominal power over the Hightower and direct influence over Lyonel.
The detail of Samantha’s arc that flies directly in the face of the established worldbuilding is her flippant disregard for the Faith. The High Septon himself vocally objects to her living as Lyonel’s paramour, presumably becoming more and more incensed with each new illegitimate child she gives Lyonel. We are told he rants and raves against the incestuous match... and nothing else. No word on the pious smallfolk of Oldtown or the Reach in general’s reaction to something the High Septon is personally upset at.
Compare this to earlier in Fire and Blood Volume One when the High Septon stirred the realm into rebellion over his niece being set aside for a “Whore of Harroway”. Are we expected to believe that in less than a century, the High Septon has lost any ability to sway the large congregation he has, given the majority of Westeros, barring the North and Iron Islands, looks to him as the head of their religion? One could argue the High Septon was less severe (considering his predecessor cried out against a man riding the largest dragon living), but even then, the audience is expected to believe that no one has anything negative to say regarding the match?
And some time in the thirteen years between Lady Samantha becoming Lyonel’s paramour and her becoming Lady Samantha Hightower for a second time, Lady Samantha Tarly apparently was forbidden from entering the Starry Sept and her solution was to ride in on a warhorse and hold the High Septon captive in the Starry Sept until he capitulated to her will.
Of all the logistic questions regarding the worldbuilding around this event, I’ll start with the question of how Lyonel and Samantha never felt the need to confront their friction with the Faith until it reached a boiling point. At no point did Lyonel and Samantha ever think to reconcile with the Faith to, at the very least, silence the High Septon railing against them? The High Septon commanding Samantha repent and take the vows of a silent sister seems like it came later in the timeline between Sam becoming Lyonel’s paramour and his wife.
It amazes me that Samantha, who had a clever sister she was in regular correspondence with, never thought to make a show of submission to the High Septon and play at being contrite in order to win a pardon for her marriage to Lyonel? She could have appealed to the High Septon immediately after taking Lyonel for a lover rather than letting the issue simply grow more and more tense. She could have made the argument her marriage to Ormund was unconsummated in the event there were no witnesses to affirm that it was. She could have appealed to her High Septon’s pity by playing the distressed widow seeking to ensure her security and deeply apologetic for her sinful behavior. She could have done a lot of things to win the High Septon to her side. But instead she apparently acted completely unapologetic and basically threatened the High Septon to bend to her will.
Imagine for a second if some random woman in the medieval period rode into the Vatican on a horse, held the Pope captive and commanded him to do whatever she wanted? Does GRRM really believe the audience will buy into Lady Samantha facing no repercussions as soon as she let the High Septon go? That she got to marry Lyonel and have a happily ever after? The whole arc for Samantha Tarly is simply rife with blatant disregard for established worldbuilding, and shows the severe flaws in some areas of GRRM’s worldbuilding that become glaring when in the right situation.
dainty, bright-eyed Lady Leonette was a Fossoway as well, and wed to Ser Garlan.
