The King of Knights, Chapter 5: The Golden Age

Daemon’s reign officially began at the turn of the century, the year 200 AC, a symbolic new beginning, for the restoration and renewal his reign would usher in. Once the dust from the War of Restoration had settled and all the punishments and rewards had finalized, work could finally begin on healing and rebuilding the realm. One of the most crucial institutions that Daemon needed to first see to was his Small Council.

He first chose his brother, Lord Aegor Bittersteel, as his Hand of the King, followed immediately by his sister, Lady Shiera Seastar, as his Mistress of Whisperers, Lord Leo ‘Longthorn’ Tyrell as his Master of Laws, Lord Robb Reyne as his Master of Coin, and Lord Addam Velaryon as his Master of Ships.

He started running into difficulties however when it came to choosing the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. Five of Daeron’s Kingsguard had perished on the Redgrass Field and the remaining two had gone to the Wall with their lieges. The Kingsguard was completely empty and it needed to be filled as soon as possible.

Daemon however had made the difficult but logical choice that there could be no overlaps between the Kingsguard or the Round Table, for their roles and missions were completely different. The Kingsguard protected the king, while the Round Table and the Black Swords patrolled and protected the realm as a whole.

Ser Quentyn Fireball had been Daemon’s first choice as Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, with Ser Gwayne Corbray as his second, but in the end when given the choice, both knights gave up their lifelong dreams for the Kingsguard in favor of remaining as Knights of the Round Table. They would still serve their king for the rest of their lives, but it would be as champions of the Round and not as his most trusted guards.

Nonetheless, Daemon remained unfazed and chose seven skilled and loyal members from the lower ranking Black Swords who traded in their black swords for white cloaks and became members of the Kingsguard, swearing off membership in the order they had once held dear for a life of chastity and duty to their beloved King.

This was but one part of a broader initiative as Daemon reorganized all of his knights and soldiers as he combined what he had built with the traditional institutions controlled by the Iron Throne and made them anew. Firstly, the Order of the Black Swords was formally chartered as they had long been denied, with the Thirteen Knights of the Round Table enshrined as their heads and the Knight of One, himself, serving as the Grandmaster of the Black Swords.

The Round Table itself was moved from Whitegrove to the Red Keep in King’s Landing, with scheduled weekly meetings. By tradition, the seven Kingsguard would attend these meetings, standing faithfully while the Rounds sat, informally gathering the twenty greatest knights of the realm in one place as the Kingsguard could still contribute to the discussions if need be. In this way the two orders communicated and coordinated with each other, building a mutual respect and rapport to replace the rivalry that had once existed before Daemon took the throne from Daeron.

After all, the Round Table and the Black Swords it commanded were not at all meant to replace the Kingsguard but rather to complement it and enhance its role. With the formal patronage of the Black Swords and the Round Table under the Crown’s aegis, much of the politics that had once infested the selection process for the Kingsguard was removed, as were much of the overstretch.

Previously the Kingsguard were expected to serve not just as the King’s sworn shields but also as the paragon knights and champions of the realm with many responsibilities in wartime, giving them much prestige and glory but also many burdens and duties distracting them from what should have been their principal mission, the safety of the King.

The formal chartering and sponsorship of the Round Table alleviated much of this as the Round Table instead took on much of this political and championship role with its less stringent oaths allowing the membership of great lords instead of swearing members to chastity, allowing the Kingsguard to refocus on their original core duties and responsibilities.

While the Kingsguard remained no less storied and prestigious, none could doubt that the consolidation and refocusing on their core mission improved the order’s effectiveness, and many of the other roles that the Kingsguard had come to serve over time such as that of army commander in wartime would now instead be entrusted to the Round Table so that they remained solely by the King’s side.

To aid the Kingsguard in their duties, the traditional household guard, knights, and retinues of House Targaryen were formally reorganized into a disciplined and cohesive royal guard known as the Redguard for their fully red armor who would serve beneath and answer to the Kingsguard. The Redguard would serve as the sole garrison of the Red Keep and would also have a branch in Dragonstone making up half of the garrison there while otherwise accompanying members of House Targaryen wherever they might go in the realm. This allowed Daemon and his successors as King to much more efficiently assign the Kingsguard knowing the Redguard could easily fill in.

