Defiance of Duskendale: varys first move!

[theREALjonsnow]

To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater. Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are yours to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you.I swear it by earth and water. I swear it by bronze and iron. We swear it by ice and fire." an ancient oath repeated for hundrends of generations! similar to NW in old-i-ness

This is what the reed children promise to bran, like i'm sure their father did to the stark children in previous years (Tourney at HH) & what other reed's have done for thousands upon thousands.

Trying to make connections with possible canidates for Last Hero. A man goes out in search of the COTF in an attempt to prevent the long night. Howland reed travels to God's eye in search of Green Men & COTF some 15 years before current events & was or (STILL IS?) the only person alive who was present at the death of Lyanna/birth of JS! so where do we think he is & what has he already done/is he currently doing?

he obviously had enough free time after Roberts Rebellion to get his freak on with a frog making J & M, drop a lil COTF knowledge on dey asses & send them on their quest...

[theREALjonsnow]

sooo i just read the Dunk & Egg series for the first time this week and holy shiznit! a couple of theories i have made from reading these stories...

Tanselle to Tall is Old Nan. it is said the troupe of puppets would be heading south towards dorne... obviously they went north winterfell. Tanselle+Duncan= Hodor

Duncan the Tall is an instrument of Old Gods. the sigil he created for himself is a tree with a comet. Duncan often asks himself how the left foot & right hand were more important than Baelor Breakspears life...

Egg at somepoint will have to kill his father Maekar thus making him a kinslayer...

Aemon Targaryen & Brynden Rivers head to wall to gain knowledge & prepare westeros for what is to come...

Brynden Rivers is actually the son of the Aemon the Dragonknight. how else could he end up with Dark Sister?

Maester Aemon & Aegon the Unlikely & Bloodraven set up all events to take place...

"If Daemon had ridden over Gwayne Corbray . . . if Fireball had not been slain on the eve of battle . . . if Hightower and Tarbeck and Oakheart and Butterwell had lent us their full strength instead of trying to keep one foot in each camp . . . if Manfred Lothston had proved true instead of treacherous . . . if storms had not delayed Lord Bracken’s sailing with the Myrish crossbowmen . . . if Quickfinger had not been caught with the stolen dragon’s eggs . . . so many if's, ser . . . had any one come out differently, it could all have turned t’other way. Then we would called be the loyalists, and the red dragons would be remembered as men who fought to keep the usurper Daeron the Falseborn upon his stolen throne, and failed"

up until book 3 Egg mistrusts Bloodraven's methods/intent but it seems like in the end they will join forces but after reading all three a second time (they are really short if you havent checked them out already you should) i think he is right to mistrust him.

Brynden Rivers is a bastard that killed his brothers/nephews & made love to his sister. so in the eyes of the gods he is a kinslayer & practices incest. are these not taboo? why would COTF/OLD GODS choose him as their leader?

also the book focuses on giving backstory for Blackfyre's,Summerhall, Bittersteel & Bloodraven along with Egg. ( does he sacrifice himself to give birth to Rhaegar? )

[theREALjonsnow]

this is an attempt to create a timeline of all conflict in the ASOIAF universe and put it into logical order. Its purpose is to better understand the origin of all rivalries and further understand how a single group of men riding horses and wielding fire became fragmented/separated and started to hold separate allegiances/beliefs according to region/dominion.

A Complete Timeline of Ice and Fire... ( a work in progress.)

I will start the timeline of ice and fire beginning with the first known conflict. First i will give an account of the origins of the First Men as well as the Children of the Forest then describe how the battle of the dawn was fought and it's outcome.

Beginning of Dawn Age...

1. First Men vs. Children of Forest.

First men descriptions:

"They rode to the lake the Dothraki called the Womb of the World, surrounded by a fringe of reeds, its water still and calm. A thousand thousand years ago, Jhiqui told her, the first man had emerged from its depths, riding upon the back of the first horse." GOT Dany 46

" But some 12 thousand years ago the first men appeared from the east, crossing the broken arm of dorne before it was broken. They came with bronze swords and great leathern shields, riding horses. No horse had ever been seen this side on this side of the narrow sea." GOT Bran 66

Children of the Forest descriptions:

" They were a people dark and beautiful, small of stature, no taller than children even when grown to manhood. They lived in the depths of the wood, in caves and crannogs and secret treet towns. slight as they were, the children were quick and graceful. Male and female hunted together, with weirwood bows and flying snares. Their god were the gods whose names are secret. Their wise men were called greenseers, and carved strange faces in the weirwoods to keep watch on the woods. How long the children reigned here or where they came from, no man can know." GOT Bran 66

" The children of the forest could tell you a thing or two about dreaming." GOT Bran 66

" Some claimed to have power. Their wise men were called greenseers. It had to do with the faces in the trees, we think. The first men believed that the greenseers could see through the eyes of the weirwoods. That was why they cut down the trees whenever the warred upon the children. Supposedly the greenseers also had power over the beasts of the wood and the birds in the trees. Even fish." COK Bran 28

" Those you call the children of the forest have eyes golden as the sun, but once in a great while one is born amongst them with eyes as red as blood, or green as the moss on a tree in the heart of a forest. By these signs do the gods mark those the have chosen to receive the gift. The chose ones are not robust, and their quick years upon the earth are few, for every song must have its balance." ADWD Bran 34

" Old Nan says the children knew the songs of the trees, that they could fly like birds and swim like fish and talk to animals," Bran said. GOT Bran 66

" Forged in the fires of the gods, far below the earth. The Children of the forest hunted with that, thousands of years ago. The children worked no metal. In place of mail, they wore long shirts of woven leaves and wood. In place of swords, they carried blades of obsidian." GOT Bran 66

" Take a lesson, Bran. The man who trusts in spells is dueling with a glass sword. As the children did." GOT Bran 66

" The children of the forest, Old Nan would have called the singers, but those who sing the song of the earth was their own name for themselves, in the True Tongue that no human could speak. The ravens could speak it though." ADWD Bran 34

" The singers of the forest had no books. No ink, no parchment, no written language. Instead they had the trees, and the weirwoods above all. When they died, they went into the wood, into leaf and limb and root, and the trees remembered. All their songs and spells, their histories and prayers, everything they knew about this world. Maesters will tell you that the weirwoods are sacred to the old gods. The singers believe they are the old gods. When signer die they become part of that godhood." ADWD Bran 34

" The singers carved eyes into their heart trees to awaken them, and those are the first eyes a new greenseer learns to use..." ADWD Bran 34

The War of Dawn and the Pact :

" As the First Men carved out holdfasts and farms, they cut down the faces and gave them to the fire. Horror-struck, the children went to war. The old songs say that the greenseers used dark magics to make the seas rise and sweep away the land, shattering the Arm, but it was to late to close the door. The wars went on until the earth ran red with blood of men and children both, but more children that men, for men were bigger and stronger, and wood and stone and obsidian make a poor match for bronze. Finally the wise of both races prevailed, and the chiefs and heroes of the First Men met the greenseers and the wood dancers amidst the weirwoods groves of a small island in the great lake called Gods Eye." GOT 66

" There they forged the Pact. The First Men were given the coastlands, the high plains and bright meadows, the mountains and the bog, but the deep woods to remain forever the children's, and no more weirwoods were to be put to the axe anywhere in the realm. So gods might bear witness to the signing, every tree on the island was given a face, and afterward, the sacred order of the green men was formed to keep watch over the Isle of Faces." GOT Bran 66

" In the south the last weirwoods had been cut down or burned out a thousand years ago,except on the Isle of Faces where the green men kept their silent watch." GOT Catelyn 2

" No one visits the Isle of Faces," objected Bran." That's where the green men live." SOS Bran 24

" The Pact began four thousand years of friendship between men and children. In time, the First Men even put aside the gods they had brought with them, and took up the worhip of the secret gods of the wood. The signing of the Pact ended the Dawn Age, and began the Age of Heroes." GOT Bran 66

... End of Dawn Age.

" So long as the kingdoms of the First Men held sway , the Pact endured, all through the Age of Heroes and the Long Night and the birth of the Seven Kingdoms, yet finally there came a time, many centuries later, when other people crossed the narrow sea..." GOT Bran 66

Beginning of Age of Heroes...

King Durran the Storm King of Storm's End vs. Sea God and Wind Godess

" The songs said that Storm's End had been raised in ancient days by Durran, the first Storm King, who had won the love of the fair Elenei, daughter of the sea god and the goddess of the wind. On the night of their wedding, Elenei had yielded her maidenhood to a mortal's love and thus doomed herself to a mortal's death, and her grieving parents had unleashed their wrath and sent the winds and the waters to batter Durran's Hold. His friends and brothers and wedding guests were crushed beneath the collapsing walls or blown out to sea, but Elenei sheltered Durran within her arms so he took no harm, and when the dawn came at last he declared war upon the gods and vowed to rebuild." COK Catelyn 31

" Five more castles he built, each larger and stonger that the last, only to see them smashed asunder when the gale winds came howling up Shipbreaker Bay, driving great walls of water before them. His Lords pleaded with him to build inland; his priests told him he must placate the gods by giving Elenei back to the sea; even his small folk begged him to relent. Durran would have none of it. A seventh castle he raised , most massive of all. Some said the children of the forest helped him build it, shaping the stones with magic; others claimed that a small boy told him what he must do, a boy who would grow to be Bran the Builder. No matter how the tale was told the end was the same. Though the angry gods threw storm after storm against it, the seventh castle stood defiant, and Durran Godsgrief and the fair Elenei dwelt there togther until the end of their days." COK Catelyn 31

" The youngest of the Great Houses, Born during the Wars of Conquest. Its founders, Orys Baratheon, was rumored to be Aegon the Dragon's bastard brother. Orys rose through the ranks to become one of Aegon's fiercest commanders. When he defeated and slew Argilac the Arrogant, the Last Storm King, Aegon rewarded him with Argilac's castle, lands, and daughter. Orys took the girl to bride, and adopted the banner, honors, and words of her line. The Bartheon sigil is a crowned stag, black on a golden field. Their words are Ours is the Fury." Appendix House Baratheon GOT

The Grey King of Old Wyk and Drowned God vs. Storm God

"the Seastone Chair, carved in the shape of a great kraken from an immense block of oily black stone. Legend said that the First Men had found it standing on the shore of Old Wyk when they came to the Iron Islands." COK Theon 24

• " The Drowned God shall decide who sits the Seastone Chair," the priest said. AFFC The Prophet 1
  

• " The Drowned God makes men, old King Urron Redhand had once said, but it's men who make crowns." COK Theon 11
  

• " It is flame the Drowned God brought from the sea and it proclaims a rising tide. It is time to hoist our sails and go forth into the world with fire and sword, as he did." COK Theon 11
  

" For a thousand thousand years sea and sky had been at war. From the sea had come the iron born..." AFFC Prophet 1

" Tell me true, nephew. Do you pray to the wolf god's now? Theon seldom prayed at all, but that was not something you confessed to a priest, even your father's own brother. Ned Stark prayed to a tree. No, I care nothing for Stark's gods." COK Theon 11

• " Or do you want me dead? Is that it Luwin? the truth now. The small grey man was unafraid. My order serves. Yes but whom, The realm, Maester Luwin said, and Winterfell. So long as you hold Winterfell I am bound to give you counsel." COK Theon 66
  

• " I took this castle and I mean to hold it, to live or die as Prince of Winterfell." COK Theon 66
  

• " I am a Greyjoy of Pyke, Theon reminded him. The cloak my father swaddled me in bore a Kraken, not a Direwolf." COK Theon 66
  

• " Robb will never look on Winterfell again, Theon promised. He will break himself on Moat Cailin, as every southern army has done for ten thousand years." COK Theon 66
  

• " Reek stepped close. Strip off their skins, he urged his thick lips glistening. Lord Bolton, he used to say a naked man has few secrets, but a flayed man's go none. The Flayed man was the sigil of House Bolton, Theon knew; ages past, certain of their lords had gone so far as to cloak themselves in the skins of dead enemies. A number of Starks had ended thus. Supposedly all that had stopped a thousand years, ago when the Boltons had bent their knees to winterfell. Or say they say, but old ways die hard, as well I know." COK 50
  

• " The Sky was a gloom of cloud, the woods dead and frozen. Roots grabbed at Theon's feet as he ran, and bare branches lashed his face, leaving thin stripes of blood across his cheeks. He crashed through heedless, breathless, icicles flying to pieces before him. Mercy,he sobbed. From behind him came a shuddering howl that curdled his blood. Mercy, Mercy. When he glanced back over his shoulder he saw them coming, great wolves the size of horses with the heads of small children. Oh, mercy, mercy. Blood dripped from their mouths black as pitch, burning holes in the snow where it fell. Every stride brought them closer. Theon tried to run faster, but his legs would not obey. The trees all had faces, and they were laughing at him, laughing and then the howl came again. He could smell the hot breath of the beasts behind him..." COK Theon 56
  

• " The night before, it had been the miller's wife. Theon had forgotten her name, but he remembered her body, soft pillowy breasts and stretch marks on her belly, the way she clawed his back when he fucked her. Last night in his dream he had been in bed with her once again but this time she had teeth above and below, and she tore out his throat even as she was gnawing off his manhood. It was madness..." COK Theon 56
  

" Only Maester Luwin had the stomach to come near. Stone-faced, the small grey man had begged leave to se the boy's heads back on to their shoulders, so they might be laid in the crypts below with the other Stark dead. No, theon had told him. Not the crypts. But why my lord? Surely they cannot harm you now. It is where they belong. All the bones of the Starks..." COK Theon 56

• " I said no, He needed the heads on the wall, but he burned the headless bodies that very day, in all their finery. Afterward he had knelt amongst the bones and ashes to retrieve a slag of melted silver and cracked jet, all that remained of the wolf's head brooch that had once been Bran's. He had it still..." COK Theon 56
  

• " You'd like that wouldn't you? To see my prize reduced to ruins and ashes. Your prize will be the doom of you. Krakens rise from the sea, Theon, or did you forget that during you years among the wolves?" COK Theon 56
  

• " No, Theon adjusted his crown. I took this castle and I mean to hold it. his sister looked at him a long time. The hold it you shall, she said, for the rest of your life. She sighed, It tastes of folly but what would a shy maid know of such things. At the door she gave him one last mocking smile. You ought to know that is the ugliest crown I've ever laid eyes on. Did you make it yourself?"COK Theon 56
  

" But there were others with face's he had never known in life, faces he had only seen in stone. The slim, sad girl who wore a crown of pale blue roses and a white gown spattered with gore could only be Lyanna. Her brother Brandon stood beside her, and their father Lord Rickard just behind. Along the walls figures half seen moved through the shadows, pale shades with long grim faces. The sight of them sent fear shivering through Theon as sharp as a knife. And then the tall doors open with a crash, and a freezing gale blew down the hall, and Robb came walking out of the night. Grey Wind stalked beside, eyes burning, and man and wolf alike bled from a hundred savage wounds." COK Theon 56

• "The red leaves of the weirwood were a blaze of flame among the green. Ned Stark's tree, he thought, and Stark's wood, and Stark's castle, Stark's sword, Stark's gods. This is their place, not mine. I am a Greyjoy of Pyke, born to paint a kraken on my shield and sail the great salt sea." COK Theon 56
  

• " Maester Luwin said there was nothing in dreams a mad need fear. There is. What? The past, the future and the truth." COK Bran 50
  

• " I'm Prince Theon now. We're both princes, Bran. Who would have dreamed it? But I've taken your castle, my prince. Winterfell? bran shook his head. No you couldn't. You and I are going to speak to them. You'll tell them how you've yielded Winterfell to me, and command them to serve and obey their new lord as they did the old." COK Bran 50
  

• " You must look princely. Theon wants me to yield the castle, Bran said as the maester was fastening the cloak with his favorite wolf's head clasp of silver and jet. There is no shame in that. A lord must protect his smallfolk. Cruel places breed cruel peoples, remember that you deal with these ironmen. Your lord father did what he could to gentle Theon, but I fear it as too little and too late." COK Bran
  

• " Theon Greyjoy was seated in the high seat of the Starks. He had taken off his cloak. Over a shirt of fine mail he wore a black surcoat emblazoned with the golden, Kraken of his House. His hands rested on the wolves' heads carved at the ends of the wide stone arms. Theon's sitting in Robb's chair, Rickon said." COK Bran
  

" I've yielded Winterfell to Theon. Louder Bran, and call me prince. He raised his voice. I've yielded Winterfell to Prince Theon. All of you should do as he commands you." COK Bran

" My father has donned the ancient crown of salt and rock, and declared himself King of the Iron Islands. He claims the north as well, by right of conquest. You are all his subjects.' COK Theon

" One of the ironmen handed Reek a sword, and he laid it at Theon's feet and swore obedience to House Greyjoy and King Balon. Bran could not look. The green dream had come true." COK Theon

• " The ironmen will tell you what is dead may never die, but rises again, harder and stronger. Like Reek. He smells of the grave, though, I grant you that." ADWD Reek
  

• "As he climbed a wide flight of wooden steps to the hall, Reek's legs began to shake. He had to stop to steady them, staring up at the grassy slopes of the Great Barrow. Some claimed it was the grave of the First King, who had led men First Men to Westeros. Others argued that it must be some King of Giants who was buried there, to account for its size." ADWD Reek
  

• " Unless the gods were good, and Stannis descended on Winterfell and put all them to the sword, himself included. That was the best he could hope for." ADWD Reek
  

" The bride was garbed in white and grey, the colors the true Arya would have worn had she lived long enough to wed. Theon wore black and gold, his cloak pinned to his shoulder by a crude iron kraken that a smith in Barrowtown had hammered together for him. A Stark at last, he thought. Arm in arm, the bride and he passed through an arched stone door, as wisps of fog stirred round their legs. The drum was tremulous as a maiden's heart, the pipes high and sweet and beckoning. Up above the treetops, a crescent moon was floating in a dark sky half obscrued by mist, like an eye peering through a veil of silk." ADWD The Prince of Winterfell

• " Theon Greyjoy was no stranger to this godswood. He had played here as a boy, skipping stones across the cold black pool beneath the weirwood, hiding his treasures in the bole of an ancient oak, stalking squirrels with a bow he made himself. Later, older, he had soaked his bruises in the hot springs after many a session in the yard with Robb and Jory and Jon Snow. In amongst these chestnuts and elms and soldier pines he had found secret places where he could hide he wanted to be alone. The first time he had ever kissed a girl had been here. Later, a different girl had made a man of him upon a ragged quilt in the shade of that tall grey-green sentinel. He had never seen the godswood like this, though grey and ghostly filled with warm mists and floating lights and whispered voices that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere." ADWD The Prince of Winterfell
  

• " Theon stepped back, and Ramsay and his bride joined hands and knelt before the heart tree, bowing their heads in token of submission. The weirwood's carved red eyes stared down at them, its great red mouth open as if to laugh. In the branches overhead a raven quorked." ADWD The Prince of Winterfell
  

" The musicians began to play again, and the bard Abel began to sing " Two hearts That Beat as One. Two of his women joined their voices to his own to make a sweet harmony. Theon found himself wondering if he should say a prayer. Will the old gods hear me if i do? They were not his gods, had never been his gods. He was ironborn, a son of Pyke, his god was the Drowned God of the islands... but Winterfell was long leagues from the sea. It had been a lifetime since any god had heard him. He did not know who he was, or what he was, why he was alive, why he had ever been born. Theon, a voice seemed to whisper." ADWD The Prince of Winterfell

" You could pay me with a smile. I've never seen you smile, not even during your sister's wedding feast. If you have no smile for me, tell me how you captured Winterfell. Abel will put you in a song and you will live forever. As a betrayer. As Theon Turncloak... Why not Theon the Clever? It was a daring feat, the way we heard it." ADWD The Turncloak

" Im crying because we never found the Horn of Winter. We opened half a hundrend graves and let all those shades loose in the world, and never found the Horn of Joramun to bring this cold thing down!" SOS Jon

" He is not what i expected. What did you bastard do to him? Removed some skin, i would imagine, and a few small parts. Nothing to essential. Is he mad? He may be. Does it matter? " ADWD Reek

" You know this castle? Once. Somewhere beneath us are the crypts where the old Stark Kings sit in darkness. My men have not been able to find the way down into them. The have been through all the undercrofts and cellars, even the dungeons, but.... The crypts can't be accessed from the dungeons my lady. Can you show me the way down? There's nothing down there but.. dead Starks? aye and all my favorite starks are dead, as it happens. Do you know the way or not? I do. He did not like the crypts, had never liked the crypts, but he was no stranger to them." ADWD The Turncloak

" Streaks of rust remained where a longsword should have been. The sight disquieted him. He had always heard that the iron in the sword kept the spirits of the dead locked within their tombs." ADWD The Turncloak

• " I'm crying because we never found the Horn of Winter. We opened half a hundred graves and let all those shades loose in the world, and never found the Horn of Joramun to bring this cold thing down!" SOS Jon
  

• " Whenever Sam thought of the cache Jon buried beneath the Fist it made same want to cry. an old broken horn..." SOS Samwell
  

• " Holly the whore. Once he might have laughed and pulled her onto his lap. What do you want? To see the crypts..." ADWD Ghost in Winterfell
  

• " under the ruined keep, my lord replied big walder. The one with the old gargoyles. The boys gloves were caked with his cousins blood. I told him not to go alone, but said he had to find a man who owed him silver." ADWD Theon
  

• " Mance never found the horn though, that's something. The Horn of Winter, that's what he was digging up along the Milkwater. Maester Aemon paused washcloth in hand. The Horn of Winter is an ancient legend. Does the King-beyond-the-Wall truly believe that such a thing exists? They all do. Ygritte said they opended a hundred graves of king and heroes..." SOS
  

