The Heir of the Dragon: A Rhaenyra Targaryen Quest
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- Reader
Well it's currently a fair amount behind, and a goal on the Dream issue is much more critical to Rhaenyra confronting the issue than improving her skills. Maybe consider dropping the master a skill vote so we have a decent chance of averting that prophecy at least in part by reaching the point where we don't reject Aelora.
I'm addressing something I personally see as a problem and brainstorming ways to make it work with our other goals, which is a bit optimization, yeah, but the core is very emotional and narrative. I loath the current situation between Rhaenyra and the twins, even if I understand the reasons. I'm more invested in this quest than ever before just to fix it however much I can.
We did that. Mastering the sword wouldn't be that. This would be more Rhaenyra taking her craft to the very limit of her abilities, not to prove anyone wrong, but to just be the best. We've achieved what your describing thrice over. Wouldn't have our knighthood otherwise.
You really think we wouldn't be able to train a skill to mastery without an goal? When we specifically have a separate vote to lock in training, which is currently winning?
As for Dorne, there prince has approached us. If that's not an opportunity to bring them into the fold irrelevant of goals, I don't know what is
By comparison, Rhaenyra is deathly afraid of her sister and the dream. Without a goal, going back to Harrenhall to search for Rivers could very well be a stress inducing action. Making it a goal puts focus on confronting the problem in a way that Rhaenyra may not be in the mindset to do otherwise.
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Lads I would like to note that we JUST got a huge break, any male sibling we get is now at bare minimum more than a year away meaning they'll be even younger than Aegon was, thus giving us more time to solidify our claim, and the twins are only hours old at this point and several years away from doing anything impressive, let alone challenging our claim, and we now have a second free action.
I know we chose Diligent but we can afford to be ambitious right now and do things beneficial for us that also happen to be interesting as hell.
I get the appeal of the Harrenhall Dream but aside from me personally not having much interest in the twins due to them literally not being old enough to have personalities, if any of the Dreams suggested can be put off while we complete another Dream, it would be the Harrenhall one, since we can likely start off on a good foot with the twins by just simply having a good rapport with Johanna (Which we already do) and then when they're old enough to do more than shit and cry, we can start trying to view them as siblings.
if you guys are rightfully worried that they might fight us for the throne in the future, have you guys mayhaps considered that the people that are most likely to poison them against us are the Westerlings? Sure Lord Westerling doesn't seem to like us much, but Ser Harrold and Johana do, and Ser Harrold will likely preach peace between us and the Westerlings, and Johanna is a strong woman, I doubt she would bend to her father's demands the way Alicent did to Otto.
Yea, so basically we're already pretty safe, so let's do something very interesting and cool.
Edit: Also the Harrenhall Dream is a write-in, so if nothing else then out of sheer spite I would still vote against it.
Reject write-ins, embrace QM-given choices!
I know we chose Diligent but we can afford to be ambitious right now and do things beneficial for us that also happen to be interesting as hell.
I get the appeal of the Harrenhall Dream but aside from me personally not having much interest in the twins due to them literally not being old enough to have personalities, if any of the Dreams suggested can be put off while we complete another Dream, it would be the Harrenhall one, since we can likely start off on a good foot with the twins by just simply having a good rapport with Johanna (Which we already do) and then when they're old enough to do more than shit and cry, we can start trying to view them as siblings.
if you guys are rightfully worried that they might fight us for the throne in the future, have you guys mayhaps considered that the people that are most likely to poison them against us are the Westerlings? Sure Lord Westerling doesn't seem to like us much, but Ser Harrold and Johana do, and Ser Harrold will likely preach peace between us and the Westerlings, and Johanna is a strong woman, I doubt she would bend to her father's demands the way Alicent did to Otto.
Yea, so basically we're already pretty safe, so let's do something very interesting and cool.
Edit: Also the Harrenhall Dream is a write-in, so if nothing else then out of sheer spite I would still vote against it.
Reject write-ins, embrace QM-given choices!
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- Location
- Who knows?
