Fanfic / Ghosts and Dreams

Ghosts and Dreams by Miss_Sketchi is a A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones Fan Fic. The premise is simple: for all their lives, Jon Snow, real name Jaehaerys "Jae" Targaryen, and his older brother Aegon "Egg" Targaryen, can see ghosts and meet each other in their dreams. Originally content to have Jae stay in Winterfell while Egg bounces around Essos, trying to build up the forces needed to retake their family's throne, the brothers' find their plans irrevocably changed when a new ghost awakens in Winterfell, with a dire warning for all of the living.

Official Summary: The Ghosts of Winterfell have woken to help the living fight against the Army of the Dead and magic has begun to shift the tides of the coming Winter.

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Tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Aerys threatened to have Rhaegar killed, and as a ghost he also tried to do harm to his infant grandsons. Brandon had to protect Aegon and Rickard Jaehaerys.
• Adaptational Personality Change:
  • Jaehaerys is more confident and self-assured than his canon counterpart and Aegon is much wiser and doesn't feel entitled to the throne. Both of these stem from the fact that they have been speaking to and taking lessons from their parents and ancestors for years, which led to them being more savvy, mature and secure in their identities.
  • Sansa is significantly meaner in this story. While she is noted to be the most distant of Jon's siblings in canon, she still taught him how to dance and speak to ladies. Here, she actively avoids him and mocks his birth status. However, she starts slowly growing out of this after her father explains to her how much her attitude has damaged her relationship with her siblings.
  • The author admits to hating Catelyn, so it's not too surprising that she's worse in this fic. Canonically, while Catelyn never loved Jon, she also didn't abuse him.
• Affectionate Nickname: Jaehaerys and Aegon are respectively Jae and Egg.
• Berserk Button:
  • Prophecies. Both Jae and Aegon despise prophecies, deeming them to be the doom of their family. The only prophecies they're willing to put any stock in are the ones Jae dreams up.
  • Bran the Builder can't stand talking or even hearing about his older brother. Justified, since his older brother is the Night's King.
• Big Brother Instinct: Despite having never met in person, Aegon is fiercely protective of Jae. Rhaenys, in Jaehaerys' words, guards her brothers like a dragon guards treasure.
• Butt-Monkey:
  • Catelyn. Her sept is constantly vandalized, leading to rumors that it might be cursed, the servants and ghosts all hate her, Rhaenys had set Balerion on her more than once, and then her husband's new direwolf takes their old bedroom as its den, forcing them to sleep apart for a time. In the more recent chapters she is slowly losing Ned's respect and maybe even his affection.
  • To a lesser extent Rickard, none of the other Stark ghosts, especially his wife will never quite forgive him for selling Brandon to Catelyn and Lyanna to a drunken whoremonger.
  • Also, Jon Connington. Ashara Dayne, Elia's best friend managed to fool him with her Septa Lemore disguise. He is devoted to his charge Aegon, who has mixed feelings about Old Griff, due to Connington insulting the Starks, and doing nothing to advance their goals. To add insult to injury, Aegon runs off with Ashara, leaving Connington without his reason for living.
• Cain and Abel: The Night's King was actually the eldest brother to Bran the Builder and the Last Hero, you can't do more antagonistic.
• Cats Are Mean: Balerion is notoriously grumpy and ill tempered. The only people he is good to are Rhaenys, Jaehaerys and Arya.
• Chekhov's Gun: All Stark kings, lords and heirs have a sword in their graves. These swords come handy when Brandon and Rickard need to protect Aegon and Jaehaerys from their mad paternal grandfather.
• Cheerful Child: Rhaenys never fails to bring a smile in Jae's face. Same thing goes for Rickon, who is a ray of sunshine.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Aegon risks being outed as a water wizard twice while saving Wally Snow and Osric Bolton from drowning. He did it because it was the right thing to do.
• Contrived Coincidence: The child that Aegon saves from drowning happens to be the son of the Commander of the Company of the Rose, who are heading for the North since they know that the Others have risen. The Old Gods are likely looking after their Princes of Ice and Fire.