The City Watch of King’s Landing, known colloquially as the gold cloaks, were also greatly reformed and retrained back up to the original standards King Daemon’s namesake, the Rogue Prince, had instituted. They were removed from their barracks in the Red Keep which were given to the Redguard and assigned to new barracks built across King’s Landing to much more easily patrol the city and improve the security of the Keep.

Separate from all the aforementioned units of men, the royal castles of Dragonstone, Storm’s End, and Harrenhal would each have their own garrisons of sergeants, men-at-arms, knights, retinues, and such drawn from the local regions. Dragonstone’s full garrison was unique, being half made up of locals and half of prestigious Redguard.

Daemon also made efforts to create a new Royal Navy with its own bureaucracy, staff, shipyards, and ships wholly owned by the Crown and independent from Velaryon and Celtigar contributions, even as he maintained Lord Addam Velaryon as his Master of Ships. The Royal Navy’s main bases would continue to be King’s Landing and Dragonstone as they had been for two centuries already, and a grand Arsenal inspired by the Braavosi original was built in the southern side of King’s Landing to supply the navy with as many ships as it might need.

Harrehal meanwhile was eventually fully restored and rebuilt, save for its ruined towers, and would in time house the bulk of the Royal Army in addition to its local garrison, a force that was the brainchild of King Daemon and his Hand, Lord Bittersteel. A standing army in all but name for the Crown, made up of dependable infantry regiments, archer platoons, and siege engineer and equipment corps. The Royal Army numbered about ten thousand strong and almost all of them were based in Harrenhal so the entire company could train and drill as a disciplined whole, making them easily the better of any professional sellsword company in Essos or lord’s retinue in Westeros.

The Army for the most part lacked cavalry of any kind however, which is part of how Daemon placated the lords and assured them that he was not creating an overly powerful standing army with which to tyrannize them (with the name being another). In times of necessity or war, the cavalry component of the Royal Army would be provided by the Black Swords themselves.

Having been formally chartered by Daemon and given full funding and patronage by the Crown, the Black Swords themselves remained little changed in actuality, still accepting the finest and most chivalrous knights from across the realm regardless of station or birth. Funding for the order was greatly simplified now as each member would help to contribute their own funds to maintain their own equipment at the very least and the more well off would compete to show themselves more charitable and wealthy with larger and larger donations. All of this was in addition to the Crown’s purse so funding was very much a non-issue now and with that increase in funding came greater numbers and better organization.

15 initial companies were established, each of which was to be made up of one hundred lances, each composed of six mounted men – a heavy armored knight, a more lightly armored squire or man-at-arms, a non-combatant page or valet, and three mounted archers that would either carry light lances and practice horse archery of some kind or ride to the battlefield and dismount to shoot with their bows.

Though considered part of the Black Swords’ retinue and their accompaniment in battle, the mounted archers, the non-combatant, the squires, and the men-at-arms were only considered half-members of the Black Swords, with full membership reserved for the anointed knights. Nonetheless they all together made up a force of some 9,000 men, with at least 1500 full knights among that number.

However, the Black Swords’ prestige and numbers only continued to grow as more and more of the nobility and the knights of the realm clamored to donate to and/or join the Order and by the end of Daemon’s reign the number of companies had swelled to 80 for a total force of 48,000 men, with 8,000 anointed knights and full members of the Black Swords.

The actual role and purpose of the Black Swords remained much the same as it had been when Daemon had been a mere prince, only now empowered with direct Crown authorization. The Black Swords would travel the realm of Westeros in large parties, enforcing the King’s Peace and Laws wherever they went, hunting down bandits and ne’er-do-wells, participating in great tourneys, hunts, balls, and feasts, and in times of war they would serve as the heavy cavalry and officer wing of the Royal Army. Empowered with the Crown’s writ and authority and with many great lords among their number, the Black Swords were unique in their roving ability to move across multiple kingdoms, regions, and jurisdictions with ease, ensuring justice was done and criminals were caught no matter where they fled.

The Black Swords were based in three main chapters, King’s Landing, Harrenhal, and Storm’s End, and from there whenever they were assigned missions they would usher forth and adventure across the realm on their chivalric duties like the songs of old.

