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cyrileom

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Jun 2, 2012
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So I've written and read a lot of GoT AAR's, but only twice have I seen a Dance of Dragons scenario occur: Once, when an AAR was made to chronicle that specifically, and the other time 200 years into an AAR, far past the point any challenge has disappeared.
I've never, however, seen a massive dragon war, where both sides have dozens of dragons laying waste as far as the eye can see.
So, I decided to set up a scenario to allow that to happen.
In other words, every High Lord and Lady and above in the land of Westeros has been equipped with a dragon.
There is 1 exception to this: Aegon Targaryen of Rain House, mostly because he becomes King-tier rather easily.
This AAR will be completely from the observer's perspective, with occasional switches into rulers in order to see the body counts of their wars.
If you're wondering, a total of 73 dragons have been added.
First part will be up tomorrow, during which I expect the dragon count to drop drastically.
Oh, and 2 other things. One, the chances of hatching eggs and taming dragons has been increased by 10 to help the dragons stay useful throughout the generations.
Two, the family dragons will be named as such: the first letter of the House Name will be replaced with D, for example Dannister, Dolton, Dreyjoy etc. In the cases where a family has 2+ dragons (Lannisters, Boltons), they will be numbered.

Place bets on how fast Westeros will be burnt to the ground, because I'm sure that there will be a lot of castle burning.

Table of Contents:
Part One: Dragon's Eve

Part Two: The Queenswar
Part Three: "I am the Storm"
 
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Part One: Dragon's Eve

The world changed on the eve of the third hundred year after Aegon's Landing. Dragons, the force that had wrought and held the Seven Kingdoms together, had perished a century and a half prior. A few were reborn in Essos, but they were yet young and far away.
But Dragon's Eve changed all that.
Overnight, dozens of dragons appeared all over Westeros, bound to the various High Lords and Ladies across the land. Young, old, man, woman, there was no discrimination. Seventy-three dragons appeared in Westeros that night, and changed the face of the Seven Kingdoms forever.

The dying ashes of the War of the Five Kings were fanned anew by the arrival of new challengers and dragons. Euron Greyjoy laid siege to the Reach, and the young Aegon Targaryen landed at Rain House to claim his throne.
Stannis Baratheon finally received the dragon he had been searching for, and went to fight the Boltons in the frozen North. And the Riverlands were torn in fire and blood as a dozen dragons flew over the skies of the Trident.

The Targaryen words, Fire and Blood, rang true in those days.

Edmure Tully lost his seat in six months, being captured and executed by the Lord of Southstone. Stannis Baratheon engaged in a few small skirmishes before boarding his ships and going back to the Stormlands to defend them.

The first recorded use of dragons during this war came during the Siege of Storm's End, when Jaime Lannister released his dragon and turned the walls into slag, killing thousands of defenders. This act marked the beginning of the Great Burning, which lasted for over two years and saw nearly every corner of the Stormlands tasting dragonfire. In Stonehelm, the High Lord lost control of his dragon, and it set up a lair in the hills outside the castle. The same occurred in the Sheepshead Hills in the North.

The War in the North saw far less use of dragons, but a number of castles were still burned. The Boltons held the upper hand initially, but the supporters of Stannis and their dragons slowly turned the tide against the Boltons. In the South, however, Stannis' army was slowly crushed by Aegon Targaryen and Jaime Lannister. The Iron Throne sent an expedition to his seat in Dragonstone, and burned the ancient Valyrian holdfast. In Dorne, the High Lord of Vaith revolted against Doran for reasons unknown, but was swiftly crushed and his castle burned.

In the Reach, Euron Greyjoy forced Highgarden to cede the Reach to him, but the peace did not last. The various lords of the Reach, in a confusing move, demanded that Euron adopt Andal customs and get rid of the Kingsmoot. The rebels eventually won after setting fire to the heart of the Reach, Highgarden.

In the Stormlands, Davos the Onion Knight found himself in the prison of King Tommen without his eyes, his dragon doing nothing for him. And Aegon could not stand against Jaime Lannister, and died comatose in bed a mere two years after his arrival in Westeros.

Over the course of the first two years, three dragons escaped, setting up lairs. A total of twenty eight lordships were set aflame, and Dragonstone was reduced to ash. The world would change far more in the next few years, as the War of the Five Kings comes to its final end.