" Get her up Turncloak. And if she screams, said Rowan. We are all dead, Theon thought. I told them this was folly, but none of them would listen. Abel had doomed them. All singers were half mad. In songs, the hero always saved the maiden from the monster's castle, but life was not a song, no more than Jeyne was Arya Stark. And there are no heroes here, only whores. Even so, he knelt beside her, pulled down the furs, touched her cheek. You know me. I'm Theon, you remember. I know you too. I know your name. Come with us. With me. We will take you away from here. Away from him. Theon slipped his hand through hers. The stumps of his lost fingers tingled as he drew the girl to her feet." ADWD Theon

"Then do the deed yourself, Your Grace. The chill in Asha's voice made Theon shiver in his chains. "Take him out across the lake to the islet where the weirwood grows, and strike his head off with that sorcerous sword you bear. That is how Eddard Stark would have done it. Theon slew Lord Eddard's sons. Give him to Lord Eddard's gods. The old gods of the north. Give him to the tree. And suddenly there came a wild thumping, as the maester's ravens hopped and flapped inside their cages, their black feathers flying as they beat against the bars with loud and raucous caws. "The tree," one squawked, "the tree, the tree," whilst the second screamed only, "Theon, Theon, Theon.Theon Greyjoy smiled. They know my name, he thought." Winds of Winter

" In those days, the iron born did not work mines that was a labor for the captives brought back from the hostings, and so too the sorry business of farming and tending goats and sheep. War was an iron man's proper trade. The Drowned God had made them to reave and rape, carve out kingdoms and write their names in fire and blood and song." COK Theon 11

" They say the red comet is a herald of a new age. A messenger from the gods. A sign it is, the priest agreed, but from our god not theirs. A burning brand it is, such as our people carried of old." COK Theon 11

" I have been consulting Haereg's History of the Ironborn. When last the Salt Kings and the Rock Kings met in Kingsmoot, Urron of Orkmont let his axemen loose among them, and Nagga's ribs turned red with gore. House Greyiron ruled unchosen for a thousand years form that dark day, until the Andals came." AFFC The Krakens Daughter 11

• " On the Crown of the hill four and forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees. The sight made Aerion's heart beat faster. Nagga had been the first sea dragon, this mightiest ever to rise from the waves. She fed on krakens and leviathans and drownded whole islands in her wrath, yet the Grey King had slain her and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings. Nagga's ribs became beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became this throne. For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled. Here he took his mermaid wife and planned his wars against the Storm God. From here he ruled both stone and salt, wearing robes of woven seaweed and a tall pale crown made from Nagga's teeth." AFFC the Drowned Man 19
  

" He could taste the ocean on his lips. Let Theon your servant be born again from the sea, as you were, Aeron Greyjoy intoned. Bless him with salt, bless him with stone, bless him with steel. Nephew do you still know the words? What is dead may never die, Theon said remembering. What is dead may never die, his uncled echoed, but rises again harder and stronger. Stand." COK Theon 11

" Some speak of giant ice spiders too. I don't know what those are. Men who fall in battle against the Others must be burned. or else the dead will rise again as their thralls.We knew all this. The question is, how do we fight them?" AFFC Samwell 15

" But that was the dawn of days, when might men still dwelt on earth and sea. the hall had been warmed by Nagga's living fire, which the Grey King had made his thrall. On its walls hung tapestries woven from silver seaweed most pleasing to the eyes. The Grey King's warriors had feasted on the bounty of the sea at a table in the shape of a great starfish, while seated upon thrones carved from mother-of-pearl. Gone, all the glory gone. Men were smaller now. Theirs lives had grown short. The Storm God drowned Nagga's fire after the Grey King's death, the chairs and tapestries had been stolen, the roof and walls had rotted away. Even the Grey King's great throne of fangs had been swallowed by the sea.Only Nagga's bones endured to remind the ironborn of all the wonder that had been." AFFC The Drowned Man 19

" Point your prow towards Old Wyk where stood the Grey King's Hall." AFFC The Prophet 1

" Yet in the dawn days the ironbron chose their own kings, raising up the worthiest them. It is timed we returned to the Old Way, for that shall make us great again." AFFC The Prophet 1

• " The Greyjoys of Pyke claim descent from the Grey King of the Age of Heores. Legends Says the Grey King ruled not only the western Isles but the sea itself, and took a mermaid to wife." Appendix House Greyjoy GOT
  

• " For thousands of years, raiders from the Iron Islands, called " ironmen" by those the plundered, were the terrors of the seas, sailing as far as the port of Ibben and the Summer Isles. They prided themselves on their fierceness in battle and their sacred freedoms. Each island had its own " salt king " & " rock king ". The High King of the Isles was chosen from among their number, until king Urron made the throne hereditary by murdering the other kings when they assembled for a choosing. Urron's own line was extinguished a thousand years later when the Andals swept over the islands." Appendix House Greyjoy GOT
  

• " King Harren the Black ruled all the lands between the mountains, from the Neck to the Blackwater rush. When Harren and his sons perished in the fall of Harrenhal, Aegon Targaryen granted the riverlands to House Tully, and allowed the surviving lords of the Iron Islands to revive their ancient custom and chose who should have primacy among them. They chose Lord Vickon Greyjoy of Pyke. The Greyjoy sigil is a golden kracken upon a black field, Their words are We Do Not Sow." Appendix House Greyjoy GOT
  

• " Aegon the dragon had destroyed the Old Way when he burned Black Harren, gave Harren's kingdom back to the weakling rivermen, and reduced the Iron Islands to an insignificant backwater of a much greater realm. Yet the old red tales were still told around driftwood fires." COK Theon
  

The Marsh King and the Forgotten Kingdom of Greywater Watch

"They were the Kings of Winter, Bran whispered. They were Kings in the North for thousands of years. That one is Jon Stark. When the sea raiders landed in the east, he drove them out and built the castle at White Harbor. His son was Rickard Stark, not my father's father but another Rickard. He took the neck away, from the Mash King and married his daughter." GOT Bran 66

" The Lady Meera of House Reed with her brother Jojen of Greywater Watch.Crannogmen. From the Neck. My Lords of Stark, the girl said. The years have passed in their hundreds and thousands since my folk first swore their fealty to the King in the North. My lord father has sent us here to say the words, again, for all our people. To Winterfell we pledge the faith of Greywater they said together. Hearth and heart and harvest we yield up to you, my lord. Our swords and spears and arrows are your to command. Grant mercy to our weak, help to our helpless, and justice to all, and we shall never fail you. I swear it by earth and water said the boy in green. I swear it by bronze an iron his sister said. We swear it by ice and fire. they finished together." COK Bran 21

• " Just beyond, through the mists, she glimpsed the walls and towers of Moat Cailin... or what remained of them. Immense blocks of black basalt, each as large as a crofer's cottage, lay scattered and tumbled like a child's wooden blocks, half- sunk in the soft boggy soil. Nothing else remained of a curtain wall that had once stood as high as Winterfells's. The wooden keep was gone entirely, rotted away thousands of years past, with not so much a timber to mark where it had stood. All that was left of the great strong hold of the First Men were three towers... three where there had once been twenty, if the taletellers could be believed." GOT Catelyn 55
  

• " And the tall, slender Children's Tower, where legend said the children of the forest had once called upon their nameless gods to send the hammer of the waters, had lost half its crown. It looked as if some great beast had taken a bite out of the renellations along the tower tip, and spit the rubble across the bog. All three towers were greeen with moss. A tree was growing out between the stones on the north side of he Gatehouse tower, its gnarled limbs restooned with ropy white blankets of ghostskin. Gods have mercy, Ser Brynden the Blackfish exlaimed when he saw what lay before them. This is Moat Cailin? It's no more than a... death trap, Catelyn finished." GOT Catelyn 55
  

" Do you know any stories? he asked the Reeds all of a sudden. Meera laughed. Oh a few. A few her brother admitted. You could tell one, said bran. Hodor likes stories about knights and I do too. There are no knights in the Neck, said Jojen. Above the water, his sister corrected. The bogs are full of dead ones though. That is true, said Jojen. Andals and Ironmen, Freys and other fools,all proud warriors who set out to conquer Greywater. Not one of them could find it. They ride into the neck, but not back out." SOS Bran 24

" Once there was a curious lad who lived in the Neck. He was small like all crannogmen, but brave and spart and strong as well. He grew up hunting, and fishing, and climbing trees and learned all the magics of my people. Bran was almost certain he had never heard this story. Did he have green dreams like Jojen? No said meera. But he could breathe mud and run on leaves, and change earth to water and water to earth with no more than a whispered word. He could talk to trees and weave words and make castles appear and disappear. I wish i could, Bran said plaintively. When does he meet the tree Knight?" SOS Bran 24

" The lad knew the magic of the crannogs but he wanted more. He decided he would leave the crannogs and visit the Isle of Faces. It was the green men he meant to find. So he donned a shirt sewn with bronze scales, like mine, took up a leathern shield and a three pronged spear, like mine, and paddled down the Green Fork. He passed beneath the Twins by night so the Freys would not attack him, and when he reached the Trident he climbed from the river and put his boat on his head and began to walk. It took him many a day, but he finally reached the Gods Eye, threw his boat in the lake, and paddled out to the Isle of Faces. Did he meet the green men? yes said meera but that's another story, and not for me to tell." SOS Bran 24

" All that winter the crannogman stayed on the isle, but when the spring broke he heard the wide world calling and knew the time had come to leave. His skin boat was just where he left it, so he said farewells and paddled off toward shore. He rowed and rowed, and finally saw the distant towers of the castle rising beside the lake. The towers reached ever higher as he neared shore, until he realized that this must be the greatest castle in all the world." SOS Bran 24

" His heart was torn. Crannogmen are smaller than most, but just as proud. The lad was no knight, no more than any of his people. We sit a boat more often than a horse, and our hands are made for oars, not lances. Much as he wished to have his vengeance, he feared he would only make a fool of himself and shame his people. The Quiet Wolf had offered the little crannogman a place in his tent that night, but before he slept he knelt on the lakeshore, looking across the water to where the Isle of Faces would be, and said a prayer to the old gods of North and Neck..." SOS Bran 24

" Teach your squires honor, that shall be ransom enough. Once the defeated knights chastised their squires sharply, their horses and armor were returned. And so the little crannogman's prayer was answered... by the green men, or the old gods, or the children of the forest, who can say?" SOS Bran 24

" He could no longer tell the differences between waking and sleeping. The memory came creeping upon him in the darkness, as vivid as a dream. It was the year of the false spring, and he was eighteen again, down from the Eyrie to the tourney of Harrenhal." GOT Eddard 58

House Mudd of Oldstones and The Kings of Rivers and Hills

" A wise king keeps his own counsel. They reached Oldstones after eight more days of steady rain, and made their camp upon the hill overlooking the Blue Fork, within a ruined stronghold of the ancient river kings. Its foundations remained amongst the weeds to show where wallas and keeps had stood, but the local small folk had long ago made off with most of the stones to raise their barns and septs and holdfasts. Yet in the center of what would have been the castle's yard, a great tall carved sepulcher still rested, half hidden in waist tall grass." SOS Catelyn 45

" Does this castle have a name? he asked quietly when she came to him. Oldstones, all the small folk called it when i was a girl, but no doubt it had some other name when it was still a hall of kings. She had camped her with her father, on their way to Seagard. Petyr was with us too... There is a song, he remembered. Jenny of Oldstones with flowers in her hair. We are all just songs in the end if we are lucky son. She had played at being Jenny that day, had even had flowers in her hair and Petyr pretended to be her Prince of Dragonflies." SOS Catelyn 45

• " The lid of the sepulcher had been carved into a likeness of the man whose bones lay beneath, but the rain and the wind had done their work. The king wore a beard, they could see, but otherwise his face was smooth and featureless, with only vague suggestions of a mouth, a nose , eyes, and the crown at his temples. His hands folded over the stone shaft of his warhammer that lay upon his chest. Once the warhammer would have been carved with runes that told his name and history, but all the centuries had worn that away." SOS Catelyn 45
  

• " Whose grave is this? Here lies Tristifer, the fourth of his name, King of Rivers and Hills. Her father had told her this story once. He ruled from trident to the neck, thousands of years before Jenny and her prince, in the days when the Kingdoms of First Men were falling one after another to before the onslaught of the Andals. The Hammer of Justice, they called him. He fought a hundred battles and won nine and ninety, or so the singers say, and when he raised his castle it was the strongest in Westeros. He died in his hundreth battle, when seven Andal kings joined forces against him. The fifth Tristifer was not his equal, and soon the kingdom was lost, and the castle and last of all the line. With Tristifer the Fifth died House Mudd, that ruled the riverlands a thousand years before the Andals came." SOS Catelyn 45
  

" Why did the wed if they did not love each other? Your grandshire commanded it. A woods witch had told him that the prince who was promised would be born of their line. A woods witch? She came to court with Jenny of Oldstones. A stunted thing, grotesque to look upon. A dwarf, most people said, though dear to Lady Jenny, who always claimed that she was one of the children of the forest. What became of her? Summerhall. the word was fraught with doom." ADWD Dany 23

" As you wish, said Whitbeard. As a young boy, the prince of Dragonstone was bookish to a fault. He was reading so early that men said Queen Rhaella must have swallowed some books and a candle whilst he was in her womb. Until one day Prince Rhaegar found something in his scrolls that changed him. I will require a sword and armor. It seems i must be a warrior." SOS Dany 8

" I am not certain it was in Rhaegar to be happy. You make him sound sour, dany protested. Not sour, no but... there was a melancholy to Prince Rhaegar, a sense... of doom. He was born in grief, my queen, and that shadow hung over him all his days." SOS Dany 42

" Did you know my brother Rhaegar well? It was said no man ever knew Prince Rhaegar truly, said Whitebeard. But i did have the pleasure of seeing him tourney though, and often heard him play the harp with its silver strings." SOS Dany 8

" But what tourneys did my brother win? asked dany. He won the greatest tourney of them all. Which tourney was that? The tourney Lord Whent staged at Harrenhal besides the God's Eye, in the year of the False Spring." SOS Dany 42

" Yet when the jousting began, the day belonged to Rhaegar Targaryen. The crown prince wore the armor he would die in: gleaming black plate with the three-headed dragon of his house wrought in rubies on his breast. A plume of scarlet silk streamed behind him when he rode, and it seemed no lance could touch him." GOT Eddard 58

" The thought of drowned knight under the water gave Bran the shivers. He didn't object, though; he liked the shivers. There was one knight, said Meera. In the year of the False Spring. The Knight of the Laughing Tree, they called him." SOS Bran 24

" If walls could keep us small, peasants would be tiny and kings as large as giants, said Ser Jorah, yet i have seen men born in hovels, and dwarfs who dwelt in castles. Men are men, whitebeard replied. Dragons are Dragons." SOS Dany 8

" How profound. What do you know of dragons anyway?, asked Ser Jorah. Little enough that's true, yet i have served for a time in King's Landing in the Days when King Aerys sat the throne, and walked beneath the dragonskulls that looked down from the walls of his throne room." SOS Dany 8

" Did you know my royal father? I had that great honor your grace. Did you find him good and gentle? His grace was... often pleasant. Often but not always? He could be harsh to those he thought were his enemies." SOS Dany 8

" Yet even so, the hair on the back of her neck stood up that night. She had been asleep, but the storm had woke her. The wind pulled the coverlet right off her and sent it swirling into the bushes. when she went after it she heard voices." SOS Arya 22

• " Beside the embers of the campfire she was Tom Sevenstrings talking to a tiny little women, a foot shorter that Arya and older than Old Nan, all stooped and wrinkled and leaning on a gnarled black cane. Her white hair was so long it came almost to the ground. When the wind gusted it blew about her head in a fine cloud. her flesh was whiter, the color of milk, and it seemed to Arya that her eyes were red. The olds gods stir and wont let me sleep, she said." SOS Arya 22
  

• " All this i dreamt, and more. Do you have gifts for me, to pay me for my dreams? And then she said to Tom Sevenstrings, I will have my song or i will have you gone. So the singer played for her, so soft and sad..." SOS Arya 22
  

• " They had come back to High Heart. Ghost's she remembered, High Heart is haunted. Arya spied the small pale shape creeping behind the horses, thin white hair flying wild as she leaned upon a gnarled cane. The woman could not have been more than three feet tall. The firelight made her eyes gleam as red as the eyes of Jon's wolf. He was a ghost too..." SOS Arya 43
  

• " The Ember come to honor me again, and his Grace The Lord of Corpses. Give me wine or i will go. My bones are old. My joints ache when the winds do blow, and up here the winds are always blowing.Lord Beric replies, A silver stag for your dreams milady and another if you have news for us. I cannot eat a silver stag, nor ride one. A skin of wines for my dreams and a kiss. My hair comes out in handfuls and no one has kissed me for a thousand years. It is hard to be so old. Well I will have a song then. A song from Tom O Sevens for my news." SOS Arya 43
  

" You cannot hide from me child. Come closer now. Cold fingers walked down Arya's neck. Fear cuts deeper than swords, she reminded herself. She stood and approached the fire warily... I see you, she whispered. I see you, wolf child. Blood child. I thought it was the Lord that smelled of death... She began to sob, her little body shaking. You are cruel to come to my hill, cruel. I gorged on grief at Summerhall, I need none of yours, Begone from here, dark heart. Begone! " SOS Arya 43

" And yet Sumerhall was the place the prince loved best. He would go there from time to time, with only his harp for company. Even the Knights of the Kingsguard did not attend him there. He liked to sleep in the ruined hall, beneath the moon and star, and whenever he came back he would have a song. When you heard him play his high harp with the silver strings and sing of twilights and tears and the death of kings, you could not feel that he was singing of himself and those he loved." SOS Dany 42

" The Dragon Prince sang a song so sad it made the wolf maid sniffle, but when her pup brother teased her for crying she poured wine over his head." COK Bran 24

" I'm Jon Snow, she flinched, An evil name, she said. A bastard name he said. My father was Lord Stark of Winterfell." COK Jon 51

" Where they your kin? he asked her quietly. No more than you are, she said. He frowned... Me? What do you mean? You said you were the Bastard of Winterfell. I am. Who was your mother? Some women. Most of them are, he said. Some one had told him to say that once but he did not remember who..." COK Jon 51

• " The Maesters will tell you that King Jaehaerys abolished the lord's right to the first night to appease his shrewish queen, but where the old gods rule, old customs linger. and on Skagos...well, only heart trees see half of what they do on Skagos." ADWD Reek
  

• " Across the lake, the tower was black again, a dim shape dimly seen. A queen lived there? asked Ygritte. A queen stayed there for a night. Old Nan had told him the story, but Maester Luwin had confirmed most of it. Alysanne, the wife of King Jaehaerys the Councilitator. He's called the Old King because he reigned so long, but he was young when he first came to the Iron Throne. In those days, it was his wont to travel all over the realm. When he came to Winterfell, he brought the queen, six dragons, and half his court. The king had matters to discuss with his Warden of the North, and Alysanne grew bored, so she visited the Wall. This village was one of the places where she stopped. Afterward the smallfolk painted the top of their holdfast to look like the golden crown she'd worn when she spent the night among them. I have never seen a dragon. No one has. The last dragons died a hundred years ago."
  