Competition to join the Black Swords was thus understandably intense. A certain pageantry and prestige surrounded the Order like never before and it was often perceived by many to be the only route into achieving even more hallowed heights of esteem. Any who dared to dream of a seat at the Round Table or a white cloak knew the first step was to acquire a black sword, or so the sentiments would hold. Sentiments that would seemingly be proven as well.

Eventually, once they had mourned their brethren, the Fallen Five who had heroically perished at the Redgrass Field, Daemon and the other seven remaining members of the Round Table would welcome five new members to their ranks, not as mere replacements but as worthy members in their own right. By the year 205 AC, the table was full once again, just in time to lead the reorganized Black Swords in the enforcement of Daemon’s peace.

Lord Yorick Yronwood joined first, followed by Lord Jon Seafyre, Lord Viserys Plumm, Lord Robin Penrose, and lastly Ser Addam Osgrey.

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The Knights of the Round Table in 205 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 Six, Lord Jon Seafyre

The Knight of Seven, Lord Robb Reyne

The Knight of Eight, Ser Addam Osgrey

The Knight of Nine, Lord Yorick Yronwood

The Knight of Ten, Lord Viserys Plumm

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

The Knight of Twelve, Lord Robin Penrose

The Knight of Thirteen, Lord Barthogan Stark, Barth Blacksword

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Some noted to themselves that King Daemon had named all three of his aunt Elaena’s sons to the Round Table but not only were all three accomplished knights, with the younger two having served as his own squires within the Black Swords for many years as well, but membership in the Round Table could not be confirmed unless a majority of the existing seats all agreed, so any accusations of favoritism were thrown out harshly. (The King or Knight of One had the unique power of being able to veto a selection endorsed by all the other members but could not unilaterally force through an appointment).

With such esteemed and prestigious figures and happenings around, many of the greatest lords and knights of the realm would begin to crowd into King Daemon’s court in King’s Landing, lured by its illustrious pageantries and storied chivalry, eager for a chance to witness or better yet partake in that august glory.

His ancestors had united the realm with dragons, but the dragons were now gone. In their place, Daemon Blackfyre united the realm with a shared love for knightly traditions and stories, and some even went so far as to argue that he was even more effective in that then even Jaehaerys the Conciliator had been. Certainly, the Conciliator had never convinced the great lords and knights to unite together to take part in and fund of their own eager volition an army that was effectively the Crown’s to command as it pleased, a symbol of the Seven Kingdoms’ restored unity and power under King Daemon the Restorer.

The Round Table and the Black Swords also helped reinforce Daemon’s new bureaucracy. His greatly expanded Crownlands prevented him from personally overseeing many of the disputes and petitions in his demesne now which were thus delegated to lower courts and judges, reserving for the Crown only the most extreme of cases or cases where one or both parties were among the highest lords of the Crownlands or the Realm as a whole.

Any fully anointed and knighted member of the Black Swords however, no matter their original birth or status, whether they be the lowest hedge knight or the greatest of lords, was entitled to have their case ultimately arbitrated by the King himself should the original resolution be dissatisfactory, which further enhanced the prestige and incentives for membership.

Furthermore, whenever Daemon or his Small Council did issue rulings on law or arbitrations of disputes, the Black Swords were always the first means by which the rulings were enforced, eagerly riding forth from their chapterhouses to see his Peace enforced.

In short, due to his wisdom in reorganization and structuring, Daemon had ensured that the Small Council, the Round Table, the Kingsguard, the Redguard, the Royal Army and the Royal Navy did not compete but instead complimented and enhanced each other, uniting them with chivalry, loyalty, and common purpose to preserve the King’s Peace.

Yet Daemon would be a poor king if he focused solely on martial matters, and as a true paragon knight and lord knew, the upkeep of one’s land and the prosperity of their people was their paramount duty.

Almost immediately upon securing his throne, Daemon began work on intense renovations, rebuilding, and expansion in King’s Landing. His main goals were to expand on the efforts of the Conciliator and the Good Queen, making the city’s roads straight and wide, with many clean fountains and wells for drinking water, proper sewers and waste disposal systems, and strong and tall buildings, many of which were built out of stone.