(Excuse the bad spacing)

 
Part Two: The Queenswar

Stannis Baratheon fell in the early days of 302 AL. Slain by Lord Renfred of Duskendale, he left his young daughter in charge, weak and dragonless. A month later, she surrendered to young King Tommen, ending the War of the Five Kings. Stannis had the last laugh, however, as his dragon constructed a lair outside of King's Landing, terrorizing the citizens.

Two months later, Lord Renfred Rykkeder, drunk off his defeat of Stannis, declared that he was the King of the Iron Throne and attack King Tommen. The vast majority of the Crownlands joined him in the fight, but he was crushed in five months, his rebellion never gaining any actual traction.

Two weeks after the defeat of the Lord of Duskendale, the Iron King Euron Greyjoy declared his intentions to conquer the North, leading his Ironborn and Reachmen against the Bolton rulers of the North. The war had two major battles, one of which ended in Roose Bolton burning the entire enemy army alive and winning the other one through force of arms. Euron Greyjoy continued the conflict for months after that, but he lost any real chance of winning the North when his army burned to death. The only benefit of the war is that Euron Greyjoy captures and kills Ramsay Bolton, leaving Roose with only a young daughter for an heir.

During this time, the Iron Throne experienced great upheaval. On the eighth of September in the year 303 AL, King Tommen Baratheon was slain by the Red Priest of Dragonsept. A few months after this, the young Myrcella Baratheon is burned by her brother's dragon, dying in the flames. The throne then passes to one of the most unexpected (not particularly) candidates: the Queen of Meereen, Daenerys Targaryen. Taking command of the throne, Daenerys leads her armies against the Iron King, defeating his forces and forcibly re-integrating the Iron Islands and the Reach into the Iron Throne.

Of the major players of the War of the Five Kings, many died in the years following the Dragon's Eve. Doran had died in his bed, his daughter Arianne dying in the flames of his dragon. Petyr Baelish died in the dungeons of the late King Tommen, and Jaime Lannister succumbs to the Grey Plague a few months after Daenerys' crowning. Before his death, Doran had given an egg to his son Quentyn, and married a new wife: Brienne Tarth (oh yeah). The new Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, Tywin Frey, died to his cousin Edwyn Frey during the latter's attempt to take over the Riverlands. Quentyn Martell married Cersei Lannister, healing the rift between their families, and Mace Tyrell thoroughly botched the care of his dragon, having only a dragon egg at the end of it.

Queen Daenerys never took a husband throughout her reign, and had only one child during it: Aerion Waters, bastard son of Daenerys and Rakharo. Mace Tyrell, in another amazing show of stupidity, got himself arrested and killed by Daenerys, passing his title on to his son Willas.

This proved to be too much for some people, and the tenuous peace that had lasted just over a year and a half was broken as Cersei Lannister, allied with Euron Greyjoy, declared the Westerlander Independence League against Daenerys. The first battle of the war was a slaughter, as eight thousand Westermen were killed by a force of over thirty-five thousand crown loyalists. The next battle is a victory for the rebels, however, as seventeen thousand Westermen destroy a force of 7000 loyalists. The war turns into a disaster from there, with defeat after defeat for the rebels and more and more lords joining the side of Daenerys. Euron Greyjoy takes the opportunity to attack the North again, providing minimal support to the Lannisters. A year into the war, Euron Greyjoy meets Roose Bolton in combat, and goes two for two, killing Roose. Two years into the war, however, everything changes. Cersei Lannister manages to capture and execute Queen Daenerys, ending Targaryen rule of the throne and the brief period of dragonpower that the throne enjoyed. The new King, Devan Byrch, continues the war, and one member of his Kingsguard, Robert Strong, slays the rampaging Drogon, becoming the first man to slay a dragon on foot in the Seven Kingdoms.

Cersei Lannister, however, is not able to savor her new advantage. A few months after Daenerys' death, Cersei Lannister dies in an accident. The two queens that began the Queenswar were dead, and the son of Cersei Lannister, Dunaver, makes peace with the King. The Eyrie and the Vale changed hands during this period, with Sweetrobin Arryn dying comatose in bed and passing his titles on to his cousin Harold Arryn.

Euron Greyjoy, not content to allow peace, allies the King of Meereen and declares war against "the tyranny of King Devan Byrch". War springs up yet again, but this time the King on the Iron Throne does not have the luxury of having a personal dragon.

(Euron Greyjoy, ultimate badass)


Also, does anyone know how to disable the fog of war? The cheat doesn't seem to work.
 
Who is this Devan Byrch? :p
Absolutely no idea. Some random person who happened to be mildly related to the previous ruling family probably.
 
