Aegon's Invasion

Aegon's Invasion was the military invasion of the Principality of Dorne. The dragon Morning was killed alongside her rider, Rhaena Targaryen. The war resulted in the wide-scale Andalization in the Triarchy as well as the integration of Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms.

## Background

After the death of Prince Protector Daeron, he was succeeded by his son, Aegon. Aegon, undoubtedly, was not his father. Those who knew their history would say he was much more alike to his uncle, Aemond. Having been raised merely on stories of the Seven Kingdoms, it had been the Targaryen's dream, since childhood, to rule over a Realm he had never even set foot on. Such reminiscence led to his fervent commitment to prepare Lys and Tyrosh for conquest. For the next three years, the Prince Protector honed his body relentlessly in the training yard with the Valyrian Steel blade known as Truth. He drilled the soldiers under him, secured additional contracts from several mercenary companies, and did little to conceal his intent for war. Jacaerys and his Court were not blind to this.

Yet when a portion of the Free Cities' fleets sailed to Dorne and thousands of warriors stormed Sunspear instead of the King's own dominion, the Crown was left perplexed. It seemed Prince Martell had not anticipated an attack on his kingdom either, despite the fact that the latter had so obliviously contended for the control of the Stepstones - something the Daughters would not tolerate.

## Invasion of Dorne

### Storming of Sunspear

With an adult dragon breathing down on them, and the military powers of Lys and Tyrosh pressing, the castle fell, easily, in the **Storming of Sunspear**. Aegon mocked the Martells' arrogance, and fed their master to his beast, stating that there could only be one Prince.

Still, the Crown recovered, soon enough. The scorpions they'd readied for Aegon's landing in the King's Realm would be for naught, as he'd opted to assault Dorne, instead. Jacaerys knew that if he sat idly while the latter burned, the Targaryen would eventually make his way up north, too. He called his banners and mustered a force in the capital, but made no move, yet - he simply waited.

### **Rage of the Godswrath**

Meanwhile, Aegon and his armies marched westwards, taking every little holdfast, settlement and keep. Most lords were clever enough to do as their ancestors had done during the First Aegon's Conquest - evacuate and hide. Of course, most were not all. In the **Battle of Godsgrace,** Lords Allyrion, Jordayne and Gargalen tried to halt the Rider's advance. Whether a heroic sacrifice to delay the progress of the invasion and give their other brethren time to run, or a foolish attempt to defeat the might of the dragon, no one knows - for none of these men made it out of the engagement alive. The Dornish took their position behind the river, which served multiple strategic purposes, chief of them being that their enemy would be forced to cross it and thus be at an innate disadvantage, and of course, water was the best way to combat flames. For a time, it certainly worked - their ferocity and tactics repelled the forces of Lys and Tyrosh again and again, as they were composed mainly of sellswords, who were prone to breaking easily. Aegon tired of seeing his mercenary hosts withdraw so many times, and he grew frustrated that they'd failed him so. He'd only watched, wanting to see the efficacy of only his armies, but evidently, they were lacking. Tessarion roared, and then the world was afire. No river or ocean would quell the power of such flames, for soldiers screamed and desperately rolled in the water their bodies aflame, to no avail. Both the dragon and the Rider fought with unfathomable madness, and only a miniscule of the original Dornish forces fled with their lives. The majority were scarred with burns. Daeron may have been Daring and Magnificent, but Aegon was something else - after this battle, he was the Godswrath.

Jacaerys's patience paid off: as he had suspected, envoys from Dorne practically begged for his intervention. He agreed with a smile, asking for nothing less than the full integration of Dorne into his Kingdoms. Presented with such a choice, they agreed, and then the wise King commanded his hosts to march south, with the wheeling rumble of scorpions and ballistae. That was not all: with him also flew the only other living, tamed dragon in the Known World - Morning, with her rider, Rhaena.

Knowledgeable in the tactics of Dorne, Aegon did not make an attempt to actually hold many of the castles he'd taken over. The Dornish would come out of hiding and slaughter any garrison left behind, once the dragon was out of view. He simply scorched the lands, and plundered all he could, food and wealth. Sunspear was left with a formidable garrison, and a stable supply line was drawn from it - one that was relentlessly attacked by the Dornish. Still, the Targaryen had used a large quantity of men to bolster this line, leaving his main army much weakened, but at least they wouldn't go hungry. Illusory tricks such as creating smoke in many places also scared off many would-be raiders intent on attacking his logistical detachment, as they feared the recent presence of Tessarion. With all these efforts, Aegon led a thinned, half-fierce host of sellswords forward to meet Jacaerys in battle.

### **Death of the Dragon**

The last obstacle to squash before this inevitable meeting was Lord Uller, who skirmished with Aegon's armies first on the battlefield, inflicting some casualties (an engagement dubbed the **Uller's Gambit)**, and then withdrew behind the safety of his walls. Safety, as it turned out, was quite relative. Irritated that the nobility still proceeded to resist him despite the futility to defeat his forces, Aegon unleashed Tessarion's wrath on Hellholt. The castle's name gained a new meaning, for the hellish inferno that wreathed the walls and the general structure of the fortification were unimaginably powerful in intensity. Its denizens were burnt to a crisp, and Hellholt reduced to rubble. Afterwards, Aegon is said to have stated: 'I am not Rhaenys, nor is Tessarion Meraxes,' alleging the latter's death during the original Aegon's Conquest. Extensive repairs (practically a rebuilding) were conducted to restore the castle, afterwards.

