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Prince Daemon Targaryen's Friend on the Green Council was Lord Larys Strong


Lost Melnibonean

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In his youth, Daemon Targaryen’s face and laugh were familiar to every cut-purse, whore, and gambler in Flea Bottom. The prince still had friends in the low places of King’s Landing, and followers amongst the gold cloaks. Unbeknownest to King Aegon, the Hand, or the Queen Dowager, he had allies at court as well, even on the green council … and one other go-between, a special friend he trusted utterly, who knew the wine sinks and rat pits that festered in the shadow of the Red Keep as well as Daemon himself once had, and moved easily through the shadows of the city. To this pale stranger he reached out now, by secret ways, to set a terrible vengeance into motion.

The Princess and the Queen

So, who was Daemon’s friend of the Green Council? 

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Gathering in the queen’s chambers as the body of her lord husband grew cold above were Queen Alicent herself; her father Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King; Ser Criston Cole, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard; Grand Maester Orwyle; Lord Lyman Beesbury, master of coin, a man of eighty; Ser Tyland Lannister, master of ships, brother to the Lord of Casterly Rock; Larys Strong, called Larys Clubfoot, Lord of Harrenhal, master of whisperers; and Lord Jasper Wylde, called Ironrod, master of laws.

The Princess and the Queen

It wasn’t Lord Lyman...

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“And friends,” Lord Beesbury declared. “Men of honor, who will not forget the vows they swore to her and her father. I am an old man, but not so old that I will sit here meekly whilst the likes of you plot to steal her crown.” And so saying, he rose to go.

But Ser Criston Cole forced Lord Beesbury back into his seat and opened his throat with a dagger.

And so the first blood shed in the Dance of the Dragons belonged to Lord Lyman Beesbury, master of coin and lord treasurer of the Seven Kingdoms.

The Princess and the Queen

Nobody took Lord Lyman’s place, though...

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Ser Tyland Lannister was named master of coin in place of the late Lord Beesbury, and acted at once to seize the royal treasury.

...

To take Ser Tyland’s place as master of ships, SerOtto looked to the Iron Islands, dispatching a raven to Dalton Greyjoy, the Red Kraken, the daring and bloodthirsty sixteen-year-old Lord Reaper of Pyke, offering him the admiralty and a seat on the council for his allegiance.

The Princess and the Queen

The Red Kraken “allied” with the blacks instead. Although , it appeared he was really just interested in taking advantage of the Westerlandsvulnerability as House Lannister supported the greens.  

We can eliminate Queen Alicent and Ser Otto, since they were the reason for the greens in the first place. We can eliminate Ser Criston too, since he would lead Aegon’s armies until his death. And I think we can eliminate Ser Tyland, Ser Otto, and Lord Jasper...

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Queen Alicent was fettered at wrist and ankle with golden chains, though her stepdaughter spared her life “for the sake of our father, who loved you once.” Her own father was less fortunate. Ser Otto Hightower, who had served three kings as Hand, was the first traitor to be beheaded. Ironrodfollowed him to the block, still insisting that by law a king’s son must come before his daughter. SerTyland Lannister was given to the torturers instead, in hopes of recovering some of the crown’s treasure. 

The Princess and the Queen

That leaves Grand  Maester Orwyle and Larys Strong, called Larys Clubfoot, Lord of Harrenhal, master of whisperers as our suspects, but I don’t think it was Orwyle...

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As well, she commanded Grand Maester Orwyleto send ravens to “all our leal lords,” summoning them to the defense of their true king. When Orwyle hastened back to his chambers, however, he found four gold cloaks waiting for him. One man muffled his cries as the others beat and bound him. With a bag pulled down over his head, the grand  maester was escorted down to the black cells.

The Princess and the Queen

That men of the City Watch arrested Grand Maester Orwyle, suggests that Daemon had the Grand Maester arrested, since Daemon continued to command the loyalty of the gold cloaks.

That leaves Lord Larys, but the master of whispers somehow managed slip out of King’s Landing when Daemon and Rhaenyra took it...

