The King of Knights, Chapter 4: The War of Restoration

The storm was instantaneous as soon as the ravens sent forth from Stone Hedge began reaching their destinations all across the land. A furious uproar thrummed across every corner of Westeros at the outrageous, unprovoked, and dishonorable attack upon the party of a Prince and Princess of the Realm and the threat to the lives of their young children. It broke all norms of decency, chivalry, and law, and many who might once have risen for the Spears now began declaring neutrality or outright for the Swords as blame fell sharply upon the dishonorable falseborn, Daeron II, and his vile Master of Whisperers, Bloodraven.

Yet despite this, Daeron II had much support still, or more accurately his beloved son Breakspear did. All across the realm, seven of the traditional nine Great Houses declared for the Spears. Most of the Crownlands rallied to Baelor Breakspear, for even if sympathies for Daemon were high, King’s Landing’s reach was too strong to resist so soon. The Greyjoys pledged their fealty to the Iron Throne though many suspected they were simply in it for their own goals to raid and conquer as much of the west coast as they could.

Apart from the Iron Islands however, no single kingdom was fully committed to the Spears’ cause. In the Crownlands, the Velaryons and Celtigars declared for Daemon Blackfyre and with them went the entire royal fleet, gutting the Spears’ power in the Narrow Sea as the two oldest vassals of House Targaryen laid siege to Dragonstone itself. Baelor and his family were fortunate to not have been on the island when that siege had begun. In the Stormlands, Riverlands, Westerlands, Vale, and Dorne, the Great Houses all declared for the Spears but even in Dorne there were those that declared for the Swords instead.

While the Lannisters led most of the Westerlands to rise for Daeron, Reyne, Crakehall, and Banefort all declared for Daemon. In addition, the Spears’ alliance with the Greyjoys unnerved many of the Westerlanders who remembered well the Red Kraken’s rampage and refused to commit soldiers to either side in favor of defending their fiefs lest the reavers once again turn their attentions upon the West.

Dorne and the Vale were mostly solidified behind Martell and Arryn respectively who in turn backed the Spears to the hilt but both had their respective holdouts. Dayne and Yronwood in Dorne, and Corbray and Templeton in the Vale. The Stormlands and Riverlands meanwhile split right down the middle despite the Baratheons and Tullys declaring for Daeron. The entirety of the Dornish Marches save for Dondarrion (who even then joined the Spears only for honor’s sake as their daughter was wed to Prince Maekar) rose for Daemon, as did Penrose, Tarth, Estermont, Buckler, and more. In the Riverlands, Mallister, Frey, Bracken, Vance, Vyrpren and more were pitted against Tully, Mooton, Lothston, Darry, and Butterwell.

In contrast to the rather sharply divided kingdoms backing Daeron, the Swords had a solid foundation of support in the two largest kingdoms in the realm. The entirety of the Reach and the North declared for Daemon, led by Leo Longthorn and Barth Blacksword, Knights of the Round Table. Many considered it exceedingly impressive how the entirety of the Reach rallied for Daemon seeing as neither the Blacks nor the Greens had managed that feat during the Dance of the Dragons sixty years prior, a testament to how beloved Blackfyre was in the Reach after living in the kingdom for a decade. Others also believed that Barth Blacksword was far more committed to the cause of the Swords than his father Cregan had ever been to the Blacks in the Dance.

Beyond the Reach and the North, Daemon’s support was strong in the rest of the realm as well, as aforementioned, and one of the key objectives of his initial campaigns was ensuring his supporters in the other kingdoms were not crushed by the Spears for their support of him.

Twelve of the Knights of the Round Table (with only Barth Blacksword absent) had been present at Stone Hedge in the aftermath of Bloodraven’s attack and Aegor and Shiera’s wedding and there at the seat of House Bracken they laid out their strategy for the war to come before dispersing to their respective missions.

All present save three returned to their respective family seats to raise their banners and join the war while Daemon, Bittersteel, and Gwayne Corbray remained behind in the Riverlands, and the vast majority of the Black Swords (those that didn’t have major fiefs of their own at least) joined them. It was agreed that the Greatheart was unlikely to be able to reach Heart’s Home, deep inside the Vale, and so he remained at Stone Hedge.