The issue is this quest is not one where we can just choose to not have mental hangups. One of the biggest ones is that Rhaenyra is super spooked by her vision and will treat the innocent unknowing child sibling accordingly. The hope is that looking into it will help her process and adapt enough to at least be civil and not the primary source of abandonment trauma in kiddos life.
- Location
- United States
I'm against the Dream because it's a write-in and seems out of flavor with the rest of the dreams. Like, the rest of the dreams are about accomplishing something. A couple of them are about accomplishing something big. They're also all about moving things forward in a positive way for us. The dream one is about understanding something to mitigate risk. And coming to terms with / accepting something.
I feel like if we wanted to go that direction, something like "compile the foremost record of all Targaryen prophetic dreams and their meanings." Would be better? I probably wouldn't vote for that over the options we do have, because I think it's a bit OOC though.
I feel like if we wanted to go that direction, something like "compile the foremost record of all Targaryen prophetic dreams and their meanings." Would be better? I probably wouldn't vote for that over the options we do have, because I think it's a bit OOC though.
Wolfman217
Oh No! Oh No! Oh No!
- Location
- England
[X] [Dream] To Understand and Come to Terms with the Strange Dream You had at Harrenhall
[X] [Tarly] You've achieved enough, cut back to just what you need. (Locks out Prowess Training, Prowess Will Not Decrease unless Rhaenyra is rendered infirm for months)
I'd go for master a skill as well but given the vague nature of "skill" and will itself require a lot of back and forth for WHICH "skill" to end up mastering I decided against it.
For example I'd be very annoyed if people ended up voting to master poetry and wasting a shed load of time to master something that should just be for the occasional relaxation session with Alicent.
Plus "jack of all trades" suits a ruler more than mastering a small group of skills - breadth beats depth for rulers. Utterly mastering a narrow range is what your advisors and dep't heads are for.
And self-fulfilling prophecies piss me the fuck off. Especially one's like this.
"Oh no! The person I treated like shit and rejected from the literal moment of their birth ends up being against me! The prophecy was right!"
Like no fucking duh.
At least with say Voldemort the argument can be made that if Harry/Neville grow up powerful they WILL be against Voldemort just due to their family, a future antagonistic relationship can be safely assumed.
If it was Aegon not Aelora then yeah, there is an ARGUEMENT (by no means certain) that future conflict is inevitable given Westorosi society and so trying to build a relationship is a waste of time and might even backfire.
But the only affect Aelora could really have is backing any future brother and no fucking duh would she back a sibling who likes her (as I'm sure Joanna would want her kids to get along) over one who literally hated/feared her from birth.
Also very much second the difference between "not bothering very sick dad with weird vague dream I had, I'll just tell my dragon to basically think out loud" and "oh shit oh shit oh shit it's literally my newly born sibling tell dad tell dad tell DAD"
Like this IS the man who lives Valyrian shit and is fully 100% on board with his family having prophetic visions.
The only way telling him would backfire is if Rhae for some idiotic reason was like: "I've had this vision blah blah and that's why you should send Aelora away to the Sisters or kill her"
Like it's pretty obvious that'd piss him off.
I mean, she didn't though? She won the joust in very close tilts and came second in the melee which is impressive for sure, but "asskicking" implies an absolute demolition.
Like if you get in a fight with someone, and just about manage to scrape a win in a very close bout, and then claim you "kicked their ass" I'm gonna look askance at you like "really?"
Rhae delivering an absolute asskicking at a tourney would be winning every tilt without even coming close to going down once.
Which is what I think they mean - Rhae kicking ass everytime some asshole says shit would be smashing them into the ground not just about scraping a win.
I can understand the urge to prowess max and that would be amazing but because of the limitation of a quest I can't bring myself to vote for it becuase we need those actions to improve other very important for ruling things.
[X] [Tarly] You've achieved enough, cut back to just what you need. (Locks out Prowess Training, Prowess Will Not Decrease unless Rhaenyra is rendered infirm for months)
I'd go for master a skill as well but given the vague nature of "skill" and will itself require a lot of back and forth for WHICH "skill" to end up mastering I decided against it.