Daemon also ordered the ruined Dragonpit restored and modified, wanting to make use of its enormous indoor seating of eighty thousand to host all of his grand tourneys, melees, races, and archery competitions within, befitting the chivalric pageantry his court was becoming known for. The restoration of the Dragonpit uncovered the lost Valyrian steel sword of House Royce which Daemon immediately ordered returned to the Royces, earning their eternal gratitude and favor.

Cleverly, Daemon used this favor alongside further economic concessions, trade deals, privileges, and charters, to slowly win the Royces and the Graftons to his side, just as Corbray and Templeton had been, ensuring the Arryns were well reminded that though they had been forgiven their support of Daeron, it had not been forgotten.

With an astute monetary acumen, Daemon also convinced many of the Black Swords and Knights of the Round Table who were spending extended amounts of time in the capital to donate and help fund these projects to make the city stink less and also to improve their own reputes. Their aid was particularly useful in the restoration of the Dragonpit and various barracks and chapterhouses for the Black Swords in the city, all of which were in their own interests.

With the money saved, Daemon also began constructing a second half of King’s Landing on the southern bank of the Blackwater with a great bridge (and central drawbridge to allow ship traffic to pass) spanning the river to connect the two halves of the city. Many of the inhabitants of Flea Bottom were relocated to this second half once it was completed with all of the proper sewage and roads so work could be done on the older northern half.

It was during the renovations and relocations of Flea Bottom that the King encountered and eventually took on as squire, a lowborn orphan boy by the name of Dunk that he saw much potential in. While some privately questioned his decision, the boy soon proved a prodigy with the sword and other weapons and would eventually join the Kingsguard, eternally loyal and grateful to his patron, and becoming famed throughout the land as Ser Duncan the Tall.

Daemon also constructed the beginnings of a grand new Citadel in the south side of the city and a series of elaborate Water Gardens as a gift to his dear wife, Queen Daenerys. The Water Gardens were declared open to highborn and low alike on her insistence and legend has it that at one point she took her eldest son there and pointed out the innocent children playing in the gardens, the highborn and the low alike mingling together, and told her son, ‘There is your realm, remember them, in everything you do.’

Though the story has never been conclusively proven, it spoke much about the character of Queen Daenerys. Daenerys was highly beloved not just as Daemon’s Queen but in her own right, remaining for all her life the Darling of the Realm in every sense of the word, popular with smallfolk and highborn alike. To the commoners she was a queen who heard their plights and donated generously to orphanages, soup kitchens, and other initiatives and worked alongside her husband to improve the plight of the poor in King’s Landing during the various expansion projects.

Amidst the nobility, Daenerys was stunningly beautiful, charismatic, and charming, every inch the perfect noble lady and queen, running the royal household with an elegant grace. She was an avid patron of the arts and did much to fill the Red Keep’s court and King’s Landing as a whole with sophisticated music, balls, games, tapestries, paintings, and much more.

The young Prince Aegon took after his mother in many ways but he was equally close to his father as well. Daemon named Aegon the Prince of Dragonstone when he came of age as was tradition and also placed Dark Sister into his hands at the ceremony, declaring it a symbol of the heirship and attached to the title of Prince of Dragonstone as Blackfyre was the Sword of Kings, ensuring the second of House Targaryen’s Valyrian steel swords would always remain in hands loyal to the Crown from then on.

With every passing year, the Prince of Dragonstone grew in stature, wisdom, strength, and charm, every inch his mother and father’s son, and all agreed that he would be a fine king when the time came; though many privately admitted that his father burned so brightly that he was often overshadowed, like a morning star outshone by the rising sun.

If the earlier parts of their tale hadn’t been enough to illustrate the great depths of the love King Daemon and Queen Daenerys had for each, the Water Gardens should have solidified it for all to see. Their marriage continued to be exceedingly fruitful in the early years of their reign with Baelon born in 201, Gael born in 203, Gaemon born in 205, Maelys born in 207, and Vaella born in 209. In addition to their older children, this added up for seven sons and seven daughters for an even fourteen in total.

A most auspicious set of numbers, one that many considered a portent of the Seven’s favor on their family, and in time as the siblings all grew to adulthood, they would become known in court as the Fourteen Flames, like Borros Baratheon’s daughters had been known as the Four Storms, but Daemon the Restorer and Daenerys the Darling’s Fourteen Flames were in every way, shape, and form, the better of the Four Storms.