The mustering of the entire west coast, Sword and Spear alike, was delayed by the renewed reaving of the nominally Daeron-allied Ironmen. Torwyn Greyjoy, despite his status as Master of Ships, had been in the Iron Islands at the time of the war’s outbreak which further fueled the suspicions of many that all of this had been planned and orchestrated by Daeron. Torwyn would go on to lead his forces exceedingly well, very much living up to the legacy of his ancestor, the Red Kraken, as he joined forces with the Lannister fleet and smashed the Redwynes and other Reacher fleets in the Battle of the Shield Islands.

With nominal supremacy over the entire Sunset Sea, the Greyjoys and Lannisters greatly hampered the war efforts of the Swords in the early days of the war as neither the Reach or the North could properly muster and commit their troops to other campaigns with their western coasts exposed. Nonetheless, as the war progressed, the tide slowly turned in the favor of the Swords.

Six months into the war, at the Battle of Lannisport, Fireball cut down Lord Lefford while Redtusk and Robb Reyne defeated the young Lord Damon Lannister who was forced to withdraw into Casterly Rock and watch as the three Knights of the Round proceeded to sack Lannisport and burn the Lannister fleet where it had been moored in the harbor for resupply and repairs.

With the Lannister fleet destroyed and the Lannisters driven into the Rock, the Swords now had a free hand in the Westerlands and many Westerlords began defecting to the Swords, starting with the Farmans. The ambiguity of who was now fighting for who gave the Greyjoys a pretext to expand their raids into the Westerlands as well and effectively going rogue and this in turn drove yet even more of the Westerlands into the arms of the Swords as the Lannisters were seen as weak and ineffectual, defeated and cowering inside the Rock while the Reynes, Crakehalls, and other Sword houses defended the kingdom from the Ironmen.

Eventually, once the Westerlands stabilized, Robb Reyne remained to command the defense against the ongoing raids from the Ironmen while Fireball and Redtusk took a portion of the army into the Riverlands to reinforce Daemon, Aegor, and Gwayne who continued to lead the campaign in the Riverlands which had fallen into complete chaos as countless houses had declared for either side in all corners of the kingdom, causing great confusion.

Further south meanwhile, as pressure on the western coasts alleviated in time with the destruction of the Lannister fleet and the distraction of the Ironmen who started raiding the West as well, the Reachmen rallied under the many Knights of the Round present in their kingdom and went on the offensive.

Spearheaded by Leo Longthorn, Gormon Peake, Black Byren Flowers, and Aubrey Ambrose, the armies of the Reach converged upon the Dornish Marches which had almost wholly declared for Daemon with the sole exceptions of Blackhaven and Summerhall.

Reuniting with their fellow Round member, Gareth ‘the Grey’ Swann, the five Knights of the Round Table combined the full might of their armies present and completely crushed Blackhaven and Summerhall by the end of 198 AC, with the surviving Dondarrions bending the knee to Daemon Blackfyre while Summerhall was claimed for his line of the family.

As 199 AC began, the armies split into two, with a major force led by Longthorn, Ambrose, and Grey marching into Cape Wrath and Shipbreaker’s Bay to support the rest of their allies in the Stormlands while Peake and Flowers led another force into Dorne where they relieved their beleaguered Dayne and Yronwood allies who had been surrounded for a year and took the Fowlers, Manwoodys, Blackmonts, and Wyls from the rear. Linking up with Ulrick Dayne and the rest of his house and the Yronwoods, the Swords then defeated a failed Martell attempt to break into the Prince’s Pass at the Battle of Skyreach, effectively sealing the Dornish into their own kingdom and ensuring they could give no further aid to Daeron II’s cause.

In the midst of all this however, the Spears were not idle. Though the Greyjoys had gone rogue and Dorne had been effectively cut in half with its loyalists unable to provide any aid, the Spears had had victories of their own. In the Vale, Donnel Arryn and his loyalists soon crushed the Corbrays and Templetons and forced them in line before sending the fleet at Gulltown to relieve Dragonstone which had fallen to the Velaryons and Celtigars and break the blockade strangling King’s Landing. However, the Velaryon-Celtigar fleet dealt a crushing defeat to their Arryn-Grafton counterparts using wildfire, ensuring Dragonstone remained under Sword control and the blockade held.

