History Fanfic / GaemonTheDragonsteel

-> ''Oh who am I kidding? This is going to suck.''
-->-- '''Gaemon'''

[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/gaemon-the-dragon-steels-guide-to-not-dying-horribly-asoiaf-si.559933 ''Gaemon The Dragon-Steel's Guide to Not Dying Horribly'']] is a self-insert into the ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' universe during the pre-canon civil war, the Dance of Dragons. It is written by user ''[=StrangerOrders=]'' on the Alternative History Forums, and is being re-written as [[https://www.alternatehistory.com/forum/threads/gaemon-redux-si.438278/ Gaemon REDUX]].

Gaemon is the non-canon twin brother of Aegon (who became Aegon II), and half brother of Rhaenyra. Apart from his Dragon Dreams regarding the forging of Valyrian Steel, and slowly growing rumours of him being some sort of devil-child at court, his main preoccupation is not being viciously murdered in the incoming (and presumably unpreventable) Dance of Dragons.



!!This fanfic provides examples of:
[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Tropes That Apply ''Gaemon The Dragon-Steel'']]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Daemon Targaryen. [[spoiler: He manages to seduce two of the most attractive women in Westeros. Who are also his close relations. ''At the same time''. Shame he got caught and exiled.]]
* ArcWords: Dance, Dancing and "Dance of Dragons" all seem to come up a lot at [[OminousForeshadowing appropriate times.]]
* ArrangedMarriage: As can be expected for an ASOIAF story, there are several so far. [[spoiler: Rhaenyra still marries her canon husband, Laenor Velaryon. ]]
** [[spoiler: Gaemon is betrothed to Laenor's sister Laena, who is much, much older than Gaemon. She gets pregnant from above-mentioned threesome, tries to run off to Daemon, but he rejects her. ]]
* AttentionWhore: Clearsky has a massive ego.
* BigLittleBrother: Aegon and Gaemon. Aegon is the elder brother, but both acts much younger (as he's not a SI, of course), and is described as being shorter as well.
* BigScrewedUpFamily: The Targaryens in a nutshell. Just like in canon, how much more screwed up can you be when your disagreements can lead to fiery death? Gaemon refuses to call Viserys his father for one thing, and is certain his uncle Daemon is going to murder him. The same uncle also had sex with his niece Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra and Gaemon's mother also do not get along. At all. And the fiery deaths haven't even started yet.
* BlingOfWar: Despite his fondness for elaborate designs, Arral seems to hate excessive ornamentation.
* BloodMagic: What Valyria ran off. [[spoiler: Gaemon learns that abusing it caused the Doom. ]]
* BoisterousBruiser: [[spoiler: Aegon of all people, who grows up to be a gregarious and burly warrior more in line with Robert than his canon self. ]]
* BreakTheCutie: Laena after being seduced, impregnated and rejected by Daemon. Her self-esteem takes one hell of a toll and her POV can be cringeworthy at times. On top of everything she cant even show too much affection to her daughters.
* CastFromLifespan: [[spoiler: How Valyrian magic is supposed to work.]]
* CreepyChild: Turns out, Gaemon is *not* good at pretending to be a normal kid, and people start taking notice, leading to a few people suspetcing he's some kind of demon child.
* DidNotSeeThatComing: Gaemon's constant reaction whenever one of his relatives does something stupid. [[spoiler: Like Rhaenyra and Laema both sleeping with Daemon at the same time. Rhaenyra offering herself to Criston Cole while drunk, or Viserys and his choices of marriage, page and squireship for Gaemon.]]
** Of course, a lot of Gaemon's plans and knowledge fall apart because he failed to predict one thing or another. [[spoiler: Such as Laena being rejected by Daemon, which everyone but him seems to know happened until he finds out.]]
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Gaemon really has no idea [[spoiler: who Rhaenyra is talking about when she says she's found a perfect father for her children and will wait.]]
* EldritchAbomination: [[spoiler: What the Fourteen seem to be. ]]
** [[spoiler: Meraxes seems to be more in line with a creation goddess whose shattered form is the source of all metals. ]]
* EldritchLocation: We get to see what remains of Valyria after the Doom. It's not pretty.
** There is also Yeen, a city that has known a thousand people but only ever obeyed one. [[spoiler: Quelos pulverizes the city by landing on it.]]
* EnfantTerrible: What half the realm seems to think Gaemon is.
