... I don't suppose we can ask Qoren if there's any Dornish house where, hypothetically, he would be devastated if was to spontaneously combust in dragonfire?
The traditional "unruly vassal" of the Martells are the Yronwoods, who have the second best claim to the Dornish throne. Though even they stayed loyal when their keep was burned down in the First Dornish War (they did fight on the Blackfyre side later, though).
With closing of the vote, I wanted to pitch speaking with Rhaenys Targaryen for next turn.
I think this is the right time for Rhaenys conversation. My overall intention for Rhaenys is we should not just talked to Rhaenys but also become her mentee just like we will start with Lyonel, and even suggest her as Hand of The King to Viserys. Lady Hand Rhaenys is especially important if we don't marry Laenor and even more important if we marry Gwayne.
She is the most suitable choice of Hand when Viserys first inherited. It heal the divide of Targaryen, gain a sensible Hand that cater to the King intention but candid and senior enough in rank to directly counsel the King without manipulation like Otto. Rhaenys will be sensible like Lord Strong as Hand but with ability to familially slap Viserys when he does dumb shit like trying to marry Alicent and having tournament celebrating birth before the birth even start. It also check the growing power Otto and the Hightower will accrue if we choose Gwayne.
This is also the greatest honor for the Velaryon except the Monarch crown itself without bringing the Sea Snake ambition in the inner circle. It bring the Velaryon back especially with Rhaenys as Hand she'll outrank Corlys and can check his dumb idea down like canon marrying Vhagar-riding Laena to Braavos. For those who want to check Corlys ambition putting Rhaenys as our Hand over him may trouble his proud wife-guy self and let us see which is bigger his pride or his love of his wife. If Corlys still bring trouble against Crown interest it may break Rhaenys-Corlys public front and limit House Velaryon reach as power player by investing power to Rhaenys outside of her husband.
And those are only Rhaenys Targaryen benefit to Viserys reign. If we bring her as Hand for our reign it ensure she is not alternative preferred (Man) authority to us. Why is this a problem? Imagine the Crown Face if we must declare to the court to not seek out our Lord Hand when the noble misogynist flock to him even without his intent. If Rhaenys is Hand before us it prep the realm to accept public woman authority figure. Rhaenys is also the most senior member of House Targaryen and have a lot of aligned dynastic interest with us. We can be more open and candid with Rhaenys than with Otto or even the loyal and sensible Lyonel Strong as she is family.
This is why we should speak with Rhaenys Next Turn.
Along with my pitch to speak with Rhaenys I also wanted to pitch priorities for next turn.
My primary priorities list are the three Convos that are limited by the time in the next turn or politically time sensitive.
1. With visiting Qoren it will be a great missed opportunity to not speak with him personally. He will be our peer generation foreign leader and also marriage candidate too. As a direct neighbor his diplomatic leaning will be great to understand and take into account even if we didn't choose him for marriage.
2. Speaking to Rhaenys to learn the art of Girlboss and sounding out Velaryon position politically will be important as they are the one of the possible faction in Dance which will center around dragonriders. With the arrival of Dornish in the King's Landing the political landscape will be rocked and we need to ensure her position before any block can harden. I hope she can be our mentor.
3. We promised Lyonel to start our Law mentorship and it is the right time to start out after previous turn free extension. With a teacher our Study Law action will probably be greatly enhanced.
[] Draft Early Bird Discussion
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Prince Qoren Martell
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Rhaenys Targaryen
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Lord Lyonel Strong
-[] 3 actions/Convo Which I feel need to be 2 works + 1 leisure.
My secondary priorities are actions and convos that complement nicely either what we do previously like Dream convo with Viserys or the primary priorities. These I organize in block that I hope synergize or just thematically relevant.
Dream and Family These I feel is time sensitive but not as much as Primary priorities because of Dornish visit.
1. Meeting Johanna and the twins will be good to face our fear and soothe our heart in regard to our dream. It will be the first step to a genuine relationship with our sisters and may also soothe Viserys peace of mind.
2. I wanted pursue finishing the dream with possibility of further knowing Alys who gave us the good drug last time we visited Harrenhal. An acknowledgement of supernatural things that happen regularly in Westeros will be good for precaution and knowledge base. Combining it with Joanna may be good.
3. Ascertain our Father health. Viserys is wilfuly ignoring his health, especially concerning with Mellos worrying gesture. Let's speak to Mellos directly.