Meanwhile, Maekar and the Baratheons had taken Parchments and other Sword-declaring castles north of Storm’s End though unfortunately for them, everything south of Griffin’s Roost including all of Cape Wrath had solidified behind the Swords and Longthorn and Gareth Swann were poised to threaten Storm’s End itself.

As for the Riverlands, the fighting had been continuous for almost two years and as 199 AC entered its second half, the Spears led by Breakspear and Bloodraven had solidified everything east of and including the Trident, Twins, Gods Eye, Harrenhal, Harroway, Darry, and Maidenpool, securing the High Road and the land connection to the Vale and cutting off the Starks from Daemon who had nonetheless managed to secure the rest of the Riverlands, crushing the Blackwoods and Tullys.

A stalemate of sorts soon arose as each respective side began to regroup and recoup their losses, planning for their next moves. With the entire might of the Vale and much of the Crownlands and Riverlands arrayed against them, Daemon knew that it was unlikely that either he or Blacksword would successfully break through the Trident and link up with each other and in the southern fronts, much of the power of the Reach was expended simultaneously fending off the reaving Ironmen, supporting Dayne and Yronwood in Dorne, and reinforcing Cape Wrath and the Dornish Marches to threaten Storm’s End.

Nonetheless, with the full might of the Reach backing him, it was clear as day that Daemon had the numerical advantage and he took full advantage of that. Starting in the sixth moon of 199 AC, he withdrew a significant portion of his armies from the fronts in Dorne, the Stormlands, and the Riverlands, massing them in the northern Reach near Stoney Sept and poised to strike at King’s Landing itself. For the first time in almost two years, the twelve original Knights of the Round Table had all gathered in one place.

Daemon had predicted that neither Baelor and the Arryns in the north nor Maekar and the Baratheons in the south would dare to press the offensive in their respective fronts as they simply didn’t have the numbers to do both that and reinforce King’s Landing at the same time and if they did make that mistake then he would simply march in and take King’s Landing unopposed, it would just prolong the war by a little bit.

In the end however, the Spears had had no choice but to respond to the threat to the capital. Baelor and Maekar both withdrew into the Crownlands and the Baratheons and Arryns went with them. Unwilling to yield the rest of the Crownlands so easily, the combined army of the Spears marched out to meet Daemon’s Sword army approaching from the west on a picturesque field of hills and grass near the Gold Road in the eleventh moon of 199 AC.

Daemon’s army numbered an astonishing seventy thousand strong, the largest army ever seen in one place in Westeros, larger even that the army at the Field of Fire. In order to contest the Swords with an even remotely similar numerical parity, the Spears had had no choice but to utterly gut the garrisons in the Riverlands and the Stormlands, denuding them of men as their armies had converged in the Crownlands.

Blackfyre had used his enemies’ need to defend the capital against them and pressed his complete numerical advantage to decide the strategic and tactical battlefields that he desired. Though he could not advance the front in the Stormlands as most of his own forces there had joined him on the Gold Road and the remainder could not hope to challenge the walls of Storm’s End, the bare garrisons in the northern Riverlands could not hope to stop the Northmen from sweeping down the Kingsroad and severing the High Road, effectively cutting off the Valemen from their home kingdom.

The long years of mustering had been fully to the Starks’ advantage as they had gathered their full host and rooted out hidden traitors in their own ranks such as the Boltons. Though they had left about ten thousand men to hold the west coast against the Ironmen, there was little true threat to the North by this point as the rogue Ironmen found much more lucrative targets to raid in the West and Reach compared to the more barren North. As a result, almost the full might of the North was able to finally descend once the Valemen and Breakspear departed and by the time the two main armies were due to do battle near King’s Landing, the Northmen were besieging Maidenpool.

Breakspear had made a serious gamble here. He knew full well the odds were against his family and with Dorne itself split in half and the Velaryons and Celtigars controlling the Blackwater Bay, there would be no escape. For better or for worse, the war would end right here in the Crownlands and there was no use defending all of their gains in the Riverlands or holding what little remained of the Stormlands if King’s Landing fell.

As the jaws closed around them, Baelor knew their only chance in victory was to defeat Daemon’s army on the Gold Road and hope they still had enough strength to face the Northmen descending down the Kingsroad. To that end, he devised yet another risky strategy.