Daemon and Daenerys had surpassed even the Conciliator and the Good Queen, having fourteen living children, yet Daemon did not take such fortune for granted. Some close to him have recorded in history that he was exceptionally paranoid about the health of his family and of the realm of a whole in the early years of his reign.

He was exceptionally meticulous, demanding that every servant in the Red Keep wash their hands thoroughly before handling food or his children, and going above and beyond to ensure cleanliness, sanitation, and hygiene. Some even japed that the King’s focus on the sewers of King’s Landing wasn’t just to remove the stink but to sate his obsession for cleanliness.

King Daemon also began miring himself in perhaps his first real controversies when he began feuding with the Order of Maesters, trying to convince them to relocate their headquarters as the Faith had done to King’s Landing and move into his King’s Citadel under construction in the south side of King’s Landing once construction was complete.

The order refused however and began criticizing many of the King’s new policies which they felt were not substantiated with enough evidence. Some of these policies and ideas included the King’s continued patronage of the Alchemists’ Guild (whom the King had fully reorganized back in King’s Landing and retrieved in whole from the Velaryons to ensure he controlled wildfire production), the regular heating of milk and boiling of water before consumption, the creation of new tools to aid in childbirth, the creation of midwife and nursing schools, and the promulgation of germ theory, which was supposedly proven by the small-eye, a redesigned far-eye that could see small things instead of distant things.

Nonetheless, many of the wiser across the realm heeded their King’s directives over the Citadel’s and others still questioned why exactly they opposed the King so vigorously when indeed many of his policies were but logical progressions of their own (the Citadel already used boiled wine to sterilize wounds when treating injuries).

Soon enough however, matters would be decisively settled in favor of King Daemon, though in a rather grim way.

In the year 209 AC, the Great Spring Sickness would strike the Seven Kingdoms. King Daemon soon proved himself a miracle-maker however, for many of his new theories and policies were proven correct or at the very least more effective in holding back the illness. History records that he ordered every port and road in the kingdom barred as soon as New Year’s Day of 209 AC, before news of the plague had even truly reached the realm from Essos, and while many disobeyed, enough obeyed.

Daemon himself remained in King’s Landing throughout it all, overseeing the response, but his wife and children along with all the hostages and the rest of the court were ordered to Dragonstone before all the ports of the island were sealed off and the Royal Navy blockaded it to protect them from the plague for the next two years before it was finally lifted and they were allowed to return to King’s Landing.

Though the death toll of the illness remained catastrophic, the early thinking of King Daemon and his new policies and ideas had saved many lives. Some even began to wonder as to his miraculous timing. How did he know that the plague would be coming? And how did he know to quarantine his court on Dragonstone instead of King’s Landing which had been hit particularly hard?

In response to this, King Daemon declared that on the day he had taken the Iron Throne, he had received a vision of pestilence and famine from the Seven and had been bidden to stop it now that he had taken the throne from the Falseborn. A lofty claim, yet one the High Septon supported and many could not deny the incredibly astute timing.

King Daemon’s legend only began to grow from this, with many seeing it as affirmation of his divine right to rule. The famous saying, ‘The hands of a king are the hands of a healer,’ began to arise around this time, in reference to Daemon’s incredible foresight and wise policies saving many, even those who had been thought lost to the disease. Though many had died and their loss would be mourned, the Seven Kingdoms had not been crippled and in time they would heal from their losses and learn the right lessons, becoming stronger than ever before.

The nobility and the smallfolk were more willing than ever before to heed Daemon’s every command now, believing it could be backed by divine providence. Donations flooded into King’s Landing’s rebuilding and renovations which resumed in full once the plague subsided now that the plague had shown how necessary they were and the nobility began copying Daemon’s innovations in city-building, cleanliness, medicine, and disease prevention for their own domains.

Pressure also began mounting on the Maesters and they finally acquiesced in 212 AC to move to the newly completed King’s Citadel in King’s Landing, where they soon fell under the influence of the Crown which began highly influencing the selection of if not outright appointing the Seneschal, the Conclave, the Archmaesters, and the Grand Maester that served on the Small Council, all of which was cheered by the realm at large and the Faith who saw it as their wise and beloved king and champion of the Seven ensuring that wisdom and cleverness prevailed.