* EvenTheGuysWantHim: Corlys Velaryon, to the point where it's a constant distraction to Gaemon, who keeps saying they should exterminate Hose Florent so Corlys can claim his rightful title as the Silver Fox.
* GivingRadioToTheRomans: Gaemon spends some time explaining exactly why this probably ''won't'' work. In truth, he does try introducing some concepts, like the printing press, and as expected these endure ''years'' of teething and supply problems.
* HeCleansUpNicely: Thanks to Gaemon's intervention, Aegon becomes a fit and charming young man as opposed to the slimy bore he was in canon.
* HiddenDepths: Archmaester Arral is able to very smoothly flatter the king and behave very appropriately while at court, as a stratagem to obtain funding for his expeditions in the future.
* IdiotBall: Every Targarean but Gaemon practically juggles these. None more than King Viserys, who later reveals himself to be more willfully blind to the brewing crisis.
** Gaemon's actually no saint on this front; he's planned grand strategies around Dance of Dragons canon, but fails to predict the butterflies his existence causes.
* InSeriesNickname: Lots are borrowed from the canon backstory. Daemon is the Rogue Prince, Corlys Velaryon is the Sea Snake and so on. Presumably from the title Gaemon will eventually have "the Dragon-Steel" appended to his name.
* InSpiteOfANail: Birth dates, names and personalities of Helaena, Aemond and Daeron stay the same, despite the existence of their meddling older brother.
* IronLady: Rhea Royce is the sort of woman who [[spoiler: shrugs off an assassination attempt ]] and gets right back to ruling.
* JadeColoredGlasses: Gaemon has a very negative view of the world around him. Then again, seeing which universe he's in, he probably has the right sort of idea.
* {{Kaiju}}: Dragons never stop growing as long as they live, and they lived a lot longer than canon's "mere 2 centuries".
** Quelos [[spoiler: is nearly 1000 years old by now, and somewhere between Godzilla and Ancalagon in size. Some of the demons in the Smoking Sea are comparable in size.]]
** The Rhoynar had some impressive turtles in Gaema's time.
* MadScientist: Archmaester Arral is basically this, plus magic. Lampshaded frequently by Gaemon.
* MarryThemAll: Technically, he's only officially marrying [[spoiler:Laena]],[[spoiler:but as all three of them (Gaemon,Laena,and Rhaenyra) are in love with each other and ahem, getting busy together, it's in reality this.]]
* MonstrousHumanoid: [[spoiler: The eventual fate of Valyrian Sorcerers ]]
* MustHaveCaffeine: Coffee is one of the things the SI misses the most from his previous life. It turns out that Daemon has some, imported from the Summer Isles, and is addicted himself.
** “We must lay claim to the Stepstones for the glory of house Targaryen,” I nodded sagely. “And the Summer Isles.”
** Gaemon lost most of his fear of Daemon when his uncle gave him coffee. Prior to that Gaemon refused to eat or drink anything that Daemon had touched in fear of being poisoned.
* OnlySaneMan: Gaemon again, who seems certain that almost everyone else in Westeros is a semi-suicidal idiot at best. Then again, Gaemon has done some pretty insane stuff himself, such as [[spoiler: becoming a dragon-rider age ''4'', and threatening to have someones hands cut off when he was 2!]]
* PsychoSerum: Manflesh is this for dragons, it accelerates their growth and makes them more aggressive, but it significantly reduces their lifespan and causes brain damage.
* PraetorianGuard: Gaemon's guards eventually gain the moniker of 'White Jaws' after their enamelled helmets.
* ProperlyParanoid: It's probably pretty hard to be ''excessively'' paranoid as a Prince in Westeros, but Gaemon gives it his best try, constantly suspecting the motives of even his closest companions.
* PuppyLove: Aemond toward Aela, Laena's secret illegitimate daughter. Gaemon is rather unnerved by it.
* RunningGag: Gaemon's constant wishes for Ser Cole's death are always amazing. It's almost sad when Cole is not in a chapter because of their absence.
* SelfInsert: The author into Westeros, right before the Dance of Dragons.
* SilverFox: Corlys Velarion is in his early sixties, yet the first time Gaemon sees him he cant help but lick his lips and oogle while internally commenting that a man that old has no business being that hot.
* StraightMan: Ser Eberman to Gaemon.
* SuccessionCrisis:
** [[spoiler: Ooh boy, the entire build up so far has yet to reach the massive, dragon-riding, succession crisis that is the Dance of Dragons. Gaemon seems set on trying to prevent it from happening, but tension is building.]]
* TheStoic: Ser Eberman.
