[TWOIAF SPOILERS] what was in Prince Nymor's letter to Aegon the Conqueror?

[SansaSeastar]

(Not to get too off topic but oh my god, there were so many instances of Dornish mercilessness, it was amazing)

Yeah when I read that I said to myself "DAYUMN, Dorne is in it to win it!!!"

This. Dorne against the Dragon was the best chapter in the book for me, we knew the Dornish were bad asses but this chapter confirmed it yet again.

The part about that letter got me really intrigued, I also thought it had to have something to do with Rhaenys.

[Maid So Fair]

I think the FM theory is a bit implausible - this is a guy that has just conquered pretty much an entire continent with but a handful of men and that has faced a number of assassination attempts. I don't think he's going to have an extreme emotional reaction to a simple threat, even if it's not his life they profess to be after. We now have better assassins then before - please surrender?

It seems Wyl is about 2x further away than Dragonstone from KL.

[Pod The Rod]

My vote goes to the Rhaenys option. I can't think of anything else that Dorne could do that would affect Aegon so personally.

[Fancy Face]

The Rhaenys option might explain why he flew off to Dragonstone so quickly-if it was actually from Rhaenys, she might have told him something only the two of them knew, like the location of some item of great personal significance in order to confirm the writer's identity?

So Aegon has a minor freak out and flies off immediately to confirm, comes back and makes his decision.

It's a bit of a cop-out, and pretty odd if the Dornishmen just let Aegon and Visenya burn their lands for a year or so before they deployed their trump card, but GRRM needs a way to keep Dorne independent for several hundred years.

[Hardstone]

Aenys and Maegor were most likely on Dragonstone since Aegonfort/King's Landing was open to assassins and hard to defend at the time. The letter may have contained a threat to them.

I like the idea of Rhaenys in a coma and when she woke, the torture and mutilations started. The mercy kill seems just as likely but it could be a combination of both.

[Lord Varys]

I always took the trip to Dragonstone as a sign that he wanted to be alone. It was his favorite place, after all.

Little unrelated tidbit:

The Faceless Men seem to be in action in the book besides their involvement in the Doom. Remember the sudden and drastic fall of the Rogares of Lys? Both Larra's father and his brother, the Prince Consort of Dorne, are killed in two days following each other (the Rogares must have been really powerful - they were close to the Iron Throne, had a man in Dorne, and controlled Lys!). And it is mentioned that the Rogare bank was at that time more powerful than the Iron Bank...

[RumHam]

The Faceless Men seem to be in action in the book besides their involvement in the Doom. Remember the sudden and drastic fall of the Rogares of Lys? Both Larra's father and his brother, the Prince Consort of Dorne, are killed in two days following each other (the Rogares must have been really powerful - they were close to the Iron Throne, had a man in Dorne, and controlled Lys!). And it is mentioned that the Rogare bank was at that time more powerful than the Iron Bank...

Not just in action, but in action on behalf of the Iron Bank.

[Gaston de Foix]

Here's my Dornish theory:

1. Rhaenys survived her fall from Meraxes and was alive and captured.

2. Rhaenys was kept in the shadow city outside Sunspear which is why Sunspear and the shadow city were never directly attacked by Visenya and Aegon. They tried to turn this to their advantage by trying to turn the Dornish lords against the Martells.

3. When Prince Nymor sent his daughter, his "letter" was actually from Rhaenys to Aegon begging him to agree to peace so that she might be given the mercy of a quick death. She might have either told him about something she left in Dragonstone that no one else knew, or else her handwriting sufficed as proof.

4. Aegon flew to Sunspear to mount a rescue and/or obtain some confirmation. Perhaps there was a designated time whereby she would be brought to a tower and viewed by Aegon to confirm her identity.

5. It's clear that Aegon chose Aenys as his heir because he loved Rhaenys more or because it was her dying wish.

[assjfjgjsgjljljglgjfjsduar]

5. It's clear that Aegon chose Aenys as his heir because he loved Rhaenys more or because it was her dying wish.

Aenys was the oldest son and would have been the heir anyway.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

It was about Rhaenys.

My fav scenario is that the Dornish made Rhaenys to write Aegon a letter i order to *cure* her but they killed her and claimed that she died.

Yeah, my appreciation for house Martell and their bannermen/women dropped considerably whilst reading about it, essentially Mariya Martell refused fealty for her own pride, even though Aegon was willing to let the Kingdoms keep their own laws, traditions and rulers, causing her lands to burn, which in turn led to her vassals ignoring all the rules of chivalry and medieval warfare, torturing, maiming and mutilating prisoners, which in turn led to like treatment of Dornish prisoners.

200 years later it's all for nought because Dorne is under the authority of the Iron Throne under terms they mostly could have got anyway.

I have read the same opinion lately and is easily one in my top 3 with the most ridiculous and disgusting opinions I have ever read around here.