" And she never sung you the song o' the winter rose? I never knew my mother, or any such song, said Jon Snow. Bael the Bard made it, said Ygritte. He was king beyond the wall a long time back. All the free folk know his songs, but might be you don't sing them in the south." COK Jon 51

" Tell me, Jon urged her. I want to hear this tale of yours. Might be you won't like it much, she say. I will hear it all the same. Brave Black Crow, she mocked." COK Jon 51

" The maid loved Bael so dearly she bore him a son, the song says... though if truth be told, all the maids love Bael in them songs he wrote. Be that as it may, what's certain is that Bael left the child in payment for the rose he'd plucked unasked, and the boy grew up to be the next Lord Stark. So there it is... you have Bael's blood in you, same as me. It never happened, Jon Snow said." COK Jon 51

• " naming himself Sygerrik of Skagos. Sygerrik means "deciever" in the Old Tongue, that the first men spoke, and the giants still speak." COK Jon 51
  

• " the man you mistook for me is Styr, Magnar of Thenn. Magnar means " lord" in the Old Tongue." SOS Jon
  

• " the Magnar's a lord on Skagos, Noye said. There were Skagossons at Eastwatch when I first came to the Wall, I remember hearing them talk of him. jon was using the word in its older sense, I think, Maseter Aemon said, not as a family name but as a title. It derives from the Old Tongue. It means lord, Jon agreed. Styr is the Magnar of some place called Thenn. " SOS Jon
  

" Which Brandon was this supposed to be? Brandon the Builder lived in the Age of Heroes, thousands of years before Bael. There was Brandon the Burner and this father Brandon the Shipwright, but... This was Brandon the Daughterless, Ygritte said sharply." COK 51

" Ned remembered the moment when all the smiles died, when Prince Rhaegar urged his horse past his own wife, the Dornish Princess Elia Martell, to lay the queen of beauty's laurel in Lyanna's lap. He could see it still: a crown of winter roses, blue as frost. Ned Stark reached out his hand to grasp the flowery crown, but beneath the pale blue petals the thorns lay hidden. He felt them clawing at his skin, sharp and cruel, saw the slow trickle of blood run down his fingers, and woke, trembling, in the dark." GOT Eddard 58

" I will have my payment now. I will have the song you promised me. The same song as before? he asked. Oh aye. My Jenny's Song. Is there another? And so he sang, and the dwarf women closed her eyes and rocked slowly back and forth, murmuring the words and crying. Thoros took arya by the hand and drew here aside. Let her have her song in peace, he said. It is all she has left. Not long after , the sky opened. Lightning cracked and thunder rolled across the hills, the rain fell in blinding sheets. The dwarf women vanished as quickly as she had appeared." SOS Arya 43

" The Tullys never reigned as kings, though they held rich land and the great castle Rivverrun for a thousand years. During the Wars of Conquest, the riverlands belonged to Harren the Black, King of the Isles. Harren's grandfather, King Harwyn Hardhand, had take the Trident from Arrec the Storm King, whose ancestors had conquered all the way to the Neck three hundred years earlier, slaying the last of the old River Kings. a vain and bloody tyrant, Harren the Black was little loved by those he ruled, and many river lords deserted him to join Aegon's host. First among them was Edmyn Tully of Riverrrun. When Harren and his line perished in the burning of Harrenhal, Aegon rewarded House Tully by raising Lord Edmyn to dominion over the lands of the Trident and requiring the other river lords to swear him fealty. The Tully sigil is a leaping trout, silver, on a field of rippling blue and red. The Tully words are Family, Duty , Honor." Appendix Tully GOT

Lann the Clever of Casterly Rock

" The Lannisters were an old family, tracing their decent back to Lann the Clever, a trickster from the Age of Heroes who was no doubt as legendary as Bran the Builder, though far more beloved of singers and taletellers. In the songs, Lann was the fellow who winkled the Casterlys out of Casterly Rock with no weapon but his wits, and stole gold from the sun to brighten his curly hair." GOT Eddard 27

" no more real than the ghost of Lann the Clever that some claim haunts Casterly Rock, even so he held his tounge." ADWD Tyrion 8

" Fair-haired, tall, and handsome, the Lannisters are the blood of Andal adventurers who carved out a mighty kingdom in the western hills and valleys. Through the female line they boast of descent from Lann the Clever, the legendary trickster of the Age of Heroes. The gold of Casterly Rock and the Golden Tooth has made them the wealthiest of the Great houses. Their sigil is a golden lion upon a crimson field. The Lannister words are Hear Me Roar!" Appendix House Lannister GOT

" This is Andalos, my friend. The Land your Andals came from. They took it form the hairy men who were here before them, cousins to the hairy men of Ib. The heart of Hugor's ancient realm lies north of us, but we are passing thought its southern marches. Andalos. the Faith taught that the seven themselves had once wallked the hills of Andalos in human form. The father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars, Tyrion recited from memory, and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown." ADWD Tyrion 2

" What sort of gods make rats and plagues and dwarfs? Another passage from the Seven Pointed Star came back to him. The maid broght him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools, and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the mother made her fertile, and the Crone fortold that she would bear the king four and fourty might sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the smith wrought for each a suit of iron plates." ADWD Tyrion 2

" If walls could keep us small, peasants would be tiny and kings as large as giants, said Ser Jorah, yet i have seen men born in hovels, and dwarfs who dwelt in castles. Men are men, whitebeard replied. Dragons are Dragons." SOS Dany 8

" Why do you read so much? Tyrion looked up at the sound of the voice. Jon Snow was standing a few feet away, regarding him curiously. He closed the book on a finger and said, Look at me and tell me what you see. The boy looked at him suspiciously. Is this some kind of trick? I see you Tyrion Lannister. Tyrion sighed, You are remarkably polite for a bastard, Snow. What you see is a dwarf." GOT Tyrion 13

" What are you reading about? he asked. Dragons, Tyrion told him. What good is that? There are no more dragons," the boy said with the easy certainty of you. So they say, sad isn't it? When i was your age, I used to dream of having a dragon of my own. You did? the boy asked suspiciously. Perhaps he thought Tyrion was making fun of him..." GOT Tyrion 13

" Oh yes. Even a stunted twisted, ugly little boy can look down over the world when he's seated on a dragon's back. I used to start fires in the bowels of Casterly Rock and stare at the flames for hours, pretending they were dragonfire. Sometimes I'd imagine my father burning, at other times my sister." GOT Tyrion 13

" When he was still a lonely child in the depths of Casterly Rock, he oft rode dragons through the nights, pretending he was some lost Targaryen princeling, or Valyrian dragonlord soaring high o'er fields and moutains." ADWD Tyrion 21

" Jon Snow was staring at him, a look equal parts horror and fascination. Tyrion guffawed. Don't look at me that way bastard. I know your secret. You've dreamnt the same kind of dreams.No, Jon Snow said horrified, I wouldn't... No? Never? Tyrion raised an eyebrow..." GOT Tyrion 13

" Alas I am quite dragonless. I suppose I could have dipped Pycelle in wildfire and set him ablaze. Would the Citadel have preferred that?" Tyrion ASOS 12

" Tyrion grinned at him. That's good bastard. Most men would rather deny a hard truth rather than face it. Most men, the boy said, but not you. No, Tyrion admitted. Not me. I seldom dream of dragons anymore. There are no more dragons." GOT Tyrion 13

" One by one the company drifted off to sleep, all but Jon Snow, who had drawn the night's first watch. Tyrion was last to retire as always. As he stepped into the shelter his men had built for him, he paused and looked back at Jon Snow. The boy stood near the fire, his face still and hard, looking deep into the flames. Tyrion Lannister smiled sadly and went to bed." GOT Tyrion 13

" Moqorro remained beside the night fire, as he did every night. The red priest rested by day but kept vigil through the dark hours, to tend to his sacred flames so that the sun might return to them at dawn. Tyrion squatted across from him and warmed his hands against the night's chill. Moqorro took no notice of him for several moments. He was staring into the flickering flames,lost in some vision." ADWD Tyrion 33

" After a time the priest raised his eyes to meet the dwarf's. Hugor Hill, Have you come to pray with me? What do you see in those flames? Dragons, said Moqorro in the common tongue of Westeros." ADWD 33

" Dragons old and young, true and false, bright and dark, and you. A small man with a big shadow, snarling in the midst of all." ADWD Tyrion 33

" When the magister drifted off to sleep with the wine jar at his elbow, Tyrion crept across the pillows to work it loose from its fleshy prison and pour a cup. He drained it down, and yawned, and filled it once again. If i drink enough fire wine, he told himself, perhaps I will dream of dragons." ADWD Tyrion 5

" More wine please. He held out his cup. As Rykker filled it for him, Bowen Marsh said, You have a great thirst for a small man. Oh, I think that Lord Tyrion is quite a large man, maester Aemon said from the far end of the table. He spoke softly, yet the high officers of the Night's Watch all fell quiet, the better to hear what the ancient had to say. I think he is a giant come among us, here at the end of the world." GOT Tyrion 21

" That night Tyrion Lannister dreamed of a battle that turned the hills of Westeros as red as blood. He was in the midst of it, dealing death with an axe as big as he was, fighting side by side with Barristan the Bold and Bittersteel as dragons wheeled across the sky above them. In the dream he had two heads, both noseless. His father led the enemy, so he slew him once again. Then he killed his brother , Jamie , hacking at his face until it was a red ruin, laughing every time he struck a blow. Only when the fight was finished did he realize that his second head was weeping." ADWD Tyrion 5

" Tyrion answered gently. I've been called many things my lord, but giant is seldom one of them. Nonetheless, Maester Aemon said as his clouded milk white eyes moved to Tyrion's face, I think its true." GOT Tyrion 21

• " For once, Tyrion Lannister found himself at a loss for words. He could only bow his head politely and say, You are too kind Maester Aemon. The blind man smiled. He was a tiny thing, wrinkled and hairless, shrunken beneath the weight of a hundred years so that his maester's collar with its links of many metals hung loose about his throat. I have been called many things, my lord he said, but kind is seldom one of them. This time Tyrion led the laughter..." GOT Tyrion 21
  

" He had drunk too much last night. I dreamed about the queen, he said. I was on my knees before her,swearing my alligence, but she mistook me for my brother, Jamie, and fed me to her dragons. Let us hope that dream was not prophetic. You are a clever Imp, just as Varys said." ADWD Tyrion 21

• " At long last father? Valyrian steel blades were scarce and costly, yet thousands remained in the world, perhaps two hundred in the Seven Kingdoms alone. It had always irked his father that none had belonged to House Lannister. The old Kings of the Rock had owned such a weapon, but the greatsword Brightroar had been lost when the second King Tommen carried it back to Valyria on his fool's quest. He had never returned; nor had Uncle Gery, the youngest and most reckless of his father's brothers, who had gone seeking after the lost sword some eight years past." SOS Tyrion 32
  

• " Almost a decade had passed since the Laughing Lion headed out from Lannisport, and Gerion had never returned. The men Lord Tywin sent to seek after him had traced his course as far as Volantis, where half his crew had deserted him and he had bought slaves to replace them. No free man would willingly sign aboard a ship whose captain spoke openly of his intent to sail into the Smoking Sea." ADWD Tyrion 33
  

• " Gerion made japes. Better to mock the game than play and lose." AFFC Jamie 33
  

• " Once, when his uncles asked him what gift he wanted for his nameday, he begged for a dragon. It wouldn't need be a big one. It could be little like i am. His uncles Gerion thought that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, but his uncle Tygett said, The last dragon died a century ago lad. That had seemed so monstorously unfair that the boy had cried himself to sleep that night." ADWD Tyrion 21
  

" but every little girl needs a big brother to protect her. Tywin was big even when he was little. Who will protect us now? Jamie kissed her cheek. He left a son. Aye he did that is what i fear the most, in truth. That was a queer remark..." AFFC Jamie 33

" Jamie, she said tugging at his ear. Sweetling I have known you since you were a babe at Joanna's breast. You smile like Gerion and fight like Tyg, and there's some of Kevan in you, else you would not where that cloak. but Tyrion is Tywin's son, not you. I said so once to your father's face, and he would not speak to me for half a year. Men are such thundering great fools. Even the sort who come along once in a thousand years." AFFC Jamie 33

• " The old Valyrian road glimmered ahead of them like a long silver ribbon winding through wood and dale. For a little while Tyrion Lannister felt almost at peace." ADWD Tyrion 8
  

• " An uncle of mine gave them to me when I was just a boy, said Tyrion. I read them until they fell to pieces. His uncle Gerion liked to set him on the table during feasts and make him recite them. I liked that well enough didn't I? Standing there amongst the trenchers with every eye upon me, proving what a clever little Imp i was." ADWD Tyrion 8
  

" Sleep had never come easily to Tyrion Lannister. Aboard that ship it seldom came at all, though from time to time he managed to drink sufficient wine to pass out for awhile. At least he did not dream. He had dreamed enough for one small life. And such follies: love, justice,friendship,glory. As well as being tall. It was all beyond his reach, Tyrion knew now. But he did not know where whores go." ADWD Tyrion 2

" Wherever whores go, his father had said. His last words, that's what they were. The crossbow thrummed, Lord Tywin sat down, and Tyrion Lannister found himself waddling through the darkness with Varys at his side. He must have clambered back down the shaft, two hundred and thirty rungs to where orange embers glowed in the mouth of an iron dragon. He remembered none of it. Only the sound the crossbow made, and the stink of his father's bowels opening. Even in his dying, he found a way to shit on me." ADWD Tyrion 2

" So to mark his manhood, Tyrion was given charge of all the drains and cisterns within Casterly Rock. Perhaps he hoped I'd fall into one. But Tywin had been disappointed in that. The drains never drained half so well as when he had charge of them. I need a cup of wine, to wash the taste of Tywin from my mouth, a skin of wine would serve me better." ADWD Tyrion 8

"I have a question too, said Egg. I begin to understand why your father was so willing to be rid of you. What more would you have of me, cousin? Who took the dragon's egg? There were guards at the door, and more guards on the steps, no way anyone could have gotten into Lord Butterwell's bedchamber unobserved. Lord Rivers smiled. Were I to guess, I'd say someone climbed up inside the privy shaft. The privy shaft was too small to climb. For a man. A child could do it. Or a dwarf, Dunk blurted. A thousand eyes, and one. Why shouldn't some of them belong to a troupe of comic dwarfs?" The Mystery Knight Ending

" I killed Shae too, he confessed to Varys. You knew what she was. I did, but I never knew what he was." Varys tittered, And now you do." ADWD Tyrion 2

" How is it a brothel happens to have a secret entrance? The tunnel was dug for another King's Hand, whose honor would not allow him to enter such a house openly. Chataya has closely guarded the knowledge of its existence. And yet you knew of it. Little birds fly through many a dark tunnel. Careful, the steps are steep" COK Tyrion 15

• " I had another friend who dreamed of dragons. A dwarf. He told me..." SOS Jon
  

" I might be able to slip the child into your bedchamber unseen. Chataya's is not the only house to boast a hidden door. A secret access? to my chambers? Tyrion was annoyed more than suprised. Why else would Maegor the Cruel have ordered death for all the builders who had worked on his castle, except to preserve such secrets?" COK Tyrion 44

" Yes I suppose there would be. Where will i find the door? In my solar? My bedchamber? My friend, you would not force me to reveal all my little secrets, would you?" Henceforth think of them as our little secrets, Varys. Tyrion glanced up at the eunuch in his smelly mummer's garb. Assuming you are on my side... Can you doubt it? Why no, I trust you implicitly. A bitter laugh echoed off the shuttered windows. I trust you like one of my own blood, in truth." COK Tyrion 44

" The dwarf shrugged." A relic of my boyhood. I knew I would not make a knight, so I decided to be High Septon. That crystal crown adds a foot to a man's height. I studied the holy books and prayed until I had scabs on both my knees, but my quest came to a tragic end. I reached a certain age and fell in love." ADWD Tyrion 5

[theREALjonsnow]

A Timeline of Ice and Fire through quotes continued...

" The oldest histories we have were written after the Andals came to Westeros. The First Men only left runes on rocks, so everything we think we know about the Age of Heores and the Dawn age and the Long Night comes from accounts set down by septons thousands of years later. There are archmaesters at the Citadel who question all of it. Those old histories are full of kings who reigned for hundreds of years, and knights riding around a thousand of years before there were even knights." AFFC Samwell 15

" Did you find out who the Others are, where they come from, what they want? Not yet my lord but it may be that I've just been reading the wrong books. There are hundreds I have not looked at yet. Give me more time and I will find whatever there is to be found. There is no more time, Jon sounded sad." AFFC Samwell 15

WAR OF DAWN PART 2: Blackwood's Cold Raven Children vs. Bracken's Fire Horse Men

" You saw what you wished to see. Your heart yearns for your father and your home, so that is what you saw. A man must know how to look before he can hope to see, said Lord Brynden. Those were the shadows of days past that you saw, Bran. You were looking through the eyes of the heart tree in your godswood. Time is different for a tree than a man. Sun and soil and water, these are the things a weirwood understands, not days and years and centuries. For men, time is a river. We are trapped in its flow, hurtling from past to present, always in the same direction. The lives of trees are different. The root and grow and die in one place, and that river does not move them. The oak is the acorn, the acorn is the oak. And the weirwood... a thousand human years are a moment to a weirwood, and through such gates you and I may gaze into the past. But he heard me." ADWD Bran

" He heard a whisper on the wind, a rustling amongst the leaves. You cannot speak to him, try as you might. I Know. I have my own ghosts, bran. A brother that I loved, a brother that I hated, a woman that I desired. Through the trees, I see them still, but no word of mine has ever reached them. The past remains the past, we can learn from it, but we cannot change it." ADWD Bran

" ...but in time you will see well beyond the trees themselves. When? bran wanted to know. In a year, or three, or ten. That I have not glimpsed. It will come in time, I promise you. But i am tired now, and the trees are calling me. We will resume on the morrow." ADWD Bran

" A thousand eyes, a hundred skins, wisdom deep as the roots of ancient trees." ADWD Bran

he did not remember closing his eyes...

• ...but then somehow he was back at winterfell again, in the godswood looking down at his father. Lord Eddard seemed much young this time. His hair was brown, with no hint of grey in it, his head bowed... let them grow as close as brothers, with only love between them, he prayed, and let my lady wife find it in her heart to forgive... Father, bran's voice was a whipser on the wind, a rustle in the leaves. Father, it's me. It's Bran, it's Brandon. (Brynden Rivers had same vision of his father Aegon the 4th talking about Brynden and Aegor.)
  

• The rest of his father's words were drowned out by a sudden clatter of wood on wood. Eddard Stark dissovled, like mist in a morning sun. Now the two children danced across the godswood, hooting at one another as they dueled with broken branches. The girl was the older and taller of the two. She slashed the boy across his thigh, so hard that his leg went out from under him and he fell into the pool and began to splash and shout. You be quiet stupid, the girl said, tossing her own branch aside. It's just water do you want Old Nan to hear and run and tell father? she knelt and pulled her brother from the pool, but before she got him out again, the two of them were gone. (Brynden Rivers had same vision in regards to Shiera and/or Aegor,Daemon,Daeron & himself)
  

• After that the glimpses came faster and faster, till Bran was feeling lost and dizzy. He saw no more of his father, nor the girl who looked like Arya, but a heavy woman with child emerged naked and dripping from the black pool, knelt before the tree, and begged the old gods for a son who would avenge her. ( Brynden had similar vision signifies conflict between Blackwood and Bracken)
  

• Then there came a brown-haired girl slender as a spear who stood on the tips of her toes to kiss the lips of a young knight as tall as Hodor. A dark-eyed, pale and fierce, sliced three branches off the weirwood and shaped them into arrows. (signifies Brynden preparing for war with brothers, also possibly Pennytree connection of Old Nan/Tanselle to tall & Hodor/Duncan the tall)
  

• The tree itself was shrinking growing smaller with each vision, whilst the lesser trees dwindled into saplings and vanished, only to be replaced by other trees that would dwindle and vanish in their turn. And now the lords Bran glimpsed were tall and hard, stern men in fur and chain mail. Some wore faces he remembered from the statues in the crypts, but they were gone before he could put a name on them. Then he watched, a bearded man forced a captive down onto his knees before the heart tree. A white-haired woman stepped toward them through a drift of dark red leaves, a bronze sickle in her hand. The woman grabbed the captive by the hair, hooked the sickle round his throat, and slashed. And through the mist of the centuries the broken boy could only watch as the man's feet drummed agaisnt the earth... but as his life flowed out of him in a red tide, Brandon Stark could taste the blood. (founding of house Blackwood with it similar heart tree)
  

" What is he looking at? Dareon wondered one day. For him it's dark up here as it is down in the cabin. The Old Man heard him, though Aemon's eyes had dimmed and gone dark, there was nothing wrong with his ear. I was not born blind, he reminded them. When last I passed this way, I saw every rock and tree and whitecap, and watched the grey gulls flying in our wake. I was five and thirty and had been a maester of the chain for sixteen. years. Egg wanted me to help him rule, but I knew my place was here. He sent me north aboard the Golden Dragon, and insisted that his friend Ser Duncan see me safe to Eastwatch. No recruit had arrived at the Wall with so much pomp since Nymeria sent the Watch six Kings in golden fetters. Egg emptied out the dungeons too, so I would not need to say my vows alone. My honor guard, he called them. One was no less a man than Brynden Rivers. Later he was chosen lord commander." AFFC Samwell 11

“A single white dragon announced the presence of the King's Hand, Lord Brynden Rivers. The First Blackfyre Rebellion had perished on the Redgrass Field in blood and glory. The Second Blackfyre Rebellion ended with a whimper.” The Mystery Knight

“In the end, the second Daemon Blackfyre rode forth alone, reined up before the royal host, and challenged Lord Bloodraven to single combat. I will fight you, or the coward Aerys, or any champion you care to name. Instead, Lord Bloodraven's men surrounded him, pulled him off his horse, and clasped him into golden fetters. The banner he had carried was planted in the muddy ground and set afire. It burned for a long time, sending up a twisted plume of smoke that could be seen for leagues around.” The Mystery Knight

" When did all of this happen? Five hundred years before the Andals. A thousand if the True History is to be believed. Only no one knows when the Andals crossed the narrow sea. The True History says four thousand years have passed since then, but some maesters claim that it was only two. Past a certain point, all the dates grow hazy and confused, and the clarity of history becomes the fog of legend." ADWD Jamie

" If I may offer you counsel, thought, it does not serve to be too gentle with these Blackwood's. Treachery runs in their blood. Before the Andal's came to Westeros, House Bracken ruled this river. We were kings and Blackwood's were our vassals, but they betrayed us and usurped the crown. Every Blackwood is born a turncloak. You would do well to remember that when making your terms." ADWD Jamie

" How did it all begin, between Blackwood and Bracken? Is it written down? It is my lord the boy said, but some of the histories were penned by the maesters and some by ours, centuries after the events that they puport to chronicle. It goes back to the Age of Heroes. The Blackwoods were kings in those days. The Brackens petty lords, renowned for breeding horses. Rather than pay his king their just due, they used the gold their horses brought them to hire swords and cast him down." ADWD Jamie

“ Grand Maester Kaeth’s history of the reigns of Daeron the Young Dragon, Baelor the Blessed, Aegon the Unworthy and Daeron the Good, her small husband answered. A book every king should read, Your Grace.” SOS Sansa 46

• “ Uncle Benjen studied his face carefully. The Wall is a hard place for a boy, Jon. I am almost a man grown, Jon protested. I will turn fifteen on my next name day and Maester Luwin says bastards grow up faster than other children. That’s true enough, Benjen said with a downward twist of his mouth. He took Jon’s cup from the table, filled it fresh from a nearby pitcher, and drank down a long swallow. Daeron Targaryen was only fourteen when he conquered Dorne, Jon said. The Young Dragon was one of his heroes.” GOT Jon
  

• “ A conquest that lasted a summer, his uncle pointed out. Your Boy King lost ten thousand men taking the place, and another fifty thousand trying to hold it. Someone should have told him that war isn’t a game. He took another sip of wine. Also, he said wiping his mouth, Daeron Targaryen was only eighteen when he died. Or have you forgotten that? I forget nothing, Jon boasted. The wine was making him bold. He tried to sit very straight, to make himself seem taller. I want to serve in the Night’s Watch, Uncle.” GOT Jon
  

• “ But Baelor the Blessed was a great king. He walked the Boneway barefoot to make peace with Dorne, and rescued the Dragonknight from a snakepit. The vipers refused to strike him because he was so pure and holy. The septons and singers like to say that the vipers did not bite Baelor, but the truth is very different. He was bitten half a hundred times, and should have died from it. Some believe Baelor was deranged by all that venom.” SOS Sansa 56
  

• “ She looked up at Baelor the Blessed, the septon king. The High Septon stood behind him , wearing long white robes and an immense crown of spun gold and crystal that wreathed his head in rainbows whenever he moved.” GOT Arya
  

• “ Their path took them past the statue of Baelor the Blessed, standing tall and serene upon his plinth, his face a study in benevolence. To look at him, you would never guess what a fool he’d been. The Targaryen dynasty had produced kings both bad and good, but none as beloved as Baelor, that pious gentle septon-king who loved the smallfolk and the gods in egual parts, yet imprisoned his own sisters.it was a wonder that his statue did not crumble at the sight of her bare breasts. “ ADWD Cersei 65
  

• “ He thought of King Baelor the Blessed, who would fast to the point of fainting to tame the lusts that shame him.” AFFC The Soiled Knight
  

• “ King Baelor was made to wed his sister Daena, but they never lived as man and wife, and he put her aside as soon as he was crowned.” AFFC Jamie 30
  

THREE MAIDENS IN THE TOWER

DAENA TARGARYEN, aka DAENA THE DEFIANT

The eldest daughter of King Aegon III was sixteen when her brother Baelor ascended the Iron Throne, dissolved his marriage to her (which had been celebrated but never consummated), and confined her and her sisters to their own apartments in the Red Keep, soon known as the Maidenvault.