-[] [Conversation] Speak With Queen Johanna Westerling
-[] [Action] Investigate Your Harrenhal Dream
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Grand Maester Mellos
Knight Maxxing. This turn will be great personal opportunity to do most Defiant action with Dornish in town.
1. Speaking with Tarly while Qoren is in town to soothe his Dornephobia and maintain our relationship with our main mentor. Tarly will have aneurysm so ensuring he doesn't have a stroke or start diplomatic incident is paramount in maintaining our Old Knight health.
2. Let's beat someone ass in a spar. If that ass is Qoren, we can sound him out, soothe Tarly Dornephobia, and impress Dornish delegation with our strong sword arm. Any other Dornish fighter might be good to diversify our capability and satisfy Tarly Dornephobia.
3. Get some Squire! We need to get some squire for our Knight Maxxing era. With Dornish in the town we may have Dornish girl squire to increase controversy in both side of the Border. Let smash glass ceiling in Dorne with their female-knight lacking self.
4. When is the last time we train with our Golden Lady? I say we need to train as soon as possible as with our obtained Knighthood, it is time for Dragon. @Somic I feel Train with Syrax could be a way to bring Qoren flying.
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Ser Raylon Tarly
-[] [Action] Train
--[] Challenge to a Duel: a Dornish Fighter
-[] [Action] Work on Acquiring a Squire
--[] Get a Dornish girl sidekick (Optional)
-[] [Action] Train with Syrax
Leisure. Remember: All Work and No Play Makes For an Unhappy Princess.
1. Oh leisure~. I wanted to either Study Music or Dragonstone Date. Or just Relax may be good to see the difference in narrative and mechanical effect after and before diligent.
2. Study music will lower our stress that is surely to rise if we go with Johanna meeting and advance one of our long term commitment.
3. Dragonstone Date will deepen our bond and be responsive to Alicent request. Though I wanted to postpone it to next-next turn to be able to tour Dragonstone with Qoren for a more private discussion. Or we can go to Dragonstone twice.
4. Sneak out and wreak havoc on the city. With the Dornish in town we can also measure population temperament in regard to Dornish visit. This may also brought help us understand the city problem.
-[] [Action] Relax
-[] [Action] Study Music
-[] [Action] A Trip To Dragonstone
-[] [Action] Sneak out and Explore the City
I feel priorities in this block are time insensitive and need to consider our long term commitment from diligent before committing any more.
In the near term we have 3 Long term commitment. Sword, Law, and Music. Currently it is a mandatory 1/8 of total actions from the 1 actions in 4 turns commitment. We still haven't factoring in Our and Syrax Training which shot up to 1/6 or 1 actions every turn.
1. Study Law directly or other field. While I'll like to postpone it for after we speak with Lyonel or acquire other mentor in other fields taking it now show our diligence and seriousness.
2. Studying history with our Father enhance our relationship and may open up another avenue to Dream delving therefore soothing Viserys heart. This probably will enhance Syrax training so I feel the urge to take it together.
3. Warcraft. This with history can help the deep understanding of dragon warfare, the most dangerous combat we'll face. With our strong sword arm it is important to have strong military mind. We don't want to be like Daemon Blackfyre that was caught between Hammer and Anvil and get shot with arrows.
-[] [Action] Study
-[] [Action] Study Valyrian History with your Father.
-[] [Action] Figure Out How to Improve your Knowledge of Warcraft
4. Understanding small council by speaking with current member or studying their field of expertise. Like joining the city watch or talking with Lord Lyman Beesburry. He may not have great political acumen but the treasury bloom under him.
5. Manage our wealth. Whether speaking with Isembard Arryn or deciding about our winning, wealth unused is wealth wasted. By investing and using it early we will have more impact even with smaller pouch.
-[] [Conversation] Speak with Lord Lyman Beesbury / -[] [Action] Request a Role in the City Watch
-[] [Action] Decide What to Do With Your Tourney Winnings / -[] [Conversation] Speak with Isembard Arryn
By the way, if you wanna play as, uh, Rhaenyra great-grand-cousin, Aerea Targaryen, I just started a quest for it. You can challenge Jaeahaerys "the Concilator" for the throne to which you have a better right, or just return to King's Landing, the city you love. For now, we are at a pretty involved chargen.