Rumors of a conspiracy of sorts among the Maesters have long festered as a possible explanation for their stubborn opposition to Daemon’s policies initially but have never been proven and if any such conspiracy did exist, it was rooted out when the Iron Throne took the Order of Maesters under its protection and aegis.

The massive surge in popularity and legend for Daemon and his family also quelled any minute grumbling that had started when he had begun marrying his aforementioned seven sons and daughters to each other, starting with his two sets of eldest twins in 207 AC.

While many had hoped for royal marriages as rewards for their services in the War of Restoration, the auspicious number of Daemon’s children and his evident favor with the Seven to save the realm from ailments gave many pause as the Doctrine of Exceptionalism was now clearly being proven before their very eyes. Others also recalled that part of why Daemon’s family had been favored over the Falseborn’s was for being true Targaryens rather than half-breeds and decided it best not to tamper with such perfection and purity.

The strengthened faith in Exceptionalism was also why few spoke negatively when rumors began fluttering that Lady Shiera Seastar was teaching her children as well as the children of her elder brother and sister magic, and when King Daemon began lighting Blackfyre on fire in grand displays of light, many saw it very positively indeed, taking it as yet a further sign of the Seven’s favor.

As the realm slowly recovered and healed from the Great Spring Sickness, Daemon and Daenerys continued to raise their younger children and spoil the grandchildren their elder children had been giving them. Meanwhile, the work continued.

The renovation and expansion of King’s Landing into a city worthy of being the Seven Kingdoms’ capital would be ongoing for most of Daemon’s reign but when it was finally done, the results were nothing short of extraordinary. A messy and disorganized slum of shit and stink had been transformed into a proud and beautiful city spanning two sides of the river, with straight wide roads, clean streets, pleasant scents in the air, large sewers and copper pipes to carry and process waste, aqueducts, fountains, and wells to provide clean fresh water, and many grand landmarks and buildings for both governance and beauty.

From King’s Landing, Daemon began surpassing the Conciliator in all aspects. A grand new network of roads built upon and expanded from Jaehaerys’ old roads, repaving the gravel and dirt in smooth and solid stone and laying new tracks to connect distant holdfasts and enable trade and travel like never before.

Upon these roads, the ever-growing Black Swords, at times aided by the Royal Army, would patrol and adventure, hunting down bandits and brigands, enforcing the King’s Peace, and upholding a new code of law that expanded on Jaehaerys’ own work, updating any outdated laws and further unifying the laws of the various regions of the realm.

Dorne’s unique laws of succession and other privileges were all removed, and inheritance to land throughout the whole kingdom from the lowest smallfolk to the highest nobles and even the Iron Throne itself was now codified by Andal custom. Sons inherited first, followed by daughters, and then only brothers and sisters. With the only exceptions being in the case of crimes committed or heirs joining the Faith, Maesters, or Night’s Watch.

By the year 220 AC, despite the Great Spring Sickness that had struck but a decade earlier, the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros had never been more united and prosperous, not even in the reign of Jaehaerys the Conciliator, and the name of the Black Dragon, Daemon the Restorer, the King of Knights, would come to be toasted in every tavern. Travelers would find every inn and holdfast welcoming with fire, bread, and salt, and it was said that a maiden could walk in her name-day gown from Oldtown to the Wall for such was the peace and prosperity that King Daemon Blackfyre and his Black Swords had ushered in.

With this newfound power and unity, it was not long before the Seven Kingdoms began reaching out their hands into the world around them. Trade flourished, as travelers and merchants aspired to follow in the footsteps of the Sea Snake and venture to the Cinnamon Straits, the Jade Sea, and beyond, and as the Royal Navy and the other vassal fleets of the realm, Velaryon, Celtigar, Grafton, Farman, and Redwyne all swelled in strength and number, the King and his most favored began to dream of the Stepstones.

King Daemon’s namesake had ruled the islands for ten years as King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea before ultimately abandoning the islands, though the Iron Throne had never relinquished its claim upon them officially, especially once Daemon’s sons had ascended the Iron Throne as Aegon III and Viserys II. In fact, in the Daughters’ War following the Dance of the Dragons, once the Triarchy had disintegrated, Braavos had even recognized the Iron Throne’s claim upon those islands, even if it had never been enforced ever since.

