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Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceMajor Character Death
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House of the Dragon (TV)Warhammer Fantasy
Characters:
Ikit ClawRhaenyra TargaryenJacaerys VelaryonLucerys Velaryon (Son of Rhaenyra)Baela TargaryenRhaena Targaryen (Daughter of Daemon)Daemon TargaryenCorlys "The Sea Snake" VelaryonHelaena TargaryenAddam VelaryonBackground & Cameo CharactersSilverwing | Alysanne Targaryen's DragonOriginal CharactersJoffrey Velaryon
Additional Tags:
Crack Treated SeriouslyCanon-Typical ViolenceThe Dance of the Dragons | Aegon II Targaryen v. Rhaenyra Targaryen EraAlternate Universe - Canon DivergenceCanonical Character DeathCharacter Turned Into a HumanIkit got isekai'd as Jace's twinSkaven Species (Warhammer Fantasy)Death to all GreensHuman ExperimentationScience ExperimentsIkit is his own warningSilverwing still has shit taste in male ridersPOV MultipleBackground RelationshipsBackground Character Deathshow canon onlyDragon RidersAnimal AbuseIkit is an abusive dragonriderTho he's fairly mellow compared to his SkavenselfGood Parent Rhaenyra TargaryenNo beta we die like LucerysDysfunctional FamilyCannibalismBlood and TortureCanon-Typical BehaviorBAMF Helaena Targaryen
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English
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Published:2026-02-26Completed:2026-04-22Words:181,492Chapters:55/55Comments:1,270Kudos:749Bookmarks:160Hits:33,677
The Rat Prince of Westeros
SkilledWarriorKiwi
Chapter 35: Rhaenyra
Chapter Text
The Iron Throne was an uncomfortable as everyone said. Not simply from the fact she must keep her posture stiff, unable to relax for even a moment least she want a wayward blade to nip at her, but the way the swords of the back all arched into the edge of her vision like fingers of the Stranger.
Rhaenyra looked down at the lords and ladies of King's Landing, feeling nothing but rage as many begged and flattered her. So many worthless traitors, a part of her wanted to just kill all of them and it took such restraint to push down her fury. At these two-faced snakes trying to praise her, as if they hadn't sided with the Usurper and did nothing when he killed those loyal to her. When he celebrated the murder of her son.
The Fall of King's Landing was to be a great victory, to take King Aegon captive and use him to force an end to the war. Instead when the city quickly fell, surrendering just as Alicent promised, they met the guilty looking dowager queen in the Red Keep's courtyard who nervously explained that the usurper king and queen were both gone from King's Landing.
Alicent had pleaded ignorance to the absence of King Aegon, having no idea as to where the usurper was and that he had disappeared while she was absent from the city to speak to Rhaenyra and only learned he was gone when she returned. It was also her excuse for Helaena having left upon Dreamfyre that very morn before Rhaenyra and her forces arrived, and Helaena's location was currently unknown just like her husband and their remaining child. Helaena had, at the very least, named Alicent as acting power in King's Landing before she had left so Alicent had been able to order a city wide surrender but had not bothered to inform her mother of her movements.
Rhaenyra was still furious at the Triarchy invasion, which was now known as the Battle of the Gullet. Both at Alicent's failure to warn them of the approaching slave nation, and of the death of her youngest son Viserys. Her Aegon had seen the slavers board the ship as he flew off upon Stormcloud, with the Triarchy trying to shoot him down to no avail even if Stormcloud was so badly wounded he died shortly after Aegon made it back to Dragonstone to warn them.
Hugh upon Vermithor, Addam upon Seasmoke, Jacaerys upon Vermax and Baela upon Moondancer had been sent to intercept the fleet as it invaded Westerosi waters. Thousands had died in the firestorms and the entire fleet of the Triarchy was sent up in flames. Wreckage was found even far south to Tarth, with more burning ships seen from the shores. It was speculated in their panic to flee Westerosi waters the captains had become careless, fire spread wildly not just from the aid of dragons.
The battle was a victory for her faction, but Rhaenyra was enraged at the loss of Viserys. Aegon had been inconsolable since he had returned, blaming himself for leaving his little brother behind to be slain, no matter how much they all tried to reassure him. If he had tried to remain behind then both would have been lost but to a boy not even ten years of age all he felt was guilt in abandoning his sibling.
