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RHAENYS TARGARYEN.

^{❝ She had a small black kitten she called Balerion, did you know? I always wondered what happened to him. Rhaenys liked to pretend he was the true Balerion, the Black Dread of old, but I imagine the Lannisters taught her the difference between a kitten and a dragon quick enough, the day they broke down her door. ❞}
  - THE SPIDER  .

^༺✹༻

Nothing in this world can stop the spread of her wings
She, queen of the kings
Broken her cage, threw out the keys
She will be the warrior of North and Southern seas;

SHE WILL RISE AGAIN:  the dornish dragon.

but the lannisters never killed rhaenys, at least, not the true dragon princess. the young princess did find her way beneath her father's bed, where she curled with balerion held tight to her chest. a knight did enter the chamber, clad in blood. he gripped her heel and dragged her into the open air. balerion cut and clawed at her arm, escaping her grasp. the cat escaped. rhaenys, in turn, tried clawing at the knight and screaming, but he muffled her cries with a palm to her mouth. he grabbed her tight, and they fled. he tore through the corridor. they fled to the catacombs, to the beach . . . they ran across the desert . . . until they reached starfall. there, for weeks, rhaenys waited. until oberyn martell came to retrieve her. months after, a time spent waiting for the war to cool, oberyn brought rhaenys tosunspear, under the name adara sand. his bastard daughter, a sand snake. and so she stayed, until the call to vengeance sang in her ears, and the call for fire and blood gripped her tight. now she is unbowed, unbent, unbroken.

RULES:  dark words, dark wings.

                     caution to the wind,   play close attention  .  .  .
these are the laws of this land, forsaken as they may be.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

MAINS:  the friends and allies we aspire for.

                     those who have earned their colors,   worthy of all things  .  .  .
behold, bask in their glory, and adore them.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

^stormbcrn,  ^{daenerys targaryen},   ^{main
aclashofmuses},  ^blogwide,   ^{main
summerkng},  ^{renly baratheon},   ^{main
rcsegilded},  ^{margaery tyrell},   ^main
azmenka,  ^{maron greyjoy},   ^main
lykosog,  ^{robb stark},   ^{main
aclutchofmuses},  ^{abrogail strong},   ^{main
notenoughmuses},  ^blogwide,   ^main

DOSSIER:  the dornish dragon, lost princess.

                     she will rise again,   from the sands emerges an unholy union  .  .  .
the fire-spitting viper, the dragon of the desert, hell-bent on vengeance.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

TIMELINE:  the story of the dornish dragon.

                     her story,   begins  .  .  .
the tragic tale of the princess rhaenys targaryen, a story of vengeance, fire, and blood.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

biography:  the story of the dornish dragon.

                     her story,   begins  .  .  .
the tragic tale of the princess rhaenys targaryen, a story of vengeance, fire, and blood.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