Daemon Blackfyre meant to succeed where Daemon the Rogue Prince had failed, and in the year 220, his eldest four sons led a great host made up of two Kingsguard, six of the Knights of the Round Table, half of the Black Swords, the whole Royal Army and most of the Navy, and much support from the vassals and levies of the realm.

Within a year they had secured the entirety of the Stepstones, and the spoils of war were divided up. The entire archipelago was settled by smallfolk, fishermen, and merchants from all over the coasts of the realm and Bloodstone was claimed directly for the Iron Throne, becoming a new royal fief with its own local garrison and a crucial base for the Royal Navy. The other islands were distributed to the younger sons of important naval houses that had aided in the campaign such as Velaryon, Celtigar, Redwyne, Mooton, and Grafton, with certain conditions imposed for the enfeoffment such as the Crown having the right to set and collect all the tolls directly before giving them their entitled percentage.

The last island, Sunstone, was given to King Daemon’s seventh and youngest son, Maelys, as a lordship and fief to call his own once he came of age. Maelys’ six elder brothers had already been given fiefs of their own.

Aegon had been given the heir’s traditional fief and title of Prince of Dragonstone, Aemon had been named the Lord of Summerhall, Aegor had been given Riverrun, the ruins of Oldstones and the Whispers were being restored for Daemion and Baelon respectively, and the entirety of the island of Great Wyk in the Iron Islands had been granted to Gaemon.

Despite their misgivings, the Free Cities had little choice but to accept the Seven Kingdoms’ control of the Stepstones. Braavos was particularly worried, despite their recognition of the Iron Throne’s claim almost a century earlier, and King Daemon cleverly arranged a treaty with them wherein through a number of concessions and trade privileges, including the return of the three dragon eggs Elissa Farman had stolen centuries earlier, Braavos bought itself the right to heavily discounted tolls for the next fifty years.

With the dragons long since extinct, many saw the return of the eggs as a symbolic gesture, a representation of their King avenging the Conciliator’s humiliation by the Braavosi copper-counters. Yet some sources close to the family noted how the King began to treasure the three dragon eggs immensely, even going so far as to order all the other dragon eggs still owned by the family moved to storage while he and his sister, Seastar, studied and researched the three recovered from Braavos. None resented their king his interest in the dragons his ancestors had ridden, seeing it as nothing more than a harmless curiosity he had done much and more to deserve.

Meanwhile, the acquisition of the immensely rich and lucrative Stepstones and its tolls enriched the Seven Kingdoms like never before. So much so that men began to openly whisper of a golden age, the greatest period in all of Targaryen history, surpassing easily that of the reign of King Jaehaerys, and King Aegon I.

The renovations and expansions in King’s Landing continued, the paved roads continued to expand all over the continent, the Black Swords continued to enforce the peace and the new law code, and wealth and prosperity continued to accumulate, so much so that it began to be said that ‘precious stones are pebbles for children in King’s Landing to play with.’

While there was much and more indeed that transpired in the remaining decades of Daemon’s reign after the Conquest of the Stepstones, and indeed in the entirey of his reign and life in general, there was but one more event of sufficient importance to be included by this abridged text before the end came.

In the year 226 AC, a King-Beyond-the-Wall by the name of Raymun Redbeard arose and due to the incompetence and depleted strength of the Night’s Watch (wherein more than twenty years had sapped it even of the great strength it had gained following the War of Restoration) Redbeard was allowed to rampage in the North for many months before the Starks put him down with the aid of the Black Swords.

Following this embarrassment, Daemon formally annexed the Wall into the Seven Kingdoms, stripping it of the theoretical independence it had once held though the Night’s Watch was still held to oaths of political neutrality. The Night’s Watch was also greatly reformed to raise its strength and numbers back up.

From then onwards, the oaths were changed such that volunteers could choose to volunteer for set terms of enlistment instead of for life as well as marry and father children during their service, children which would inherit plots of land they would be given in the Gift or that have been conquered from wildlings beyond the Wall. Officers of the Watch however, including the positions of Lord Commander, First Ranger, First Steward, and First Builder, were required to serve for life and swear the traditional oaths of celibacy and not holding lands. Prisoners who took the black to escape other punishments were also not allowed to marry or hold land until they had served a certain amount of time as their sentence however, and some prisoners such as those guilty of treason would serve celibately for life.