For example I'd be very annoyed if people ended up voting to master poetry and wasting a shed load of time to master something that should just be for the occasional relaxation session with Alicent.
Plus "jack of all trades" suits a ruler more than mastering a small group of skills - breadth beats depth for rulers. Utterly mastering a narrow range is what your advisors and dep't heads are for.
And self-fulfilling prophecies piss me the fuck off. Especially one's like this.
"Oh no! The person I treated like shit and rejected from the literal moment of their birth ends up being against me! The prophecy was right!"
Like no fucking duh.
At least with say Voldemort the argument can be made that if Harry/Neville grow up powerful they WILL be against Voldemort just due to their family, a future antagonistic relationship can be safely assumed.
If it was Aegon not Aelora then yeah, there is an ARGUEMENT (by no means certain) that future conflict is inevitable given Westorosi society and so trying to build a relationship is a waste of time and might even backfire.
But the only affect Aelora could really have is backing any future brother and no fucking duh would she back a sibling who likes her (as I'm sure Joanna would want her kids to get along) over one who literally hated/feared her from birth.
Also very much second the difference between "not bothering very sick dad with weird vague dream I had, I'll just tell my dragon to basically think out loud" and "oh shit oh shit oh shit it's literally my newly born sibling tell dad tell dad tell DAD"
Like this IS the man who lives Valyrian shit and is fully 100% on board with his family having prophetic visions.
The only way telling him would backfire is if Rhae for some idiotic reason was like: "I've had this vision blah blah and that's why you should send Aelora away to the Sisters or kill her"
Like it's pretty obvious that'd piss him off.
I mean, she didn't though? She won the joust in very close tilts and came second in the melee which is impressive for sure, but "asskicking" implies an absolute demolition.
Like if you get in a fight with someone, and just about manage to scrape a win in a very close bout, and then claim you "kicked their ass" I'm gonna look askance at you like "really?"
Rhae delivering an absolute asskicking at a tourney would be winning every tilt without even coming close to going down once.
Which is what I think they mean - Rhae kicking ass everytime some asshole says shit would be smashing them into the ground not just about scraping a win.
I can understand the urge to prowess max and that would be amazing but because of the limitation of a quest I can't bring myself to vote for it becuase we need those actions to improve other very important for ruling things.
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- He/Him
Literally the only person who gave her any resistance at the Tourney was Cole. She basically rolled over Borros, Tully and Unwin.
I mean Poety mastery or Music mastery could be romantic as hell.
Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
While I don't like it as an option much either (if anything, I fear it might hasten the self-fullfilling parts of the prophecy), but it did get the go ahead from Teen Spirit, unlike other write-ins.
The QM thinks he can write it so it fits with Rhaenyra's established personality and within the confines of the story, and so far he has yet to miss.
Yea uh, Rhaenyra is already rather civil, sure her smile might have felt like glass but until she saw Aelora's scar no one noticed anything off, and also she's a baby, she quite literally won't remember anything that happens until she's a few years older, which, is again why we can likely put it off.
Also, Rhaenyra can likely also notice that it's a baby, I doubt she'll flee every room that Aelora is in, plus she'll still grow up with a twin sister, Johanna who unlike Alicent wasn't coerced into marrying Viserys by her father and thus will likely be more mentally sound and a better mother, and Roland Westerling doesn't like us but he seems to adore his grandchildren.
It just really seems to me that this is being overblown and like something that absolutely no holds barred needs to happen now, when we have nothing but time.
Also, Relax actions reduce stress less now and this whole situation seems likely to give a bunch of stress, and given that it's a write-in, we're not even sure we'll actually get what we want out of it, as opposed to something else.
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- Location
- United States
I do want to point out here that 1) Johanna is extremely homophobic and if she learns about Alicent we're either going to have to completely change her opinion on that or that relationship is going to tank.