He placed his brother Maekar and the Arryns directly in front of Daemon’s army marching towards King’s Landing while he and the Baratheons waited further to the south and Bloodraven and his Raven’s Teeth would seek out strategic high ground to rain down arrows on the Sword host.

When the Swords arrived, they would attack Maekar’s army and Baelor and Bloodraven would strike them in the rear and flanks, in that way Baelor hoped that their numerical inferiority (fifty-five thousand to Daemon’s seventy) could be made up for.

Yet when the day of battle finally came, all of Baelor’s plans fell to pieces before his very eyes. It has often been a case of wonder how exactly Daemon had been aware of Baelor’s plans, with some suggesting that Shiera Seastar’s spy network had informed him, or perhaps that his army’s outriders had detected the positioning of Baelor and Maekar’s armies, or that his own intuition was simply that good. Perhaps it was all three.

Once battle commenced, Fireball commanded the host that charged into Maekar’s lines and was about to overrun them when Baelor’s army came up from the south and hit them in the rear. The trap was soon turned upon Baelor for the bulk of Daemon’s army which he had kept in reserve then slammed into the Spear army from the west, linking up with Fireball’s army and reinforcing them.

With Baelor’s section of the army unable to focus on Fireball any longer, Fireball was soon able to sweep up Maekar and the Arryns with the aid of Gwayne Corbray, Aubrey Ambrose, and Black Byren Flowers, but their triumph came at a bitter cost.

Black Byren Flowers felled Ser Willem Wylde and Ser Jeffory ‘Neveryield’ Norcross, two knights of the Kingsguard escorting Prince Maekar with his great ebony bow before being crushed by the Mightmace who was in turn cut down by Fireball. Aubrey Ambrose was slain by the two Donnels, , before the Greatheart in turn slew Donnel of Duskendale and captured Lord Donnel Arryn.

By noon the ground was soaked in blood and Maekar’s army had disintegrated, its remnants routing and fleeting for King’s Landing, but still the battle continued as Fireball and Greatheart turned around and lent their strength to their brothers facing against Baelor’s host.

Ulrick Dayne fought alone against both the Baratheons, Lord Corwen Stormbreaker and his son and heir Ser Olvyer as well as Florian Fowler and felled all three of them before succumbing to the blood loss from the accumulated collection of wounds they had dealt him.

Longthorn sounded the charge and continued lancing into the Spear lines over and over again and it was in his fifth and final charge, that Breakspear himself was isolated from much of his host. Though Longthorn was not in the position to move for Breakspear, Daemon and the rest of the Rounds were.

In the midst of danger, the three remaining Kingsguard rallied to their prince. Two of their brothers had already been slain with their charge, Maekar, and the last two were in King’s Landing guarding the rest of their royal family. They gave their lives defending Baelor as the Knights of the Round Table converged upon them.

Roderick Redtusk faced off against his Kingsguard cousin, Ser Roland Crakehall, with both of them eventually slaying the other just like the Cargyll twins had done in the Dance. Meanwhile Robb Reyne, Gormon Peake, and Gareth the Grey slew the White Owl, Ser Michael Mertyns, and the Demon of Darry, Lord Commander Damon Darry, though Gareth gave his life to bring down those worthy foes.

And as the Kingsguard and the Knights of the Round battled around them, many could not help but look (with some losing their lives to opportunistic opponents for it) as the two princes themselves faced off against each other.

The two Valyrian steel swords in their grasp glinted dangerously in the afternoon sun. Blackfyre and Dark Sister, the ancestral swords of House Targaryen, a dark reminder that kin were fighting kin, that two men both worthy in character to rule were now in a duel to the death because only one could wear the crown.

Both astride their mounts, they spurred their horses onwards and met in a furious clang of steel, too evenly matched for any onlookers to tell who had the upper hand. Every strike Daemon made would be parried by Baelor, every stroke of Dark Sister countered flawlessly by Blackfyre.

As their duel continued and the ground continued to soak in blood, neither Bloodraven nor Bittersteel were anywhere to be seen on the field.

Throughout all the fighting, Bloodraven had been scaling a ridge overlooking the site where Breakspear and Blackfyre were duelling, intent on putting an end to his hated half-brother with his arrows. Yet once he summited the ridge with his Raven’s Teeth, Bittersteel was waiting there for him with his own contingent of men.