BIRTH:  280 ac.As the moon sets against the unusually still surface of dragonstone’s sea, the faint hush of indigo beyond the surface, indicating the rising sun, the cry of a baby resounds through the dragon’s keep. it is after over two days of excruciating labors and pains, the maesters beginning to wonder if more dire resorts ought to be taken . . . elia martell gives birth to the realm’s delight - its dornish dragon. the viper princess lays abed, breathing rapidly amidst the pain, yet the smile across her lips is unquestionably adoring. in spite of her pain, her arms outstretch to take the babe into her arms, wrapped in the crimson and black cloth of her house. rhaegar targaryen, the true dragon, is there beside his wife . . . he smiles down to their daughter, a bronze skinned baby, whose eyes glowed violet, and stares with utmost curiosity across her parents - ever quizzical, ever searching, even as a newborn babe.the dornish dragon is named rhaenys targaryen.the birth had been difficult and brought forth a great deal of small agonies to elia martell, who laid abed for some weeks after the birth of her daughter . . . yet the viper princess refused to let any wetnurse touch her. elia claimed rhaenys as hers and hers alone from the start, and often let the babe sleep beside her. rhaegar, a loyal husband and father, often sat awake with a book on his lap, looking down at the sleeping pair. some weeks after rhaenys’ birth, rhaegar decided to take her to court in king’s landing. elia was still too weak to depart her birthing bed, so rhaegar - loathe was the princess to part with her daughter - took rhaenys himself. in king’s landing, rhaenys was met with absolute love and reverence.lord and lady alike revered her as a future beauty, already offering the hands of their young sons for future alliances . . . all of which rhaegar laughed away. when rhaegar presented the princess rhaenys to his father - the mad king - aerys, the old man with his rotted teeth and sunken flesh, sneered. ‘ she smells dornish, ’ he spat. the dornish dragon cried and fussed in her father’s arms. even then, somehow, she knew the old man was not to be trusted . . . and despised his presence.LIFE AT DRAGONSTONE:  280-282 ac.rhaegar wasted no time in leaving the wretched city to return back to dragonstone, where elia showered rhaenys in endless kisses . . . and this is where the princess is raised, brought up by the dragon prince and viper princess - in the heart of dragonstone. for the most part, the childhood the princess leads within the targaryen ancestral castle is pleasant. throughout the castle, rhaenys is regarded as a young beauty, the embodiment of her mother - with her father’s large valyrian eyes - yet she is also revered as a menace. frequently, rhaenys is apt to flee from her tutors and her septa lorella - an old woman, who had once believed herself blessed to be in the position to educate the young princess . . . - to play games, wander the beaches of the castle, and find new tunnels to explore . . . hidden tunnels, burrowed deep within dragonstone, wrought with dragon skulls, ancient carvings, and dragonglass. she often kept her findings a secret, lest she be cut off from certain parts of the castle, or they closed off to her.often the princess could be found sneaking off from her bedchambers in the late hours of the night, scuttling into her father’s library to find him over a book - snuggling onto his lap, often falling asleep that way - or searching out her mother to beg and plead to hear the stories of old dorne, of the princess nymeria. eventually, rhaegar reasoned his daughter was in need of a companion - an outlet. so, for her name-day, rhaegar gifts rhaenys a black kitten - golden eyed, scraggly creature . . . the princess adores her companion beyond words, proudly proclaiming him to be balerion, the black dread, reborn. it is then that rhaegar and elia realize, a sweet kitten companion shall not temper their daughter’s antics. rather, the poor kitten is dragged into them . . .not long after, elia becomes pregnant - a new brother, one rhaenys might teach of dragons and princess nymeria, and all the wonderful things she has learned in her short life. that is, until rhaegar targaryen kidnaps lyanna stark. for a short time, elia and her children remain in dragonstone.rhaenys notices the change in the castle, the tensions which linger in the air like thick fogs . . . she tries to play her usual games, yet elia is seldom in the mood. often, rhaenys hears her crying - and the viper princess keeps her children with her, the three of them asleep on the same bed. seldom are they a part. rhaenys is restricted to her castle. she cannot go down to the beach, search her tunnels. at the behest of her mother, she is constantly watched. rhaenys frowns and glares, and tells herself things shall get better when her father comes back . . .CAPTURE TO KING'S LANDING:  282-283 ac.the kingsguard come for elia and her children. rhaenys hopes her father sent them, but some part of her brain - a strange, unfortunate part - tells her otherwise. to her horror, they are taken back to the red keep. here they are hostages. once more, rhaenys is a prisoner within the keep - though she does find ways to elude her septa, as well as her chambers. she finds the library her father loved so, but is shirked from it by old, angry men who send her back to her septa.she looks through the dungeons, only to be caught and sent back to the surface. she hides in the gardens, only to be berated for being so muddy. on one unfortunate night, as she wanders a corridor, she happens across her grandfather . . . the mad king howls and yells and says things she does not understand, his horrible, crooked fingers reaching to grab and strike her, but the princess is faster than the old man. she flees, racing like winds, back to her bedchamber. she hides under her bed that night, arms curled around her confused kitten.rhaenys prays to every god she can think of, time and time again, for her father to find her.but rhaegar does not come. instead, rhaegar dies at the trident, the last word on his breath lyanna, and robert baratheon’s war hammer crushes his chest. rubies spill into the river. but rhaenys does not know this. when the lannisters first arrive to king’s landing, rhaenys is separated from her mother. the viper princess is in her son’s nursery, rhaenys with her septa in her own chamber . . . when the lannisters breach the walls, chaos ensues. bloodshed is imminent. rhaenys is dragged by her septa through the corridors, which soon become ablaze with carnage and clashing of swords, a fury of yells, and the promise of death. rhaenys clings tightly to balerion, who fusses and mewls in her arms. the septa begins to panic, noticeably so - wild eyes looking every which way. she takes the dornish dragon and tells her to hide behind a tapestry . . .