The Summer of Three Stags

While his early reign had been wrought with upheavals, Roy would serve as an effective lord following the dornish war. With his sister’s departure to Oldtown following the end of the war, he began to come into his own as a ruler, aided by his wife, Raya Blackwood. With the return of peace, good harvests would soon come again as well, and through prudent stewardship the Stormlands would prosper. However one great sorrow for the Lord and Lady of Storm’s End was their progeny. After the strenuous birth of their first daughter Ashara, the couple would never again see one of their children live past infancy. Their next two children, Raymont and Shiera, both died before turning one. They were followed by two stillbirths. As such, the words of the High Septon would be salt in their wounds.
The Righteous One was annointed in 110 A.C. Lady Raya Baratheon had by this time converted from following the Old Gods to becoming a pious follower of the seven, and so was as happy as anyone else among the faithful to hear of this. Yet only a short time afterwards, the High Septon would launch his attack, not only upon her, Roy Baratheon and the King himself. The Righteous one accused Raya of having married Roy as a woman sullied, her virginity taken not by her husband on their wedding night, but by King Viserys. Ashara was labeled a bastard by the faith. In the end Raya had to talk Roy out of marching an army to King’s Landing with the intent of besieging the Great Sept, a plan Roy nearly committed to while fuming with anger. Instead he would punish the High septon quietly, sharply raising the taxes of septries. During the cobbler uprisings in the Riverlands and West, Roy decreased the tax burden on the peasantry, ensuring that the faith remained in a financially difficult situation in his lands while the peasants had no cause to flock to them and rebell.

During this time, Ashara was growing into a formidable young woman. Tutored partly by her parents at Storm’s End and partly by her aunt Cassandra in Oldtown, Ashara became a serious and dutiful heir, graceful and diligent. She was Roy’s pride and joy, and this caused a growing tension with Roy’s ally, Lord Lannister, who had come to hope that his son-in-law, Richard Baratheon, might one day rule Storm’s End due to Roy’s lack of a male issue. While personally adamant about Ashara’s inheritance, Roy recognized that it would be a controversial move, and so tried to broach the idea of a female heir to his lords gradually over time, rather than trying to force their acceptance, knowing they might flock to Devan otherwise. In 116 Roy went to King’s Landing to speak with the king, staying for over a month. The conversations between the two old friends were many, and some were heated, but as he prepared for his journey home, Roy did so secure in the knowledge that he had ensured the succession. No one knows what he thought in his final hours, when his ship sank in a storm on the way home. When their lord did not return home, the Lords of the Stormlands grew uneasy. When word of his death arrived instead, the knives emerged. Devan was at Blackhaven when he was told, and quickly began a journey around the marches to gather support, his intent being to march to Storm’s End and demand the castle, hoping his niece would yield it bloodlessly. A letter was drafted, though not yet sent, in which he planned to offer Ashara the chance to surrender with dignity and marry his eldest son. A fair few Marcher Lords supported Devan, but elsewhere his claim was cast into doubt, as he had been disinherited nearly two decades ago and never reinstated in the line of succession
Meanwhile, Ashara was sending letters of her own to secure support, mainly succeeding in the north of the Stormlands. One lord in particular distinguished himself through his dedication. Davos Penrose quickly joined her cause and began rallying others to support her claim. Roy’s youngest brother, Richard, was informed of the succession the last, but his chances were potentially the greatest. He was married to a Lannister of the Rock, and his in-laws were offering their full support to put him in Storm’s End. He was also the most eligible male Baratheon as a result of Devan’s disinheritance, and was unburdened by the controversial reputations that had befallen both his brothers. The main problem was his lack of desire for inheritance.

Devastated by the death of his brother, Richard rejected offers of Lannister support outright, much to his wife’s frustration. Richard felt he could not in good conscience depose his niece. Instead he tried to solve things bloodlessly, hastily travelling under cover to Storm’s End. This almost lead to his imprisonment as a suspected spy, but thankfully his sister Cassandra was visiting from Oldtown and recognized him. He was granted parlay with Ashara and sought to negotiate a compromise, that he would not contest Ashara’s claim so long as she never married, placing Richard and his sons next in the line of succession. An agreement was on the verge of being reached when several ships from the royal fleet arrived carrying an envoy. Viserys had intervened on Ashara’s behalf thanks to Roy’s final negotiations, decreeing that she was Roy’s rightful heir. Upon hearing of the message, and of the size of the amount of ships House Targaryen had sent, Devan’s supporters urged him to accept it, weary of the possibility that the royal fleet carried an army as well as an envoy. Infuriated, Devan returned to Blackhaven, however he retained close connections with those that had offered him their support. He had relented that day, but not given up in the slightest. Richard meanwhile, went home elated, thinking he had secured Storm’s End for his sons after him. However the agreement he secured was much less tangible than he thought it to be, and by pursuing his claim covertly he’d lost the chance to gather support in the stormlands themselves. Over time, many stormlords would come to view him with suspicion, wondering whether his marriage had made him a puppet of Casterly Rock.
Ashara, for her part, would solidify support among those that had backed her during the weeks of crisis immediately following her father’s death, especially Davos Penrose. All the while, her suspicion of the Lannisters grew. By the time she married Davos in 121 A.C, their courtship had been an open secret for a while, but it nonetheless caught Richard by surprise. Embittered, Richard now reconsidered the offers of support he’d recieved from House Lannister years earlier. He also began to make contact with the High Septon, speaking of the potential of restoring a legitimate bloodline to Storm’s End, and reducing the septry tax too, of course. The summer of Three Stags has seen the Stormlands divide into two factions, with Devan having a smaller but more ardent base of support in the Marches while Ashara retains control over the Stormlands at large. Looming over both is the threat of Richard invading at the head of a Lannister army, potentially even with the sanction of the High Septon