The whole time, Bittersteel had commanded the strategic ridge and he had had a force of archers yet he had done nothing with it. He had not rained down arrow upon either Maekar or Baelor’s armies. Because he had known Bloodraven would be going for that ridge and he had lured him there so they could settle their rivalry, once and for all.

The Raven’s Teeth and Bittersteel’s most trusted clashed about them as the two brothers dueled to the death. Bloodraven put up a good fight, but he had been caught off guard and ultimately Bittersteel had always been taller, stronger, and better with a sword than he and as an archer Bloodraven had been less heavily armored and was soon killed when Bittersteel shoved his sword straight through his eye and into his brain.

With Bloodraven and the Raven’s Teeth killed, Aegor and his men took their weirwood bows as trophies and began loosing volleys of arrows into Baelor’s army, sealing the fate of the battle as a Sword victory.

Yet as his army started falling apart around him, Breakspear did not buckle or retreat. He knew he had but one chance to eke out a victory of any kind and that was to defeat and kill the rival claimant. They had been fighting for over an hour already however, and Baelor made the slightest of mistakes in the duel, allowing Daemon to get the upper hand and thrust Blackfyre straight through a weak part of his plate and into his chest, the Valyrian steel blade ramming through the mundane castle-forged steel like no lesser sword could.

When they saw their prince fall, what remained of Baelor’s army began to rout but they were soon ridden down by Daemon’s cavalry and cut to pieces by Aegor’s archers atop the ridge.

The battle had finally come to an end and Daemon was victorious, but victory was bittersweet indeed and bought with a steep price in blood. Thirty thousand men had died, ten thousand from the Swords and twenty thousand from the Spears. The list of the dead included proud and distinguished names. Five members of the Kingsguard, five members of the Round Table, Princes Baelor and Maekar, Lord Baratheon and his son, and many, many more. The flower of the realm’s chivalry had died upon that field and their like shall perhaps never be seen again. From that day onwards it was forever known as the Redgrass Field.

Daemon rested his army for a time after the Battle of the Redgrass Field, licking their wounds, mourning their dead, and feasting for their victory, knowing that the final hour of the war had come. In the north, Barth Blacksword and the Northmen broke Maidenpool and continued to descend down the Kingsroad, securing the northern Crownlands, and Daemon readied for the final push.

By New Year’s Day of 200 AC, Daemon and his whole host were at the gates of King’s Landing and the Starks had arrived to reinforce them while the Velaryon and Celtigar fleets were blockading the harbor of the capital itself.

Though Daeron II’s loyalists stubbornly held the city walls, the people and the lower rank and file of the City Watch feared a sack immensely and when Daemon promised them on his honor that the city would be spared should they surrender, a mutiny broke out in the Watch as many still recalled their beloved prince from years prior.

The gates were opened and Daemon’s army marched in. Under pain of death and execution, Daemon ensured his word was kept and his army did not disturb the peace and once the fear passed and the people realized that they were spared a sack, they soon began to cheer and greet Daemon like a returning triumphant king.

The Red Keep itself did not last long under siege and when the gates were breached and Daemon’s army marched in, they found the entirety of Daeron’s court assembled in the throne room. All of his councilors and remaining kin were present and Daeron himself was seated upon the Iron Throne, guarded by the last two of his Kingsguard, Ser Alyn Connington, the Pale Griffin, and Red Robert Flowers.

When Daemon and his knights strode into the throne room, Daeron II said but one thing.

“Will we be treated with honor, brother?” he asked.

“More than you ever gave me,” came Daemon’s reply.

Then to the shock of many, Daeron nodded and simply descended from the Iron Throne, ordering the Kingsguard and all the other guards to lay down their arms as he walked up to Daemon and took off his crown, the crown of Aegon I, and handed it to him. He did not kneel yet nonetheless Daeron II was more gracious in dethronement than he had ever been in kingship.

Before the eyes of all present then, friends and former foes alike, Daemon ascended the steps of the Iron Throne before seating himself upon it and placing the crown upon his head. Within the month, his family arrived from Stone Hedge where they had resided for the duration of the war, including Daemon and Daenerys’ youngest child, Rhaenys, who had been born in the midst of the war in 199 AC.