-->"''As you say.''"
* TransparentCloset: Laenor, though Gaemon is able to get him to not be so obvious in public.
* UnreliableNarrator: Gaemon's "future" knowledge is often inaccurate because the books the SI has read were heavily biased or outright lying propaganda pieces written by one side or the other. Or by people who just don't think cities are worth mentioning when describing the castles they are around.
* WhamEpisode:
** Chapter 26 [[spoiler: Gaemon has just tamed his dragon, and returns to find Daemon has been caught with Laena ''and'' Rhaenyra.]]
** Chapter 39 [[spoiler: Gaemon follows through with the ritual to make Valyrian Steel, stabbing himself in the heart with an Obsidian Dagger. And if ''that'' wasn't enough, it also turns out that after ritual, creating Valyrian steel gradually changes you into a sort of Dragon-Human hybrid.]]
* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: To no one's surprise, magic tends in the setting still requires a unique attitude. Archmaester Arral in particular has what could generally be described as the sanity of a squid on fire.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes That Apply to ''Gaemon REDUX'']]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Nope. Both Laena and Rhaenyra completely lost interest in Daemon [[spoiler:after he seduced, impregnated and then dumped Laena.]]
* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Or maybe Draconic Personifications. The Fourteen were said to embody certain concepts and virtues, and their bodies were supposedly used to create different parts of natural world. Interestingly, they embodied [[YinYangBomb both ends of the spectrum at once]] -- for example, Virturion was a god of both Winter and Summer, as well as Order and Chaos.
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Despite somehow finding himself reincarnated into a fantasy world with things like dragons, magical shapeshifting assassins and absurdly large buildings (among others), Gaemon firmly refuses to believe that the Fourteen could ''possibly'' be real and not a bullshit story made up by a cult of sorcerers. This is despite the mounting evidence to the contrary [[spoiler:including outright visions from one of the Gods.]] Really, his denial is bordering on AgentScully.
* ArrangedMarriage: One of the most effective political tools in Westeros, so it sees a lot of use.
** Gaemon is betrothed to Laena after her original betrothal is broken.
** As per canon, Alicent tried to have one of her sons betrothed to Rhaenyra, only to be shot down by the king.
** [[spoiler:Gaemon's faction works on arranging those between the Blacks and the Greens as a way of potentially preventing or limiting the damage of the Dance. The most important match is the one between Ser Ormund Hightower, the Heir of Hightower, and Lady Corla Velaryon, Lord Velaryon's niece.]]
* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Daemon is shown to be this in his POV chapter. He may not be great at it, especially where Laena is concerned, but he does seek to do right by his family.]]
* BadLiar: Viserys and Eberman have told Gaemon that he really sucks at lying.
* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:Averted. The assassination attempt on Gaemon leaves him scarred up and a few fingers short.]]
* BlingOfWar: Gaemon's White Jaws are all clad in high-quality plate armor, strong yet articulated for maximum mobility, etched with flowing patterns and enameled with what gave them their name. Certainly more suited to a lord paramount than a mere guard, they're funded by Nessa's business ventures.
* BondCreatures: While dragons were already this is canon, it's taken UpToEleven by the Orders, whose dragons seem to be especially sensitive to their riders emotions and unspoken wishes, and the riders can easily read their mounts in turn. [[spoiler:And that's not counting how their literally bind their lives together in a voluntary sacrifice blood ritual that grants them ResurrectiveImmortality.]]
* BrokenBird: Laena, nuff said.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint[=/=]DramaticallyMissingThePoint: For somebody who could be called excessively paranoid in ''Westeros'', Gaemon sure misses a lot of fairly obvious stuff:
