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The Heir of the Dragon: A Rhaenyra Targaryen Quest

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...Suppose Otto were to find out about the relationship with Alicent, but the secret isn't in much danger of being released. What would he do in this situation?
Because my guess would be that he essentially blackmails us, threatening to send Alicent away unless we are receptive to his demands. Now, that's terrible, but it might not be the worst thing in the world. See, the caveat about blackmail is that once you release your threat, you no longer have your leverage. He would have an angry dragon rider princess free to enact revenge. It would thus be in his interest to keep his demands reasonable, and the status quo intact. Navigate this correctly, and we might be able to have an understanding.
Of course, this is just one possibility, predicated on a variety of assumptions. Thoughts?
 
I am still harwin strong's strongest soldier, but I suppose gwayne isent toooo bad, in a messy, bad for me but I love him anyway type beat....
oh wait were not talking about our own attraction to the marriage prospects?
... that's no fun!
 
[X] [Music] Lute
[X] [Music] Harp
[X] [Alicent] Kiss Her
[X] [Alicent] Tell Her of your Desires, How You Nearly Swept Her off Her Feet the Day of the Tourney

Like being bold and ready for singing in the future.
 
If anything that conversation was dissuasive for Gwayne's prospects in the Rhaenyra marriage sweepstakes. We spent the first half "glaring," "growling," "pointing accusingly," and "angrily rising to our feet;" while he spent it "pacing," "shouting," "recoiling," "ashamed," "embarrassed," and "sighing." And then when it turned cordial, it was on a callous transactional basis. The most that can be said for Gwayne is that he deals with us honestly, but suffice to say, it is apparent that he left off the romance list for good reasons. And I don't see that changing.

As for votes:
[x] [Music] Lute

Portability lets us bring the instrument on dragonback, and even if we didn't choose it as a Dream, we do still probably want to take Alicent up on Syrax at some point. The lute would let us seranade her, or if not her, then Syrax herself, while aloft; a harp would not. (Notably, Rhaegar didn't have to consider this, as he never lived contemporary with any dragons, and horses both aren't as romantic and don't respond to their rider's song the same way as a bonded dragon does.)

[x] [Alicent] Tell Her of your Desires, How You Nearly Swept Her off Her Feet the Day of the Tourney

Honesty is the best policy, and it strikes a nice balance between Jeyne's advice to be forward and Alicent's own preferences.
 
TigerBoyd said:
...Suppose Otto were to find out about the relationship with Alicent, but the secret isn't in much danger of being released. What would he do in this situation?
Because my guess would be that he essentially blackmails us, threatening to send Alicent away unless we are receptive to his demands. Now, that's terrible, but it might not be the worst thing in the world. See, the caveat about blackmail is that once you release your threat, you no longer have your leverage. He would have an angry dragon rider princess free to enact revenge. It would thus be in his interest to keep his demands reasonable, and the status quo intact. Navigate this correctly, and we might be able to have an understanding.
Of course, this is just one possibility, predicated on a variety of assumptions. Thoughts?
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Honestly at that point I'd ask Alicent how much she likes her dad and base the resulting punishment on that.

She likes him a lot, we play nice (within reason) and we have a little "I know you know" thing for a while. All political like.

She's not that fond of him, then we get inventive.
 
Zimmerwald1915 said:
If anything that conversation was dissuasive for Gwayne's prospects in the Rhaenyra marriage sweepstakes. We spent the first half "glaring," "growling," "pointing accusingly," and "angrily rising to our feet;" while he spent it "pacing," "shouting," "recoiling," "ashamed," "embarrassed," and "sighing." And then when it turned cordial, it was on a callous transactional basis. The most that can be said for Gwayne is that he deals with us honestly, but suffice to say, it is apparent that he left off the romance list for good reasons. And I don't see that changing.
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Gwayne was almost certainly never going to be a romance option but most marriage options frankly aren't romance options.

Gwayne was angry because he thought Rhaenyra was playing a dangerous game with Alicent which fustrated him because Rhaenyra can get away with a lot more than Alicent can.
 
crusaderking01 said:
@Teen Spirit would abusing the doctrine of exceptionalism for a double marriage be possible? Because if so, marrying both gwayne and laenor might just be the True perfect victory.
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This came up before, but in short: No.

The Doctrine of Exceptionalism says that Targaryens, as Valyrians and closer to gods than men, should be judged by Valyrian customs. In practice this was aimed at incest. In theory, you can also use it to justify polygyny (multiple wives), since that was a Valyrian custom, though there would be much resistance to that - the doctrine covers it, but it wasn't really meant for it. Still, that at least would be possible.

Polyandry (multiple husbands) was, to the best of our knowledge, never a Valyrian custom, though, so it wouldn't even theoretically fall under the Doctrine of Exceptionalism.
 
Susano said:
This came up before, but in short: No.

The Doctrine of Exceptionalism says that Targaryens, as Valyrians and closer to gods than men, should be judged by Valyrian customs. In practice this was aimed at incest. In theory, you can also use it to justify polygyny (multiple wives), since that was a Valyrian custom, though there would be much resistance to that - the doctrine covers it, but it wasn't really meant for it. Still, that at least would be possible.

Polyandry (multiple husbands) was, to the best of our knowledge, never a Valyrian custom, though, so it wouldn't even theoretically fall under the Doctrine of Exceptionalism.
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We were told earlier that the association of Polygamy in Westeros with Maegor specifically among the Targaryen kings means the tolerance for it is basically zero even for Targaryens:
Teen Spirit said:
"It is the pleasure of Daemon Targaryen, Prince of Dragonstone, and rightful heir to the Iron Throne, to announce that he is to take a second wife in the custom of Old Valyria," the Grand Maester read out, each line feeling like a direct slap to the face. "She is to assume the title Lady Mysaria of Dragonstone. She is with child and is to have an egg placed in the babe's cradle."

You found yourself in disbelief, to hear your uncle not only try to usurp your title and positon but to do something so absurd as to claim a second wife as well. The Septs tolerated Targaryen incest, but it had been very clear that taking more than one spouse was a luxury only Aegon had been allowed. Meagor's barbarity had seen to that.
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[X] [Music] Harp
[X] [Alicent] Tell Her of your Desires, How You Nearly Swept Her off Her Feet the Day of the Tourney

if we do get more influence over who Alicent marries, that makes a Gwayne match much more appealing.
the only other way i could think of keeping Alicent close to us is for her to marry someone with a role on the small councel, and that still doesn't account for if they have a keep/castle/land that Alicent would probably need to manage AND the children from that marriage.
are there other options i'm not seeing?
 
Imperious said:
We were told earlier that the association of Polygamy in Westeros with Maegor specifically among the Targaryen kings means the tolerance for it is basically zero even for Targaryens:
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The King who made the Doctrine of Exception a thing really hated Meagor and anything to do with him because of what he had done to his brothers and sister. We have a great-aunt who's still in exile in large part because they suggested marrying multiple people like Maegor had.

The only person who would approve of Rhaenyra marrying more than one man is Daemon.
 
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