Daena was Targaryen to the bone; strong, beautiful, wilful. Her silver-gold hair was thick and curly, a wild untamed mane that tumbled down across her shoulders and framed a heart-shaped face, a pair of sparling purple eyes, and a fearless "I'll dare anything" smile. She was a wild almost from birth, lithe and athletic, a runner, a climber, and an expert horsewoman. "I was born to ride a dragon," she liked to say, but the dragons were dead. Daena was expert at riding at the rings, though she was never allowed to joust in an actual tourney. She was also a hunter, and a fine archer with her short recurved bow. She worshipped her father and idolized her brother Daeron, the Young Dragon.

Daena's dress was often as dramatic as she was. As a child she often dressed all in black, like her father King Aegon III. After her brother Baelor failed to consummate their marriage, she changed to all white, and vowed to wear nothing else until she had been properly bedded, in hopes of shaming him. (It did not work. Baelor liked her in white, feeling that it made her look more innocent). Later, as a pampered prisoner in her brother's court, Daena made several escapes, usually by dressing as a washerwoman or serving girl (once with the connivance of her cousin, Aegon).

You could legimately depict her in the simple brown skirt and laced bodice of a peasant girl -- in her hunting leathers, with her bow and quiver -- in her white post-wedding court clothes -- even in the blacks she wore as a child. No matter how she was dressed, however, she always wore the golden three-headed dragon pendant she had inherited from her father. At court she wore it on a fine golden chain; when in disguise, she hung it on a leather thong and hid it beneath her clothes. Supposedly she even wore it when bathing, and when making love.

RHAENA TARGARYEN

Two years younger than her sister Daena, Rhaena had a very different personality. Where Daena was wilful, wild, and adventurous, Rhaena was dutiful, meek, and passive. When older she was heavily influenced by her brother Baelor, the Blessed, and became very pious. Unlike her sisters, she never chafed at her confinement in the Maidenvault, and in later life she joined the Faith and became a septa.

At fourteen, Rhaena was just as lovely as her sister, but hers was a softer, sweeter, more feminine beauty. She loved to dress in white and gold and was very fond of lace trim on her sleeves and bodice. She loved to sew and do needlework, and often embroidered religious scenes on her own clothing (the Mother's glowing face, the Maiden and a white hart, etc). Though by no means plump, her body was more rounded than Daena's. Her breasts were larger, her lips fuller, her hair more gold than silver and always carefully coiffed and combed. She had soft, kind eyes and a shy, sweet smile.

ELAENA TARGARYEN

Princess Elaena was only eleven when locked away in the Maidenvault. At that age she was a skinny thing, the runt of the litter, but she had more than a little of her sister Daena's wilfullness even then, as she would prove when she grew older. She liked to dress in black as a girl, because her big sister Daena had done it. Her eyes were a soft lilac, her mouth thin-lipped and often angry. Her hair was a platinum white with a bright golden streak down the middle, an unusual color even for the Targaryens. She wore it long, pulled back, and braided, and was always being told it was her crowning beauty.

When Baelor the Blessed confined his sisters to the Maidenvault, he said it was because they were so beautiful that just seeing them would tempt the men of his court to sin. Elaena hated the imprisonment, so she cut her braid off and sent it to her brother, hoping that if she rid herself of her beauty her brother might let her out. (He didn't). For years after, however, Princess Elaena wore her hair short. Elaena's most cherished possession was a dragon's egg whose stony shell showed the same colors as her hair.

Elaena lived a much longer life than her sister Daena, and a much more tumultuous one than her sister Rhaena. The great love of her life was her cousin, Alyn Velaryon, the seafarer and admiral known as Oakenfist, to whom she bore a bastard son and daughter, Jon and Jeyne Waters. She married thrice in later years, twice at a king's behest and once for passion. She gave birth to seven children, then declared that if seven was sufficient for the gods it would do for her as well.

Never regarded as a great beauty like her sisters, Elaena proved to be one of those women whose features improve with age, and men said she was more beautiful at seventy than she had been at seventeen. She was shrewd and intelligent as well, especially with money. Though her second husband sat on the king's small council as master of coin, it was widely known that it was Elaena who actually performed all the duties of the office.

All that lies in her future, though. When sent to the Maidenvault, she was only a girl of eleven, awkward and angular, shy and charming by turns.

• “ I once had the great good fortune to see the Citadel’s copy of Lives of Four Kings, Prince Oberyn was telling her lord husband, The illuminations were wonderous to behold, but Kaeth was too kind by half to King Viserys. Tyrion gave him a sharp look. Too kind? He scants Viserys shamefully, in view. It should been Lives of the Five Kings.” SOS Sansa 56
  

“ Viserys reigned a fort night. He reigned more than a year, said Tyrion. A year or a fortnight, what does it matter? He poised his own nephew to gain the throne then did nothing once he had it. Baelor starved himself to death fasting, said Tyrion. His uncle served him loyally as Hand, as he had served the Young Dragon before him. Viserys might only have reigned a year, but he had ruled for fifteen, while Daeron warred and Baelor prayed. And if he did remove his nephew, can you blame him? Someone had to save the realm from Baelor’s follies.” SOS Sansa 56

“ Nine mages crossed the sea to hatch Aegon the Third’s cache of eggs. Baelor the Blessed prayed over his for half a year. Aegon the Fourth built dragons of wood and iron. Aerion Brightflame drank wildfire to transform himself. The mages failed, King Baelor’s prayers went unanswered, the wooden dragons burned, and Prince Aerion died screaming.” SOS Davos 54

“ Dragons are not made of wood. Some are. That old King Aegon, the randy one, he built wooden dragons to conquer us. That ended bad though.” ADWD The Dragontamer 56

"She became known as "Daena the Defiant" when she turned up pregnant, and refused to name the father. Her son was born robust and healthy, with the purple eyes and silver-gold hair of the Targaryens. Daena named him Daemon. Years later, when he distinguished himself as a squire, his father (who by that time was the king) presented him the sword of Aegon the Conquerer, and from time forth he was known as Daemon Blackfyre." So Spoke Martin

" Aegon the Unworthy took Barba Bracken as his mistress. She was a buxom wench, they say, and one day when the king was visiting he went out hunting, saw the teats and... named them for his mistress." ADWD Jamie

" Only later he put her aside and took up with Blackwood. Lady Melissa they called her, there is a statue of her in our godswood. Barba was heard to say that Missy was flat as a boy, and when King Aegon hear this, he gave her Barbra's teats! Jamie laughed." ADWD Jamie

“Lady Serenei of Lys, the last daughter of an ancient but impoverished line of Valyrian nobility. Sweet Serenei, Aegon called her, but about his court she was considered cold and haughty, and some said that she was much older than the king, and preserved her beauty by the practice of dark arts. Considered by many the most lovely of Aegon's mistresses, Sweet Serenei died in childbed, bringing forth the last of the king's Great Bastards, the daughter she named Shiera, Star of the Sea.” SSM

“Daeron was spindly and round of shoulder, with a little belly that wobbled when he walked. Daemon stood straight and proud, and his stomach was flat and hard as an oaken shield. And he could fight. With ax or lance or flail, he was as good as any knight I ever saw, but withthe sword he was the Warrior himself. When Prince Daemon had Blackfyre in his hand, there was not a man to equal him . . . not Ulrick Dayne with Dawn, no, nor even the Dragonknight with Dark Sister. " The Sworn Sword

"Daeron surrounded himself with maesters, septons, and singers. Always there were women whispering in his ear, and his court was full of Dornishmen. How not, when he had taken a Dornishwoman into his bed, and sold his own sweet sister to the prince of Dorne, though it was Daemon that she loved? Daeron bore the same name as the Young Dragon, but when his Dornish wife gave him a son he named the child Baelor, after the feeblest king who ever sat the Iron Throne.” The Sworn Sword

"Why, lad? You ask me why? Because Daemon was the better man. The old king saw it, too. He gave the sword to Daemon Blackfyre, the sword of Aegon the Conquerer, the blade that every Targaryen king had wielded since the Conquest . . . he put that sword in Daemon’s hand the day he knighted him, a boy of twelve.” The Sworn Sword

• “ Prince Aemon the Dragonknight cried the day Princess Naerys wed his brother Aegon, Sansa Stark said.” COK Sansa 44
  

• “ I shall have the finest Knight in the Seven Kingdoms guarding me night and day, as Prince Aemon protected Naerys.” SOS Sansa 16
  

• “ Prince Aemon the Dragonknight took his vows at seventeen, Ser Loras said. And your brother Jaime was younger still.” SOS Tyrion
  

• “ The White Book sat on a white table in a white room. The room was round, its walls of whitewashed stone hung with white woolen tapestries. It formed the first floor of White Sword Tower, a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. The undercroft held arms and armor, the second and third floors the small spare sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard.” SOS Jamie 57
  

• “ The table itself was old weirwood, pale as bone, carved in the shape of a huge shield supported by three white stallions. By tradition the Lord Commander sat at the top of the shield, and the brothers three to a side, on the rare occasions when all seven were assembled.” SOS Jamie 57
  

• “ The book rested by his elbow was massive; two feet tall and a foot and a half wide, a thousand pages thick, fine white vellum bound between covers of bleached white leather with gold hinges and fastenings. The book of Brothers was its formal name, often it was simply called the white book. Within the white book was the history of the Kingsguard.” SOS Jamie 57
  

• “ Aegon the Unworthy had never harmed Queen Naerys, perhaps for fear of their brother the Dragonknight… but when another of his Kingsguard fell in love with one of his mistresses, the king had taken both their heads.” SOS Sansa 16
  

“ And the Dragonknight? She flung her bedclothes aside and swung her legs to the floor. The noblest knight who ever lived, you said, and he took his queen to bed and got her with child. I will not believe that, he said offended. The Tale of Prince Aemon’s treason with Queen Naerys was only that, a tale, a lie his brother told when he wished to set his trueborn son aside in favor of his bastard. Aegon was not called the Unworthy without cause.” AFFC The Soiled Knight

“ My father was Maekar, the First of his Name, and my brother Aegon reigned after him in my stead. My grandfather named me for Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, who was his uncle, or his father, depending on which tale you believe. Aemon he called me…” GOT Jon 60

" Blind he may be, but Aemon knows what he's about. His father's father was Daeron Targaryen, the second of his name, who brought Dorne inot the realm. Part of the pact was that he wed a Dornish princess. She gave him four sons. Aemon's father Maekar was the younget of those, and Aemon was his third son. Mind you all this happened before I was born. Maester Aemon was named for the Dragonknight. So he was. Some say Prince Aemon was King Daeron's true father, not Aegon the Unworthy. Be that as it may, our Aemon lacked the dragonknight's martial nature." COK Jon 6

• “ Wasn’t their some Kingsguard who lost his head for bedding the king’s wife? Ages ago, she was the king’s mistress, not his wife, and his head was the only thing he did not lose. Aegon dismembered him piece by piece, and made the woman watch.” AFFC Cersai
  

• “ Ser Terrance Toyne was found abed with his king’s mistress, he said instead. Twas love he swore but it cost his life and hers, and brought about the downfall of his House and the death of the noblest knight who ever lived.” AFFC The Soiled Knight
  

• “ And there are his brothers to consider, brothers can be dangerous. After Aegon the Unworthy put Ser Terrance to death Toyne’s brothers did their best to kill him. Their best was not quite good enough, thanks to the Dragonknight, but it was not for want of trying. It’s written down in the White Book. All of it.” AFFC Jamie 56
  

• “ a passage to the black cells had been found, and a stone well that seemed to have no bottom. They had found a chamber full of skulls and yellowed bones, and four sacks of tarnished silver coins from the reign of the first King Viserys.” AFFC Cersei 13
  

• “ Blackheart. In life Ser Myles Toyne had been as ugly as sin. His famous forebear, he dark and dashing Terrence Toyne of whom the singers sang, had been so fair of face that even the king’s mistress could not resist him. Blackheart his men had called him, for a sigil on his shield. Myles had loved the name and all it hinted at.” ADWD The Lost Lord
  

" All the skulls were grinning, even Bittersteel's on the tall pike in the center. What does he have to grin about? He died defeated an alone, a broken man in an alien land. On his deathbead, Ser Aegor Rivers had famously commanded his men to boil the flesh from his skull, dip it in gold, and carry it before them when they crossed the sea to retake Westeros. His successors had followed his example." ADWD The Lost Lord

"... beggar's feast you've laid before us Without Bittersteel ...Bittersteel be buggered, insisted a familiar voice. No bastard can be trusted, not even him. A few victories will bring him over the water fast enough." The Mystery Knight

“Since the days of Aegon the Conquerer, the arms of House Targaryen had borne a three-headed dragon, red on black. Daemon the Pretender had reversed those colors on his own banners, as many bastards did.” The Sworn Sword

• “The old High Septon told my father that king’s laws are one thing, and the laws of the gods another," the boy said stubbornly. Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and the Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness, he said. King Aegon decreed that his bastards were not bastards, but he could not change their nature. The High Septon said all bastards are born to betrayal . . . Daemon Blackfyre, Bittersteel, even Bloodraven. Lord Rivers was more cunning than the other two, he said, but in the end he would prove himself a traitor, too. The High Septon counseled my father never to put any trust in him, nor in any other bastards, great or small. Born to betrayal,Dunk thought. Born of lust and weakness. Never to be trusted, great or small. Egg, he said, didn’t you ever think that I might be a bastard?" The Sworn Sword
  

1. “ Aegon the Unworthy had bedded half the maidens in the realm and fathered bastards on the lot of them, supposedly. Worse, the old king had legitimized them all upon his deathbed; the baseborn ones born of tavern wenches, whores, and shepherd girls, and the Great Bastards whose mothers had been highborn. We'd all be bastard sons of old King Aegon if half these tales were true. And who's to say we're not? Ser Maynard Plumm quipped.” The Mystery Knight
   

• “Egg's ears pricked up at that name. Plumm ... are you kin to Lord Viserys Plumm, ser? Distantly, confessed Ser Maynard, a tall, thin, stoop-shouldered man with long straight flaxen hair, "though I doubt that His Lordship would admit to it. One might say that he is of the sweet Plumms, whilst I am of the sour. Plumm's cloak was as purple as name, though frayed about the edges and badly dyed. A moonstone brooch big as a hen's egg fastened it at the shoulder. Elsewise he wore dun-colored roughspun and stained brown leather.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “Before long the trees opened up, and they found themselves in what must once have been a weirwood grove. Only a ring of white stumps and a tangle of bone-pale roots remained to show where the trees had stood, when the children of the forest ruled in Westeros. Amongst the weirwood stumps, they found two men squatting near a cook fire, passing a skin of wine from hand to hand. Their horses were cropping at the grass beyond the grove, and they had stacked their arms and armor in neat piles. A much younger man sat apart from the other two, his back against a chestnut tree. Well met, sers, Dunk called out in a cheerful voice. It was never wise to take armed men unawares. I am called Ser Duncan the Tall. The lad is Egg. May we share your fire?" The Mystery Knight
  

• "Where's Egg? With the gods. I told you. Dunk reached up and wrapped his good hand around Plumm's neck. Speak plain. I am sick of hints and winks. Tell me where to find the boy, or I will snap your bloody neck, friend or no. The Sept, you would do well to go armed, Ser Maynard smiled. Is that plain enough for you, Dunk?" The Mystery Knight
  

• “ Ser Arlan of Pennytree found me in Flea Bottom, chasing pigs. His old squire had been slain on the Redgrass Field, so he needed someone to tend his mount and clean his mail. He promised he would teach me sword and lance and how to ride a horse if I would come and serve him, so I did. A charming tal… Did you take him home to Pennytree? I didn't know where it was. Dunk had never seen the old man's Pennytree. Ser Arlan seldom spoke of it, no more than Dunk was wont to speak of Flea Bottom. I buried him on a hillside facing west, so he could see the sun go down. The camp chair creaked alarmingly beneath his weight.” The Mystery Knight
  

• 
  

  “Bloodraven had made a start on that already, Dunk saw when they came up on his pavilion. Flanking the entrance, the severed heads of Gormon Peake and Black Torn Heddle had been impaled on spears, with their shields displayed beneath them. Three castles, black on orange. The man who slew Roger of Pennytree.” The Mystery Knight

  
  
  

• “Even in death, Lord Gormon's eyes were hard and flinty. Dunk closed them with his fingers. What did you do that for? asked one of the guardsmen. The crows'll have them soon enough. I owed him that much. If Roger had not died that day, the old man would never have looked twice at Dunk when he saw him chasing that pig through the alleys of King's Landing. Some old dead king gave a sword to one son instead of another, that was the start of it. And now I'm standing here, and poor Roger's in his grave, The Hand awaits,” The Mystery Knight
  

• “He had been born in Flea Bottom, when he ran with Ferret, Rafe, and Pudding, but the old man had saved him from that life. He knew what Ser Arlan of Pennytree would have said to Plumm's suggestions. Take your boy and flee, gallows knight. Before your arms become your destiny. Dunk bristled. How would you know my destiny? Did you have a dream, like John the Fiddler? What do you know of Egg?" The Mystery Knight
  

• “I dreamed it. This pale white castle, you, a dragon bursting from an egg, I dreamed it all, just as I once dreamed of my brothers lying dead. They were twelve and I was only seven, so they laughed at me, and died. I am two-and-twenty now, and I trust my dreams." The Mystery Knight
  

• “He was carrying the little man across the room to chuck him out the door when he saw the dragon's egg. Lord Butterwell had placed it on a black velvet cushion atop a marble plinth. It was much bigger than a hen's egg, though not so big as he'd imagined. Fine red scales covered its surface, shining bright as jewels by the light of lamps and candles. Dunk dropped the dwarf and picked up the egg, just to feel it for a moment. It was heavier than he'd expected. You could smash a man's head with this, and never crack the shell. The scales were smooth beneath his fingers, and the deep, rich red seemed to shimmer as he turned the egg in his hands. Blood and flame, he thought, but there were gold flecks in it as well, and whorls of midnight black.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “He was feeling dizzy from the wine, so he leaned against a parapet. Am I going to be sick? Why did he go and touch the dragon's egg? He remembered Tanselle's puppet show, and the wooden dragon that had started all the trouble there at Ashford. The memory made Dunk feel guilty, as it always did. Three good men dead, to save a hedge knights foot. It made no sense, and never had. Take a lesson from that, lunk. It is not for the likes of you to mess about with dragons or their eggs.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “ It almost looks as if it were made of snow, Dunk turned. John the Fiddler stood behind him, smiling in his silk and cloth-of-gold. What's made of snow? The castle. All that white stone in the moonlight. Have you ever been north of the Neck, Ser Duncan? I'm told it snows there even in the summer.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “ Have you ever seen the Wall? No, That's where we were going, Egg and me, up north, to Winterfell. Could show me the way the way? Dunk frowned. It's right up the kingsroad. If you stay to the road and keep going north, you can't miss it. The Fiddler laughed. I suppose not ... though you might be surprised at what some men can miss. He went to the parapet and looked out across the castle. They say those northmen are a savage folk, and their woods are full of wolves." The Mystery Knight
  

• “Where are you going, ser? To my bed, to sleep. I'm drunk as a dog. Be my dog, ser. The night's alive with promise. We can howl together, and wake the very gods." The Mystery Knight
  

• “My shield, Dunk said to Egg. The boy handed it up. He slipped his left arm through the strap and closed his hand around the grip. The weight of the kite shield was reassuring, though its length made it awkward to handle, and seeing the hanged man once again gave him an uneasy feeling. Those are ill-omened arms. He resolved to get the shield repainted as soon as he could. May the Warrior grant me a smooth course and a quick victory, The Gallows Knight. Come forth and prove your valor." The Mystery Knight
  

• “I suppose that means I'll have to take the throne, then. I would much rather be teaching you to fiddle. You're drunk. And the crow once called the raven black. Wonderfully drunk. Wine makes all things possible, Ser Duncan. You'd look a god in white, I think, but if the color does not suit you, perhaps you would prefer to be a lord? Dunk laughed in his face. No, I'd sooner sprout big blue wings and fly. One's as likely as t'other. Now you mock me. A true knight would never mock his king. The Fiddler sounded hurt. I hope you will put more faith in what I tell you when you see the dragon hatch. A dragon will hatch? A living dragon? What, here?" The Mystery Knight
  