There, before the gathered eyes of his greatest allies and companions and witnessed by his defeated enemies and rivals, Daemon was officially crowned as King Daemon I Targaryen and the person that placed the Conqueror’s Crown upon his head was none other than his mother, Princess Daena. Onlookers described Princess Daena as looking more proud and joyful than they could ever recall.

Daemon had won his throne and been crowned as the acknowledged king of all Westeros, yet the war was not yet over and many regions still remained defiant.

With Donnel Arryn as his prisoner, securing the submission of the Vale was easy enough, especially once Daemon promised that Donnel’s sister Alys and her husband Prince Rhaegel and their children would not be harmed, though Daemon extracted his own concessions out of Donnel with regards to the Corbrays and Templetons who had fought for him loyally.

After the Vale was dealt with, Daemon ordered Robb Reyne and Leo Tyrell both back to the western coasts to receive the submission of the Lannisters in the Rock and rebuild fleets that could be used to put down the Ironmen once and for all.

Meanwhile he and the rest of the Knights of the Round Table, including Barth Blacksword, led a large army south into the Stormlands and acquired the submission and fealty of all the Stormlords and of the castle of Storm’s End itself.

As 200 AC progressed into its second half, Daemon’s armies then marched into Dorne while the Velaryon and Celtigar fleets sailed down the Narrow Sea as Daeron I’s Conquest of Dorne was repeated.

Both Maron and Myriah Martell had been captured in the fall of King’s Landing and the remaining Martells and their loyalists in Dorne did not hold out long against the onslaught coming their way as Daemon and his allies unleashed thirty years’ worth of vengeance and resentment upon Dorne, crushing all resistance and taking hostage every surviving member of every Dornish house that had taken part in the treacherous assassination of his uncle. When the dust settled, the Daynes and the Yronwoods were installed as the rulers of Dorne and propped up by their allies to enforce their will.

The year 201 AC saw a grand fleet and allied coalition of former Swords and Spears alike aligned under Daemon’s command to sail to the Iron Islands and put down the rebellion there at long last. Under Daemon’s orders, just like in Dorne, nearly every Ironman house was attainted and the surviving members taken hostage.

The full scale of Daemon’s reordering of Westeros became clear as the three and a half year long war finally came to a close. Though the process had already begun ever since Daemon took the Iron Throne and even before that, the changes now began to solidify clearly and they were widespread and plentiful.

Loyalists and allies of Daemon found themselves rewarded beyond belief, gaining new honors, lands, and titles at the expense of rivals who had fought for Daeron II who found themselves humbled and forced to give up lands, titles, and hostages to survive, and in some cases were outright attainted and their lineage forcibly ended.

The North was honored and lauded for their contributions and Daemon restored the New Gift Alysanne had taken from them with its borders exactly as they had been before the Good Queen’s edict. The Vale meanwhile got off surprisingly lightly, for Daemon had much great respect for the chivalry and honor of the Valemen and perhaps understood that even with Donnel Arryn as his prisoner, the Vale had not been militarily subjugated and so could not be punished too harshly.

Nonetheless Daemon still increased the taxes on all Valemen houses for a period of ten years save for his two loyalists there, Corbray and Templeton, and took hostages from every Vale house. Corbray and Templeton both saw their lands increased massively at the expense of their neighbors, finally restoring the proud but impoverished Corbrays to some measure of wealth and power while the Templetons were additionally honored by finally being made official Lords of Ninestars instead of simply overly mighty landed knights.

The Lannisters were allowed to remain as the Lords of Casterly Rock and Wardens of the West but were similarly forced to give up hostages and faced significant fees, tarrifs, and taxes on Lannisport and their gold mines. In addition, their rights, privileges, and taxation over those of their vassals that had fought for Daemon were significantly curtailed, greatly weakening their rule of the West.

Daemon’s allies and loyalists in the West such as the Reynes, Crakehalls, Farmans, and Baneforts, received many honors, privileges, and rewards, including reduced taxes and greatly increased lands and titles at the expense of their liege and their neighbors. The Reynes were even made the overlords of the Tarbecks and the Baneforts of the Westerlings, greatly empowering both houses and overall Daemon’s loyalists were made arguably stronger than the Lannisters themselves, ensuring that the West was neutered as a united threat to Daemon’s power with strong friends and allies there that would always stand against the Lannisters in support of the crown.