• Curse: There's a rumor that the sept in Winterfell is cursed. In a way, it is — the ghosts of Winterfell hate having a sept in their ancestral home and will keep on vandalizing it until someone gets rid of it.
• Cuteness Proximity: Jae cant help but coo over Rhaenys and Rickon. This trope is also the reason he never takes Robb seriously when he says that Balerion is a menace.
• Dreaming of Things to Come: Jae has prophetic dreams like Daenys the Dreamer. While they are never wrong, they tend to be said in riddles, making them a little vague.
• Eternal Recurrence: Cona states that the Children of the Forest believe in time having a cyclical nature, with events (like the Long Night) repeating themselves through history.
• Exact Words: When questioned by the Company of the Rose on his origins, Aegon, calling himself Ionos Sonaro, is very careful not to directly lie since lying in front of a Heart Tree is blasphemy to the Old Gods.
• Faking the Dead: Ashara Dayne is revealed to have faked her death in order to secretly travel to Essos and watch over Aegon as Septa Lemore.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Elia frets to Lyanna that Sansa can be easily tricked into harming their families or end up spilling dangerous secrets to wrong parties.
  • Aegon tends to call Jae valonqar.
• Famous Ancestor: Aegon and Jaehaerys have spent their entire lives surrounded by the ghosts of their illustrous ancestors.
• For Want Of A Nail: The presence of the ghosts changes things drastically for both Jae and Aegon.
  • Jae is far more self-assured and confident than his canon counterpart, due to knowing that he isn't actually a bastard, despite what the rest of world believes. He also has never expressed an outward desire to know who his mother is, due to his parents' ghosts haunting him. He's also the only member of the living Starks to know of their precarious position in both the North and in Westeros in general, thanks to the tutelage of both Stark and Targaryen ghosts.
  • Aegon is not entitled like he is in canon, nor does he just eat up everything Connington says. Most of all, he isn't easily manipulable; numerous Targaryens have warned him and Jae constantly of the dangers of King's Landing, enough that it's nearly put him off the idea of ruling at all.
• Founder of the Kingdom: Bran the Builder and Aegon the Conqueror both have appeared as ghosts. Nymeria of Ny Sar has not appeared so far.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Brandon was Sanguine with hints of Choleric, Ned was and is Melancholic, Lyanna Choleric (has grown out of it somewhat) with hints of Phlegmatic and Benjen Phlegmatic.
  • Current generation: Robb is Phlegmatic, Jae Melancholic, Arya Choleric, Rickon is Sanguine and to some extent Bran too.
• Functional Magic: The Inherent Gift kind.
  • Jae is the most magical member to be born in either of his families for generations. He can manipulate fire, has prophetic dreams, is bonded to a dragon egg (and is starting to form a bond with a direwolf), and, if this aligns with canon, may even be a warg. Many of the ghosts have noticed this, and after doing some speculating and math, believe this to be because he was conceived on the Isle of Faces, during Rhaegar and Lyanna's wedding night.
  • While Aegon doesn't have as many magical gifts as Jae, he has arguably the most powerful one — he's a water wizard, allowing him to manipulate water in ways that people could only dream of.
• The Gadfly: Brandon Stark enjoys annoying his goodbrother Rhaegar, and teasing his brothers Ned and Benjen.
• The Good King: Aegon will be one. Also Aegon the Unlikely, who often instructs his namesake and great grandson in politics.
• Good Parents: Elia and Lyanna are emotionally supportive to their children and gently instruct and advise them. Rhaegar is a bit more Parents as People since he still puts too much stock to his prophecy even though it irriates Aegon and Jaehaerys.
• Harbinger of Impending Doom: Bran the Builder woke up from his eternal slumber to warn the living and the awoken dead that the Others are in the move again.
• Hate Sink: Catelyn, pretty much all the ghosts loathe her. Both for pushing her faith and Andal traditions and for her appalling treatment of Jae. Lyarra in particular wants Ned to exile her to the south. It is hinted that Brandon and Lyarra believe that she gave her maidenhead to Littlefinger, which while not fair fits their perception.