“He was a holy man sworn to the Seven, even if he did preach treason. "His hands are scarlet with a brother's blood, and the blood of his young nephews too," the hunchback had declared to the crowd that had gathered in the market square. "A shadow came at his command to strangle brave Prince Valarr's sons in their mother's womb. Where is our Young Prince now? Where is his brother, sweet Matarys? Where has Good King Daeron gone, and fearless Baelor Breakspear? The grave has claimed them, every one, yet he endures, this pale bird with bloody beak who perches on King Aerys's shoulder and caws into his ear. The mark of hell is on his face and in his empty eye, and he has brought us drought and pestilence and murder. Rise up, I say, and remember our true king across the water. Seven gods there are, and seven kingdoms, and the Black Dragon sired seven sons! Rise up, my lords and ladies. Rise up, you brave knights and sturdy yeomen, and cast down Bloodraven, that foul sorcerer, lest your children and your children's children be cursed forever-more." The Mystery Knight

“Lady Shiera does. Lord Bloodraven’s paramour. She bathes in blood to keep her beauty.” The Sworn Sword

“Shiera was born with one dark blue eye and one bright green one, but the singers said that this flaw only accentuated her loveliness. She was the greatest beauty of her age, a slender and elegant woman, slim of waist and full of breast. She had the silver-gold hair of the Targaryens, thick and curling, and wore it very long. At some points in her life it fell well below her waist, almost to the back of her knees. She had a heart-shaped face, full lips, and her mismatched eyes were strangely large and full of mischief; her rivals said she used them to melt men's hearts. Even at an early age, she was a great reader. She spoke a dozen tongues and surrounded herself with ancient scrolls. Like her mother, she was reputed to practice the dark arts. Though she never wed, she had many offers, and several lovers through the years. Duels were fought over the right to sit beside her, men killed themselves after falling from her favor, poets outdid each other writing songs about her beauty. Her most ardent admirer was her half-brother, Bloodraven, who proposed marriage to her half a hundred times. Shiera gave him her bed, but never her hand. It amused her more to make him jealous.” So Spoke Martin

• “Egg spoke as if such incest was the most natural thing in the world. For him it is. The Targaryens had been marrying brother to sister for hundreds of years, to keep the blood of the dragon pure. Though the last actual dragon had died before Dunk was born, the dragonkings went on. Maybe the gods don’t mind them marrying their sisters.” The Sworn Sword
  

• “ Six years ago in King’s Landing, Dunk had seen him with his own two eyes, as he rode a pale horse up the Street of Steel with fifty Raven’s Teeth behind him. That was before King Aerys had ascended to the Iron Throne and made him the Hand, but even so he cut a striking figure, garbed in smoke and scarlet with Dark Sister on his hip. His pallid skin and bone-white hair made him look a living corpse. Across his cheek and chin spread a wine-stain birthmark that was supposed to resemble a red raven, though Dunk only saw an odd-shaped blotch of discolored skin. He stared so hard that Bloodraven felt it. The king’s sorcerer had turned to study him as he went by. He had one eye, and that one red. The other was an empty socket, the gift Bittersteel had given him upon the Redgrass Field. Yet it seemed to Dunk that both eyes had looked right through his skin, down to his very soul.” The Sworn Sword
  

• “The brown tent beneath red stallion could only belong to Ser Otho Bracken, who was called the Brute of Bracken since slaying Lord Quentyn Blackwood three years past during a tourney at King’s Landing. Dunk heard that Ser Otho struck so hard with the blunted longaxe that he stove in the visor of Lord Blackwood’s helm and the face beneath it. He saw some Blackwood banners as well, on the west edge of the meadow, as distant from Ser Otho as they could be.” The Hedge Knight
  

• "Alas, said Septon Sefton, Lord Tully is a boy of eight, surrounded by women. Riverrun will do little, and King Aerys will do less. Unless some maester writes a book about it, the whole matter may escape his royal notice. Lord Rivers is not like to let any Brackens in to see him. Pray recall, our Hand was born half Blackwood. If he acts at all, it will be only to help his cousins bring the Brute to bay. The Mother marked Lord Rivers on the day that he was born, and Bittersteel marked him once again upon the Redgrass Field. Dunk knew he meant Bloodraven. Brynden Rivers was the Hand’s true name. His mother had been a Blackwood, his father King Aegon the Fourth.” The Sworn Sword
  

• " There is a village between those hills. Pennytree, the lad confirmed. The Bracken's call them one name, the Blackwoods another. Aye my lord for a hundred years or so. Before that they were the Mother's Teats or just the Teats. There are two of them, and it was thought that the resembled... I can see what they resemble." ADWD Jamie
  

• “I have never heard of this Arlan of Pennytree, however. You were his squire, you say? He always said he meant for me to be a knight, as he was. When he was dying he called for his long sword and bade me kneel. He touched me once on my right shoulder and once on my left, and said some words, and when I got up he said I was a knight. Hmpf. The man Plummer rubbed his nose. Any knight can make a knight, it is true, though it is more customary to stand a vigil and be anointed by a septon before taking your vows. Were there any witnesses to your dubbing? Only a robin, up in a thorn tree. I heard it as the old man was saying the words. He charged me to be a good knight and true, to obey the seven gods, defend the weak and innocent, serve my lord faithfully and defend the realm with all my might, and I swore that I would.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “I should have stayed with the chalice, he said miserably. It had wings, at least, to fly away, and Ser Arlan said the cup was full of faith and fellowship and good things to drink. This shield is all painted up like death.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “She had made a better job of it than he could ever have hoped for. Even by lantern light, the sunset colors were rich and bright, the tree tall and strong and noble. The falling star was a bright slash of paint across the oaken sky. Yet now that Dunk held it in his hands, it seemed all wrong. The star was falling, what sort of sigil was that? Would he fall just as fast? And sunset heralds night.” The Hedge Knight
  

• " Pennytree proved to be a much larger village than he anticipated. Between the duck pond and blacksmith's forge he came upon the tree that gave the place its name, an ancient oak and tall. Its gnarled roots twisted in and out of the earth like a nest of brown serpents, and hundreds of copper pennies had been nailed to it huge trunk." ADWD Jamie
  

• “The elm’s alive, Pate pointed out. See how green the leaves are? Summer leaves, for certain. And I’ve seen shields blazoned with skulls and wolves and ravens, even hanged men and bloody heads. They served well enough, and so will this. You know the old shield rhyme? Oak and iron, guard me well . . .Or else I’m dead, and doomed to hell,” Dunk finished. He had not thought of that rhyme in years. The old man had taught it to him, a long time ago. How much do you want for the new rim and all? He asked Pate.From you? Pate scratched his beard. A copper.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “Then a begging brother in a tattered brown robe said a blessing on his sword, and a maid kissed his cheek. They are for me. Why? he asked Pate. What am I to them? A knight who remembered his vows, the smith said.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “He had, it was true. The first time the old man let me hold his sword. Every boy dreams of serving in the Kingsguard. Only seven boys grow up to wear the white cloak, though. Would it please you to be one of them? Me? Dunk shrugged away the lordling's hand, which had begun to knead his shoulder. It might. Or not. The knights of the Kingsguard served for life, and swore to take no wife and hold no lands. I might find Tanselle again someday. Why shouldn't I have a wife, and sons? It makes no matter what I dream. Only a king can make a Kingsguard knight.” The Mystery Knight
  

“Maekar’s heir. Daeron, he’s named, after the king. They call him Daeron the Drunken, though not in his father’s hearing. The youngest boy was with him as well. They left Summerhall together but never reached Ashford. Raymun drained his cup and set it aside. Poor Maekar. Poor? said Dunk, startled. The king’s son? The king’s fourth son, said Raymun, not quite as bold as Prince Baelor, nor as clever as Prince Aerys nor as gentle as Prince Rhaegel. And now he must suffer seeing his own sons overshadowed by his brother’s. Daeron is a sot, Aerion is vain and cruel, the third son was so unpromising they gave him to the Citadel to make a maester of him, and the youngest…” The Hedge Knight

• " He was nine or ten i believe and ninth or tenth in the line of sucession as well. Maester Aemon had counted more than a hundred name days, Jon knew. Frail, shrunken, wizened and bling it was hard to imagine him as a little boy no older than Arya. Aemon was at his books when the eldest of his uncles, the heir apparent was slain in a tourney mishap. He left two sons, but the followed him to the grave not long after, during the great spring sickness. King Daeron was also taken, so the crown passed to Daeron's second son Aerys. The Mad King? No this was Aerys the first, the one Robert deposed was second of his name. How long ago was this? 80 years close enough." COK Jon 6
  

• " And no I still hadn't been born, though Aemon had forged half a dozen links of his maester's chain by then. Aerys wed his own sister, as the Targaryens were won't to do, and reigned for ten or twelve years. Aemon took his vows and lef the Citadel to serve at some lordling's court... until his royal uncle died without issue. The Iron Throne then passed to the last of King Daeron's four sons. That was Maekar, Aemon's Father. The new king summoned all his sons to court and would have made Aemon part of his councils, but he refused, saying that would usurp the place rightly belonging to the Grand Maester. Instead he served at the keep of his eldest brother, another Daeron. Well, that one died too, leaving only a feeble witted daughter as heir. Some pox he caught from a whore, I belive. The next brother was Aerion." COK Jon 6
  

• " Aerion the Monstrous? jon knew the name, the Prince who thought he was a dragon was one of old nan's more gruesome tales. His little brother had loved it." COK Jon 6
  

• " The very one though he named himself Aerion Brightflame. One night in his cups, he drank a jar of wildfire, after telling his friends it would transform him into a dragon, but the gods were kind and it transformed him into a corpse. Not quite a year after, King Maekar died in battle against an outlaw lord." COK Jon 6
  

• " Jon was not entirely innocent of the history of the realm; his own maester had seen to that. That was the year of the Great Council, he said. The lord's passed over Prince Aerion's infant son and Prince Daeron's daughter and gave the crown to Aegon." COK Jon 6
  

• " Yes and no, First they offered it quietly to Aemon and he quietly refused. The gods meant for him to serve, not rule, he told them. he had sworn a vow and would not break it, though the High Septon himself offered to obsolve him. well no sane man any blood of Aerion's on the throne. Aegon, the fifth of His Name. Aegon the Unlikely, the called him, born the fourth son of a fourth son. Aemon knew and rightly if he remained at court those who disliked his brother's rule would seek to use him, so he came to the wall. An here he has remained, while his brother and his brother's son and his son each reigned and died in turn, until Jamie Lannister put an end to the line of the DragonKings." COK Jon 6
  

“ Dunk caught him. Up, they say he said, just as he had with Thunder in the melee, up, up. But he never remembered that afterward, and the prince did not rise. Baelor of House Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, Hand of the King, Protector of the Realm, and heir to the Iron Throne of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, went to the fire in the yard of Ashford Castle on the north bank of River Cockleswent. Other great houses might choose to bury their dead in the dark earth or sink them in the cold green sea, but the Targaryens were the blood of the dragon, and their ends were writ in flame. He had been the finest knight of his age, and some argued that he should have gone to face the dark clad in mail and plate, a sword in his hand. In the end, though, his royal father’s wishes prevailed, and Daeron II had a peaceable nature. When Dunk shuffled past Baelor’s bier, the prince wore a black velvet tunic with the three-headed dragon picked out in scarlet thread upon his breast. Around his throat was a heavy gold chain. His sword was sheathed by his side, but he did wear a helm, a thin golden helm with an open visor so men could see his face.” The Hedge Knight

“Our prince begs the favor of a private word. Which prince? asked Dunk, wary. This prince, a brusque voice said before the captain could answer. Maekar Targaryen walked out from behind the elm. Dunk got slowly to his feet. What would he have of me now?” The Hedge Knight

“Prince Maekar turned to face him. Some men will say I meant to kill my brother. The gods know it is a lie, but I will hear the whispers till the day I die. And it was my mace that dealt the fatal blow, I have no doubt. The only other foes he faced in the melee were three Kingsguard, whose vows forbade them to do any more than defend themselves. So it was me. Strange to say, I do not recall the blow that broke his skull. Is that a mercy or a curse? Some of both, I think.” The Hedge Knight

• "You told me your sons died fighting for the king, and so they did. The rightful king, Daemon Blackfyre, The King Who Bore the Sword. The old man’s mustache quivered. The men of the red dragon call themselves the loyalists , but we who chose the black were just as loyal, once. Though now . . . all the men who marched beside me to seat Prince Daemon on the Iron Throne have melted away like morning dew. Mayhaps I dreamed them. Or more like, Lord Bloodraven and his Raven’s Teeth have put the fear in them. They cannot all be dead. Dunk could not deny the truth of that. Until this moment, he had never met a man who’d fought for the Pretender.I must have, though. There were thousands of them. Half the realm was for the red dragon, and half was for the black. Both sides fought valiantly, Ser Arlan always said. He thought the old knight would want to hear that. Ser Eustace cradled his wine cup in both hands. If Daemon had ridden over Gwayne Corbray . . . if Fireball had not been slain on the eve of battle . . . if Hightower and Tarbeck and Oakheart and Butterwell had lent us their full strength instead of trying to keep one foot in each camp . . . if Manfred Lothston had proved true instead of treacherous . . . if storms had not delayed Lord Bracken’s sailing with the Myrish crossbowmen . . . if Quickfinger had not been caught with the stolen dragon’s eggs . . . so many if’s, ser . . . had any one come out differently, it could all have turned t’other way. Then we would called be the loyalists, and the red dragons would be remembered as men who fought to keep the usurper Daeron the Falseborn upon his stolen throne, and failed." The Sworn Sword
  

“Why did they call him Fireball? For his hot head and red hair. Ser Quentyn Ball was the master-at-arms at the Red Keep. He taught my father and my uncles how to fight. The Great Bastards too. King Aegon promised to raise him to the Kingsguard, so Fireball made his wife join the silent sisters, only by the time a place came open, King Aegon was dead and King Daeron named Ser Willam Wylde instead. My father says that it was Fireball as much as Bittersteel who convinced Daemon Blackfyre to claim the crown, and rescued him when Daeron sent the Kingsguard to arrest him. Later on, Fireball killed Lord Lefford at the gates of Lannisport and sent the Grey Lion running back to hide inside the Rock. At the crossing of the Mandel, he cut down the sons of Lady Penrose one by one. They say he spared the life of the youngest one as a kindness to his mother.That was chivalrous of him, Dunk had to admit. Did Ser Quentyn die upon the Redgrass Field?" The Mystery Knight

“Before, ser, Egg replied. An archer put an arrow through his throat as he dismounted by a stream to have a drink. Just some common man, no one knows who.Those common men can be dangerous when they get it in their heads to start slaying lords and heroes. Dunk saw the ferry creeping slowly across the lake. Here it comes. It's slow. Are we going to go to Whitewalls, ser? Why not? I want to see this dragon's egg. Dunk smiled. If I win the tourney, we'd both have dragon's eggs. Egg gave him a doubtful look. What? Why are you looking at me that way? I could tell you, ser, the boy said solemnly, but I need to learn to hold my tongue." The Mystery Knight

“And Ser Glendon Ball. It was him unhorsed the Fidd ... the pretender. Yes, I've heard that tale from half a hundred lips already. The Bastard of the Pussywillows. Born of a whore and a traitor. Born of heroes, Egg insisted. If he's amongst the captives, I want him found and released. And rewarded. And who are you to tell the King's Hand what to do? Egg did not flinch. You know who I am, cousin.” The Mystery Knight

• " The castle was ours once. Did you know that, Ser Duncan? Aye, m’lord. Sam Stoops had told him. For a thousand years before the Conquest, we were the Marshalls of the Northmarch. A score of lesser lordlings did us fealty, and a hundred landed knights. We had four castles then, and watchtowers on the hills to warn of the coming of our enemies. Coldmoat was the greatest of our seats. Lord Perwyn Osgrey raised it. Perwyn the Proud, they called him. After the Field of Fire, Highgarden passed from kings to stewards, and the Osgreys dwindled and diminished. ’Twas Aegon’s son King Maegor who took Coldmoat from us, when Lord Ormond Osgrey spoke out against his supression of the Stars and Swords, as the Poor Fellows and the Warrior’s Sons were called. His voice had grown hoarse. There is a chequy lion carved into the stone above the gates of Coldmoat. My father showed it to me, the first time he took me with him to call on old Reynard Webber. I showed it to my own sons in turn. Addam . . . Addam served at Coldmoat, as a page and squire, and a . . . a certain . . . fondness grew up between him and Lord Wyman’s daughter. So one winter day I donned my richest raiment and went to Lord Wyman to propose a marriage. His refusal was courteous, but as I left I heard him laughing with Ser Lucas Inchfield. I never returned to Coldmoat after that, save once, when that woman presumed to carry off one of mine own. When they told me to seek for poor Lem at the bottom of the moat—" The Sworn Sword
  

• “I’d always heard that it was Baelor Breakspear who won the battle, said Dunk. Him and Prince Maekar. The hammer and the anvil? The old man’s mustache gave a twitch. The singers leave out much and more. Daemon was the Warrior himself that day. No man could stand before him. He broke Lord Arryn’s van to pieces and slew the Knight of Ninestars and Wild Wyl Waynwood before coming up against Ser Gwayne Corbray of the Kingsguard. For near an hour they danced together on their horses, wheeling and circling and slashing as men died all around them. It’s said that whenever Blackfyre and Lady Forlorn clashed, you could hear the sound for a league around. It was half a song and half a scream, they say. But when at last the Lady faltered, Blackfyre clove through Ser Gwayne’s helm and left him blind and bleeding. Daemon dismounted to see that his fallen foe was not trampled, and commanded Redtusk to carry him back to the maesters in the rear.” The Sworn Sword
  

• “And there was his mortal error, for the Raven’s Teeth had gained the top of Weeping Ridge, and Bloodraven saw his half brother’s royal standard three hundred yards away, and Daemon and his sons beneath it. He slew Aegon first, the elder of the twins, for he knew that Daemon would never leave the boy whilst warmth lingered in his body, though white shafts fell like rain. Nor did he, though seven arrows pierced him, driven as much by sorcery as by Bloodraven’s bow. Young Aemon took up Blackfyre when the blade slipped from his dying father’s fingers, so Bloodraven slew him, too, the younger of the twins. Thus perished the black dragon and his sons.” The Sworn Sword
  

• "The singers can go on about their hammer and their anvil, ser, but it was the kinslayer who turned the tide with a white arrow and a black spell. He rules us now as well, make no mistake. King Aerys is his creature. It would not surprise to learn that Bloodraven had ensorceled His Grace, to bend him to his will. Small wonder we are cursed. Ser Eustace shook his head and lapsed into a brooding silence. Dunk wondered how much Egg had overheard, but there was no way to ask him. How many eyes does Lord Bloodraven have? he thought” The Sworn Sword
  

• “ Daemon, though . . . Daemon was no more pious than a king need be, and all the great knights of the realm gathered to him. It would suit Lord Bloodraven if their names were all forgotten, so he has forbidden us to sing of them, but I remember. Robb Reyne, Gareth the Grey, Ser Aubrey Ambrose, Lord Gormon Peake, Black Byren Flowers, Redtusk, Fireball . . . Bittersteel! I ask you, has there ever been such a noble company, such a roll of heroes? Why,lad? You ask me why? Because Daemon was the better man. The old king saw it, too. He gave the sword to Daemon. Blackfyre, the sword of Aegon the Conquerer, the blade that every Targaryen king had wielded since the Conquest . . . he put that sword in Daemon’s hand the day he knighted him, a boy of twelve.” The Sworn Sword
  

• “There was much and more afterward, I know. I saw a bit of it myself . . . the rebels running, Bittersteel turning the rout and leading his mad charge . . . his battle with Bloodraven, second only to the one Daemon fought with Gwayne Corbray . . . Prince Baelor’s hammerblow against the rebel rear, the Dornishmen all screaming as they filled the air with spears . . . but at the end of the day, it made no matter. The war was done when Daemon died. So close a thing . . . if Daemon had ridden over Gwayne Corbray and left him to his fate, he might have broken Maekar’s left before Bloodraven could take the ridge. The day would have belonged to the black dragons then, with the Hand slain and the road to King’s Landing open before them. Daemon might have been sitting on the Iron Throne by the time Prince Baelor could come up with his stormlords and his Dornishmen.” The Sworn Sword
  

• “A great battle is a terrible thing, the old knight said but in the midst of blood and carnage, there is sometimes also beauty, beauty that could break your heart. I will never forget the way the sun looked when it set upon the Redgrass Field . . . ten thousand men had died, and the air was thick with moans and lamentations, but above us the sky turned gold and red and orange, so beautiful it made me weep to know that my sons would never see it. He sighed.It was a closer thing than they would have you believe, these days.” The Sworn Sword
  

“It may be that the gods have a taste for cruel japes. Or perhaps there are no gods. Perhaps none of this had any meaning. I’d ask the High Septon, but the last time I went to him he told me that no man can truly understand the workings of the gods. Perhaps he should try sleeping under a tree.” He grimaced. “My youngest son seems to have grown fond of you, ser. It is time he was a squire, but he tells me he will serve no knight but you. He is an unruly boy, as you will have noticed. Will you have him?” The Hedge Knight