‘ wait here, sweet princess - i shall find your mother, i promise, wait here, i shall come back, ’ the septa says, repeating these words as she runs away, and rhaenys hears them long after.somehow the princess knows better, that the septa will not return.when it feels as though too much time has gone by, rhaenys removes herself from behind the tapestry, and runs to the closest chamber she can think of. her father’s. once more, the dornish dragon pleads and prays to every god, to all of them, as she tucks herself beneath her father’s bed. she prays for him, for him to save her. as the bloodshed transpires beyond the walls, rhaenys cups a hand over her mouth to muffle her sobs . . . she is terrified. as she lays there upon her belly, someone enters the chamber. a knight in fine armor and a white cloak searches the room, then ducks down to pull her out from under the bed. the princess tries to scream and kick and fight back, but the knight is stronger. amidst the tussle, rhaenys loses her grip on balerion, and the feral cat runs. he runs as fast as he can - disappearing somewhere amidst it all. the knight eventually gets a hold of the princess, hand clasped to her mouth, and tells her she is safe. ‘ keep quiet, princess. or else you will die, ’ the knight says, gravely. rhaenys does not recognize his face, nor knows his name.as elia martell is raped and murdered, as aegon’s head is smashed in against the wall, rhaenys targaryen is whisked away through the corridors. the knight clings her tightly to his chest, her small body tucked into his arm, shielded by his cloak, as his free hand wields a sword. he commands her to close her eyes, so she does. but she hears everything. every scream, every cry . . . every familiar voice ringing with agony, then death, is one she shall remember for the remainder of her life. they shall fill her dreams, perhaps long after she herself has died.the mad king is killed by jaime lannister. tywin lannister orders the bodies of elia martell and her son aegon to be cloaked in crimson, as to cover the blood . . . but there is a body of a little girl beside them. of the same size and shape as rhaenys, skin slightly paler - but can be pardoned on account of bloodlust - the whole of her small form plunged by half a hundred great stabs from a sword, including in her face; maimed, unrecognizable. the face is torn and cut apart, skin peeled back from muscle and bone from sloppy strikes. she, too, is also concealed by lannister red. the girl is laid beside her mother. three bodies placed before the iron throne . . . all the while, the true rhaenys targaryen is being saved below the feet of the usurpers.BROUGHT TO STARFALL:  283 ac.under an unseen orchestration, the true princess is spared on the day of the sacking. the decoy dies in her stead, mutilated beyond recognition. far from the dead bodies, the three year old princess is whisked from dangers through the shit stained catacombs beneath the red keep, held in the arm of the knight she cannot name, shall never know. perhaps he is not even a knight at all, as the armor he wears fits him strangely . . . and he does not seem entirely comfortable in it, at least not in the way rhaenys sees in others. at the end of the catacombs, they find themselves outside of the city, where the knight’s accomplice waits with a horse. the knight kills him and throws his body into the water . . . then, he takes the princess and the horse and rides far, far away, with unrelenting speed from the carnage.the knight does not answer any of her questions. he remains silent. he casts her scolding glances when she speaks too much, he threatens to hit her if she tries to run . . . he tells her only that she mustn’t say anything, mustn’t look at anyone . . . that they must both be like shadows. unseen, unheard, unbroken. rhaenys keeps asking questions and keeps talking and even screams at him on the third day of their horrible adventure, when her legs are too sore from riding, and she demands her mother . . . he backhands her, and she goes quiet.on the eighth day, as they sit huddled in sand dunes, the moon full above them, their camp is visited by feral dogs. it happens deep into the night. rhaenys lays half-asleep on the knight’s cloak, as he lays back against his saddle, just barely nodding off . . . but somehow he grasps his wits enough to scare the beasts away, unsheathing his sword and standing tall. but one manages to pounce upon the young, unprepared princess.the wolf swipes a deep claw at her face, its teeth settle upon her right arm . . . this results in what shall be a long, thin scar on her left cheek; beginning at the corner of her eye, extending horizontally towards her jawline. a terrible scar remains upon her right arm, upon both sides; cut deep, what would be bumpy flesh and almost snakelike in design.rhaenys weeps that night from the pain, and tries to fight against the knight as he sloppily stitches the wounds and uses wine from his flask to clean them . . . what follows are days more of agonized riding, into the unknown. the knight spurs his horse till near death, until they find themselves in the safety of starfall, under house dayne. the targaryens are dead. the martells live. house dayne hosts the knight and the lost princess - the great lords of starfall recognize her, protect her beneath their roof. they stay for some days - rhaenys’ wounds properly treated - until prince oberyn martell arrives to starfall to verify the claims sent by ravens, to sunspear. as rhaenys lays in her bed, staring out at the sea - too different from dragonstone - she hears a man yelling outside the closed door, big and booming, and she cowers in her silken blankets. trembling. the red viper opens the door, and every ounce of his anger fades . . . he sees elia in her instantly, and he falls to his knees before her in tears.rhaenys recognizes him, but only barely - but tenderly reaches to stroke his hair to assure him, and he embraces her as if she were a lifeline out at sea.THE SAND SNAKE:  283-298 ac.the knight has long since vanished by this time. rhaenys never learns his true identity. in starfall, oberyn decides to stay at the keep for a few weeks, writing to doran to assure him he shall return . . . but saying nothing of rhaenys, only that a woman he had bedded once - a handmaiden to starfall’s lady - had died, and his daughter was left unattended. it is hardly a farfetched tale. after all, oberyn has always collected his daughters. oberyn does this to also avoid risking the possible unveiling of rhaenys’ survival . . . they stay in the ancient castle for that time. oberyn treats her wounds, tells her stories of himself and elia . . . they grieve together. but, mostly, oberyn teaches her to lie. within a month, rhaenys is healed, and oberyn brings her back to sunspear with a new name. adara sand, bastard daughter of oberyn martell . . . a sand snake.rhaenys is brought up in sunspear as one of oberyn’s daughters. the only other aware of her identity was doran himself . . . all others simply knew her as the new daughter to the household. instantly, rhaenys was welcomed by her sisters . . . loved and adored, and lavished with all types of affections. rhaenys kept reclusive in the beginning, still reeling from what she encountered in king’s landing. she is still just barely a child, still not fully conscious of who she is, what she must be, and the lies she must tell. but she learns. she does.thus, for the next seventeen years, rhaenys is raised as adara sand. she is brought up as oberyn martell’s daughter, raised as sisters among the sand snakes, and is treated no differently than the rest. only oberyn and doran are aware of her true identity - even oberyn’s paramour, ellaria sand, is oblivious to the matter. unfortunately, such happiness must come to an end. on her thirteenth name-day, doran finally tells his children, and oberyn’s, the truth of rhaenys’ identity - and then her childhood ends. it is on that day her true training for the eventual conquering of the iron throne, of avenging her family, begins. naturally, the sand snakes and her cousins are heartbroken by the deception, and begin to treat her differently.oberyn, feeling sorry for his surrogate daughter, takes her on a ship and sails her across the coastline of dorne. he tells her that she does not have to carry the burden if she does not want it.rhaenys targaryen can remain dead if she wishes, and she can spend the rest of her life as adara sand. as tempting as the offer is, rhaenys refuses - she will not forsake her destiny, nor allow the lannisters to get away with their injustices. after a fortnight of traveling, they return to sunspear, and rhaenys is forgiven by her family . . . and she begins.now, as westeros finds itself in a state of unrest, there are decisions to make . . . and she finds herself at a crossroad.RHAENYS TARGARYEN is a dangerous name with a heavy weight, yet she carries it. she goes out to reclaim the throne robbed from her, to avenge the family massacred before it, and to rise not as a dragon, but as a fire breathing vier. she is UNBOWED, UNBENT, UNBROKEN IS HER FIRE AND BLOOD.