• Heir Club for Men: One of the main reasons why Viserys and Daenerys have been essentially sacrificed for Aegon and Jae. The former two derive their claim from Aerys and Rhaella, while the latter two derive it from Aerys, Rhaella, and Rhaegar, who was Viserys and Daenerys' older brother and the Crown Prince. That makes Aegon and Jae members of the main line, while Viserys and Daenerys are now, technically, from a lesser line, and thus less important.
• I See Dead People: Jae and Aegon at the beginning of the story. Later on, Cona has weirwood sap drop into the eyes of Ned, Robb and Benjen, allowing them to do the same.
• Implied Death Threat: Aerys strong-armed Rhaegar into taking a second wife by making one to Elia and Rhaenys.
• Interspecies Romance: In order to promote peace between their peoples, Bran the Builder married a Child of the Forest whom he nicknamed Cona. Incidentally, she's the reason why the Stark bloodline gained greensight and warging.
• Iron Lady: Lyarra was in every way Rickard's equal in ruling the North. She is not afraid to loudly express her displeasure at her husband's disastrous choices, Ned's tendency to give his idiot wife too much leeway, and scold people that technically outrank her.
• Irony: Jon Connington badmouths the Starks to Aegon telling him that they mean him harm, while Lyanna and several other Stark ghosts watch over the boy.
  • Sansa devotes herself to being a Proper Lady and a Princess Classic much to Jaehaerys' amusement. He knows a lot of queens, princesses and ladies of rank and none of them act in an affected, exaggerated way like her.
  • Jae and Egg, two Targaryen princes, knew more about Northern culture and language than the Starks. This is Lampshaded by Lyarra, and Ned is trying to change it by having his kids learn the Old Tongue.
• Ironic Echo: Love is sweet, dearest Sansa, but it can not change a man's nature. Ned promptly chokes on his ale upon hearing Jaehaerys say that.
• I Owe You My Life: First Men tend to take life debts very, very seriously. Saving Wally Snow, the son of the commander of the Company of the Rose gets Aegon passage to North. Saving Osric Bolton from drowing in a storm causes Osric to become a Secret Secret-Keeper after he figures out Aegon's secret identity and that he has magical powers.
• Jerkass Gods: The Seven, if they are even real. It speaks volumes that Aegon and Jaehaerys were brought up to worship the Old Gods, the Gods of Valyria and Mother Rhoyne and discouraged from paying heed to the nonsense of the Seven.
• Jerkass Realization: After Ned calls her out on her bullying of Arya, and how she and Jon used to be close as little children before she decided they couldn't anymore due to him being a bastard, Sansa is horrified with herself for being such a bad sister.
• Kindhearted Cat Lover: Rhaenys adores her cat Balerion, who adores her right back. Jaehaerys also dotes on the grumpy cat since Balerion is the only tangible thing he has left of his sister. Arya will happy pet or play with Balerion.
• Making a Splash: Aegon, since he's a water wizard.
• Loved by All: Among the ghosts, Rhaella due to how kind she is despite all she suffered at Aerys' hands.

• Marriage Before Romance:
  • Rhaegar and Lyanna got married before falling in love, having gotten acquainted after Lyanna's stint with the Knight of the Laughing Tree. They gradually fell in love during their stay at the Tower of Joy.
  • Also applies to Lyanna and Elia. The two women didn't really get to meet until after they were both dead and ghosts, and fell in love while raising Jae and Aegon together.
• Marriage of Convenience: What Rhaegar and Lyanna's marriage started as. Rhaegar needed a second wife to appease his father, while Lyanna desperately did not want to marry Robert Baratheon.
• Marital Rape License: Aerys did this to Rhaella when they were alive. He tried to torment her after their deaths but Rickard managed to fend him off.
• Master Swordsman: Jaehaerys and Aegon thanks to tutelage by their ancestors and the Kingsguard, Ser Arthur Dayne in particular. Jae is at least as good as Rodric Cassel, the armsmaster, and undefeated by anyone his age. Aegon manages to win against two professional sellswords while reclaiming Blackfyre from the Golden Company.