2) It's pretty rationale for a woman to want their son to inherit over competitors. It's also pretty rationale to want to inherit yourself. Choosing to advance yourself and your interests does not require being poisoned against us by sinister forces. That's not to say that a sufficient bond with our siblings can't avert that. It probably could and I'd like to try. But pointing this out because I'd like to avoid the following:
Rhaenyra: Naturally acts in her own interests to secure her rule, against rival claimants.
Rhaenyra: <person> would not act against me, as they have not been poisoned against me by an evil chancellor
<person>: Acts in their own interest against rival claimant, us.
Rhaenyra: surprised pikachu face
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- He/Him
I will say that Rhaenyra's fear of Aelora does not mean she's so absolutely terrified of what happened at Harrenhal that she won't seek answers. Looking into Harrnehal and what Aelora said will be an option next turn no matter how this vote goes.
Also just to clarify, there will be ways of reducing stress that will still work decently. Like one advantage to learning music is once you start learning, practice will be pretty relaxing. It's just Diligent makes it so that if Rhaenyra is basically sitting around do nothing, it won't reduce stress as much for Rhaenyra since she now feels like it's just wasting time. But there's ways of reducing stress without "wasting time."
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Omegahugger
Inattentive Idiot
Yeah, at current trajectory I would wager that the most likely causes for the Dance are Daemon acting out and/or Johanna finding out Rhaenyra's queerness and wanting a "proper" person for the throne.
Corlys grasping for the throne, but has so far kept his attempts both within the letter and the spirit of the law (likely due to his wife having a better head on her shoulders), and even if he aligns himself with one of the other two power blocs I think he won't be the one actually firing the starting shot.
Wolfman217
Oh No! Oh No! Oh No!
- Location
- England
....didn't she literally almost lose to Unwin? Like there was legit panic she might actually lose to that asshole. And I swear Borros was close too.
....you can say the same about any of the dream options. None of them are urgent.
You argument is "she's a baby, it's not urgent" like mastering a skill, being the ultimate knight, annexing Dorne, and going on a dragon flight with Alicent somehow are?
It's literally the least "not urgent" given the affect formative years can have on someone. Doing any of the others in say the next 5 years offers no inherent advantages over doing it a "some point" whereas if one of the strongest memories 5 year old Aelora has is "big sister hates me" is going to have one hell of a challenge to overcome.
Up until I was about 9 my older brother was an asshole to me, and while it got a lot better when I got into my teens it's still stuck with me a bit and if my brother was literally the heir to the (medieval) Kingdom you can fucking bet that it would have stuck with me a whole lot more
For fuck sake being the younger sibling to a future absolute monarch who by all indications not only hates you but FEARS you would be fucking terrifying. It might even be a catalyst that turns the others against Rhae if Aelora ends up being likeable.
"If Rhae hates Aelora who's adorable what fucking chance do we have when she takes over?!?!?"
And out of all of them the Dream option is the least Rhae is likely to do or work towards anyway (except maybe Dorne) so makes the most sense.
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- Location
- Up ya bum!
[X] [Dream] To Understand and Come to Terms with the Strange Dream You had at Harrenhall
[X] [Tarly] You've achieved enough, cut back to just what you need. (Locks out Prowess Training, Prowess Will Not Decrease unless Rhaenyra is rendered infirm for months)
[X] [Tarly] You've achieved enough, cut back to just what you need. (Locks out Prowess Training, Prowess Will Not Decrease unless Rhaenyra is rendered infirm for months)
- Pronouns
- He/Him
No. Unwin went to a second round but Rhaenyra won the first even if Unwin remained on his horse. Also Borros lost so hard if he had lost any harder, he legit ran the risk of dying.
- Location
- Lake Wobegon
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Be fair, that was due to his having rolled exceptionally poorly.
And now for something completely different: could we have a Dream to marry Alicent? Marriage per se and all?
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- Reader
It received QM approval, unlike my first two proposals, so it absolutely is in flavor as much as the other votes, though that's a weird wording when there are two whimsical dreams, and two political dreams, and a self improvement dream.