Rhaenyra had only just summoned her Aegon to be with her in King's Landing- despite Alicent's reassurances, Rhaenyra had ordered Hugh and Addam to remain at Dragonstone while she, Daemon and Jace secured the capital in case of ambush. She did not want it to be an elaborate trap but after a week in King's Landing and reports from Baela at Dragonstone that all was clear, she finally ordered Hugh and Addam to her side. Baela meanwhile remained upon the isle, to act as protector and lady of Dragonstone as she remained in close ties with the Velaryons to oversee the restored trade routes.
Shortly after their reclamation of King's Landing they learned the Greens had sacked the royal treasury, stealing all the gold of the Iron Throne and dispersing it across the realm. Alicent had failed to divulge that beforehand as well and it took all of Rhaenyra's strength to not slap the dowager queen across the face or feed her to Syrax after she was informed of the empty coffers.
Instead she had Alicent confined to her quarters with no visitors or books, windows barred and food bland. As acting queen she was advised against acting as a tyrant by Jacaerys, who said that the common people had already grown nervous by Rhaenyra beheading much of the Green court including that of Lord Jasper Wylde. The maester Orwyle was placed upon house arrest like Alicent despite wanting his traitorous head.
She had stopped, despite Daemon urging her otherwise, at Jace's words and then they had to divulge ways of funding their war effort since the Greens had stolen everything. Raising taxes was the most logical way despite everyone's anger and despite torturing Lord Tyland Lannister he refused to speak of where he had sent the stolen gold to.
Mysaria, who was now acting as Rhaenyra's Master of Whispers, had suggested Rhaenyra break down some of her more elaborate gowns, having the gems and fine cloth picked apart to help fund the war effort. It was hardly a drop in the bucket but it, along with the cessation of severed heads upon the spikes of the keep, had helped soothe the worries of the smallfolk and many spoke of how the queen was gifting the clothes from her own back to help ease the burden of their financial worries.
At the very least her being in control of King's Landing meant the blockade was no longer in affect so food was flowing back into the city. It did not quell their money woes, nor the vanishing of the Usurper king and queen along with Lord Larys Strong who Alicent believed was behind it but it was a start.
Rhaenyra kept Jacaerys close to her, and Aegon even more close when he arrived from Dragonstone, but news of the Battle of the Honeywine and Prince Aemond burning the Riverlands was of a more pressing concern. King Aegon was a cripple and dragonless, he was not the current concern. Daemon had ordered his troops to abandon Harrenhall before he had rejoined Rhaenyra to fly to King's Landing, and the Black forces had dispersed to lay in wait for Cole and his army so when the Greens arrived at the melted castle they found it deserted. They did have a victory shortly after over the Lannister forces, with the battle upon the Lakeshore resulting in the destruction of the Green forces from the Westerlands including that of Jason Lannister, Tyland's brother. But they still had Aemond and Cole out upon the Riverlands unaccounted for.
The Hightower host in the Reach, with Prince Daeron and his dragon Tessarion, needed to be dealt with as quickly as possible as well. At the very least Dalton Greyjoy had attacked Lannisport and Casterly Rock so there would be no reinforcement from there but Rhaenyra disliked how they could not account for Vhagar or Dreamfyre.
Alicent was insistent that Helaena wasn't violent, but checking the usurper queen's room just revealed disturbing carvings on her wall that none of them could understand. But she had Dreamfyre, who would be even larger than Meleys. Rhaenyra was not sure what to believe, at once sharing the same opinion as Alicent over Helaena but now wasn't sure at all what to think.
However as her council said, Rhaenyra needed to address the missing Green princes beyond all else. The war wouldn't end in its current state. But she did not wish to leave King's Landing with only herself and Jacaerys for defenders as if Aemond decided to return then the two of them would not be able to kill Vhagar. It was in part why she hadn't called back Joffrey and Rhaena yet.
During one of her council meetings she finally conceded to sending Hugh with Vermithor to the Reach. As she assured him Tessarion would be a small dragon, no bigger than Vermax, and the battle should be quickly won in his favour but then he would have to force Oldtown into surrender. Hugh had immediately agreed, apparently having family in the Reach and Tumbleton. If he left swift he would be able to aid them before the Hightower army reached the town, as news came the Greens had slaughtered many at Bitterbridge. With her blessings he left that very afternoon, the Bronze Fury's form quickly flying over the city and then out across the Crownlands.