** [[spoiler:That Laena got pregnant by Daemon and he rejected her. And that her absence from Rhaenyra's was caused by an actual illness, not just a poor excuse.]]
** Who exactly Rhaenyra has in mind to father her children.
** Laena is actually likes him and ''wants'' to marry him, just like how his family loves him.
** Viserys is more observant and politically savvy, and ''much more'' dangerous that his jovial demeanor implies.
** [[spoiler:He thinks that Rhea Royce's cousins visiting suddenly while she was just recently deathly ill (actually poisoned) is done purely out of family feelings and genuine concern.]]
* CorruptChurch: What the priesthood of the Fourteen was in Old Valyria, being nothing more than a mouthpiece of the Chamber and filled with SmallNameBigEgo priests. [[spoiler:Gaema absolutely despised them and it's pretty clear that the rest of the Orders had similar views -- especially since ''they'' actually fulfill the will of Gods.]]
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite what Gaemon, the man himself or said man's brother may think, Viserys shows himself to be a capable ruler, more than he is given credit for at least. From the Redwyne poisoning incident, it is shown that he has a reputation for decisive action and fair mediation, or as much as the situation could allow. He's also shown to have quite the vicious streak, one that gets Lord Redwyne to back down from his rage for the above-mentioned incident [[spoiler:and has the Sealord of Braavos desperate to make amends after Gaemon's assassination attempt]]. [[FatalFlaw The one place where he falters]] is when it comes to the people he loves; the bad decision-making he's infamous for comes into play there.
* DidntThinkThisThrough:
** Might as well be Gaemon's middle name. You need to be a special kind of thoughtless to just follow the blood rites ''that you saw in dreams'' without wondering ''why'' you are seeing this or ''what'' will be the price.
** Similarly, Daemon notes that he himself can be very reckless and not think things through properly.
* DoWrongRight:
** [[spoiler:When Arral is drugged and tossed into the kennels during their stay at the Arbor, he loudly complains that an Archmaester merits the stables during such an occasion.]]
** When Arral deduces that Rhea Royce is being poisoned by her own maester, he is more concerned about the fact that it was done so cheaply.
* DramaticIrony:
** Gaemon thinks that he's pretty good at appearing normal or at least approachable. Other [=POVs=] show that he's actually rather creepy in his looks and behaviour, ''especially'' when he smiles.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: As shown in the scenes that feature him, absolutely no one likes Otto Hightower, not even his own family.
* HypercompetentSidekick:
** Nessa manages Gaemon's household and money like well-oiled machines. She's taken his princely allowance and put them towards money-making investments that allow them to employ and maintain an expansive staff and guard that exceeds those of some minor noble houses.
** Joffrey Lonmouth's financial management of the Stepstones' ports turned Daemon's expedition into a rather profitable affair. He's also this for House Velaryon in general, being described by the author as Laenor's borderline nanny and Corlys' ledger-slave.
* ImproperlyParanoid:
** Gaemon is under the impression that all of those around him, friends and loved ones, will eventually turn on him because of the game of thrones. He doesn't get that his Pendants all have UndyingLoyalty towards him.
** He also suspects Daemon of pretty much ''everything'' that goes wrong as he's convinced his uncle is just looking for an opportunity to screw him over, return to Westeros and take the Throne -- and not necessarily in this order.
* KillAndReplace: [[spoiler:One of the White Jaws gets killed alongside his entire family by a Faceless Man, who then uses his face to try and assassinate Gaemon.]]
* LegendFadesToMyth: Discussed. Arral thinks that's what has happened in the legend of Uthor of the Tower and Argoth Stone-Skin -- the story is a metaphor for an influx of humans from Essos displacing the native inhabitants of the region. He even examined graves and burial sites around the city to prove it! [[spoiler:Considering the tomb complex beneath the Hightower, he is probably right on all counts.]]
* MadScientist: Arral. While we don't see anything on-screen, the references to numerous [[NoodleIncident Noodle Incidents]] are enough to firmly put him in this category.
* MysteryCult: Played with when it comes to the Orders. While people did know the PatronGod of each Order and might have had a general idea of ''what'' they did, very few outside the Orders knew ''how'' they did it or ''why''.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: While the full ramifications of the galleons are yet to be seen, Viserys mentions that they're causing a great deal of tension with Essos.