The Reynes were also restored to their ancestral Valyrian steel sword, Red Rain, which was recovered from House Drumm during the Iron Islands campaign, further endearing Daemon to them and securing their loyalty for eternity.

Meanwhile, the Reach was similarly lauded as the North and other loyalists had been, receiving tax breaks, honors, privileges, and new titles and epithets and certain concessions, though since the entire Reach had been united in backing Daemon, none of the Reach houses got any expanded land grants and so were rewarded in other ways.

Daemon also intervened on behalf of the Osgreys who had fought long and loyally for him. Ser Eustace Osgrey had lost his two elder sons in Redgrass Field and his erstwhile friend Lord Webber of Coldmoat had also perished fighting for Daemon. In order to keep his promise to Eustace and restore the Osgreys to prominence, Daemon publicly honored and acclaimed the Osgreys and made them Lords once more, raising their last remaining castle of Standfast from a knightly to a lordly fief and betrothing Eustace Osgrey’s last remaining son to the heiress and daughter of Lord Webber, Lady Rohanne Webber, and since it so happened that the pair were already romantically fond of each other, there was little opposition to Daemon’s intervention. And so for the first time in almost two hundred years, Coldmoat had returned to Osgrey hands.

In both Dorne and the Iron Islands, near every single noble house was attainted and stripped of all lands, titles, and incomes, with their fiefs redistributed to more deserving loyalists and allies to Daemon. Dorne itself ceased to exist as a formal entity as it was officially partitioned by Daemon into two halves.

The Daynes were granted Blackmont as part of their direct lands and were named Lord Paramounts of the Torrentine and Wardens of the Wide Way and the Sands while the Yronwoods were granted Sunspear, Plankytown, and other Martell lands as part of their direct fief and were named the Lord Paramounts of the Greenblood and Wardens of the Stone Way. Martell’s dominon was divided by the Yronwoods and Daynes and the lands of their vassals redistributed to cadet branches and other allies and kin of the Yronwoods, Daynes, Daemon himself, and the Stormlords of the Dornish Marches and the Reachmen.

Meanwhile, Greyjoy, Baratheon, Tully, and Lothston were all similarly attainted and the Iron Islands, Riverlands, and Stormlands were all formally annexed into the Crownlands and sworn directly to the Iron Throne. Pyke and Lordsport were given as fief to Jon Seafyre, King Daemon’s cousin, while Storm’s End, Riverrun, and Harrenhal were made Crown Castles.

House Bracken was awarded the Teats and the village of Pennytree which it had long disputed with House Blackwood which was also attainted. The lordship, lands and incomes of Raventree Hall were awarded to Daemon’s brother Aegor Rivers, who officially proclaimed his sobriquet ‘Bittersteel’ as the name of his new house and renamed his new castle as Seastar Hall in honor of his wife, Lady Shiera Seastar. The two decided together on ‘Beneath the gold, the bitter steel!’ for the new words of their family, House Bittersteel of Seastar Hall. Aegor was also given the second Valyrian steel sword retrieved from the Iron Islands, Nightfall, as a gift and heirloom for his new house by his brother Daemon.

There were many more border changes and houses honored and humbled alike and the list is far too great to go into detail here but suffice to say, Daemon’s reign began with a radical reshaping of Westeros. One where those that had fought for him were rewarded beyond belief while those that had fought against him were treated with honor in defeat but nonetheless punished for opposing the rightful king.

Finally, once all the rewards and punishments had been doled out, all of the attainted male royals and nobles were sent to the Night’s Watch. The sensitive list of prisoners could cause great harm if they escaped and so Barth Blacksword personally escorted each and every prisoner to the Wall when he returned to the North.

The list included the former king, Daeron II, his last remaining sons, Princes Aerys and Rhaegel, all of his grandsons, his goodbrother Maron Martell, and all the other members of the attainted houses of Baratheon, Tully, Lothston, Dorne, the Iron Islands, and more.