With these reforms, the Night’s Watch became another military order sworn to King Daemon’s service and they acquired a new mission to conquer and civilize the lands beyond the Wall, all of which brought the order a prestige and popularity it had not known for many generations, filling its ranks with recruits eager for glory, lands, and wives. While the traditions of the Night’s Watch had had to be partially sacrificed in the process, all nineteen castles on the Wall were fully manned by the end of Daemon’s reign so it was certainly the right decision.

After Redbeard’s short reign and the reformation of the Night’s Watch, the rest of Daemon’s reign continued without any external threats or wars and the Restorer’s Golden Age reached its absolute heights as the expansion of King’s Landing and the vast new road networks were finally completed and trade and prosperity boomed like never before.

Yet alas, all good things must come to an end one day, and for as larger-than-life as King Daemon had always seemed to the realm, he was still a mortal man, and all men must die.

And so it came to pass, in the year 247 AC, at the auspicious age of 77, the mighty King of Knights died of old age. He did not die of some ailment or injury however, nor did he simply pass peacefully in his sleep one night.

No, the legendary king had remained hale and hearty his whole life, still nearly as capable a warrior at the great age of 77 as he had been the day he took his throne. He had been sparring in the yard, dueling against three of his grandsons when he suddenly executed a stunningly quick move that had disarmed all of his grandsons before he died where he stood, a smile on his face, and Blackfyre still in hand. The King Who Bore the Sword had died as he had lived.

The bells of King’s Landing tolled endlessly for one whole day, and the king’s body lied in state before the Iron Throne for one whole month, preserved with spices and embalming, as the entire realm arrived to pay their visits to the legendary Restorer.

Daemon’s last will and testament asked for his body to be cremated on a funeral pyre in the Dragonpit while the realm paid its respects, with Blackfyre and the three dragon eggs he had so loved burned with him, and the ashes of his remains interred on Dragonstone. Not following his final wishes was unthinkable and so they were followed down to the last letter.

And so, on the seventh day of the seven moon of 247 AC, a great crowd of highborn and low alike gathered in the restored Dragonpit, filling its eighty thousand seats to the brim and then some as they all gathered in memorial of the greatest king Westeros had ever known.

As the crowd watched, Daemon’s seven sons placed the torches down to the light their father’s pyre while their aged mother and uncle sobbed. But while there were tears in the eyes of Shiera Seastar, her lips held the slightest of smiles.

The unbelievable happened then, even as Blackfyre remained completely untouched by the flames, the three dragon eggs that Daemon had cherished for so long cracked open and right in front of the disbelieving eyes of the entire crowd, the live hatchlings within crawled out and began to squeak. For the first time in hundreds of years, the realm came alive with the music of dragons

Even in death, King Daemon’s legend continued to be carved in stone.

When he had been knighted at the age of twelve and given the Sword of Kings, he had become known as the Black Prince and Blackfyre. As he had matured and proven his prowess in battle, he became known as the Black Dragon instead of the Black Prince, and when he moved against his falseborn brother to take the Iron Throne, men called him the King Who Bore the Sword and the King of Knights. When he proved his mettle as king and renewed the power and dignity of his dynasty, the realm called him the Restorer. And now upon his funeral pyre, with the entirety of House Targaryen sprung from his loins and three living dragons birthed from his burning body, his final epithet would memorialize him long after his death. The Father of Dragons.

Author’s Note: Thank you all for reading this far! I hope you’ve all enjoyed this chapter, and the story as a whole! It truly was the greatest glaze Daemon Blackfyre has ever known, and perhaps ever will. So, for the last time in this story, let us hail him once again! Hail to Daemon Blackfyre! The Black Dragon! The Restorer! The King Who Bore the Sword! The King of Knights! The Father of Dragons!

Note: The structure of the Black Swords is inspired by the French compagnie d’ordonnance.

Thanks to Amaad-Ting and Jordan Redstark for the family trees and maps! Couldn’t have done it without them! The final image collection for the King of Knights can also be found on Imgchest!

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