Hey guys when someone attacks your country and want to take your house, life and freedom away don't fight back because that is what he wants. When someone attack your family and want to kill you don't protect yourself and fight back because of his human rights, you don't have any right at all.

[Gaston de Foix]

It was about Rhaenys.

My fav scenario is that the Dornish made Rhaenys to write Aegon a letter i order to *cure* her but they killed her and claimed that she died.

I have read the same opinion lately and is easily one in my top 3 with the most ridiculous and disgusting opinions I have ever read around here.

Hey guys when someone attacks your country and want to take your house, life and freedom away don't fight back because that is what he wants. When someone attack your family and want to kill you don't protect yourself and fight back because of his human rights, you don't have any right at all.

I'm not sure how writing a letter effects a cure.

It's quite clear that the Dornish actions in resisting the Targaryens were successful but at the same time they breached all bounds of civilized restraint.

[Jon's Queen Consort]

I'm not sure how writing a letter effects a cure.

"If you write the letter I will help you and cure you."

It's quite clear that the Dornish actions in resisting the Targaryens were successful but at the same time they breached all bounds of civilized restraint.

I don't believe that when someone wants to kill you and your family there is anything like "bounds of civilized restraint". If someone cares about that then he doesn't attack. Now he wanted to play and he lost. It's that simple.

[Free Northman Reborn]

What about combining two of the theories mentioned so far in this thread. The Dornish torture Rhaenys to the point where they learned some crucial secret about the Targaryens, and in the letter threatened to reveal this secret.

This merely shifts the source of discovery of this secret to Rhaenys via torture, rather than some unlikely and distant bit of remembered general Valyrian lore brought from Rhoynar by Nymeria.

[RumHam]

What about combining two of the theories mentioned so far in this thread. The Dornish torture Rhaenys to the point where they learned some crucial secret about the Targaryens, and in the letter threatened to reveal this secret.

This merely shifts the source of discovery of this secret to Rhaenys via torture, rather than some unlikely and distant bit of remembered general Valyrian lore brought from Rhoynar by Nymeria.

But it is mentioned that for some mysterious reason the Targaryens never attacked Sunspear itself with their dragons. Yandel speculates they may have thought Meria had some way of killing the dragons. So that might be a hint they always knew something.

[MizasterJ]

Yeah I lean towards the Rhaenys theory as well.

Rhaenys most likely. a threat to torture her.

[King Aegon The Conqueror]

Could. The Dornish had already tried assassinating Aegon numerous times without succeeding, there's nothing saying they'd do any better trying to capture Aenys. The Faceless Men threat is more viable in that they are reputed to never miss their mark, and that they'd give Aegon an incentive to actually uphold the peace afterwards since the Dornish could always contact them again if they wanted to.

the faceless men threat is ridiculously stupid because Aegon was clearly far richer than the Dornish. As king he could afford to hire the faceless men multiple times through other people. The faceless men clearly weren't the threat.

[JonCon's Red Beard]

but they used Parchment, not the fine factory cut paper we think of today. Parchment isnt ever sharp right? I want to rule out the paper cut idea, but I just can't think of what would cause his hand to bleed. Very odd, which leads me to think magic was involved.

I don't believe it has anything to do with the paper, neither magic. The whole "his hand bleed" is to show that he was so shocked that he hurt himself, either by clenching the parchment so hard or by grasping at the throne and getting cut.

[Bennis of the Brown Shield]

the faceless men threat is ridiculously stupid because Aegon was clearly far richer than the Dornish. As king he could afford to hire the faceless men multiple times through other people. The faceless men clearly weren't the threat.

http://i1.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/010/334/U-WOT-M8.jpg

The Faceless Men don't have a flat rate for their assassinations, but adjust the price based on what the person wanting it owns and holds dear. Hence why people like a sailor's widow who has just been scammed of her husbands life insurance money can afford to hire them (Arya ADWD) whereas King Robert on the other hand refrains from doing so because it would have been too expensive, and has Varys ask the "Sorrowful Men" n00bs to kill Dany instead.

[Gaston de Foix]

I'm revising my theory now that I've read everything on this thread. Where exactly is the reference to Aegon and Aenys guesting at Sunspear after the peace with Dorne? I must have missed that.

WIthout getting too meta - this is clearly a deliberately created mystery - and while it's fun to let the thousand flowers of conspiracy bloom, I can only hope that we obtain the answer in a Dornish POV from Doran. Ran would you care to intervene to tell us - one way or the other - whether we will ever get an answer?

[The Red Widow of Coldmoat]

I'm revising my theory now that I've read everything on this thread. Where exactly is the reference to Aegon and Aenys guesting at Sunspear after the peace with Dorne? I must have missed that.

I believe it's from a reading that Martin did from Fire and Blood (the so-called GRRMarillion)