* NoodleIncident: Arral is just a neverending font of those.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Nessa. WordOfGod is that she looks like she could be near a decade younger than she actually is.
* OmnidisciplinaryScientist: Arral, even moreso than usual for maesters. In addition to being the Archmaester of Occult, he's also an accomplished healer, smith, linguist, historian, archeologist and writer, and is capable politician and diplomat. He also seems to have an interest in spelunking and geology, among others.
* OnlySaneMan: Gaemon ''thinks'' he's one. In reality, he is too much of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}} and the title actually belongs to Joffrey Lonmouth.
* ProperlyParanoid: The precautions taken by Gaemon's household include no weapons training where other people can see them, no participating in tourneys and not letting unauthorized people into his rooms, even if they are somebody he knows. [[spoiler:It pays off when a Faceless Man disguises themselves as one of the White Jaws and tries to enter his rooms in the middle of night.]]
* RunningGag: Several:
** Gaemon wishing brutal deaths on Criston Cole and Otto Hightower.
** Gaemon's siblings glomping him so much he can't breath.
** Mentions of Arral's off-screen experiments with poultry.
* SecretIdentity: Nessa is simply a daughter of a knight from House Doggett, [[spoiler:on paper anyway. In other POV chapters, however, we learn that her actual name is Naelsana, that she, King Viserys and Prince Daemon refer to each other in rather familiar terms and that her mother is a Lysene of some status. Why she is being passed off as a daughter of a minor knight is yet unknown.]]
* SeenItAll: Arral. [[spoiler:Following Gaemon's pact with Meraxes, the archmaester describes the bursting and reassembly of the young prince's body to be the ''fifth'' most impressive one he's seen. It's probably why he's so utterly nonchalant about going along with Gaemon's schemes.]]
* SmugSnake: Otto Hightower and Arton Royce are shown to be really bad at enacting their plots.
* SparedByAdaptation: So far we have Joffrey Lonmouth, [[spoiler:Rhea Royce.]]
* TheSpartanWay: How the apprentices were trained in the Order of Meraxes and, presumably, other Orders of the Fourteen. Flashbacks show that Gaema was punished with whipping for making mistakes, disobedience or if she couldn't control Qelos properly.
* TeamSwitzerland: Gaemon is doing his best to keep his household as this. It's working, to an extent, as most of the principal figures of the Greens and the Blacks do agree that they like him, work as best they can to defend his reputation and can even get into mutually-beneficial arrangements if he's mediating.
* TooDumbToLive: [[spoiler:The assassin that tried to kill Gaemon at Runestone. As Arral puts it, she accepted a job to kill a prince from the half-assed schemer that is Ser Arton Royce and expected to get away with it.]]
* UnfazedEveryman: Arral's various assistants and students. Nothing, ''absolutely nothing'', fazes them anymore, no matter how outlandish.
* UnreliableNarrator: All of them. Either because they operate on incomplete knowledge and faulty assumptions or because they have their own biases. And Gaemon is probably the worst offender.
* WhamEpisode:
** Chapter Twelve: ''Expletive. Nothing Else Need Be Said.'' [[spoiler:Daemon is found in bed with Laena ''and'' Rhaenyra, and is exiled as a result of his actions.]]
** Chapter Twenty: ''The Dark, the Damp and the Cthulhu.'' [[spoiler:Arral shows Gaemon and Eberman an enormous tomb complex beneath the Hightower, which is full of non-human bodies. And Sky's flames reveal dragon skulls and inscriptions with a dedication to Meraxes.]]
* WhamLine:
** "[Arral] smiled even more brightly, “Why of course, prince! As they say in my homeland, what is dead may never die!” "
* WrongAssumption: Gaemon's most frequent mistake bordering on FatalFlaw. He thinks that just because he read the books, he knows the people better than they know themselves. Nevermind that 1) he never read ''"Fire and Blood"'' since he died before it was published, 2) the books he has read were based on post-facto accounts from less-than-credible sources and compiled by a biased maester and 3) his own actions are already causing butterflies all around.
* YoungerThanTheyLook: According to WordOfGod:
** Alicent is the same age as Nessa, which isn't very old (27 by chapter 55) but Gaemon tends to think that she's older than she actually is due to the fact that she is his mother.
** Eberman is actually younger than both Alicent and Nessa but looks way older due to his large build and hard features.
[[/folder]]
----

