Thread:Codebreaker 2100/@comment-26210095-20170302042638

"Rhaegar fought valiantly.

Rhaegar fought nobly.

''Rhgaegar fought honourably. ''

And Rhaegar won." 

The rivers of the Trident are stained red with the blood of two armies. The rebel armies, led by the false-king Robert Baratheon, are dead, their army scattered and destroyed. The Usurper rose in arms against the Iron Throne, and House Targaryen, leading to a deadly civil war. Brother fought against brother. After one year of bloody fighting, the Usurper-King's armies werre broken at the Battle of the Trident. There, Robert Baratheon fought in sigle combat against Rhaegar Targaryen, the heir to the Iron Throne, while the battle rushed around them. It was a vicious battle, each dealing grevious wounds to the other. Yet in the end, Rhaegar prevailed. The sword Blackfyre slit Robert's throat, and in that one moment, the history of Westeros would change. Forever.

News of the battle spread far and wide throughout the lands like wildfire. The rebel armies scattered throughout the riverlands, utterly destroyed and routed. Soon after the battle, the Lannister armies joined the fray, and set the Riverlands afire, capturing Riverrun swiftly. The Lannister forces now march on the Vale, and have seized the lower valleys and Gulltown. The Eyrie is the last stronghold of the Usurper's forces in the Vale, and are preparing for what could be a long seige, while the Dornish and Reachmen now prepare for the final assault against Storm's End. Stannis, however, beyond all odds, is holding, as the blockade was broken by the aid of a certain smuggler, and food and goods can be shipped from the free cities to Storm's End. Stannis, styling himself King Stannis I, continues to withstand the seige, as well as command what remains of the rebel army and fleet from within Storm's End.

Tidings have reached the north about Eddard Stark's death and last stand. Eddard, after the Battle of the Trident, rallied what little remained of his armies and fled deeper into the Riverlands. Eventualy, the Lannisters caught up with him, and at the Battle of Rushing Falls, Eddard made his last stand with the valiant men of the North. It was near-suicidal, almost 500 men standing against 10,000. The Lannisters pushed foward thrice, and thrice the Northmen repelled them, forming a shieldwall. Yet, in the end, the wall broke. Eddard was wounded during the battle, but taken prisoner, although he died of his wounds four days after his capture. Rulership of the North falls to Benjen Stark, who, seeing the inevitability of their defeat, bent the knee to the Targaryen Army at Moat Callin. Yet there are several houses in the north who refuse to recognize the surrender, namely Umber, Bolton, Karstark, as well as the Northern Mountain Lords, who have gathered what remained of their force and remain in their respective keeps, preparing for the last defense of the North. Many men, survivors of the Trident and the defeat of the Northern Army, have gathered and joined their host, which grows larger by the day.

The Ironborn have cast their allegiance in this war before the Trident, hoping for a Targaryen Victory, attacking Fair Isle and beggining to reave along the Reach coast. Now that it appears that they have lost, they cling fiercely onto their holdings in the Riverlands. Balon Greyjoy dreams of a day where the Ironborn can answer to no man and the Seastone Chair is free. He fights for that dream, but the Targaryen Armies will soon turn against them and push them back into the sea.

And in the South, Lord Hightower remains staunch in his allegiance to the Baratheons, but is being besieged by the Redwyne Navy and on the brink of falling. Yet, in Dorne, a different threat rises. The commander of the Stormlander navy, Ser Davos Seaworth, now in command of a sellsail army from the Free City of Tyrosh (bought with a loan from the Iron Bank), has seized the Stepstoned by Stannis' command and the Broken Arm of Dorne, and has beseiged the poorly-defended Sunspear, which will soon fall into their hands like a ripe fruit. Renly Baratheon, under orders from Stannis, has journeyed to Volantis, to ask for the Volantine fleet and army to aid the Baratheon cause. The Triarchs appear to be friendly to him and are seriously considering the alliance, and he feasts like a king and gathers more sellswords and armies to him from his base at Volantis.

Meanwhile, in King's Landing, Rhaegar has returned, victorious. He is the hero of the people, both noble and common. Within days of his arrival, Rhaegar summoned a council of all the great Royalist Lords, who together unanimously proclaimed that 'Mad' King Aerys must be removed from the Throne. Aerys was forcibly imprisoned in a tower of the Red Keep, where he remains, and Rhaegar assumed lordship over his shattered realm. All hope that this new age will be one of peace and harmony, yet Rhaegar is not inheriting a strong kingdom, united and at peace. He inherits the broken fragments of a once-great realm, a realm of ashes and bones. It is up to him and the new King to decide how to best repair the broken realm, and perhaps one day the kingdom will usher into a new Targaryen Golden Age.



  