Meanwhile, Myriah Martell and all the granddaughters of Daeron II in addition to the daughters of all the attainted houses were sent to join the Faith as silent sisters or septas in the motherhouses of King’s Landing where they were close by to Daemon’s court and could be watched carefully to ensure they were not used against the Crown.

Some ladies who had married into the attainted houses such as Alys Arryn, Meridia Lannister, and Jena Dondarrion were returned to their families though many chose to remain in King’s Landing anyway to stay close to their daughters now that their husbands and sons had already been ripped away from them and sent to the Wall.

And in the end, though Daemon never officially declared them as such, most of the realm would come to agree and consider the line of Daeron II as Falseborn Waters, the illegitimate descendants of Aemon the Dragonknight who had pretended to the Iron Throne that was rightfully Daemon’s. And as this view became the prevailing sentiment across all the realm, the war that Daemon had fought took on a new legendary acclaim.

During the war itself, the supporters of Daeron the Falseborn dubbed it the Blackfyre Rebellion but upon the victory of Daemon Blackfyre at the Battle of the Redgrass Field in 199 AC and his subsequent and righteous ascension to the Iron Throne, few dared to use that name for how could a king rebel against a throne that was rightfully his?

Instead, Daemon’s supporters and various singers gave the war many monikers. Some more imaginative poets named it the Song of the Swords and Spears for the famous clash of the two factions or the Falseborn’s Folly for Daeron II’s foolish attempt to arrest or even kill Daemon and his family which began the whole war. Others named it the Knights’ War for the sheer number of distinguished knights who had fought and died in it.

The proper name that the war has since been accorded in history, however, is the War of Restoration. For the war had been fought to restore the true lineage of House Targaryen to the Iron Throne; a trueborn and pure line descended from Aegon III and Aegon IV both, rightful heirs twice over by all laws in Westeros. A line embodied in the person of King Daemon Blackfyre himself.

The war had been fought to restore the dignity of the realm and save it from the foolishness and cowardice of Daeron II who had allowed the Dornish who had treacherously murdered his namesake to rule in his stead and poison the realm with their grasping greed and treachery.

With his ascension and the magnificent reign that followed afterward, Daemon the Restorer, the King of Knights, the King Who Bore the Sword, renewed the dignity and pride of the Targaryen dynasty after it had been sullied for so many long years. No longer would falseborn and foolish kings submit to a foreign, Dornish, power. From the shores of the Summer Sea to the icy heights of the Wall, a new golden age had just begun.

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The Knights of the Round Table in 201 AC:

The Knight of One, King Daemon I Targaryen, Blackfyre

The Knight of Two, Lord Aegor Bittersteel

The Knight of Three, Ser Quentyn Ball, Fireball,

The Knight of Four, Lord Leo Tyrell, Longthorn

The Knight of Five, Lord Gormon Peake

The Knight of Seven, Lord Robb Reyne

The Knight of Eleven, Ser Gwayne Cobray, the Greatheart,

The Knight of Thirteen, Lord Barthogan Stark, Barth Blacksword

Vacant Seats:

The Knight of Six, formerly held by the late and honorable Ser Gareth Swann, the Grey

The Knight of Eight, formerly held by the late and honorable Lord Roderick Crakehall, Redtusk

The Knight of Nine, formerly held by the late and honorable Ser Byren Flowers, Black Byren Fowers

The Knight of Ten, formerly held by the late and honorable Ser Aubrey Ambrose

The Knight of Twelve, formerly held by the late and honorable Ser Ulrick Dayne, the Sword of the Morning

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Author’s Note: All credit owed to the amazing artists for their splendid arts! 

At long last, the war we’ve all been waiting for! I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and thank you for staying patient for so long as I was really busy writing D&C and this chapter was really challenging me to write. 

Even when I finally typed it up these past two days, it felt like it really wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be but ultimately this is just a fun side project so I decided not to tryhard too much. Still, I hope that the epicness of the war and the ultimate boss knights’ battles and the price paid for victory was all successfully conveyed.

Now begins the Golden Age; I’m planning just one more chapter to give a general overview of Daemon’s chad rule and then we’ll wrap up this short little side story. Thank you all for reading! All Hail Daemon I ‘Blackfyre’ Targaryen! Daemon the Restorer! The Black Dragon! The King Who Bore the Sword! The King of Knights!

Lmk your thoughts in the comments below or over on Discord!