Baelor Bittersteel

Lord Baelor Bittersteel was the third son of Aegor Bittersteel and Lord Paramount of the Riverlands following his father's death and his brother's abdication.

## History

Baelor was born the third and youngest son of Lord Aegor Bittersteel, the founder of the house. Baelor's oldest brother, Aemon Bittersteel, was everything he aspired to be. Aemon grew to be strong in the arm, sharp of wit, and by all means a handsome man. Baelor was a brillant mind, but overshadowed by Aemon's accomplishments. Baelor only faintly remembered his eldest brother, Aegon Bittersteel, for he had taken his own life when Baelor was only four years old.

Having been but a boy during the War of the Wicked, Baelor was kept safe at the ancient fortress of Harrenhal. It was said it was he who discovered their father's mangled corpse at the conclusion of the war, Aegor having thrown himself from the tallest tower. From that moment on, it was the two sons against the world.

Aemon, the new lord, soon grew uncomfortable with his responsibilities. Perhaps he felt pressured by having to live up to their father's shadow, or perhaps he realised that Baelor was growing ever more competent behind him. Regardless, Aemon Bittersteel's behaviour grew erratic, and at the age of twenty-and-five he rode north to join the Night's Watch.

Baelor, now Lord of the Trident, soon became a lord of repute. He proved assuredly competent in his role as Lord Paramount, fair to his subjects, foul to his enemies. Above all else, he was loyal to the Blackfyre kings, to separate himself from his father. He would answer any call they made of him, pay any debt, face any foe.

## Durran's Defiance

On the eve of war, the twins Aemond Blackfyre and Aerion Blackfyre arrive at Harrenhal, to recruit Bittersteel to the coming rebellion against Maelys's terrible rule. Baelor turns them down, ever the staunch loyalist, and orders their capture. Despite the best effort of his guards, the twins are able to elicit their escape and begin recruiting the Riverlords to the rebel cause. Tully, Mallister and Blackwood join them in rebellion, while Houses Bracken, Vance and Darry join Baelor in remaining loyal to the crown. Fighting breaks out in *the Teats*, though the loyalists lose skirmish after skirmish.

Lord Piper was charged with leading the northern portion of Bittersteel’s army while Lord Bittersteel deals with Tully’s forces along the Red Fork. He pursues Aemond like a mad dog along the Blue Fork until Aemond decides to make a stand at Fairmarket. Aemond uses the week and a half start he has on Piper to prepare defenses for the battle. When the actual battles arrives, Piper rushed in with his full force, hoping to overwhelm the Prince of Dragonstone with brute force. Aemond expected it, however, and had lined the moats with flammable pitch.

Both of Piper’s flanks erupted in flame while a wall of spears greeted his front. A charging cavalry force, led by Aemond himself, was soon at his rear. It was a terrible defeat for the Royals, and Aemond personally killed Lord Piper as he fled the field. The battle served to break what little morale Bittersteel imparted in his lords, and the only Lords that stood by him were Bracken and Darry. The former for blood ties, and the later because their son Edmure was a knight of Maelys’s Kingsguard. The rest of the Riverlords defected to the Rebel side, and many swore fealty to Aemond and his cause on the field of battle.

In the aftermath of the Battle of Fairmarket, Frey declares for Aemond, and Baelor refuses to let the last great neutral house fall to the rebels. He writes to Lord Arryn and demands that he send his army to the Twins to secure the castle and prevent Lord Stark from crossing the Neck. The Stark army is the first to arrive, but does not have time to move on when Lord Arryn appears with an army of his own. The battle is one of the fiercest of the entire war, and is noted for the unusually high amount of noble deaths. A deciding factor in the bloodiness was that Arryn was able to secure the eastern tower before sending his men on to assault the bridge. The battle rages on for two days and nights, each side making desperate sallies to attack the other’s position, turning the bridge and the river red with blood. On the third day, the Royalists take a massive hit to morale when Lord Belmore falls to Lord Bolton’s blade. The Arryns are forced to abandon the Twins and flee eastwards with the combined Stark/Frey army in hot pursuit. The rebel army endures almost a month of constant harassment as they chase the royalists southwards.

Upon hearing of his uncle’s march, Aemond Blackfyre decides to meet him on the field and trust in his army. His army was undoubtedly smaller, but it was more experienced and proven in the field. Maelys had numbers, but the vast majority were untested farmhands who had never held a spear in their life. They met in the fields just outside of Harrenhal and the battle was on. From the early onset, Aemond’s side proved far superior, but Maelys was proving himself to be a seasoned warrior in his own right, and deadly with Blackfyre in his hands. Aemond, seeing that they only way to end the battle decisively was with his uncle’s defeat, met him in a spectacular duel, where Valyrian steel clashed against Valyrian steel and has been the favorite subject of singers ever since.

In the end, Aemond proved to be too good for Maelys, and struck his uncle down, but not without sustaining quite a few injuries of his own. As Aemond raised his sword to deliver the killing blow, Maelys begged and pleaded for his life. In Aemond’s split moment of hesitation, Maelys produced a hidden dagger and gave his nephew a brutal stomach wound. Before anyone could react, Maelys and his three remaining Kingsguard had run off towards Harrenhal to seek shelter from Lord Baelor Bittersteel. Upon seeing their king flee, many of the Royal soldiers threw down their arms and begged for mercy. The Battle of Harrenhal proved to be a decisive victory for the Rebels, but Aemond was severely wounded and only a moment away from death.

## Death

Lord Bittersteel had also been wounded during battle, but both he and the King were given shelter and care behind Harrenhal’s thick walls by Bittersteel’s bastard son: Rhaegar Rivers. Mere minutes after they were through the gates, Rebel forces surrounded the castle and prepared for a long siege, for even in it’s burned and ruined state, Harrenhal was prohibitively bloody to assaults and with Aemond’s severe injuries, the Rebel army suffered from a lack of unified command necessary for such a battle. But just as both sides prepared themselves for the slow horror to come, the unexpected happened. Rhaegar Rivers, knowing the inevitable outcome of the siege, had loyal guards sneak into the chambers of both his father and the king to slit their throats. In one fell move, the bastard had removed any cause the Royals might have to continue fighting. He quickly opened up the gates to Rebel forces and began to parlay for clemency. Due to his actions, House Bittersteel escaped much of the wrath that would follow for the houses that supported Maelys during the war, and Rhaegar would later be legitimized as the new Lord Bittersteel of Harrenhal (for he had also slain Bittersteel’s sole heir, Baelon). The war was over, but the question of who would rule was still up in the air.