“Your Ser Arlan did all he could for you, I have no doubt, but you still have much to learn. I know, m’lord. Dunk looked about him. At the green grass and the reeds, the tall elm, the ripples dancing across the surface of the sunlit pool. Another dragonfly was moving across the water, or perhaps it was the same one. What shall it be, Dunk? he asked himself. Dragonflies or dragons? A few days ago he would have answered at once. It was all he had ever dreamed, but now that the prospect was at hand it frightened him. Just before Prince Baelor died, I swore to be his man. Presumptuous of you, said Maekar. What did he say? That the realm needed good men. That’s true enough. What of it? I will take your son as squire, Your Grace, but not at Summerhall. Not for a year or two. He’s seen sufficient of castles, I would judge. I’ll have him only if I can take him on the road with me.” The Hedge Knight

“The boy came the next morning, just as the sun was coming up. He wore old boots, brown breeches, a brown wool tunic, and an old traveler’s cloak. My lord father says I am to serve you. Serve you, ser, Dunk reminded him. You can start by saddling the horses. Chestnut is yours, treat her kindly. I don’t want to find you on Thunder unless I put you there. Egg went to get the saddles. Where are we going, ser? Dunk thought for a moment. “I have never been over the Red Mountains. Would you like to have a look at Dorne? Egg grinned. I hear they have good puppet shows, he said.” The Hedge Knight

• “As for Aerys, His Grace cares more for old scrolls and dusty prophecies than for lords and laws. He will not even bestir himself to sire an heir. Queen Aelinor prays daily at the Great Sept, beseeching the Mother Above to bless her with a child, yet she remains a maid. Aerys keeps his own apartments, and it is said that he would sooner take a book to bed than any woman. He filled his cup again. Make no mistake, ’tis Lord Rivers who rules us, with his spells and spies. There is no one to oppose him. Prince Maekar sulks at Summerhall, nursing his grievances against his royal brother. Prince Rhaegal is as meek as he is mad, and his children are . . . well, children. Friends and favorites of Lord Rivers fill every office, the lords of the small council lick his hand, and this new Grand Maester is as steeped in sorcery as he is. The Red Keep is garrisoned by Raven’s Teeth, and no man sees the king without his leave.” The Sworn Sword
  

“Someday the dragons will return. My brother Daeron's dreamed of it, and King Aerys read it in a prophecy. Maybe it will be my egg that hatches. That would be splendid. Would it? Dunk had his doubts, not Egg. Aemon and I used to pretend that our eggs would be the ones to hatch. If they did, we could fly through the sky on dragonback, like the first Aegon and his sisters." The Mystery Knight

• "When the king named Lord Bloodraven his Hand, your lord father refused to be part of his council and departed King’s Landing for his own seat, he reminded Egg. He has been at Summerhall for a year, and half of another. What do call that, if not sulking? I call it being wroth, Egg declared loftily. His Grace should have made my father Hand. He’s his brother , and the finest battle commander in the realm since Uncle Baelor died. Lord Bloodraven’s not even a real lord, that’s just some stupid courtesy . He’s a sorcerer, and baseborn besides. Bastardborn, not baseborn. Bloodraven might not be a real lord, but he was noble on both sides. His mother had been one of the many mistresses of King Aegon the Unworthy. Aegon’s bastards had been the bane of the Seven Kingdoms ever since the old king died. He had legitimized the lot upon his deathbed; not only the Great Bastards like Bloodraven, Bittersteel, and Daemon Blackfyre, whose mothers had been ladies, but even the lesser ones he’d fathered on whores and tavern wenches, merchant’s daughters, mummer’s maidens, and every pretty peasant girl who chanced to catch his eye. Fire and Blood were the words of House Targaryen, but Dunk once heard Ser Arlan say that Aegon’s should have been Wash Her and Bring Her to My Bed. King Aegon washed Bloodraven clean of bastardy, he reminded Egg, the same as he did the rest of them." The Sworn Sword
  

" Jamie glimpsed the gnarled limbs of the tree from which the castle took its name. It was a weirwood ancient and colossal, ten times the size of the one in the Stone Garden at Casterly Rock. This tree was dead and bare though, The Brackens poisoned it, said his host. For a thousand years it has not shown a leaf. In another thousand it will have turned to stone, the maesters say. Weirwoods never rot. And the ravens? where are they? They cover the tree like black leaves, every limb and every branch. They have been coming for thousands of years. How or why, no man can say, yet the tree draws them every night." ADWD Jamie

• " I told you, my little friend, not all that a man does is done for gain. Believe as you wish, but even fat old fools like me have friends, and debts of affection to repay. Liar, Tyrion thought. There is something in this venture worth more to you than coins or castles. You meet so few men who value friendship over gold these days." ADWD Tyrion 8
  

• " slew Maelys the Monstorous, last of the Blackfyre pretenders, in single combat during the war of Ninepenny Kings. Named to the kingsguard in his 23 year by Ser Gerold Hightower... brought King Aerys the second to safety during the defiance of duskendale, despite an arrow wound to the chest..." SOS Jamie 67
  

• " The captains/generals tent was made of cloth-of-gold and surrounded by a ring of pikes topped with gilded skulls. One skull was larger than the rest, grotesquely malformed, below it was a second, no larger than a child's fist. Maelys the Monstrous and his nameless brother. The other skulls had a sameness to them, though several had been cracked and splintered by the blows that slain them, and one had filed, pointed teeth." ADWD The Lost Lord 26
  

" How is it that the Spider became so dear to you? We were young together, two green boys in Pentos. Varys came from Myr. So he did, I met him not long after he arrived, one step ahead of the slavers. By day he slept in the sewers, by night he prowled the rooftops like a cat. I was near as poor, a bravo in soiled silks, living by my blade. In Myr he was prince of theives, until a rival theif informed on him. In pentos his accent marked him, and once he was known for a eunch he was despised and beaten. Why he chose me to protect him I may never know, but we came to an arrangement." ADWD Tyrion 8

• " Rhaenys was a child too. Prince Rhaegar's daughter. a precious little thing, younger than your Arya. She had a small black kitten she called Balerion, did you know? I always wondered what happened to him. Rhaenys like to pretend he was the true Balerion, The Black Dread of old, but i imagine the Lannisters taught her the difference between a kitten and a dragon quick enough, the day they broke down her door. Varys gave a long weary sigh, the sigh of a man who carried all the sadness of the world in a sack upon his shoulders." GOT Eddard 58
  

• " The Red Keep was full of cats: lazy old cats dozing in the sun, cold-eyed mousers twitching, their tales quick little kittens with claws like needles, ladies cats all combed and trusting, ragged shadows prowling the midden heaps. One by one Arya caught them down and brought them to Syrio Forel... all but this one, this one eared black devil of a tomcat." GOT Arya 32
  

• " That's the real king of the castle right there one of the gold cloaks told her. Older than sin and twice as mean. One time, the king was feasting the queen's father, and the black bastard hopped right up on the table and snatched a roast quail right out of Lord Tywin's finger and Robert laughed so hard he nearly burst. You stay away from that one child." GOT Arya 32
  

• " Varys spied on lesser thieves and took their takings. I offered help to their victims, promising to recover their valuables for a fee. Soon every man who had suffered a loss knew to come to me, whilst city's footpads and cutpurses sought out Varys... half to slit his throat, the other half to sell him what they'd stolen. We both grew rich, and richer still when Varys trained his mice."
  

" In Kings Landing he keep little birds. Mice we called them then. Secrets are worth more than silver or sapphires, Varys claimed. I grew so respectable that a cousin of the Prince of Pentos led me wed his maiden daughter, whilst whispers of a certain eunuch's talents crossed the narrow sea and reached the ears of a certain king. A very anxious king, who did not wholly turst his son, nor his wife, nor his Hand, a friend of his youth who had grown arrogant and overproud." ADWD Tyrion 8

" My lord, do you believe in the old powers? Magic, you mean? Tyrion said impatiently. Blood spells, curses, shapeshifting, those sorts of things? he snorted. Do you mean to suggest Ser Cortnay was magicked to his death? Ser Cortnay had challenged Lord Stannis to single combat on the morning he died. I ask you is this the act of a man lost to despair? Then the matter of Lord Renly's mysterious and most fortuitous murder, even as his battle lines were forming up to sweep his brother from the field. The eunuch paused a moment..." COK Tyrion

" My lord you asked me how i was cut. I recall, said Tyrion, you did not want to talk of it. Nor do I, but... this pause was longer than the one before, and when Varys spoke again his voice was different somehow." COK Tyrion

• " I was and orphan boy apprenticed to a traveling folly. Our master owned a fat little cog and we sailed up and down the narrow sea performing in the free cities and from time to time in Oldtown and King's Landing. One day at Myr. a certain man came to our folly after the performance, he made an offer for me that my master found too tempting to refuse. I was in terror. I feared the man meant to use me as I had heard men used small boys, but in truth the only part of me he had need of was my manhood." COK Tyrion
  
• " He gave me a potion that made me powerless to move or speak, yet it did nothing to dull my senses. With a long hooked blade, he sliced me root and stem, chanting all the while. I watched him burn my manly parts on a brazier. The flames turned blue, and I heard a voice answer his call, though I do not understand the words they spoke." COK Tyrion
  

• " The mummers sailed by the time he was done with me. Once I had served his purpose, the man had no further interest in me, so he put me out. When I asked him what I should do now, he answered that he supposed i should die. To spite him, i resolved to live . I beggged, I stole, and I sold what parts of my body still remained to me. Soon I was as good a thief as any in Myr, and when I was old enough I learned that a man's letters are more valuable than the contents of his purse." COK Tyrion
  

• " When he was done, they rode in silence for a time. Finally Tyrion said, A harrowing tale, I"m sorry. The eunuch siged, You are sorry, but you do not believe me. No, my lord, no need to apologize. I believe in steel, gold coins, and men's wits said Tyrion. And I believe there once were dragons. I've seen their skulls, after all. Let us hope that is the worst thing you ever see, my lord. On that we agree, Tyrion smiled" COK Tyrion
  

" what good is war now? We are not ready. Delay. As well bid me stop time. Do you take me for a wizard? the other chuckled, No less." GOT Arya 32

" If one hand can die why not the second? replied the man with accent and the forked yellow beard. You have danced the dance before my friend." GOT Arya 32

" Before is not now, and this Hand is not the other." GOT Arya 32

" beneath the gold, the bittersteel. Some contracts are writ in ink and some in blood. I say no more." ADWD Tyrion 8

" The dwarf pondered that. The Golden company was reputedly the finest of the free compains. founded a century ago by Bittersteel, a bastard son of Aegon the Unworthy. When another of Aegon's Great bastards tried to seize the Iron throne from his trueborn half-brother, Bittersteel joined the revolt. Daemon Blackfyre had perished on the Redgrass Field, however, and his rebellion with him. Those followers of the Black Dragon who survived the battle yet refused to bend the knee fled across the narrow sea, among them Daemon's younger sons, Bittersteel, and hundreds of landless lords and knight's who soon found themselves forced to sell their swords to eat. Some joined the Ragged Standard, some the Second Sons or Maiden's Men. Bittersteel saw the strength of House Blackfyre scattering to the four winds, so he formed the Golden Company to bind the exiles together." ADWD Tyrion 8

" I admire your powers of persuasion, Tyrion told Illyrio. How did you convince the Golden Company to take up the cause of our sweet queen when they have spent so much of their history fighting against the Targaryens? Ilyrio brushed away the objection as if it were a fly. Black or Red a dragon is still a dragon. When Maelys the Monstorous died upon the Stepstones, it was the end of the male line of House Blackfyre. The cheesemonger smiled through his forked beard." ADWD Tyrion 8

" When the smith's son was an old man, a bastard son of the fourth Aegon rose up in rebellion against his trueborn brother and took for his sigil a black dragon. These lands belonged to Lord darry then, and his lordship was fiercely loyal to the king. The sight of the black dragon made him wroth, so he cut down the post, hacked the sign into pieces, and cast them into the river. One of the dragon's heads washed up on the Quite Isle many years later, though by that time it was red with rust. The innkeep never hung another sign so men forgot the dragon and to to calling the place the River Inn. Now it is called the Crossroads." AFFC Brienne 25

[theREALjonsnow]

Nymeria the Warrior Queen of Rhyone

No recruit had arrived at the Wall with so much pomp since Nymeria sent the Watch six Kings in golden fetters.

“Nymeria nipped eagerly at her hand as Arya untied her. She had yellow eyes, when they caught the sunglight, they gleamed like two golden coins. Arya had named her after the Warrior Queen of the Rhoyne, who had led her people across the narrow see. That had been a great scandal too.” GOT Arya 6

" Nymeria,the warrior queen of the Rhyone, brought her ten thousand ships to land in Dorne, the southernmost of the Seven Kingdoms, and took Lord Mors Martell to husband. With her help, he vanquished his rivals to rule all Dorne. The Rhoynar influence remains strong. Thus Dornish rulers style themselves "Prince" rather than "King". Under Dornish law, lands and titles pass to the eldest child, not the eldest male. Dorne, alone of the Seven Kingdoms, was never conquered by Aegon the Dragon. It was not permanently joined to the realm until two hundred years later, and the by marriage and treaty, not the sword. Peaceable King Dareon the 2nd succeeded where the warriors had failed by wedding his own sister in marriage to the reigning Prince of Dorne. The Martell banner is a red sun pierced by a golden spear. Their words are Unbowed, Unbent, Unbroken." Appendix House Martell GOT

“ That is Nymeria’s star, burning bright, and that milky band behind her, those are ten thousand ships. She burned as bright as any man, and so shall I. You shall not rob me of my birthright.” AFFC The Queensmaker 21

" Garin the Great, The Wonder of the Rhyone. That's the one, he made Valyria tremble. They trembled, then they killed him. If I led a quarter of a million men to death...." AFFC The Queenmaker 21

" It's a long journey, Arianne said. But it will go easier once we reach the Greenblood. Some of Garin's people will meet us there, the orphans of the river. They live on boats, and pole them up and down the Greenblood and its vassals, fishing and picking fruit and doing whatever work needs doing. Aye called garin out cheerfully, and we sing and play and dance on water, and know much and more of healing. My mother is the best midwife in Westeros." AFFC The Queenmaker 21

" The Greenblood was scarce worthy of the mighty name of the river, yet it remained the life of Dorne. It took its name from the murky green of its sluggish waters, but as they approached, the sunlight seemed to turn those waters gold." AFFC The Queen Maker 21

" How can you be orphans if you have mothers and fathers? the girl asked. They are the Rhoynar Arianne explained, and their mother was the river Rhoyne." AFFC The Queenmaker 21

" I thought you were the Rhoynar. You Dornishmen, I mean. We are in part, our Grace. Nymeria's blood is in me, along with that of Mors Martell, the Dornish lord she married. On the day they wed, Nymeria fired her ships, so her people would understand that there could be no going back. Most were glad to see those flames, for their voyageings had been long and terrible before they came to Dorne, and many and more had been lost to storm, disease and slavery. there were few who mourned, however. They did not love this dry red land or its seven-faced god, so they clung to their old ways, hammered boats together and hulks of the burned ships, and became the orphans of the Greenblood. The Mother in their songs is not our mother, but the mother Rhoyne, whose waters nourished them from the dawn of days." AFFC The Queensmaker 21

“ Garin’s Curse is all about us. The conquerors did not believe either Hugor Hill. The men of Volantis and Valyria hung Garin in a golden cage and made mock as he called upon his Mother to destroy them. But I the night the waters rose and drowned them, and from that day to this they have not rested. They are still down there still beneath the water, they who were once the lords of fire. Their cold breath rises from the murk to make these fogs, and their flesh has turned as stony as their hearts” ADWD Tyrion 15

“ The Palace of Love, he said softly. That was the Rhoynar name, but for a thousand years this has been the Palace of Sorrow.”

• “ Is there a Shrouded Lord? Or is he just some tale? The Shrouded Lord has ruled these mists since Garin’s day and some say he is himself Garin risen from his watery grave The dead do not rise and no man lives a thousand years. Yes there is a Shrouded Lord There have been score of them . When one dies another takes his place This one is a corsair from the Basilisk Islands who believed the Rhoyne would offer richer pickings than the Summer Sea.” ADWD Tyrion 15
  

“ The fabled Rhyone, said Tyrion when he glimpsed the slow green waterway from atop a rise. Tyrion recalled from his histories, but it had been a fair place, green and flowering, a city of canals and fountains. Until the war. Until the dragons came. A thousand years later, the canals were choked with reeds and mud, and pools of stagnant water gave birth to swarme of flies. The broken stones of temples and palaces were sinking back into the earth, and gnarled old willows grew thick along the riverbanks.” ADWD Tyrion 8

" I give you Ser Gerold Dayne of Starfall. Ser Gerold went to one knee. The moonglight shone in his dark eyes. There was an Arthur Dayne, Myrcella said. He was a Knight of the Kingsguard in the days of Mad King Aerys. He was the Sword of the Morning. He is dead. Are you Sword of the Morning now? no, men call me Darkstar and I am of the night." AFFC The Queenmaker 21

" My house goes back ten thousand years, unto the dawn of days, he said." AFFC The Queensmaker 21

" What I know is that Daynes have been killing Oakhearts for several thousand years. His arrogance took her breath away. It seems to me that Oakhearts have been killing Daynes for just as long. We all have our family traditions, Darkstar sheathed his sword." AFFC The Queensmaker 21

" They were seven facing three. In the dream as it had been in life. Yet these were no ordinary three. They waited before the round tower, the red mountains of Dorne at their backs, their white cloaks blowing in the wind. And these were no shadows; their faces burned clear even now. Ser Arthur Dayne, the Sword of the Morning, had a smile on his lips. The hilt of his great sword Dawn poked up over his right shoulder. Ser Oswell Whent was on one knee, sharpening his blade with a whetstone. Across his white-enameled helm the black bat of Harrenhal spread its wings. Between them stood fierce old Ser Gerold Hightower , the white bull, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard" GOT Eddard 27

" He rowed and rowed, and finally saw the distant towers reached ever higher as he neared shore, until he realized that his must be the greatest castle in all the world. Harrenhal! Bran knew at once. It was Harrenhal! Meera smiled, Was it?" SOS Bran 21

" The White Swords had come, to welcome a new brother to their ranks." SOS Bran 21

" The daughter of the great castle reigned as love and beauty when the tourney opened. Five champions had sworn to defend her crown; four of her brothers of Harrenhal, and her famous uncle, a White Knight of the Kingsguard. Was she a fair maid? She was, said Meera, hopping over a stone, but there were others fairer still. One was the wife of the dragon prince, who'd brought a dozen lady companions to attend to her. The knights all begged them for favors to tie about their lances." SOS Bran 21

" This isn't going to be one of those love stories is it? Bran asked suspiciously. Hodor doesn't like those much. Hodor, said Hodor agreeably. He likes the stories where the knights fight monsters. Sometimes the knights are mosnters, Bran." SOS Bran 21

" The crannogman saw a maid with laughing purple eyes dance with a white sword, a red snake, and the lord of griffins, and lastly with the quiet wolf... but only after the wild wolf spoke to her on behalf of a brother to shy to leave his bench." SOS Bran 21

" There was Arthur Dayne, she remembered. The one they called Sword of the Morning. My father was Ser Arthur's elder brother. Lady Ashara was my aunt. I never knew her, though. She threw herself into the sea from atop the Palestone Sword before i was born. Why would she do that? said Arya, startled." SOS Arya 43

• " Your lord father never spoke of her? he said. The Lady Ashara Dayne, of Starfall? No did he know her? She met your father and his brothers, during the year of the false spring." SOS Arya 43
  

• " I'm not afraid she said. That boy Ned said... Aye he told me. Lady Ashara Dayne. It's an old tale, that one. I heard it once at Winterfell, when i was no older than you are now. I doubt there's any truth to it. But if there is what of it? When Ned meet this Dornish Lady, his brother Brandon was still alive, and it was him bethrothed to Lady Catelyn, so there's no stain on your fathers honor. There's naught like a tourney to make the blood run hot, so maybe some words were whispered in a tent of a night, who can say? Words and Kisses, maybe more, but where's the harm in that? Spring had come, or so they thought, and neither one of them was pledged." SOS Arya 43
  

" She killed herself though. But that was for the grief i'd wager. She'd lost a brother, the Sword of the Morning. he shook his head. Let it lie, my lady. They're dead, all of them. Let it lie... and please, when we come to Rivverrun, say naught of this to your mother." SOS Arya 43

" She found herself thinking of Jon's mother, that shadowy secret love her husband would never speak of. Does she grieve for Ned as I do? Or did she hate him for leaving her bed for mine? Does she pray for her son as I have prayed for mine? They were uncomfortable thoughts, and futile. If Jon had been born of Ashara Dayne of Starfall, as some whispered, the lady was long dead..." SOS Catelyn 45

"My lady? Ned looked embarrassed. I'm Edric Dayne the.... the Lord of Starfell."

