Doctrine of Exceptionalism

The **Doctrine of Exceptionalism** was a precept first promulgated by Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen during his tenure as Regent of the Iron Throne and Hand of the King for King Rhaegar Targaryen. It was meant to serve as justification for certain practices of House Targaryen - chief among these the practice of incestuous marriage, as carried out by Prince Jaehaerys and his sister-wife Princess Alysanne. Developed with assistance from Septon Barth and Septon Oswyck, the doctrine did not at the time secure the assent of the Faith of the Seven or significant support within the nobility of the realm or the smallfolk.

The Doctrine was resurrected by Baelor Targaryen, at the time the Prince of Dragonstone, starting approximately in 120 AC as a counter-response to the High Septon known as the Righteous One.

## Doctrine

The original Doctrine of Exceptionalism's basic tenet was simple: the Faith of the Seven had been born in Andalos of old, where the laws laid down by the Seven in the holy texts decreed that incest was an abomination. The Doctrine of Exceptionalism confirmed this, but with one caveat: the Targaryens were not like other men as they rode dragons and were the only ones in the world since the Doom of Valyria. In addition, they did not have their roots in Andalos, but in Valyria, where different laws and traditions held sway. The Targaryens wed brother to sister as the Valyrians had always done, and as the gods had made them this way, it was not for men to judge.

When Baelor Targaryen brought forth the Doctrine once more, he affirmed that the Faith of the Seven was the faith of the peoples of the Seven Kingdoms and denounced as insidious the spread of R’hllor worship in the sands of Dorne. Furthermore, with the realm now united for the first time from the great Wall in the north to the Sunset Sea in the south of Dorne, the realm enjoyed an unprecedented period - a period brought forth through the sacrifices and hard work of many throughout the realm, under the leadership of the House Targaryen. Only one house, only one throne, had ever accomplished this feat, and was that not evidence of the Seven’s favor? The dragons may have died years earlier, but only Targaryens had ever rode dragons - and only Targaryens had united the realm entire.

## Speakers

Unlike his ancestor, Baelor did not enlist the aid of merely Seven Speakers to spread the word of the doctrine.

When first formulating the plan to once more propagate the doctrine, Baelor called to the royal court maesters and sympathetic septons; mummers and singers and actors; knights of the hedge and of tourneys. The heir to the Iron Throne funded their travels with coffers from the royal treasury and sent them out into the realm to praise House Targaryen, its successes, and to speak favorably of the house's differences.

In 125 AC, after Ser Jasper Arryn was murdered by Poor Fellows and his own bloody response in the streets of Gullton, Baelor once more sought out new speakers. This time he expanded the ranks of supporters to captains, traders, and merchantmen so as to start spreading the doctrine of exceptionalism by sea whilst his other voices continued to do so on land.

## Consequences

As a fervent believer in the doctrine and a man whose own faith in the Seven was wavering - in large part due to the rhetoric of the Righteous One, the Cobblers Revolt, the loss of his wife and of Luthor Oakheart - Baelor married his sister Rhaenys Targaryen in 125 AC. It was the first incestuous marriage of House Targaryen since Jaehaerys and Alysanne.