...that just makes it even more weird/baffling. Because if that's the case why not just have him be born with the name? If Corlys is trying to full on get his house name as the ruling family then Jace eventually becoming a Targaryen doesn't do that, while having him be a Velaryon until then has the optics of the new "Targaryen" King literally having a different name and house up to that point. (Very much not a good thing when the current inheritance is already on shaky ground)
(That usually only happens when the main line completely dies out and you have to go a couple of cousins over to grab/adopt someone into the family)
Like no upsides for Corlys or Viserys, and literally only downsides for the legitimacy of the ruling family.
So still just a sign of Viserys either being politically inept or Coryls running rings around him just for shits and giggles or Viserys just being desperate to get Coryls back on side (which is still not a good sign).
Again, just flat out bottom line, unless you want your family to die/be absorbed then your heir keeps their name and their children inherit it no matter the gender of the heir.
And nobles get this - so it's not even something you definitely have to get concessions for, if the other family TRIES to demand concessions for this then it's not a good thing - either they feel you're desperate enough to agree or are trying to take advantage of you (or are over arrogant/stupid).
i.e. say a house is literally down to a single unmarried daughter, the rest are dead, then in that situation the house of the consort-husband can and probably would demand concessions because there's the opportunity here to absorb the other house.
At most if the family of the consort REALLY needs more blood, then you agree to try for a whole bunch of kids and several take the consorts name - which IIRC has happened where woman marries into man's family, woman's family starts to die out, so several of their kids instead take mum's name.
And even then that's usually a concession the OTHER way.
...I completely failed to realize that Laenor could fly to Essos WITH Rhaenyra. If he was around at the time, surely nothing untoward could possibly have happened, right?
That would make him the second person who Really Should Not find out that Rhaenyra is dating Alicent. Although with less devastating consequences than Johanna "Raging Homophobe" Targaryen...
I wonder if somehow negotiating on Alicent's behalf with lesser bribes than marriage could work? There may be a very real threat of her getting married off to Unwin Peake.
Yup, honestly the heir stuff with Laenor is the least of our problems. Bottom line, it isn't like the only silver-haired, purple-eyed people in the world are the Targaryens and Velaryons, fly far enough away, and Laenor can, like, go to a brothel, hire a male courtesan and then do the deed with the man blindfolded if secrecy is that much of an issue when you're looking for donors in the other half of the world.
Maybe this wasn't possible for Canon! Rhaenyra because she was a dainty princess and everyone would've gone "what's she doing over there, it's too dangerous, etc." but ours is basically a knight already better than whoever husband she's gonna have, no one would bat an eye at the "manly" princess going out on an adventure after marriage.
It isn't like people in Westeros even know or even have their DNA actually apply the "Dominant" or "Recessive" rule so pale, silver-hair, purple-eyed kids will be as good as any. People will likely even say "oh he looks so much like Corlys, his grandfather!" lol
Honestly the biggest problem IMO (despite being a mostly Laenor supporter because of the benefits) is that Laenor might be a good yes-man husband, but similarly, he's so unambitious it might be a problem at times. Also, Corlys possibly acting like a K-drama mother-in-law being all overbearing... Anyways let's just hope his own Alicent doesn't die this time around because I am NOT voting to name a Targaryen kid "Joffrey" lmao
Huh. What makes you think that? I mean, Rhaenyra can have enough ambition for the both of them, and the consort being unambitious ensures it doesn't interfere with her rule.
I am NOT voting to name a Targaryen kid "Joffrey" lmao
Huh. What makes you think that? I mean, Rhaenyra can have enough ambition for the both of them, and the consort being unambitious ensures it doesn't interfere with her rule.
...Joffaerys? I grant, Joffrey is not a good name to Valyrianize.
Honestly the biggest problem IMO (despite being a mostly Laenor supporter because of the benefits) is that Laenor might be a good yes-man husband, but similarly, he's so unambitious it might be a problem at times. Also, Corlys possibly acting like a K-drama mother-in-law being all overbearing... Anyways let's just hope his own Alicent doesn't die this time around because I am NOT voting to name a Targaryen kid "Joffrey" lmao
I think both of those stem from the trauma of his wedding that then permeate all aspect of their marital life. I am sure if Joffrey stay alive and well as long term companion Laenor doesn't feel a strong urge to honor his lover, whose killer stay under the same roof as them that he cannot avenge, so explicitly. The depressive alcoholic stage of his probably doesn't help his drive and activeness either. So rest assured we shall not have Jofaeris as a name probably for ever if we marry Laenor and keep his lover alive
Okay, but how is that bad for us? I mean, at worst it might mean he won't use his dragon...? But to be perfectly blunt, we primarily need him for legitimacy and for making peace with the Velaryons. The dragon would be an extra, and him doing anything would be an extra extra. As it is, we don't even expect our children to come from him. So, uh, wouldn't a passive Prince-Consort kinda work for us?