• Metaphorically True: When delivering Wally to his parents, who command the company of the Rose, Aegon is given bread and salt and asked about himself in front of a heart tree they keep on board. Being devoted to the Old Gods Aegon avoids saying any lies while not spilling any dangerous truths, since lying in front of a heart tree is blasphemous.
• Mundane Utility: Rhaegar makes use of his world class voice and musical ability to sing lullabies to his stubborn sons whenever they go too long without sleep. This tends to make Jae have a dream meeting with Aegon.
• My God, What Have I Done?: In death, Rickard Stark came to deeply regret the choices he made in life after seeing their effects on his family.
• My Sister Is Off-Limits: Ned is horrified and squicked out when Bael the Bard tells him that Lyanna and Rhaegar consummated their marriage in the Isle of Faces. While he is intellectually aware that for Jae to be born his sister would have had to have sex with her husband, he does not want it confirmed to his face. Bael barely restrains himself from laughing in Ned's face.
• Mythology Gag: Elia Martell worries that Sansa's naivety will be used against her if she ever goes to King's Landing making her an Unwitting Instigator of Doom for House Stark... which is what happened in the books.
• Nice Guy: Jae is polite, sweet and very loving to his sibling/cousins. These qualities make many of the servants at Winterfell dote on him, even taking his side whenever Catelyn tries to accuse him of vandalizing her sept.
• Not Allowed to Grow Up: Ghosts can only maintain appearances they had in life — usually the appearance they had when they died. This means that poor Rhaenys is permanently stuck as a four-year old. To make it even more surreal, both Jae and Aegon still address her as "big sister" despite now being physically and mentally older than her by at least a decade.
• Not So Stoic: Bran the Builder was called Brandon the Grim and Brandon the Stark, suggesting a humourless, stoic personality but he can unbend enough to gently tease a descendant for being prettier than most girls and having a long, fancy name.

• Oh, Crap!: Ned, Robb, Jae and Benjen experience a vision beyond the Wall where they see Craster sacrifice his son to one of the Others. Then they realize that not only can the Other see them, it can touch them too. It immediately proceeds to try and kill them and only Cona's intervention meant that it didn't succeed.
• Omniglot: Both Jae and Aegon can speak the Common Tongue, the Old Tongue, and Valyrian (high, and presumably bastard as well). Given that Aegon was able to converse with the ghost of a water wizard it is likely that they are fluent in the Rhoynish tongue as well.
• Overly Long Name: Bran the Builder is somewhat amused that he has a descendant with a long fancy name like Jaehaerys Targaryen. Brandon teases his sister Lyanna for giving her son a name longer than he is tall.
• Open-Minded Parent: Lyarra is perfectly accepting of Lyanna's relationships with both Elia and Rhaegar, since all she wants is for her daughter to be happy.
• Parental Favoritism: A nuanced example. Lyarra clearly favors Jae (and to a lesser extent, Aegon) over her other grandchildren. However, she's unhappy with this, because the reason why is that Jae is the most the Northern of her grandchildren — which shouldn't be the case when her other grandchildren are the children of the current Lord Paramount of the North.
  Lyarra: (angry) My most Northern grandchild is a Targaryen with a girlish figure!
• Parents as People:
  • As much as Jae and Aegon love their father, his obsession with prophecies has understandably mixed their opinion of him as they got older.
  • While Lyarra has every right to be angry with how Catelyn has raised her grandchildren, she fails to really understand that her blatant disapproval is starting to drive a wedge between her and Robb until other ghosts start taking credit for her attacks on the sept.
  • Ned comes to realize that Catelyn is unwittingly sabotaging their children's chances to hold into the North after his death in her bit to make them into Andals. Ned begins to establish a much better rapport with Arya by enabling her to pursue archery and other martial pursuits. But he still can't comprehend Sansa.
• Playing with Fire: Aegon and Jaehaerys show shades of this. Both of them are fire-proof and can carry a flame with their bare hands. Fire also seems to respond to their emotions, such as Jaehaerys lighting all the torches in the crypt when he got excited, and Aegon making flames burn brighter when he's angry.