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Upon seeing that resistance was hopeless, the Dowager Queen Alicent emerged from Maegor’s Holdfast with her father Ser Otto Hightower, SerTyland Lannister, and Lord Jasper Wylde the Ironrod. (Lord Larys Strong was not with them. The master of whisperers had somehow contrived to disappear.)

The Princess and the Queen

This is where it gets tricky...

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We now know much and more that the queen did not. It was Lord Larys Strong, the Clubfoot, who spirited the king and his children out of the city when the queen’s dragons first appeared in the skies above King’s Landing. So as not to pass through any of the city gates, where they might be seen and remembered Lord Larys led them out through some secret passage of Maegor the Cruel, of which only he had knowledge.

It was Lord Larys who decreed the fugitives should part company as well, so that even if one were taken, the others might win free. Ser Rickard Thorne was commanded to deliver two-year-old Prince Maelor to Lord Hightower. Princess Jaehaera, a sweet and simple girl of six, was put in the charge of Ser Willis Fell, who swore to bring her safely to Storm’s End. Neither knew where the other was bound, so neither could betray the other if captured.

And only Larys himself knew that the king, stripped of his finery and clad in a salt-stained fisherman’s cloak, had been concealed amongst a load of codfish on a fishing skiff in the care of a bastard knight with kin on Dragonstone. Once she learned the king was gone, the Clubfoot reasoned, Rhaenyra was sure to send men hunting after him … but a boat leaves no trail upon the waves, and few hunters would ever think to look for Aegon on his sister’s own island, in the very shadow of her stronghold.

The Princess and the Queen

Clearly, then, Larys aided Aegon II. But couldn’t we say that Larys was playing both sides to stay ahead of the game? If the greens were to win, Larys would surely be rewarded as the man who saved Aegon II. If the blacks were to win Larys could betray Aegon II and deliver him to the queen.

It’s quite possible, likely even, that Larys and Daemon had worked together in the past...

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Lyonel Strong, Lord of Harrenhal and Hand of the King, accompanied his son and heir SerHarwin on his return to the great, half-ruined castle on the lakeshore. Shortly after their arrival, a fire broke out in the tower where they were sleeping, and both father and son were killed, along with three of their retainers and a dozen servants. The cause of the fire was never determined. Some put it down to simple mischance, whilst others muttered that Black Harren’s seat was cursed, and brought only doom to any man who held it. Many suspected the blaze was set intentionally. Mushroom suggests that the Sea Snake was behind it, as an act of vengeance against the man who had cuckolded his son. Septon Eustace, more plausibly, suspects Prince Daemon, removing a rival for Princess Rhaenyra’s affections. Other have put forth the notion that Larys Clubfoot might have been responsible; with his father and elder brother dead Larys Strong became the Lord of Harrenhal.

The most disturbing possibility was advanced by none other than Grand Maester Mellos, who muses that the king himself might have given the command. If Viserys had come to accept that the rumors about the parentage of Rhaenyra’s children were true, he might have wished to remove the man who had dishonored his daughter lest he reveal the bastardy of her sons. Were that so, Lyonel Strong’s death was an unfortunate accident, for his lordship’s decision to see his son back to Harrenhal had been unforeseen.

The Rogue Prince

The author narrowed down the suspects considerably in The World of Ice and Fire...

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Some accounts see it as an accident, no more. But others suggest more wicked possibilities. Some believe that Larys Clubfoot—one of the king’s inquisitors and Lord Lyonel’s youngest son—might have arranged it so that he might rule Harrenhal. Other histories even hint that Prince Daemon himself was behind it.

Viserys I, The World of Ice and Fire

When Rhaenyra turned on  Lord Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark, who had also cooperated with Daemon in the past, she had Lord Corlys imprisoned. House Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s principal backer, turned on her, and Aegon II won when his dragon ate his sister. Lord Corlys was freed and pardoned, and invited to serve on the king’s small council, presumably, along with Lord Larys. Rhaenyra’s son lived on, however, and the blacks still had men in the field, fighting the greens, and Lord Creegan Stark was marching down the kingsroad. As the blacks gained the upper hand, Lord Corlys advised Aegon II to surrender and take the black. Aegon II refused and threatened to harm his nephew instead as a warning to Aegon the Younger’s blacks. Presumably, Corlys and Larys conspired to poison Aegon II, having seen the end even though Aegon II had not. Lord Cregan had the poisoners executed, and the only two named were Larys and Corlys.