• " Arianne watched him warily. He is highborn enough to make a worthy consort, she though. Father would question my good sense, but our children would be as beautiful as dragonlords. If there was a handsomer man in Dorne, she did not know him. Ser Gerold Dayne had an aquiline nose, high cheekbones, a strong jaw. He kept his face clean shave, but his thick hair fell to his collar like a silver glacier, divided by streak of midnight black.His eyes seemed black as he sat outlined against the dying sun, sharpening his steel, but she had looked at them from a closer vantage and she knew that they were purple. Dark purple, dark and angry." AFFC The Queenmaker 21
  

" The Hightowers of Oldtown are among the oldest and proudest of the Great Houses of Westeros, tracing their descent back to the First Men. Once Kings, they have ruled Oldtown and its enviorns since the Dawn of Days, welcoming the Andals rather than resisting them, and later bending the knee to the Kings of the Reach and giving up their crowns whilst retaining all their ancient privileges. Though powerful and immensely wealthy, the Lords of Hightower have traditionally preferred trade to battle, and have seldom played a lare part in the wars of Westeros. The Hightowers were instrumental in the founding of the Citadel and continue to protect it to this day. Subtle and sophisticated, they have always been great patrons of learning and the Faith, and it is said that at certain of them have also dabbled in alchemy, necromancy, and other sorcerous arts. The arms of House Hightower show a stepped white tower crowned with fire on a smokey-grey field. The house words are We Light the Way." AFFC Appendix House Hightower

[theREALjonsnow]

Dunk the Lunk the Great Bastard of Flea Bottom: The White Sword of Seven who are One the Stranger's Dog Re-born

“The old High Septon told my father that king’s laws are one thing, and the laws of the gods another," the boy said stubbornly. Trueborn children are made in a marriage bed and blessed by the Father and the Mother, but bastards are born of lust and weakness, he said. King Aegon decreed that his bastards were not bastards, but he could not change their nature. The High Septon said all bastards are born to betrayal . . . Daemon Blackfyre, Bittersteel, even Bloodraven. Lord Rivers was more cunning than the other two, he said, but in the end he would prove himself a traitor, too. The High Septon counseled my father never to put any trust in him, nor in any other bastards, great or small. Born to betrayal,Dunk thought. Born of lust and weakness. Never to be trusted, great or small. Egg, he said, didn’t you ever think that I might be a bastard?" The Sworn Sword

• " There is a village between those hills. Pennytree, the lad confirmed. The Bracken's call them one name, the Blackwoods another. Aye my lord for a hundred years or so. Before that they were the Mother's Teats or just the Teats. There are two of them, and it was thought that the resembled... I can see what they resemble." ADWD Jamie
  

• " Pennytree proved to be a much larger village than he anticipated. Between the duck pond and blacksmith's forge he came upon the tree that gave the place its name, an ancient oak and tall. Its gnarled roots twisted in and out of the earth like a nest of brown serpents, and hundreds of copper pennies had been nailed to it huge trunk." ADWD Jamie
  

• “The elm’s alive, Pate pointed out. See how green the leaves are? Summer leaves, for certain. And I’ve seen shields blazoned with skulls and wolves and ravens, even hanged men and bloody heads. They served well enough, and so will this. You know the old shield rhyme? Oak and iron, guard me well . . .Or else I’m dead, and doomed to hell,” Dunk finished. He had not thought of that rhyme in years. The old man had taught it to him, a long time ago. How much do you want for the new rim and all? He asked Pate.From you? Pate scratched his beard. A copper.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “I have never heard of this Arlan of Pennytree, however. You were his squire, you say? He always said he meant for me to be a knight, as he was. When he was dying he called for his long sword and bade me kneel. He touched me once on my right shoulder and once on my left, and said some words, and when I got up he said I was a knight. Hmpf. The man Plummer rubbed his nose. Any knight can make a knight, it is true, though it is more customary to stand a vigil and be anointed by a septon before taking your vows. Were there any witnesses to your dubbing? Only a robin, up in a thorn tree. I heard it as the old man was saying the words. He charged me to be a good knight and true, to obey the seven gods, defend the weak and innocent, serve my lord faithfully and defend the realm with all my might, and I swore that I would.” The Hedge Knight
  

• “ Ser Arlan of Pennytree found me in Flea Bottom, chasing pigs. His old squire had been slain on the Redgrass Field, so he needed someone to tend his mount and clean his mail. He promised he would teach me sword and lance and how to ride a horse if I would come and serve him, so I did. A charming tal… Did you take him home to Pennytree? I didn't know where it was. Dunk had never seen the old man's Pennytree. Ser Arlan seldom spoke of it, no more than Dunk was wont to speak of Flea Bottom. I buried him on a hillside facing west, so he could see the sun go down. The camp chair creaked alarmingly beneath his weight.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “Bloodraven had made a start on that already, Dunk saw when they came up on his pavilion. Flanking the entrance, the severed heads of Gormon Peake and Black Torn Heddle had been impaled on spears, with their shields displayed beneath them. Three castles, black on orange. The man who slew Roger of Pennytree.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “Even in death, Lord Gormon's eyes were hard and flinty. Dunk closed them with his fingers. What did you do that for? asked one of the guardsmen. The crows'll have them soon enough. I owed him that much. If Roger had not died that day, the old man would never have looked twice at Dunk when he saw him chasing that pig through the alleys of King's Landing. Some old dead king gave a sword to one son instead of another, that was the start of it. And now I'm standing here, and poor Roger's in his grave, The Hand awaits,” The Mystery Knight
  

• “Before long the trees opened up, and they found themselves in what must once have been a weirwood grove. Only a ring of white stumps and a tangle of bone-pale roots remained to show where the trees had stood, when the children of the forest ruled in Westeros. Amongst the weirwood stumps, they found two men squatting near a cook fire, passing a skin of wine from hand to hand. Their horses were cropping at the grass beyond the grove, and they had stacked their arms and armor in neat piles. A much younger man sat apart from the other two, his back against a chestnut tree. Well met, sers, Dunk called out in a cheerful voice. It was never wise to take armed men unawares. I am called Ser Duncan the Tall. The lad is Egg. May we share your fire?" The Mystery Knight
  

• “Egg's ears pricked up at that name. Plumm ... are you kin to Lord Viserys Plumm, ser? Distantly, confessed Ser Maynard, a tall, thin, stoop-shouldered man with long straight flaxen hair, "though I doubt that His Lordship would admit to it. One might say that he is of the sweet Plumms, whilst I am of the sour. Plumm's cloak was as purple as name, though frayed about the edges and badly dyed. A moonstone brooch big as a hen's egg fastened it at the shoulder. Elsewise he wore dun-colored roughspun and stained brown leather.” The Mystery Knight
  

“ Aegon the Unworthy had bedded half the maidens in the realm and fathered bastards on the lot of them, supposedly. Worse, the old king had legitimized them all upon his deathbed; the baseborn ones born of tavern wenches, whores, and shepherd girls, and the Great Bastards whose mothers had been highborn. We'd all be bastard sons of old King Aegon if half these tales were true. And who's to say we're not? Ser Maynard Plumm quipped.” The Mystery Knight

“He had been born in Flea Bottom, when he ran with Ferret, Rafe, and Pudding, but the old man had saved him from that life. He knew what Ser Arlan of Pennytree would have said to Plumm's suggestions. Take your boy and flee, gallows knight. Before your arms become your destiny. Dunk bristled. How would you know my destiny? Did you have a dream, like John the Fiddler? What do you know of Egg?" The Mystery Knight

“I dreamed it. This pale white castle, you, a dragon bursting from an egg, I dreamed it all, just as I once dreamed of my brothers lying dead. They were twelve and I was only seven, so they laughed at me, and died. I am two-and-twenty now, and I trust my dreams." The Mystery Knight

• “He was carrying the little man across the room to chuck him out the door when he saw the dragon's egg. Lord Butterwell had placed it on a black velvet cushion atop a marble plinth. It was much bigger than a hen's egg, though not so big as he'd imagined. Fine red scales covered its surface, shining bright as jewels by the light of lamps and candles. Dunk dropped the dwarf and picked up the egg, just to feel it for a moment. It was heavier than he'd expected. You could smash a man's head with this, and never crack the shell. The scales were smooth beneath his fingers, and the deep, rich red seemed to shimmer as he turned the egg in his hands. Blood and flame, he thought, but there were gold flecks in it as well, and whorls of midnight black.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “He was feeling dizzy from the wine, so he leaned against a parapet. Am I going to be sick? Why did he go and touch the dragon's egg? He remembered Tanselle's puppet show, and the wooden dragon that had started all the trouble there at Ashford. The memory made Dunk feel guilty, as it always did. Three good men dead, to save a hedge knights foot. It made no sense, and never had. Take a lesson from that, lunk. It is not for the likes of you to mess about with dragons or their eggs.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “ It almost looks as if it were made of snow, Dunk turned. John the Fiddler stood behind him, smiling in his silk and cloth-of-gold. What's made of snow? The castle. All that white stone in the moonlight. Have you ever been north of the Neck, Ser Duncan? I'm told it snows there even in the summer.” The Mystery Knight
  

• “ Have you ever seen the Wall? No, That's where we were going, Egg and me, up north, to Winterfell. Could show me the way the way? Dunk frowned. It's right up the kingsroad. If you stay to the road and keep going north, you can't miss it. The Fiddler laughed. I suppose not ... though you might be surprised at what some men can miss. He went to the parapet and looked out across the castle. They say those northmen are a savage folk, and their woods are full of wolves." The Mystery Knight
  

“I should have stayed with the chalice, he said miserably. It had wings, at least, to fly away, and Ser Arlan said the cup was full of faith and fellowship and good things to drink. This shield is all painted up like death.” The Hedge Knight

“She had made a better job of it than he could ever have hoped for. Even by lantern light, the sunset colors were rich and bright, the tree tall and strong and noble. The falling star was a bright slash of paint across the oaken sky. Yet now that Dunk held it in his hands, it seemed all wrong. The star was falling, what sort of sigil was that? Would he fall just as fast? And sunset heralds night.” The Hedge Knight

• " Your door reminded me of an old shield I once saw in my father's armory. She described the arms as best she could recall them." AFFC Brienne
  

• " You did beautifully. It was more a picture than a proper coat of arms, and the sight took her back through the long years, to the cool dark of her father's armory. She remembered how she'd run her fingers across the cracked and fading paint, over the green leaves of the tree, and along the path of the falling star." AFFC Brienne
  

"Where's Egg? With the gods. I told you. Dunk reached up and wrapped his good hand around Plumm's neck. Speak plain. I am sick of hints and winks. Tell me where to find the boy, or I will snap your bloody neck, friend or no. The Sept, you would do well to go armed, Ser Maynard smiled. Is that plain enough for you, Dunk?" The Mystery Knight

“My shield, Dunk said to Egg. The boy handed it up. He slipped his left arm through the strap and closed his hand around the grip. The weight of the kite shield was reassuring, though its length made it awkward to handle, and seeing the hanged man once again gave him an uneasy feeling. Those are ill-omened arms. He resolved to get the shield repainted as soon as he could. May the Warrior grant me a smooth course and a quick victory, The Gallows Knight. Come forth and prove your valor." The Mystery Knight

“Where are you going, ser? To my bed, to sleep. I'm drunk as a dog. Be my dog, ser. The night's alive with promise. We can howl together, and wake the very gods." The Mystery Knight

Therefore as the greatest Bastard of them all Dunk the Lunk would plant his dragonseed in houses Clegane (dog reference), Tarth (shield she has) and Stark (Tansalle Too Tall living in Winterfell, whose most favorite story to tell the young stark children is the tale of Aerion Brightflame who "thought" he was a Dragon puppet show). A certain stable boy must be considered in a new light...

The next set of quotes prove Sandor Clegane the Hound is the Hedge Knight Reborn and has the blood of old Valryia and the fear of fire shall be overcome:

• " This is Andalos, my friend. The Land your Andals came from. They took it form the hairy men who were here before them, cousins to the hairy men of Ib. The heart of Hugor's ancient realm lies north of us, but we are passing thought its southern marches. Andalos. the Faith taught that the seven themselves had once wallked the hills of Andalos in human form. The father reached his hand into the heavens and pulled down seven stars, Tyrion recited from memory, and one by one he set them on the brow of Hugor of the Hill to make a glowing crown." ADWD Tyrion 2
  

• " What sort of gods make rats and plagues and dwarfs? Another passage from the Seven Pointed Star came back to him. The maid broght him forth a girl as supple as a willow with eyes like deep blue pools and Hugor declared that he would have her for his bride. So the mother made her fertile, and the Crone fortold that she would bear the king four and fourty might sons. The Warrior gave strength to their arms, whilst the smith wrought for each a suit of iron plates." ADWD Tyrion 2
  

• " On the Crown of the hill four and forty monstrous stone ribs rose from the earth like the trunks of great pale trees. The sight made Aerion's heart beat faster. Nagga had been the first sea dragon, this mightiest ever to rise from the waves. She fed on krakens and leviathans and drownded whole islands in her wrath, yet the Grey King had slain her and the Drowned God had changed her bones to stone so that men might never cease to wonder at the courage of the first of kings. Nagga's ribs became beams and pillars of his longhall, just as her jaws became this throne. For a thousand years and seven he reigned here, Aeron recalled. Here he took his mermaid wife and planned his wars against the Storm God. From here he ruled both stone and salt, wearing robes of woven seaweed and a tall pale crown made from Nagga's teeth." AFFC the Drowned Man 19
  

• " The Andals were the first, a race of tall, fair-haired warrios who came with steel and fire and the Seven Pointed Star of the new gods painted on their chests. The wars lasted hundreds of years, but in the end the six southern kingdoms all fell before them. Only here, where the King in the North threw back every army that tried to cross the Neck, did the rule of the First Men endure. The Andals burnt out the weirwood groves, hacked down the faces, slaughtered the children where the found them, and everywhere proclaimed the triumph of the Seven over the old gods. So the children fled north... Summer began to howl. Maester Luwin broke of startled." GOT Bran 66
  

• " The Arryns are descended from the Kings of Mountain and Vale, one of the oldest and purest lines of Andal Nobility. Their sigil is the moon-and-falcon, white, upon a sky blue field. the Arryn words are High as Honor." Appendix House Arryn GOT
  

• " The winged knight was Ser Artys Arryn. Legend said that he had driven the First Men from the Vale and flown to the top of the Giant's Lance on a huge falcon to slay the Griffin King." AFFC Alayne 41
  

" How many knights? Few enough, the maester said with a touch of impatience. To be a knight, you must stand your vigil in a sept, and be anointed with the Seven oils to consecrate your vows. In the north, only a few of the great houses worship the Seven. The rest honor the old gods, and name no knights... but those lords and sons and sworn swords are no less fierce of loyal or honorable. A man's worth is not marked by a ser before his name. As i have told you a hundred times before." GOT Bran 53

" The next day they rode to a place called High Heart, a hill so lofty that from atop it Arya felt as though she could see half the world. Around its brow stood a ring of huge pale stumps, all that remained of a circle of once-mighty weirwoods. There were thirty-one, some so wide you could have use for a bed. High Heart had been sacred to the children of the forest, Tom Sevenstrings told her, and some of their magic lingered her still. No harm can ever come to those as sleep her, the singer said. It was said to be haunted by the ghosts of the children of the forest who had died here when the Andal king named Erreg the Kingslayer had cut down their grove." ASOS Arya 22

• " The Brotherhood without Banners, Tom Sevenstrings plucked a string. The Knights of the Hollow Hill. Knights? Clegane made the word a sneer. Dondarrion's a knight, but the rest of you are the sorriest lot of outlaws and broken men I've ever seen" ASOS Arya34
  

" Might be you are knights after all. You lie like knights, maybe you murder like knights. Say what you mean Clegane. A knight's a sword with a horse. The rest, the vows and the sacred oils and the lady's favors, they're silk ribbons tied round the sword. Maybe the sword's prettier with ribbons hanging off it, but it will kill you just as dead. well bugger your ribbons, shove your swords up your arses. I'm the same as you. The only difference is, I don't lie about what I am." ASOS Arya 34

" If there were gods, why didn't Lord Beric win? She knew the Hound was guilty. Please, Sandor Clegane rasped, cradling his arm. Im burned. Help me. Someone Help me. He was crying please...you go to hell Hound, she screamed at Sandor Clegane in helpless empty-handed rage. You just go to hell! He has, said a voice scare stronger than a whisper. Lord Beric Dondarrion was standing behind her his bloody hand clutching Thoros by the shoulder." ASOS Arya

The shield of The Gallows Knight represents the Hound's future triumph over Beric Dondarrion at High Heart in the Hollow Hill.

• " Sansa could not bear the sight of him, he frightened her so, yet she had be raised in all the ways of courtesy. A true lady would not notice his face. You rode gallantly today, Ser Sandor, she made herself say. Sandor snarled at her. Spare me your empty little complaints girl and your sers. I am no knight. I spit on them and their vows. My brother is a knight." GOT Sansa 29
  

• " He was mocking her she realized. Some septa trained you well. Your like one of them pretty little birds from the Summer Isles, arn't you? That's unkind, she could feel her heart fluttering in her chest." GOT Sansa 29
  

• " The septons preach about seven hells but what do they know? Only a man who's been burned knows what hell is like. Four years later they anointed him with the seven oils and he recited his knightly vows and Rhaegar Targaryen tapped him on the shoulder and said, Arise ser Gregor." GOT Sansa 29
  

" He squatted suddenly before her, a hulking black shape shrouded in the night, hidden from her eyes. Sansa could hear his ragged breathing. She was sad for him, somehow the fear had gone away. She found his massive shoulder with her hand, He was no true knight, she whispered to him. The Hound threw back his head and roared, Sansa stumbled back away from him, but he caught her arm. No he growled back at her, No little bird he was no true knight." GOT Sansa 29

" He had green grey green eyes that did not smile when his mouth did. You have the Tully look, I am Sansa Stark, I have not had the honor my lord. Sweet child this is Lord Petyr Baelish. Your mother was my queen of love and beauty once, the man said quietly. His breath smelled of mint. You have her hair, his fingers brushed and auburn cheek as he stroked one auburn lock. Quite abruptly he turned and walked away." GOT Eddard 39

" The Hound has a hungry look in him about him this morning. Even hungry dogs no better than to bite the hands that feed them, Littlefinger called dryly. Sandor Clegane dropped his visor with an audible clang and took up his position. Ser Jamie tossed a kiss to some women in the commons, gently lowered his visor and rode to the end of the lists" GOT Eddard 30

" Ned stark would have loved nothing so well as to see them both lose, but Sansa was watching all moist eyed and eager, wood shattered, the Hound reeled,fighting to keep his seat. Sansa gasped." GOT Eddard 30

" Sansa said, I knew the Hound would win." GOT Eddard 30

" But as Gregor lifted his sword for the killing blow, a rasping voice warned, Leave him be, and steel clenched hand wrenched him away from the boy. The Mountain pivoted in wordless fury, swinging his massive longsword in a killing arc with with all his massive strength behind it, but the Hound caught the blow and turned it, and what seemed like an eternity the two brothers stood hammering at each other. Stop this madness in the name of your king, Sandor went to one leg while Gregor swung at open air. His threw his sword in the dirt and walked off." GOT Eddard 30

" Is the Hound the Champion now? Sansa asked Ned. No he told he told her, but she had the right of it after all. A few moments later Ser Loras walked back on the field and said, I owe you my life the day is yours ser. I am no ser, the Hound replied, but he took the victory and the champions purse and for perhaps the first time in his life the love of the commons. Everyone cheered as him as he left the lists to return to his pavilion." GOT Eddard 30

" Come to the godswood tonight, if you want to go home, come to the godswood tonight if you want to go home, come to the gods wood tonight if you want to go home." COK Sansa 18

" Why do you let people call you a dog? You won't let anyone call you a knight. I like dogs better than knights, a hound will die for you, but never lie to you. And he'll look you straight in the face." COK Sansa 18

" And what's Joff's little bird doing flying down the serpentine in the black of night? She did not answer, he shook her. Where were you? The g-g-godswood my lord, she said not daring to lie. Praying for the king, praying that he not be hurt." COK Sansa 18

• " I know a song about Florian and Jonquil. Florian and Jonquil? a fool and his cunt. Spare me. But one day i'll have a song from you, whether you will it or no. I will sing it for you gladly. Sandor Clegane snorted, pretty little thing, and such a bad liar. A dog can smell a lie you know. Look around and take a good whiff. They are all liars here... and every one better than you." COK Sansa 18
  

" Think i'm so drunk that I'd belive that? he let go his grip on her arm, swaying slighty as he stood, stripes of light and darkness falling across his terrible burnt face. You look almost a women... face, teats and you're taller too, almost... ahh you're still a stupid little bird, aren't you? sing me a song why don't you? Go on, sing to me some song about knights and fair maids. you like knight's, don't you?" COK Sansa 18

" The longer you keep him waiting, the worse it will go for you, Sandor Clegane warned her. The Hound was always rough tounged, but something in the way he looked at her filled her with dread. Had Joffrey found out about her meetings with ser Dontos? Please no, she thought as she brushed her hair. Ser Dontos was her only hope. Tell me what i've done. Not you your kingly brother. Robb's a traitor, sansa knew the words by rote. The Hound snorted, they trained you well little bird." COK Sansa 32

" Your grace, she fell to her knees. Kneeling won't save you know, stand up your to pay for your brother's latest treasons. Your grace whatever my traitor brother has done, I had no part in it. You know that, I beg of you please...STAND HER UP! The Hound pulled her to her feet, not ungently. Leave her face I liker her pretty. Boros slammed a fist into her belly driving the air out of her. Tear welled in her eyes, It will be over soon, she soon lost count of the blows. Enough, she heard the Hound rasp." COK Sansa 32

" What sort of knight beats helpless maids? The sort who serves his king Imp. Careful with those warned the dwarf's sellsword, you don't want to get blood all over those pretty white cloaks. Sandor unfastened his cloak and tossed it to her. Sansa clutched it against her chest, fists bunched hard in the white wool. The coarse weave was scratchy against her skin, but no velvet had ever felt so fine." COK Sansa 32

• " Tyrion glanced around the yard, Where's the Stark girl? Finally Joffrey said, She was riding by me, I don't know where she went. There she is, Joffery shouted pointing. Sandor Clegane cantered briskly through the gates astride Sansa's chestnut courser. The girl was seated behind, both arms tight around the hound's chest. Tyrion called to her, Are you hurt lady Sansa? Blood was trickling down sansa's brow. A man tried to pull me from the saddle. The Hound killed him, I think his arm... her eye's widened and she put a hand over her mouth, he cut off his arm." COK Tyrion 41
  

• " Clegane lifted her to the ground. His white cloak was torn and stained, and blood seeped through a jagged tear in his sleeve. The little bird's bleeding, somoeone take her back to her cage and see to that cut." COK Tyrion 41
  