VERSES:  the world of a song of ice and fire.

                     her story,   begins  .  .  .
the tragic tale of the princess rhaenys targaryen, a story of vengeance, fire, and blood.

.  .  .  RETURN HOME.

JOURNEY TO THE PAST:  amnesia.

                     ༺✹༻,   verse  .  .  .rhaenys targaryen is never taken to dorne, never brought to her family to be safe and loved . . . when she is rescued from king’s landing by a nameless knight, things go awry . . . rather than whisk rhaenys away on horseback, the knight does so by boat, meaning to sail her to sunspear. unfortunately, a great storm strikes, and the ship goes down into the great blue depths. the knight perishes at sea, but the little rhaenys survives among some wreckage, floating away . . . she is found by a passing ship of performers sailing back to essos. when she wakes up, she has no memory of who she is, only that she thinks her name is raya. the performers take pity on her and bring her up as one of their own. thus, rhaenys spends her life traveling through essos, learning to perform in plays, songs, in dances. but she eventually chooses to leave, when she grows up and her role amidst the troup begins to change . . . feeling a call across the narrow sea, to home, she dares to take a leap and sail back to westeros, intent on heeding the call deep inside of her.

VERSES:  to lands without magic.

                     her story,   begins  .  .  .
a realm beyond that of magic, of dragons, and fire. there is more, there is darkness and there is light.

THE GALAXY'S BONES:  star wars.

                     ༺✹༻,   verse  .  .  .original :: with the galaxy governed by the empire, rebels there to stop them, rhaenys stands as the last of her family name after her planet was destroyed. she joins the rebellion as a spy, to bring an end to the empire, and tries to hide the force within.prequels :: previously the daughter of a senator, rhaenys has spent most of her life at the jedi temple, training as a padawan and later a jedi knight, with the goal to bring peace to the galaxy even amidst the unrest.new trilogy :: when rhaenys’ family is destroyed in the destruction of the hosnian system, rhaenys joins the resistance.