Jacaerys caught Aegon by Yronwood, in the **Battle of Pink and Blue**, named so for the dragons Morning and Tessarion, respectively. The King of Westeros commanded a much larger, devoted, well-nourished army. Aegon's own had thinned considerably, as he'd shifted so much of his troops to the supply lines, whose maintenance became harder and harder. Additionally, Jahaerys had had a brisk, yet steady pace - the Prince Protector had marched his own host relentlessly, with little rest. The two parties clashed fiercely, and soon the Essosi soldiers were overtaken at every step. Victory was all but certain… But something changed in the sky. The slow grapple of Morning and Tessarion had turned into something else, something much more dangerous. Aegon the Godswrath swung his whip, and the beast, emboldened by the fury of his master, recklessly charged for her enemy, a blinding speed even the winged creature could not match. In a sinister display, Tessarion ripped out Morning's throat, covering the sky in a trail of streaming red. To make matters worse, Rhaena was snatched by the Blue Monster during her descent, and the dragonrider was eaten alive. The dead dragon crashed with a deafening boom, crushing many Westerosi with her fall. The latter's blood went cold, for there was nothing else to distract the flame-breathing demon above them, now. Scorpion fire intensified, but they harmed her scales little. A rain of blue flames overtook the lines of the Crown, and it wasn't long before they began to break, while the Essosi found a new hope. It was almost as if Tessarion had gone berserk after killing Morning, spouting fire to every corner of the battlefield, sometimes not sparing even her allies. Whether this was due to Aegon's own madness, or perhaps because of the wounds inflicted by Morning enraging the beast, no one knows for sure. In the end, the men of the Seven Kingdoms were left reeling and tripping over their feet in a haste to flee. Even King Jacaerys nearly succumbed to the blue storm, having fallen off his mount, almost caught by the whirlpool of flames. It was with the intervention of his Kingsguard, Garlan Vance, that he left the battle with his life intact. The knight brought forth another horse to His Grace in a hurry, and then they rushed off from the field with the rest. Morning's carcass was carried off to King's Landing, for her bones to be preserved. Her corpse was first brought to a market town in the Stormlands, where it remained for some time before the proper arrangements were made for its transportation. As a result, the town became known as Dragon's Rest.

Although Aegon may have won the battle, he had effectively lost any chances of continuing his conquest, as he would soon find out by recent developments. His men had shown him several times their utter dependence on the dragon, the lack of self-sufficiency. This was coupled with other news: the garrison at Sunspear had finally fallen to the trickery of the Dornish, and even worse - with Jacaerys's urging, Braavos was bearing down on the fleets of Tyrosh and Lys. Although the majority were still there and not with Aegon, they strained to match the craft of the Arsenal. Cursing, he and his host made their way back to the east. Although no attempts were made to tempt fate with the maddened Godswrath, his backlines and rear were continuously harried. Were it not for the dragon, it would have been impossible for Aegon to leave Dorne alive at all. When they arrived at Sunspear, they found it empty, save for the heads of the soldiers on the battlements, the ones the Prince Protector had left as garrison after his storming. It was another miracle entirely that there were ships left to ferry the remains of his army back to Essos - the Crownlords had chased and destroyed as many of the vessels as they could, but thanks to the skill of his admirals, a few had managed to avoid their grasp. They were enough to transport Aegon and the sellswords back to Lys, from where he resumed battle, this time against Braavos.

The Sealord was reinforced by the royal fleet, soon enough. The Free Cities struggled to match their power, for Tessarion could not be everywhere at once. Staggering casualties were inflicted on both sides, though it was mainly Lys and Tyrosh whose naval capacities were crippled. Grudgingly, Aegon agreed to white peace after some time. Braavos and the Seven Kingdoms too, were forced to agree - Jacaerys had to ensure Dorne's stability with its recent integration, and the Sealord did not want to press his luck too much against a dragon.

## **Aftermath**

Upon the conclusion of the conflict, King Velaryon turned his attention to Dorne. He arranged a marriage with one of his daughters and the new Prince Martell. The next last four years of his life were spent placating the Dornish aristocracy to quell any signs of unrest or ambitions for independence, and he was met with striking success. King Jacaerys Velaryon passed in his sleep in 165 AC, at the age of fifty-one. His name would be echoed alongside that of Jaehaerys the Conciliator, remembered forever as Jacaerys the Brilliant. His son, Monterys Velaryon, rose to the throne.

Aegon had much and more to think about during the peace. He had come to several important realisations. First of them being a reformation of his military forces. As could be seen, sellswords did not prove reliable combatants in the war. Half the time they routed, the other half they didn't do so because they feared the dragon's wrath. This would not do. The Westerosi had their puissant knights clad in steel, who fought to the bitter end for their honour and the Gods. Meanwhile, his own men were swayed only by gold or fear. The second realisation was Braavos. So long as the Titan stood tall, the Prince Protector would never breathe easy. They had shown time and again that they would intervene against the interests of House Targaryen. Action would need to be taken, and for that, they would have to prepare. They would have to repair their broken fleet, restrengthen their armies. The next few decades were spent with Aegon gaining the attention of Westerosi exiles and disgruntled knights, restoring his navy, and restructuring his military. Many such exiles from the West helped form the bulk of Aegon's now Andal court. With the proficiency and experience of these knights, he instilled new purpose and ideas in his demesne. Several Westerosi cultures began to develop and thrive, among them, surprisingly, the chivalric concept of tourneys. The first recorded instance began from 181 AC, when Lys held its first tournament according to Andal customs, encompassing the traditional melee, joust, and archery. Since then, such events became more frequent. Another important development was the Andalisation of his military. The use of mercenaries slowly diminished (though not completely eradicated), as Aegon began to employ House Guard, and train soldiers dedicated not to gold, but to his cause. Near the end of his reign, knights, indistinguishable from their Westerosi counterparts, mounted and all, were a common sight in his armies.