War of the False Dragon

Salladhor Saan

The **War of the False Dragon** was a brief conflict between the armies of the Iron Throne, led by King Aegon VI, and the forces of claimant Viserys Targaryen, his uncle. Sparked by Viserys' murder of his brother, Rhaegar, the elder Prince fled the realm and mustered support from a number of Essosi allies and sellsword companies, landing in the Stepstones and Dorne in 320 AC.

## The War

### Prelude

In 319AC, whilst out on a hunt with his younger brother, king Rhaegar was struck by an arrow from a deliberately laid ambush set by Viserys, and died from his injuries as his Kingsguard fought the attackers and Viserys fled from the scene to return to King’s Landing. The Kingsguard successfully managed to fight off the ambush, capturing a number of the assassins who revealed the true nature of Viserys’ plot.

Word reached Viserys shortly after his arrival in King’s Landing of his agents’ capture and the failure of his plot. In a panic, he quickly fled the city once more, taking a ship across the narrow sea to Essos. Viserys’ self-imposed exile for his actions became well known across Westeros in short order, and Rhaegar’s son, Aegon, was crowned in just a few days. The mourning period for Rhaegar lasted for a full moon within King’s Landing, and a week across Westeros as a whole as the Singer-King was lauded as a kingly paragon the Seven Kingdoms may never see again.

Aegon VI began to work closely with his master of whisperers, Varys, to track down Viserys and ensure that his uncle could be captured and returned to Westeros to face justice. It was soon discovered by Aegon’s small council that Viserys had met with Salladhor Saan, and had begun to use this connection to build alliances among a number of Essosi sellsword companies and those Essosi merchants and magisters with lingering animosities to Westeros following the War of Ninepenny Kings.

Of all of these alliances, the strongest that Viserys made were with Tyrosh and the Golden Company. Promising Tyrosh lordship of all the Stepstones and lordships and land to the captains of the Golden Company. Viserys also attracted the Second Sons, the Stormcrows and the Brave Companions to his service, and with a pirate fleet amassed by Saan, set sail for Westeros once more.

### The War and Initial Defeats

Throughout 320 AC, the majority of the fighting in the War of the False Dragon took place across the Stepstones and the eastern coast of Dorne. Viserys’ armies made strong gains and secured total control of the Stepstones by the fifth moon, and a daring assault made by the Golden Company captured Yronwood, providing Viserys with a strong and fortified stronghold for the rest of his invasion.

Having not faced any major conflict since before Rhaegar’s coronation, the lords of Westeros were largely inexperienced and unequipped to face an assault of this sort, and concerns began to spread that Aegon would be unable to stop the onslaught of Viserys’ armies as the lords of Westeros struggled to call their banners and organise a timely response to the Beggar King’s assault.

### Summerhall, Yronwood, and the End

Overconfident in the face of his successes, Viserys posed an offer to Aegon, agreeing to meet with his nephew at Summerhall to draw up the terms for a treaty that would end the war. In reality, Viserys hoped to bring Aegon out of King’s Landing to defeat him in a decisive battle and claim the throne, but Aegon suspected such a plan was at play. Agreeing to Viserys' offer of parley, Aegon marched to Summerhall to meet his uncle, while the combined force of the Crownlands, Riverlands and Stormlander fleets made their way to the Sea of Dorne, blockading Yronwood and landing troops to besiege the castle, preventing word from reaching Viserys on the road of what had transpired.

Arthur Dayne, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and placed in charge of the Yronwood force, staged a daring infiltration of the castle. Disguised as a hooded beggar, he scaled the walls and opened the gates, allowing his army to enter. Discovering the infiltration, Daario Naharis made his way to the gatehouse with a number of men, surrounding Dayne and attempting to kill the Sword of the Morning in order to close the gates before the majority of the loyalist forces could enter the castle. Arthur Dayne held his ground, killing many of his attackers as the Loyalists streamed into the castle. When the assault was a victory, Arthur was found dead, slumped against the wall of the gatehouse with all of his foes dead around him, Dawn buried in the chest of Naharis. Lord Edmure Tully retrieved the sword and rode to Starfall to return the ancestral weapon to the Dayne family.

Word did not reach Viserys of this assault, and the Beggar King arrived at Summerhall to face a combined army of the Reach and the Crownlands. The battle of Summerhall was fierce, with the climax of the fighting seeing Aegon and Viserys face each other on the field in a legendary duel that saw the Beggar King struck down by his nephew. The captain-general of the Golden Company, Myles Toyne, was struck down in the fighting as well, leading to a decisive victory for the loyalists.

## Aftermath

Seeing the failure of Viserys’ assault, Salladhor Saan took the remaining sellswords and turned on their ally Tyrosh, stealing control of the majority of the Stepstones and returning them to pirate havens, leaving Tyrosh with only Pryr, Highwatch, Felstrong and Tor under its control. Using his new position of power, Salladhor negotiated a treaty with Aegon whereby the pirates in the Stepstones would grant Westerosi ships safe travel through their waters. Aegon agreed to the treaty with the stipulation that Saan’s piracy would be directed against Tyrosh and the other Essosi states that supported Viserys.

Though the majority of Westerosi lords applauded Aegon for his victory and the treaty, House Martell took issue with the treaty at the time as they had suffered significantly at the hands of pirates from the Stepstones throughout the War of the False Dragon, seeing their lack of punishment as a betrayal.