• " Yet none of it made her feel less fearful. A stab went through her, so sharp that Sansa sobbed and clutched her belly. She might have fallen, but a shadow moved suddenly , and strong fingers grabbed her arm and steadied her. Let go of me, she cried. Let go. The little bird thinks she has wings, does she? Or do you mean to end up crippled like that brother of yours? " COK Sansa 32
  

" The Hound leapt at them, his sword a blur of steel that trailed a red mist as it swung. When they broke and ran before him he had laughed, his terrible burned face for a moment transformed. She made herself look at that face now, really look. It was only courteous, and a lady must never forget her courtesies. The scars are not the worst part, nor even the way his mouth twitches. It's his eyes. She had never seen eyes so full of anger. I should have come to you after to thank you for saving me, you were so brave." COK Sansa 32

• " Does it give you joy to scare people? No, it give me joy to kill people. His mouth twitched. Wrinkle up your face all you like, but spare me this false piety. you were a high lord's get. Don't tell me Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell never killed a man. That was his duty, she said, he never liked it. Is that what he told you? Clegane laughed again. Your father lied. Killing is the sweetest thing their is. " COK Sansa 32
  

" He drew his long sword. Here is your truth. Your precious father found that out on Baelor's steps. Lord of Winterfell, Hand of the King, Warden of the North, the mighty Eddard Stark, of a line eight thousand years old... but Illyn Payne's blade went through his neck all the same, didn't it? Do you remember the dance it did when his head came off his shoulders?" COK Sansa

" She hugged herself suddenly cold. Why are you always so hateful? I was thanking you... Just as if i was one of those true knights you love so well,yes. What do you think a knight is for, girl? You think it's all taking favors from ladies and looking fine in gold plate? Knights are for killing. he laid the edge of his longsword against her neck, just under her ear. Sansa could feel the sharpness of the steel. So long as i have this, he said lifting the sword from her throat, there is no man on earth i need fear. Except your brother, Sansa thought but she had better sense than to say it aloud. He is a dog, just as he says. A half-wild, mean-temeperd dog that bites the hand that tries to pet him, and yet will savage any man who tries to hurt his masters" COK Sansa 52

" True knight's protect the weak, she said. He snorted, there are no true knights, no more than there are gods." COK Sansa 52

" There are god's, she told herself, and there are true knights too. All the stories can't be lies. That night Sansa dreamed of he riot again. The mob surged around her, shrieking, a maddened beast with a thousand faces. Everywhere she turned she saw faces twisted into monstorous inhuman masks. She wept and told them she had never done them hurt, yet they dragged her from her horse all the same. No she cried, no please don't don't, but no one paid her any heed. She shouted for Ser Dontos, for her brothers, for her dead father and her dead wolf, for gallant Ser Loras who had given her a red rose once, but none of them came. She called for the heroes in the songs, for Florian and Ser Ryam Redwyne and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight, but no one heard. Women swarmed all over her like weasels, pinching her legs and kicking her belly, and someone hit her in her in the face and she felt her teeth shatter. Then she saw the bright glimmer of steel. The knife plunged into her belly and tore and tore, until their was nothing left of her down there but shiny wet ribbon's." COK Sansa 52

Ok I have to stop here. If you are actually reading this theory of mine, IS SHE DREAMING ABOUT GETTING DICKED DOWN BY THE HOUND? or just a rape that never occured but was possible that represents her first bleeding? she is searching for a hero in the dream, and from her previous descriptions it sounds like she can never forget that the hound saved her. so, what does the end of this dream represent?

• " So you are a woman now. Do you have the least idea what that means? It means I am now fit to be wedded and bedded, said Sansa to bear children for the King. Do you want to be loved, Sansa? Everyone wants to be loved. I see flowering hasn't made you any brighter said Cersei. Sansa permit me to share a little bit of womanly wisdom with you on this very special day. Love is a poison. A sweet poison, yes, but it will kill you all the same." COK Sansa 52
  

" Why is Ser Ilyn here? Sansa blurted out. The queen glanced at the mute headsman. He was a knight before he was headsman, she said. I would be gladder if he was the Hound, Sansa thought. Harsh as he was she did not believe Sandor Clegane would let any harm come to her." COK Sansa 52

" True knights would never harm women and children. The words rang hollow in her ears even as she said them. True Knights, the queen seemed to find that wonderfully amusing. No doubt your right. So why don't you just eat your broth like a good girl and wait for Symeon Star Eyes and Prince Aemon the Dragonknight to come rescue you sweetling." COK Sansa 52

1. “ Prince Aemon the Dragonknight cried the day Princess Naerys wed his brother Aegon, Sansa Stark said.” COK Sansa 45
   

• “ I shall have the finest Knight in the Seven Kingdoms guarding me night and day, as Prince Aemon protected Naerys.” SOS Sansa 16
  

• “ Prince Aemon the Dragonknight took his vows at seventeen, Ser Loras said. And your brother Jaime was younger still.” SOS Tyrion
  

• “ The White Book sat on a white table in a white room. The room was round, its walls of whitewashed stone hung with white woolen tapestries. It formed the first floor of White Sword Tower, a slender structure of four stories built into an angle of the castle wall overlooking the bay. The undercroft held arms and armor, the second and third floors the small spare sleeping cells of the six brothers of the Kingsguard.” SOS Jamie 57
  

• “ The table itself was old weirwood, pale as bone, carved in the shape of a huge shield supported by three white stallions. By tradition the Lord Commander sat at the top of the shield, and the brothers three to a side, on the rare occasions when all seven were assembled.” SOS Jamie 56
  

• “ The book rested by his elbow was massive; two feet tall and a foot and a half wide, a thousand pages thick, fine white vellum bound between covers of bleached white leather with gold hinges and fastenings. The book of Brothers was its formal name, often it was simply called the white book. Within the white book was the history of the Kingsguard.” SOS Jamie 57
  

• “ Aegon the Unworthy had never harmed Queen Naerys, perhaps for fear of their brother the Dragonknight… but when another of his Kingsguard fell in love with one of his mistresses, the king had taken both their heads.” SOS Sansa 16
  

• “ And the Dragonknight? She flung her bedclothes aside and swung her legs to the floor. The noblest knight who ever lived, you said, and he took his queen to bed and got her with child.
  

i believe at somepoint the Hound will rejoin the Kingsguard for Aegon 6th who will catch him and Sansa in the act... oh yea i said it here first...

• " Lady, she whimpered softly, wondering if she would meet her wolf again when she was dead. Then something stirred behind her, and a hand reached out of the dark and grabbed her wrist. Little bird I knew you'd come." COK Sansa 62
  

" She saw him for a moment, all black and green, the blood on his face dark as tar, his eyes glowing like a dog's in the sudden glare. Then light faded and he was only a hulking darkness in a stained white cloak. Don't you want to ask whose winning the battle little bird? Who, she said, too frightened to defy him. The Hound laughed, I only know who is lost. Me. He is drunker than I've ever seen him. He was sleeping in my bed. What does he want here... What have you lost? All... " COK Sansa 62

" He yanked her closer, and for a moment she thought he meant to kiss her. He was too strong to fight. She closed her eyes, wanting it to be over, but nothing happend. Still can't bear to look, can you? she heard him say, shoving her down onto the bed. I'll have that song, Florian and Jonquil, you said, His dagger was at her throat, Sing little bird, sing for your little life... she almost closed her eyes again, but the she remembered. It was not the song of Florian and Jonquil but it was a song." COK Sansa 62

" Gentle Mother, font of mercy, save our sons from war,we pray, stay the swords and stay the arrows, let them know a better day, Gentle Mother, strength of women, help our daugthers through this fray, soothe the wrath and tame the fury, teach us all a kinder way. after a moment the Hound took his blade from her throat, never speaking. Some instinct made her lift her hand and cup his cheek with her fingers. The room was to dark for her to seem him, but she could feel the stickiness of the blood, and a wetness that was not blood. Little bird, he said once more, then rose from the bed. Sansa heard cloth ripping, followed by the softer sound of retreating footsteps. When she crawled out of bed, long moments later, she was alone, she found his cloak on the floor, twisted up tight, the white wool stained by blood and fire. She took out the torn cloak and huddled beneath it on the floor, shivering." COK Sansa 62

" No one can save me but my Florian." SOS Sansa 6

" I wish the Hound were here. The night of the battle, Sandor Clegane ahd come to her chambers to her her from the city, but Sansa refused. Sometimes she lay awake at night, wondering if she had been wise. she had his stained white cloak hidden in a cedar chest beneath her summer silks. But Sansa understood. She knew the secret of his burned face. It was only the fire he feared." SOS Sansa 6

" Sansa wondered what Megga would think about kissing the Hound, as she had. H'ed come to her the night of the battle stinking of wine and blood. He kissed me and threatened to kill me and made me sing him a song." SOS Sansa 16

• " As the boy's lips touched her own she found herself thinking of another kiss.She could still remember how it felt, when his cruel mouth pressed down on her own. He had come to Sansa in the darkness as green fire filled the sky. He took a song and a kiss and left me with nothing but a bloody white cloak." AFFC Alyane 41
  

• " Why do they call it the Quiet Isle? asked Podrick. Those who dwell here are penitents, who seek to atone for their sins through contemplation, prayer, and silence. Only the Elder Brother and his proctors are permitted to speak and the proctors only for one day out of Seven." AFFC Brienne 45
  

• " Lady Brienne is a warrior maid, hunting the Hound. To what end. Brienne touched Oathkeeper's hilt. His, she said." AFFC Brienne 45
  

• " and higher still they passed a lichyard where a brother bigger than Brienne was struggling to dig a grave. From the way he moved, it was plain to see he was lame. As he flung a spadeful of the stony soil over one shoulder, some chanced to splatter against their feet. The gravedigger lowered his head. When Dog went to sniff him he dropped his spade and scratched his ear." AFFC Brienne 45
  

• " The Hound died there, in my arms. You may have seen a big black stallion in our stables. That was his warhorse, Stranger. A blasphemous name. We prefer to call him Driftwood, as he was found beside the river. He has his former masters nature. The horse, she had seen the stallion, had heard it kicking, but she had not understood. Destriers were trained to kick and bite. In war they were like a weapon, like the men who rode them. Like the hound, it is true then Sandor Clegane is dead. He is at rest, the Elder brother paused..." AFFC Brienne 45
  

• " There was only the oncoming horseman and and the longaxe in his hand. He wore a surcoat over his armor and she saw the two towers that marked him for a Frey. She did not understand. The knight followed at a trot, only darkness behind his eyeslit. They went round once, twice, a third time. The knight curse her. You can't run... the axe head caught him square in the back of the head. Behind him was the Hound, still mounted on Stranger. Get my helm, Clegane growled at her..." SOS Arya 50
  

" He snatched it one handed from the air and lowered it over his head, and where the man had sat only a dog remained, snarling at the fires." SOS Arya 50

" Stupid little bitch, fires glinted off the snout of his helm, and made the steel teeth shine. You go in there, you won't come out. Maybe Frey will let you kiss your mother's corpse. Maybe we can save her... Maybe you can i'm not done living yet. Stay or go she-wolf, live or die, your... Arya spun away from him and darted for the gate. Run fast as a wolf. His axe took her in the back of the head..." SOS Arya 50

• " If the Hound would have let her she would have sleep all day and all night. And dreamed. That was the best part the dreaming. If her nights were full of wolves, her day belonged to the Dog. Sandor Clegane made her get up every morning whether she wanted to or not. " SOS Arya 54
  

• " You're not worth spit to me now, and I don't want to hear your whining. I should have let you run into that bloody castle. You should have, she agreed, thinking of her mother. You'd be dead if i had. You ought to thank me. You ought sing me a pretty little song, the way your sister did. Did you hit her with and axe too? I hit you with the flat of an axe, you stupid little bitch." SOS Arya 54
  

" As he slid the blade back out and wiped it on the dead man, he looked at Arya. That's where the heart is, girl. That's how you kill a man." SOS Arya 54

" Will we bury him? Why, Sandor said. He don't care, and we've got no spade. Leave him for the wolves and wild dogs. You brothers and mine. He gave her a hard look. First we rob him though." SOS Arya 54

" So much for my brave brothers of the Kingsguard. Who killed him? The Imp its thought, him and his little wife. What wife? I forgot you been hiding under a rock. The northern girl. Winterfell's daughter. We heard she killed the king with a spell, and afterward changed into a wolf with big leather wings like a bat, and flew out the tower window. But she left the dwarf behind, Cersei means to have his head. The Hound sat closet to the door, his mouth twitched but only on the burned side. She ought have dipped him in wildfire, he drained his wine cup right away" SOS Arya 54

• " He moved swiftly never taking his eyes off Sandor Clegane. It was the easiest thing in the world to step up behind him and stab him. Is there gold in the village? she shouted as she drove the blade into his back. Is there silver? Is there food? Where is Lord Beric. Where did he go? How many knights? How many, how many, how many, how many. Her hands were red and sticky when Sandor dragged her off him." SOS Arya 54
  

" mercy ser. The Hound gave him a smack across the face that made him scream again. Don't call me ser, he turned back to Arya, this ones your she-wolf. You can do it. she knew what he meant. Arya went to Polliver and knelt in his blood long enough to undo his sword belt. Hanging beside his dagger was a slimmer blade, too long to be a dirk, too short to be a mans sword but it felt just right in her hand. You remember where the heart is? She nodded, mercy, she slipped the blade between his ribs and gave it to him" SOS Arya 54

• " His eyes opened, Do you remember where the heart is? I was only... Don't lie he growled. I hate liars, I hate gutless frauds even worse, go on do it. When Arya did not move, he said, I killed your butchers boy. I near cut him in half and laughed about it later. he made a queer sound and it took her a moment to see that he was sobbing." SOS Arya 54
  

• " and the pretty little bird, your pretty sister, I took the bloody song, she never gave it. I meant to take her too. I should have. I should have fucked her bloody and ripped her heart out before leaving her for that dwarf. A spasm of pain twitched on his face. Do you mean to make me beg bitch, do it! the gift of mercy avenge your little michael. Mycah, Arya stepped away from him. you don't deserve the gift of mercy." SOS Arya 54
  

" The Hound watched her saddle Craven through eyes bright with fever. Not once did he rise and attempt to stop her, but when she mounted he said, A real wolf would finish a wounded animal. You shouldn't have hit me with an axe and you should have saved my mother." SOS Arya 54

" crows fled before wolves, wolves fled before men. She had abandoned the cold white prize in the mud where she had dragged it, and ran, and felt no shame. When the morning came, the Hound did not need to shout at Arya or shake her awake. She had woken before him for a change, and even watered their horses. They broke their fast in silence until Sandor said. This thing about your mother... It doesn't matter, Arya said in a dull voice. I know she's dead I saw her in a dream. The Hound looked at her a long time then nodded. No more was said of it." SOS Arya 54

" I fear no shade, ser. It is written in the Seven Pointed Star that spirits, wights and revenants cannot harm a pious man, so long as he is armored in his faith." AFFC Jamie

" Could you sing a southern song? for the babe? The Song of the Seven, it's called. The Fathers face is stern and strong, he sits and judges right from wrong. He weighs our lives, the short and long, and loves the little children. The mother gives the gift of life, and watches over every wife. Her gentle smile ends all strife, and she loves her little children. The Warrior stands before the foe, protecting us where e'er we go. With sword and shield and spear and bow, he guards the little children. The Crone is very wise and old, and see our very fates unfold. She lifts her lamp of shining gold, to lead the little children. The smith, he labors day and night, to put the world of men to right. With hammer, plow, and fire bright, he builds for little children. The Maiden dances through the sky, she lives in every lover's sigh, Her smiles teach the birds to fly, and give dreams to little children. The Seven Gods who made us all, are listening if we should call. So close your eyes, you shall not fall, the see you, little children, Just close your eyes you shall not fall they see you , little children.... Did you only sing of six gods? Craster always told us you southerns had seven. Seven ,he agreed, but no one sings of the Stranger. The Strangers face was the face of death. " SOS Samwel 46

" Orton told me that the High Septon has no name, Lady Taena said. Can that be true? Every septons born of noble blood go only by their given name once the have take their vows. When one of them is elevated to High Septon, he puts aside that name as well. The Faith will tell you he no longer has need of a man's name, for he has become avatar of the gods." AFFC Cersei 28

" A life protecting the High Septon is not so different from a life protecting the King after all." AFFC Jamie 33

" During the reign of King Baelor the Blessed a simple stonemason was chosen as High Septon. He worked stone so beautifully that Baelor decided he was the Smith reborn in mortal flesh. The man could neither read nor write, nor recall the words of the simplest of prayers. Some still claimed that Baelor's hand had the man poisoned to spare the realm embarrassment. After that one died, an eight year old boy was elevated, once more at King Baelor's urging. The boy worked miracles, though even his little hands could not save Baelor during his final fast." AFFC Cersei 28

" Against this you have Septon Barth, the blacksmith's son the Old King plucked from the Red Keeps library, who gave the realm forty years of peace and plenty." ASOS Davos 54

" Your grace is Queen Regent of the Seven Kingdoms, the man said... but in The Seven Pointed Star it is written that as men must bow to their lords, and lords to their kings, so kings and queens must bow before the Seven Who are One." AFFC Cersei 28

" The realm is full of kings. For the Faith to exalt one above the rest we must be certain. Three hundred years ago, when Aegon the Dragon landed beneath this very hill, the High Septon locked himself within the Starry Sept of Oldtown and prayed for seven days and seven nights, taking no nourishment but bread and water. When he emerged he announced that the Faith would not oppose Aegon and his sisters, for the Crone had lifted up her lamp to show him what lay ahead. If oldtown would burn, and the Hightower and the Citadel and the Starry Sept would be cast down and destroyed. Lord Hightower was a godly man and when he heard this prophecy, he kept his strength at home and opened his the city gate to Aegon when he came. And His Holiness anointed the Conqueror with the seven oils. I must do as he did, three hundred years ago.I musy pray, and fast." AFFC Cersei 28

" The swords and the stars troubled even the Targaryens. The Conqueror himself tread carefully with the Faith, so they would not oppose him. And when Aegon died and the lords rose up against his sons, both orders were in the thick of that rebellion. The more pious lords supported them, and many of the smallfolk. King Maegor finally had to put a bounty on them. He paid a gold dragon for the head of and unrepentant Warrior's Son, and a silver stag for the scalp of any poor fellow, if i recall my history. Thousands were slain, but nigh as many still roamed the realm, defiant, until the Iron Throne slew Maegor and King Jaehaerys agreed to pardon all those who would set aside their swords."

" The Faith Militant reborn... that would be the answer to three hundred years of prayer, your grace. The Warrior would lift his shining sword again an cleanse this sinful realm of all its evil. If his Grace would allow me to restore the ancient blessed orders of the Sword and Star, every godly man in the Seven kingdoms would know him to be our true and rightful Lord." AFFC Cersei 28

• "... but he knew a hundred different prayers and could recite long passages from the Seven Pointed Star by memory, which was all that was required for the villages. One god with seven aspects. That's so, my lady, and you are right to point it out, but the mystery of the Seven Who Are One is not easy for simple folk to grasp, and i am nothing if but simple, so i speak of seven gods." AFFC Brienne
  

[Beathag]

Ahem.

In severe mock irritation -- I was getting ready to respond to Blackfyres in the Attic when I stumbled upon The Real Jon Snow's Missive. I shall read this. But henceforth, good scholar, would you please type this in the same size type face and the same font? It is enough to give some a migraine.

[theREALjonsnow]

my apologies...

when creating these " timelines " of quotes to help identify the important characters/locations/religions i soon came to realize that all the font was the same size and shape and whenever i got a good idea i was unable to connect it back to something else. whenever you tried to read certain quotes or go back it took minutes upon minutes to scan up and down the pages.

so i have made them how i see fit. i have still not made a timeline for valyria or winterfell. i also plan on tackling a complete arya timeline as her transformation is the most profound in the book.

magic is a sword without a hilt. if you want to understand the story as i do you must digest the oddly shaped text...

[Beathag]

my apologies...

when creating these " timelines " of quotes to help identify the important characters/locations/religions i soon came to realize that all the font was the same size and shape and whenever i got a good idea i was unable to connect it back to something else. whenever you tried to read certain quotes or go back it took minutes upon minutes to scan up and down the pages.

so i have made them how i see fit. i have still not made a timeline for valyria or winterfell. i also plan on tackling a complete arya timeline as her transformation is the most profound in the book.

magic is a sword without a hilt. if you want to understand the story as i do you must digest the oddly shaped text...

Nay, my dear. I copied and put in it type I can read. :read:

[theREALjonsnow]

i am honored that you would do that.

but i am gonna leave a little post on the A+J=T to show you why some of my underlines and BOLD font are somewhat important...

[joluoto2]

Varys know much, but to think he knows everything and is behind everything is plain wrong. There were loads of things Varys never could control. Robert's Rebellion was probably one of them. I think he never intended for Robert to win. He could have used Aerys' madness furhter to make the whole Realm pissed of at the Targaryens, and then get his gruesome revenge when the Blackfyres return from nowhere with the support of the Lords, the Faith and the People. However that didn't happen. Robert and Tywin stole hís revenge, and instead the whole conveluted plot involving making the BF heir a false Aegon came to be.

That's my interpretation of the fAegon is a BF theory. I don't buy it completelyt myself (that fAegon is a BF that is), but this is how I envison it to be if that theory turn out to be true.

[theREALjonsnow]

Well i think varys is a warg who takes control of the black cat king of the castle, so i might disagree varys knows as much as possible. my theory is that varys was behind robert's rebellion with tywin seeking to sit cersei on the throne.

since we never have a varys pov it's impossible to know his true motives but we can be sure that what we are told by another character can almost always be ruled out as rumor.