In the end, Larys appears to have done what he expected to be in his best interest. 

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We know that Grand Maester Orwyle apparently played both sides. That's enough for me to consider him Daemon's buddy on the Green Council. Especially considering the fact that Rhaenyra did not take his head after he got arrested. The man had time to write a rather longish treatise to defend and justify his actions during the war, a treatise Grand Maester Munkun draw upon when he wrote his history of the Dance.

There is also the Gerardys mystery to consider. That guy must have become Grand Maester in Orwyle's place while Aegon II and Sunfyre was still at the same place, most likely in KL (Dragonstone is also a possibility but more unlikely), to be fed to Aegon II's dragon. That, in turn, suggests that Orwyle may have been imprisoned by Aegon II very early during the Dance to be replaced by Gerardys who was then also fed to Sunfyre prior to the Battle of Rook's Rest. Afterwards Orwyle may have repented his treason to be reinstated as Grand Maester until Rhaenyra took the city. Then his former connection with Daemon was enough to save his head but did not save him from being imprisoned again.

The case for Larys Strong is considerably weaker. In fact, we don't know what drove Larys Strong but we have a pretty good reason that Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwin were both rivals and enemies of Prince Daemon. They were after the crown. Harwin wanted Rhaenyra's hand, and Lyonel actually urged Viserys I to execute Daemon at one point.

Larys seems to have had issues with his father and brother, most likely due to his clubfoot which makes him a sort of Tyrion-like character. In addition, we know that Lord Lyonel was married three times, suggesting that Harwin, Larys, and this two daughters did not all have the same mother. That helps us explain why Larys most likely murdered both his father and elder brother in that fire at Harrenhal. Him gravitating towards the Greens rather than the Blacks at court may have to do with the fact that he was at odds with his father and brother, explaining why Alicent ended up becoming his patron. The removal of Lord Lyonel and Ser Harwin was very crucial for the Green cause, especially considering that Rhaenyra could actually have taken Ser Harwin as her second husband after Laenor's death. And if Lord Lyonel had continued as Hand it is quite clear that Rhaenyra would ascended the Iron Throne without any difficulty.

However, there is no hint whatsoever that Larys was ever close to Daemon or that he played both sides during the Dance.

The fact that Lord Larys refused to take the black - as all the other courtiers who were accused and tried by Lord Cregan did - is a strong sign that the man did not, in fact, have any hand in the murder of Aegon II. Cregan didn't really investigate this whole thing. He came into a city where the king had been clearly poisoned and since the people in charge did not really investigate this he held them all collectively responsible for this thing, whether they were guilty or not. He only served as Hand for a day during which he conducted those trials and executed two people. Quite a few of the men involved may have been completely innocent or may have only looked the other way while Lord Corlys acted and removed the suicidal king from their midst. But we don't know. But I really have trouble imagining that Gyles Belgrave and Larys Strong wanted to be killed for this kingslaying they were supposedly involved in. It is more likely that they may have not been willing to outlive the king they had served.

But to cut it short - we really have no clue who Daemon's buddy was. 'The Death of the Dragons' has been completely hacked to pieces by the editing process that created TPatQ. It could really be anyone, even as unlikely candidates like Larys Strong, Jasper Wylde or Tyland Lannister. After all, the hideous murder of Prince Jaehaerys and the crushing of Queen Helaena in the process could very well have changed the mind of any friend Daemon may have had on the Green Council - turning such a friend into a former friend and mortal enemy.

The best candidate is still Grand Maester Orwyle, though. And Rhaenyra does not treat him all that badly when he delivers Aegon's ridiculous terms to her.

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