For Vhagar there was more debate, until Daemon insisted he would scout for her alone with Ceraxes. Rhaenyra had wanted to argue but as Daemon said, it was highly likely there were spies in King's Landing or even Alicent's own turncoat behaviour. If Addam remained in support at the city with Seasmoke then the three of them together could defeat Vhagar. Ceraxes was the only dragon out of the four to have the experience and size to challenge her. After all, Meleys had wounded Vhagar and that was while she was fighting two dragons.
Rhaenyra hated it, how her husband was going to leave to meet up with his Riverland troops and hunt for Cole and Vhagar especially as they learned more news of Aemond setting towns ablaze at random. There was more concrete news of where Cole was with the remnants of the Green army which Daemon intended to deal with. Mysaria, a day after Daemon had left, brought news from Tarth that a great dragon had been seen about the coast that she speculated was Dreamfyre by size alone. That meant that Helaena had gone to Storm's End, an ally of the Greens.
Nothing had really changed, even with her sitting in the Iron Throne as she held court with Jacaerys. Addam remained close at hand but he was still largely a stranger and all Rhaenyra could think of was Lucerys, Viserys. Visenya, who never got to live. And then there were her council, complaining about gold and whining about trying to locate the usurper king, as if she cared about that over the lives of her children.
It was why after some thought Rhaenyra summoned Joffrey from the Vale. Rhaena was to remain, keeping guard at the Eyrie and reporting to her the movements of the north of the realm but Rhaenyra needed to see her son. Aegon was still deeply depressed and cried many nights and with Jacaerys so busy with the court and reports, Rhaenyra much the same, she hoped Joffrey's presence would help soothe her son's anxiety and guilt while they could not. She desperately wanted Ikit back as well, it had been so long since she had seen her second oldest son and if what Corlys said was truth he should return soon. Or did he forget? Get distracted by his strange arcane work? Had been killed already without anyone knowing? She did not know but she had lost three children already and felt a mess of grief and black rage if she thought about it for too long.
Later that night, as she read over one of Baela's mundane reports from Dragonstone, Rhaenyra just felt misery and tired anger. She wanted it all to stop but Alicent had failed to even have her worthless children surrender properly. Jace was right to warn Rhaenyra against trusting her, the only thing listening to Alicent had gotten her was an empty vault with no way to feed the realm.
Perhaps that was Alicent's goal, to trick Rhaenyra into taking King's Landing so she would in turn be forced to raise taxes and gain everyone's ire. Alicent had already shown herself a hypocritical liar, like with that stupid page Orwyle had gifted her when Otto came to brag of his subsumption of the throne and demand her surrender.
Now she had no idea where the usurper king and queen were and as she put aside Baela's letter to look at the gold ledger, the money problem would persist for quite some time and she had no idea where to magic it up from. Tyland refused to speak, Alicent was useless, and war was expensive.
At the very least the Triarchy had collapsed into a violent civil war nearly immediately after their failed invasion, with wild reports of the Three Daughters slaughtering each other after blaming each other for their catastrophic losses in the Gullet, with entire cities being burnt down along with hysterical reports of flying demons, mass torture and cannibalism. Rhaenyra just scoffed when Mysaria brought her that information, thinking that slaver nations deserved whatever misery befell them. She wished them suffering a hundred times over for killing her youngest son.
After a moment Rhaenyra angrily slammed the ledger shut and slumped back in her chair, rubbing at her face as she lamented the day her father married Alicent as that was when this idiotic war began to bear fruit despite Alicent's attempts to protest otherwise. Alicent who admitted Helaena had attacked her before fleeing the capital, Alicent who had tried to take a knife to her son years ago upon Driftmark, Alicent who went behind her back to seduce her grieving father before Aemma's body was even cold. Three of her children dead because of that horrendous mistake her late father had committed, in marrying Alicent.
She was a liar and opportunistic thief just like her entire House and bloodline, Rhaenyra had been a fool to ever trust her. Who else would reveal themselves as two-faced snakes, as things within King's Landing grew more perilous? Mysaria kept her apace of the smallfolk and their moods, the mutters and worries over the war and food and gold.
Rhaenyra shoved herself away from the table, trying to shake off the rage that sought to consume her thoughts as she made her way to bed.
No doubt there would be more complaints on the morrow, but for now she needed rest.
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