The Kingkiller

Life, Death

The men of Rhaegar Blackfyre, the Cloth Dragon, kill King Aelyx and his brother Vhaegar. King Targaryen is crowned at sea by Lord Baratheon, who is made Lord Protector of the Realm and Regent until King Targaryen comes of age.

King Aelyx Targaryen, son of the great King Aemon, died peacefully in his sleep in 369 AC, when a pirate shoved his sword through the king’s belly while he laid in bed. The two-and-sixty year old king bled out in seconds, dying in silence, while his Lord Commander and brother Vhaegar, watched, bound. The pirates had ripped out his tongue, and now brought the silent knight in chains to the pretender Rhaegar, a prisoner of war. Vhaegar would die when he tried to strangle the clever Lyseni with his own shackles, and thrown overboard to drown as punishment.   Lord Baratheon would be forced to take up the offensive in the wake of the King’s death. More familiar with the machinations of naval combat than most, it would still take a miracle to see the force recovered; some of the Velaryon ships fell back to Westerosi waters, intent on defending the capital and the now-Queen Mother Jaelle from danger. The mere idea of true danger had once seemed so ludicrous -- This was one man, and now he’d killed a King and struck fear into the world. King Targaryen was crowned by Lord Baratheon with a makeshift circlet of iron aboard the Stag’s flagship. Baratheon was made King Targaryen’s Master of War on the spot, but the situation was dire; with the Royal Fleet rudderless and their foes only emboldened by the death of King Aelyx, the Rebellion may have gone either way were it not for what happened next...