• Politically-Active Princess: Given Elia's political savvy is very likely she was one, as much as she was able under Aerys' thumb. Lyarra is a Lady Paramount but in life she was as involved in the ruling of the North as her husband.
• Polyamory: Rhaegar, Elia, and Lyanna are a One True Threesome, and all three of Rhaegar's children consider both women to be their mothers, addressing them as "Mother Elia" and "Mother Lyanna". Though, if Lyarra is to be believed, Elia and Lyanna may actually love each other more than they do Rhaegar.
• Polygamy: After the maesters revealed that Elia was incapable of birthing him a third child, Aerys forced Rhaegar to take a second wife, lest he be replaced by Viserys. To "sweeten" the pot, his veiled death threat extended not just to him, but to Elia and Rhaenys as well. Rhaegar chose Lyanna after getting to know her after the Knight of the Laughing Tree incident, probably because of Lyanna's distaste with Robert Baratheon.
• Pretty Boy: Jae, so much. Robb and Arya outright tease him for his girlish figure, claiming he outshines Sansa as the pretty one. Bran the Builder takes one look at Rhaegar and wonders if all these Targaryens that are now his in-laws are prettier than his daughters.
• Proper Lady: Rhaella and Elia are every inch true royal ladies with perfect poise, grace and wonderful manners. But they also are kind, compassionate and practical. Sansa and Catelyn believe that they are this, but their pettiness, lack of poise under stress and inability to accept reality means that they fall quite short of this goal. Lyarra is more of an Iron Lady and Lyanna a Tomboy Princess.
• Puppy-Dog Eyes: Rickon has a devastating pair that he uses on Jae with great effect.
• Racist Grandma:
  • Lyarra and most of the Stark ghosts. They all hate Andals in general thanks to the Andal Invasion thousands of years ago that saw weirwoods burned and the Children of the Forest slaughtered. That is understandable, and they have a right to be wary and reserved. However, the reason they hate Catelyn isn't because she's an Andal so much as the fact that she's raising her children as Andals — seeing as the rest of the North are of the First Men and follow First Men religion and customs, that has cost the current generation of House Stark much of the respect of their bannermen and puts them in a much weaker position. Catelyn's poor treatment of Jae has only exacerbated that hatred, to the point that the ghosts have no problems attacking her sept whenever they're angry.
  • Subverted with the Valyrians and the Rhoynar. The Valyrians never tried to convert them even after they conquered the First Men, and the First Men had seldom contact with the Rhoynar. The only damage the Valyrians caused to First Men culture was banning the Old Tongue, and even that was for purely pragmatic reasons. As a result, the Stark ghosts get along perfectly well with the Targaryen and Martell ghosts, to the point that they consider Aegon to be an honorary member of their family. Brandon defended him from Aerys's ghost as a baby and Aegon has plenty of Stark ghosts to keep him company, teach him the Old Tongue, runes, the Old Way and First Men customs, taboos and history.
  • During Lyarra's POV she expresses how much she would have preferred Barbrey Ryswell and Ashara Dayne as daughters-in-law. Barbrey is a true Northern lady and Ashara is a descendant of the Kings of the Torrentine.
  • Bran the Builder is rather pleased that his descendant Jaehaerys has the blood of the Torrentine Kings and that of the Blackwood Ravenmasters.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: It is hinted that Osric Bolton of the Company of the Rose has figured out that Ionos Sonaro is Aegon Targaryen and that his brother in Winterfell can only be a son of Rhaegar and Lyanna. He is keeping mum about this due to owing Aegon a life debt.
• Silk Hiding Steel:
  • Rhaella endured beatings, rapes from her husband in addition to losing countless children but has not lost her kindness or the sharpness of her mind.
  • Elia might be physically fragile but she is emotionally very strong and is the most politically savvy of Aegon's and Jaehaerys' parents.
  • Rhaenys died at four and is Not Allowed to Grow Up and yet she has far more emotional maturity than Sansa, while being the most adorable little princess and the apple of her brothers' eyes.