If he dares to suggest those kinda names though, it's only fair we also get to use Valyrianyzed Alicent names variant, like, I dunno, Alicenys
Ah, but that works better. You just need to turn every a into an ae and every i into an y. And maybe dissolve consonant clusters, or use Valyrian name endings. So, uh, Aelicys. Or Aelyca.
(interestingly, you can even use that in-setting. One Qartheen character is named "Egon". So my theory is that Valyrian-Qartheen is a shared language family, and "our" closest relatives are in Qarth )
I think both of those stem from the trauma of his wedding that then permeate all aspect of their marital life. I am sure if Joffrey stay alive and well as long term companion Laenor doesn't feel a strong urge to honor his lover, whose killer stay under the same roof as them that he cannot avenge, so explicitly. The depressive alcoholic stage of his probably doesn't help his drive and activeness either. So rest assured we shall not have Jofaeris as a name probably for ever if we marry Laenor and keep his lover alive
Good, if he does die the circumstances would be too different anyways, since this Rhaenyra has a much, much different relationship with Cole (actually I am not that clear on what, exactly, this Criston feels towards Rhaenyra)
Hopefully we can be bros, with luck Laenor wouldn't even feel that much dread at marrying since his wife would be taller, broader and better at swording than him. I am aware that this doesn't mean that he'd feel anything close to attraction since we don't have the, uh, right assets to guarantee that, but I mean, better this than being married to a dainty, voluptous woman half the Kingdom is lusting over(?)
Okay, but how is that bad for us? I mean, at worst it might mean he won't use his dragon...? But to be perfectly blunt, we primarily need him for legitimacy and for making peace with the Velaryons. The dragon would be an extra, and him doing anything would be an extra extra. As it is, we don't even expect our children to come from him. So, uh, wouldn't a passive Prince-Consort kinda work for us?
Ah, but that works better. You just need to turn every a into an ae and every i into an y. And maybe dissolve consonant clusters, or use Valyrian name endings. So, uh, Aelicys. Or Aelyca.
(interestingly, you can even use that in-setting. One Qartheen character is named "Egon". So my theory is that Valyrian-Qartheen is a shared language family, and "our" closest relatives are in Qarth )
I see, I'll admit I'm biased due to fics so I'll just wait and see! I'm excited to see if things work out since he's my favorite option (followed right behind by Qoren simple because it's the most chaotic husband choice ever and it'll cause so many headaches to everyone involved)
Our future children shall be named Jofreon and Alycaenys! With no particular relation to Joffrey or Alicent, of course.
He doesn't get to say anything since an alternative version of him didn't see anything wrong with naming his kid almost straight-up "Almond Targaryen"
(granted he was likely too depressed to care about Aemond but still, lol)
edit: also he should be glad we aren't considering the Tully guy, otherwise our vision of Kermit Targaryen, First of His Name would become true
I mean -on is well established in Aegon, Aemon, etc. Of course, the l may make it different - Aelor is a Targ name rather than Aelon the Muskrat. And yeah, Rhae- is a well established name start of course. So yeah Rhaelon or Rhaelor.
/E: Hm. Baelor and Baelon both exist, so Aelon and hence also Rhaelon should be possible, as a closer approximation.
As far as I can determine, the great majority of Valyrian male names usually follow a pattern with four parts:
1. Optional starting consonant (often not used)
2. ae
3. Middle consonant
4. Name ending.
For 1., we have B (Baelon), D (Daemon), G (Gaemon), H (Haegon), L (Laenor), M (Maegor), Rh (Rhaegar), V (Vaegon) and perhaps El (Elaenor) and N (Naerys) though they have so far only been seen used in female characters.
2. is always just ae
For 3. we have G (Aegon), L (Baelon), M (Aemon), N (Aenys), R (Aerys) and perhaps K (Maekar as only example, and he seems to kinda not fit into the pattern)
For 4., we have -ar (Rhaegar), -ion (Aerion), -on (Aegon), -ond (Vaemond), -or (Maegor), -ys (Aenys) and rarely -el (Rhaegel - who names their kid like Bagel?) and -yx (Aelyx, the Valyrian Gaul)
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