Ritual at Dragonstone (Lord Tywin's Gift)

The **Ritual at Dragonstone** was a momentous moment in the history of Westeros, as it saw the birth of the first dragons since the death of the last dragon in 153 AC, 146 years prior.

## Prelude

Since Prince Aegon Targaryen was a child, he has had a persistent dragon dream in which he saw a mad stag with the wings of a dragon, a one eyed red falcon and a small half-lion, half-dragon. The three set ablaze and turned to ash, and from the ashes arose a fearsome three-headed red dragon, surrounded by darkness.

Aegon's father, King Rhaegar I Targaryen, took this prophetic dream to mean that eventually his son would help bring about the return of dragons to the world, and thus went out on quests to find lost dragon eggs throughout Westeros. Eventually the King and his son had been able to recover three before stopping.

At the beginning of the War of the Four Kings, the War of the Rutting Stags had already been ongoing between the competing Baratheon claimants to Storm's End, one of whom was Eideard Baratheon, the mad disinherited son of the former Lord Robert Baratheon. Eideard had fled King's Landing and returned to the Vale where he had formerly been fostered. There he kidnapped his half-sister Mya Stone and was able to encourage many of the Vale mountain clans to join him in his trek to take Storm's End. His most loyal companion was Timett, a one-eyed red hand of the Burned Men clan.

Simultaneously, Rhaenys Targaryen, the older sister of Aegon was pregnant with their first baby.

While travelling down from the Vale, Eideard and his clansmen were attacked by a royal force led by Ser Addam Marbrand. Despite the ferocity of Eideard's fighters, they were routed by the crown's men and most were either slaughtered or forced to flee back north. Among those who were captured included Eideard himself, Timett, and the red priestess Melisandre. The pair were brought back to King's Landing to be held in the Red Keep.

While Prince Aegon had been preparing to lead an army against the rebels, he changed his plans after the arrival of Eideard and Timett in the Red Keep. Sure they were important to the revival of the dragons, he instead brought them to Dragonstone with Melisandre, believing her blood magic to be vital too. Melisandre herself had come to see Aegon as the true Azor Ahai.

Soon after they arrived at Dragonstone Rhaenys went into labour, giving birth to a stillborn son.

## The Ritual

After travelling to Dragonstone with his sisters, Melisandre and most importantly his prisoners, Prince Aegon set up a pyre outside his castle. He had his prisoners to be tied to the pyre, with the three dragon eggs placed atop, then set the pile on fire. While the flames raged Melisandre performed her blood magic, and with this Aegon and his sisters walked into the flames, with Rhaenys carrying their stillborn son in with her.

Once the fire finally died down only the three Targaryen siblings were left, and with them were three small dragons. The hair and clothes of the siblings had all been burned off.

## Aftermath

The ritual had sapped the red priestess Melisandre of much of her power, she was left visibly older in appearance and haggard. Of the three dragons born from the eggs each Targaryen sibling took one to be their own. Aegon took the black dragon with golden eyes, named Daerion after Aegon's hero, King Daeron I Targaryen, Rhaenys the silver and gold dragon who she named Aenon, and Visenya took the green scaled dragon which she called Alysson after her hero, Princess Alyssa Targaryen.