• Spotting the Thread: Ned kicks himself for not spotting the clues that Jaehaerys knew his real identity. Balerion being the biggest, snarliest, blackest clue.
  • Ashara had little trouble figuring out that Aegon planned something drastic given his behaviour. Also it takes one comment from him about going to Winterfell for her to figure out that he knows about his brother.
  • It is hinted that Osric Bolton has figured out who Aegon is, but is keeping mum due to the life debt.
  • Captain Snow immediately guessed that Aegon had First Man blood given his familiarity with their customs.
• Strong Family Resemblance: Aegon is the spiting image of Rhaegar save for his darker skin. Jaehaerys resembles their father quite a bit as well, given how many people comment on his pretty face.
• Tears of Joy: Aegon, the first time he sees Dragonstone.
• Thinks Like a Romance Novel:
  • Sansa, much to the exasperation of pretty much every ghost and Jaehaerys. Elia fears that this tendency will cause a disaster in the future if the Starks are to involve themselves in the Game of Thrones.
  • To a certain point Catelyn, since she does not seem to realize just how much she is damaging her children's claim to the North by encouraging and likely actually believing in Sansa's silly notions.
• This Is My Name on Foreign: Aegon introduces himself to the Company of the Rose as Ionos Sonaro, which means Jon Snow in Valyrian. Aegon suspects that Jaehaerys will laugh at him when he finds out.
• Token Heroic Orc: Osric Bolton is loyal, kind and sane.
• Too Dumb to Live: Elia expresses her opinion that Sansa fits this to a tee and frets at how it would impact her families.
• Tragic Keepsake:
  • Balerion to Jaehaerys. The cat is the only tangible thing left of his sister, which is why Jaehaerys ignores all claims that Balerion is dangerous.
  • Jon Connington had a diary full of Rhaegar's old songs and poems, before he gives it to Aegon on his birthday.
• Turn to Religion: A variant. After what happened to Rhaella, Elia, and Rhaenys, Rhaegar and Elia have both lost faith in the Seven during their afterlives and instead pray to the Old Gods, the Valyrian Pantheon, and the Mother Rhoyne. This in turn has passed on to both Jae and Aegon.
• The Unfavorite:
  • Sansa is this for the ghosts. The Starks dislike how Southron she is, and they and everyone else are furious at her cruelty to Arya and Jae. Lyarra even wonders how her son could have sired such a girl. They are also worried about her naivete, knowing that in Westeros, that is a potentially fatal trait to have which is lampshaded by Elia.
  • Sansa also believes she's this to her father, which partially drives her antagonism against Arya.
  • She is Jae's least favorite cousin. He can't help but compare and contrast her behavior to Rhaenys. Rhaenys loves, adores and guards her younger brothers like treasure, while Sansa belittles and torments Arya.
• Undying Loyalty: Ashara Dayne toward Elia Martell and her living children, Aegon and Jaehaerys. She faked her death and disguised herself as a septa in order to keep an eye on Aegon. She also leaves her mostly safe, comfortable life to be with Aegon when he decides to go to Winterfell.
  • The loyal Kingsguards, Ser Arthur Dayne, Ser Oswell Whent, Ser Gerold Hightower, Prince Lewellyn Martell are actually still loyal in death, guarding their princes as ghosts.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: The reason why Sansa is so obsessed with being the perfect lady is because she wants her father's approval. Unfortunately, she fails to realize that her father is a Northerner, and that if she really wants to him to be proud of her, she needs to embody Northern values, not Southron. Septa Mordane and Catelyn encouraging her efforts is not helping the issue.
• Wild Card: Another reason why Aegon has avoided Viserys and Daenerys is that the former has succumbed to the Targaryen madness. Neither Aegon nor Jae have any idea how Viserys will react to learning he isn't first in line but third, though they imagine it won't be anything good.
• Wise Beyond Their Years: Both Aegon and Jaehaerys, also their big sister Rhaenys.
• Wouldn't Hurt a Child: Aegon is furious when the ghost of Rhaelle Baratheon asks him to spare Shireen Baratheon and Robert's bastards, because the idea of killing them hadn't even occurred to him.

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