* TheAtoner: [[spoiler:Daemon is shown to be this in his POV chapter.]]

* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Despite what Gaemon may think of his own father, Viserys shows himself to be a rather capable ruler. From the Redwyne poisoning incident alone, it is shown that he has a reputation for decisive action and fair mediation, or as much as the situation could allow. He's also shown to have quite the vicious streak, one that gets Lord Redwyne to back down from his rage for the above-mentioned incident [[spoiler:and has the Sealord of Braavos desperate to make amends after Gaemon's assassination attempt]]. [[FatalFlaw The one place where he falters]] is when it comes to the people he loves and his infamous indecision comes into play there.

* DoWrongRight: [[spoiler:When Arral is drugged and tossed into the kennels during their stay at the Arbor, he loudly complains that an Archmaester merits the stables during such an occasion.]]

* BlingOfWar: Gaemon's White Jaws are all clad in high-quality plate armor, articulated for maximum mobility, etched with flowing patterns and enameled with what gave them their name. Certainly more suited to a lord paramount than a mere guard, they're funded by Nessa's business ventures.

** Gaemon thinks that he's pretty good at appearing normal or at least approachable. Other povs show that he's actually rather creepy in his looks and behaviour, ''especially'' when he smiles.

** Joffrey Lonmouth's financial management of the Stepstones' ports turned Daemon's expedition into a rather profitable affair.

** Chapter Twenty: ''The Dark, the Damp and the Cthulu.'' [[spoiler:Arral shows Gaemon and Eberman an enormous tomb complex beneath the Hightower, which is full of non-human bodies. And Sky's flames reveal dragon skulls and inscriptions with a dedication to Meraxes.]]

** "[Arral] smiled even more brightly. “Why of course, prince! As they say in my homeland, what is dead may never die!” "

* CorruptChurch: What the priesthood of the Fourteen was in Old Valyria, being nothing more than a mouthpiece of the Chamber and filled with SmallNameBigEgo priests. [[spoiler:Gaema absolutely despised them and it's pretty clear that the rest of the Orders had similar views -- especially since ''they'' actually fulfill the will of God's.]]

** Joffrey Lonmouth's financial management of the Stepstone's ports turned Daemon's expedition into a rather profitable affair.

* SecretIdentity: Nessa is simply a lady from House Doggett[[spoiler:, on paper anyway. In other POV chapters, however, we learn that her actual name is Naelsana and that she, King Viserys and Prince Daemon refer to each other in rather familiar terms. Why she is being passed off as a daughter of a minor Westerlands house is yet unknown.]]

* TooDumbToLive: The assassin that tried to kill Gaemon at Runestone. As Arral puts it, she accepted a job to kill a prince from the half-assed schemer that is Ser Arton Royce and expected to get away with it.

[[/folder]]

** Nessa manages Gaemon's household and money like well-oiled machines. Among other things, she's taken his princely allowance and put them towards money-making investments that allow them to employ and maintain a guard that exceeds those of some minor noble houses.

** Gaemon wishing brutal deaths on Cristin Cole and Otto Hightower.

* SecretIdentity: Nessa simply a lady from House Doggett[[spoiler:, on paper anyway. In other POV chapters, however, we learn that her actual name is Naelsana and that she, King Viserys and Prince Daemon refer to each other in rather familiar terms. Why she is being passed off as a daughter of a minor Westerlands house is yet unknown.]]

* HypercompetentSidekick: Joffrey Lonmouth's financial management of the Stepstone's ports turned Daemon's expedition into a rather profitable affair.

* OnlySaneMan: Gaemon ''thinks'' he's one. In reality his too much of a {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, while the title belongs to Joffrey Lonmouth.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Or maybe Draconic Personifications. The Fourteen were said to embody certain concepts and virtues, and their bodies were supposedly used to create different parts on natural world. Interestingly, they embodied [[YinYangBomb both ends of the spectrum at once]], for example Virturion was a god of both Winter and Summer, as well as Order and Chaos.

** [[spoiler:Gaemon's faction works on arranging those between the Blacks and the Greens as a way of potentially preventing or limiting the damage of the Dance. The most important match is the one between See Ormund Hightower, the Heir of Hightower, and Lady Corla Velaryon, Lord Velaryon's niece.]]

* MysteryCult: Played with when it comes to the Orders. While people did know PatronGod of each Order and might have a general idea of ''what'' they did, very few outside the Orders knew ''how'' they did it or ''why''.

** Chapter Twelve: ''"Expletive. Nothing Else Need Be Said."'' [[spoiler:Daemon is found in bed with Laena ''and'' Rhaenyra, and is exiled as a result of his actions.]]

* UnreliableNarrator: All of them. Either because they operate on incomplete knowledge and faulty assumptions or because they have their own biases. And Gaemon is probably the worst offender.

* NoodleIncident: Arral is just a neverending font of those.