We can't put it off because winter is coming which will limit our ability to get to Harrenhall and investigate by years if we don't start this soon. We can't have a good rapport with Johanna for long when we're going numb with terror every time we see Aelora's face. If we put this off until we complete another dream, they'll be that old already and we'll be able to do Jack shit with them for having put everything off.
the dream vote is so we can focus on understanding it personally and stop panicking over it around the twins, which we won't resolve instantly, so that by the time a few years have passed and the twins are beginning to form memories, where already at the point of no longer fearing them, allowing us to avert the rejection vision Aelora experienced in her own childhood.
Right now Rhaenyra is spooked. Without a goal to focus her she isn't going to be proactive on resolving it in a sufficiently timely manner. A lot of blind luck, effort, and cheating went into completing a goal this quickly. The next one isn't going to fall into our laps on a good time table and allow us to somehow take a late start to resolving the vision issues before irrevocable damage is done. You've allowed a mostly fluke perfect storm early victory to make you over confident on the time table for other goals.
She was very clearly unable to suppress her terror around Aelora because she's having an irrational fear response over something she doesn't understand. Until we conceptualize it for her she isn't going to be able to simply turn that fear off.
If the twins reach 4 or 5 before we fix this there's likely to be some memory of having been rejected to say nothing of the unlikeliness of us pretending that everything is fine not only to Johanna but also her brother and Viserys himself across a time period of years. Children are very empathic and respond to the emotions of those around them, which is how there personalities form in the first place, even if it's easy to dismiss that as typical crying and childhood fussiness from our end. Your being far to flippant about the issue.
I think you're massively downplaying the other Dreams just to talk up the Harrenhall Dream, I mean for example:
Bringing Dorne into the Fold: If we do it by war, we could be talked up as another Conqueror that's possibly even better than Aegon since we did what he couldn't, which massively raises our claim to the throne, plus we are seen as an even better warrior and likely have most of the Reach and Stormlands love us.
If we do it through marriage, we now have a powerful King-Consort who will have no issues with our main bae Alicent, and we are still seen as having done what Aegon couldn't. plus if the Marchers revolt then we can annihilate House Peake and make the Manderlys love us even more and be our eternal allies.
Become an Exemplar of Knighthood: Our name is literally sung in song and legend and we achieve a reputation even more unapproachable than Arthur Dayne, meaning not only do people of our age love us, but people of the next ages will too, which also massively raises our claim to the throne since nothing our siblings do will ever make them be seen as great as us.
Master a Skill: We become a Law Giver even better than Jaehaerys, a singer better than Rhaegar, a tactican to make Sun Tzu green with envy, or able to make money appear as if from out of nowhere.
And then there's Harrenhall Dream: Yay, I'm approaching the point where I might finally start liking my siblings.
Given that the main appeal of the Harrenhall Dream seems to be our siblings will like us and won't be rival claimants, and that it fixes what people see as an unfortunate situation for siblings to have, doing any other dream would make our claim so good that any of our siblings or Daemon would have a hard time getting support, and it also might have the side effect that Rhaenyra feels so comfortable in her position that her unease goes away and she starts being nicer to her siblings.
Also I don't agree, I think of all the Dreams, confronting the vision with Aelora is the most likely for Rhaenyra to do without a Goal.
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- He/Him
No that would require ambitious. Wanting to have the relationship to be out in the open such as having Alicent as a paramour would be an acceptable write in
An idle fantasy? Sure. A Dream Dream, as in an actual ambition our character holds? Hell no.
- Location
- Lake Wobegon
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Toaster cult
I Am An Imaginary Living Body
- Location
- Tokyo
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Wizard posting just feels like a weird pull for Rhaenyra here, maybe if we went scholar but we're like, the martial knight character, it would feel so weird to rest on our laurels and stop training entirely and go looking for strage women lying in ponds and maybe distributing swords.
Im suprised greatest knight isnt more popular? I would have figured like, picture of chivalric glory and like, ourname being on the lips of every peasant with the same breath as Symeon Star-eyes would be doing numbers
Im suprised greatest knight isnt more popular? I would have figured like, picture of chivalric glory and like, ourname being on the lips of every peasant with the same breath as Symeon Star-eyes would be doing numbers