I'm stunned that the Dance of the Dragons doesn't get more attention. It's the only start date where dragon-on-dragon violence is assured.

And "Robert Strong" WOULD be the one person to slay a dragon on foot.

Absolutely no idea. Some random person who happened to be mildly related to the previous ruling family probably.

Possibly with the Megawar system he was simply the direct vassal of the throne who was by some slight margin most powerfull/prestigious. It often happens when a ruling dynasty dies out entirely, and with the Lords Paramount functionally independent during a megawar the iron Throne can default to surprisingly insignificant crownlanders.
 
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Part 3: "I am the Storm"

Those were some of the memorable words uttered at the Kingsmoot that saw Euron Greyjoy become the Iron King. And Euron Greyjoy certainly lived up to that, throughout his invasion and dominance of the Reach. The Iron Throne's dragon-fueled subjugation of his kingdom only delayed his plans. When Euron Greyjoy revolted, it was at the time of greatest opportunity, when the Iron Throne had passed from dragon-wielding hands. The Storm had well and truly come.

Mustering a small force of Ironborn, Euron landed at Highgarden and marched to Roseford. At Roseford, he met with a small group of rebels that increased his army to seven thousand strong. These seven thousand men were all the troops Euron had, what with the Iron Throne's invasion of the Iron Islands. But those seven thousand were all the troops he needed.

While tens of thousands of troops loyal to the crown besieged the Iron Islands, the Crow's Eye set fire to the Crownlands. From Roseford to Rosby, Euron raped and reaved, slaughtering every host raised against him. Regardless of how many castles in the Iron Islands fell to the Iron Throne, Euron Greyjoy was still more successful. More than fifty-thousand soldiers met the Seven at the end of Euron's dragon, and countless more smallfolk. The crownlands themselves were ablaze, but the crown jewel of the kingdom, King's Landing, remained untouched. This would prove to be a costly mistake, with every scholar and commander in the Seven Kingdom's unanimously agreeing that had Euron Greyjoy set fire to King's Landing and seized the city, he and his seven thousand troops would've won on the spot. Euron Greyjoy made significant progress regardless, almost winning the war at one point (82% warscore with 7000 soldiers!).

But alas, nothing is forever, and Euron Greyjoy's long-lost eye finally caught up with him. In the dusk of the year 313 AL, the Crow's Eye finally died, weeks away from final victory. His successor, Quentyn Greyjoy, though named the Iron Storm, was not the warrior his predecessor was, and he was not a dragon rider. Euron's progress was reversed in weeks, before Quentyn's surrender ended the war.

The Ballad of Seven Thousand was told throughout the Iron Islands, and Euron Greyjoy was a name that would be remembered by the smallfolk around King's Landing for decades to come. The legend of Euron Greyjoy grew so great that many whispered he was not truly dead, merely waiting for the Drowned God to release him so that he might once more envelop Westeros in a tide of blood. Regardless of the smallfolks' stories though, one fact was known: the Crow's Eye had died before his final victory, his ambition to sit on the Iron Throne unfulfilled.


Throughout this time period, two other interesting events occurred. The first was the succession of Dorne. The Prince of Dorne, Quentyn, died, leaving his one year old son as the new Prince. His reign was short, however, as the title of Prince passed to his uncle Trystane. The other was Margaery Tyrell.

Margaery Tyrell had gained the moniker of the Cursed Widow. Every man she married seemed to die violently a short period of time after the marriage. Her curse had so far slain two kings, one pretender, one high lord, and one minor lord. She was on her sixth husband at the age of thirty, having been widowed five times in fifteen years, with each marriage having produced no children.

Thus ended the threat of the Ironborn, their dragons either dying or running free.
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Sorry this was delayed, but I partly lost interest and partly couldn't bear to see anything happen to the ultimate badass. But alas, the ultimate badass Euron Greyjoy died before he could ascend to his full potential.
 
So what happened? Did your save get corrupted?
Well, now it's lost in the depths of time.
At the time, I just grew bored with the concept and not being able to do an observe game properly.
 
Well, now it's lost in the depths of time.
At the time, I just grew bored with the concept and not being able to do an observe game properly.

Ah, alright.

So, got any plans for your next AAR once Blood and Fire ends/goes on hiatus?
 
Ah, alright.

So, got any plans for your next AAR once Blood and Fire ends/goes on hiatus?
Not in CKII, no. Honestly, I'd be done with CKII for the next few years if it weren't for Aidun offering a position on Blood and Fire.

Also, this has definitely run it's necromancy course. Continue in PMs if you want.