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(Spoilers) Sons of the Dragon Reading at LonCon Today


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Just opening this thread for discussion and reports from today's reading. GRRM is reading a chapter called "Sons of the Dragon" dealing with Maegor the Cruel.



yolkboy is reporting from the con and I'll be posting updates as I receive them.... Hopefully others will join in here as well :)



ETA: Full report from the Con, with notes from George's reading and interviews with Ran & Linda, Ser Mountain Goat and X-Ray is now available in Episode 04 of Radio Westeros! Link to yolkboy's report here. Episode link in my sig:


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Update is that the material is extended from TWoIaF that will appear in the future "Fire and Blood" (formerly known by many of us as the GRRMarillion)



See pic of reading here



The subject matter is the succession of Aenys and Maegor to Aegon's throne, and their inevitable conflict. Aenys is portrayed as an intellectual who was always overshadowed by Maegor, while Maegor was a fierce warrior who lived for battle. Aenys' children at first pushed Maegor back. But Aenys was too philosophical and seen as weak by the Faith. He naively refused to use his dragons and became very unpopular. Ultimately he fled to Dragonstone, and his weaknesses led to discontent and uprisings. The Faith grew restive and when Maegor took two wives their uprising was triggered. The reading ending with the succession war caused by Aenys' death.



GRRM's reply to yolkboy's question about writing this material-- he loves writing fake history, "it's like real history with dragons" ;)


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Ok more info coming in now from yolkboy's notes --- Aenys had three sons and three daughters. He was likely killed by Visenya, who flew to Pentos (where Maegor was in exile) on Vhagar afterwards. They both then returned with their dragons to contest succession.



I'll post more as yb organizes his notes and sends them to me :)

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There was a ton of facts in this reading, so it was hard to get all the information down. Inter alia -



- four "false kings" arose at the death of Aegon I. The first Vulture King was amongst them.


- when Aenys wed his elder daughter Rhaena to his eldest son and heir Aegon, it is described as a "blunder". It started stirring up rebellion against his reign.


- Maegor's frist wife was Ceryse (sp?) Hightower. His second wife was Alys Harroway.



Much more to follow if I can make sense of my notes.


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expanding on info above--



Aegon the Conqueror had recognized the importance of keeping the Faith sweet since they were never fully on board with incest and polygamy. He married his son Maegor to a Hightower. That marriage had no issue. In the meantime Aenys (now King and married to Alyssa Velaryon) had six children as stated above (Jaehaerys, Alysanne, Rhaena, and one daughter who died young. Not sure about the fate of the other two sons -- previously unknown afaik, though I see Arataniello has given one of them a name at least ;) )



Maegor was so desperate for children that he took a second wife, which enraged the Faith, ultimately leading to the Faith Militant and their uprising. King Aenys was a poet and philosopher, who refused to use the power at his disposal to deal with his enemies. People grew to despise his weakness and discontent was widespread (I'm reminded of Cersei's comment about treasons sprouting up like "mushrooms in the rain")



Seems like the message is that with Aegon I's death a huge void in diplomacy with the Faith was left behind. Neither the gentle philosopher Aenys nor the fierce warrior Maegor was the right person to fillet. In fact, the actions of both (continuing to practice incest and polygamy, and setting aside the Hightower wife) led directly to the Faith's uprising which Maegor would put down so brutally in the future.





ETA--- Episode 04 of Radio Westeros will be a full report from LonCon, including details from the reading and an interview with Ran and Linda on the upcoming World Book :)


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There was a ton of facts in this reading, so it was hard to get all the information down. Inter alia -

- four "false kings" arose at the death of Aegon I. The first Vulture King was amongst them.

- when Aenys wed his elder daughter Rhaena to his eldest son and heir Aegon, it is described as a "blunder". It started stirring up rebellion against his reign.

- Maegor's frist wife was Ceryse (sp?) Hightower. His second wife was Alys Harroway.

Much more to follow if I can make sense of my notes.

I'm really curious to know what happened to Aenys' eldest son! Rhaena ended up marrying Maegor, and Jaehaerys followed Maegor as King, so this Aegon obviously died somewhere along the way.

Also -- four False Kings!!? Going to need to track down more details on that :)

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I'll give you all a very thorough Report on the reading when I have the Time to digitalize my notes. We already know what happened to Prince Aegon by the way. He challenged Maegor on Quicksilver at the Gods Eye, Lost, and was killed with his dragon by Maegor. That's from the Report on the Westerlands Reading, and can thus be cited here.

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I'll give you all a very thorough Report on the reading when I have the Time to digitalize my notes. We already know what happened to Prince Aegon by the way. He challenged Maegor on Quicksilver at the Gods Eye, Lost, and was killed with his dragon by Maegor. That's from the Report on the Westerlands Reading, and can thus be cited here.

Thanks Lord Varys!

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Maegor became youngest knight in 7k

He won tourneys vs older people, melees, could joust well at 12

The half brothers were basically opposites , aenys too understanding and maegor too cruel.

Maegor put down an uprising in the vale

Aside from the faith, aenys reign was blighted by uprise of bandits.... Harren the red went for harrenhall, helped by a woman who was victim of lords right. Harren killed everyone in HH.

In dorne they rose, a ,vulture king, took 30000 troops to cause trouble, but split them to cause his demise.

In the vale there was a succession row. Arryns were left in stable control after a visit from maegor who showed signs of mercilessness.

The diplomacy AEGon showed fell away after his death, the root of aenys decline into what sounds like a nervous breakdown as he fled to DS.

Sorry if bad spelling, rushing on iPad

Hope y,all enjoyed so far

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