History Fanfic / TheKingNobodyWanted

** The fates and manner of death of most of the Band of Nine besides Maelys Blackfyre and Alequo Adarys were unrevealed in the books, here Liomond Lashare was killed by Tytos Clegane, Xhobar Qhoqua and Derrick Fossoway were killed by Walter Whent, the Old Mother [[LifeWillKillYou died of old age]], Nine-Eyes was given a cask of poisoned wine by Garth Tyrell and Samarro Saan sailed into Old Valyria seven years prior to the Rebellion [[UncertainDoom and hasn't been seen since]].

* HellholePrison: The salt mines of Saltcliffe are staffed by unwilling workers and are viewed with horror throughout the Iron Islands.

* ObfuscatingInsanity: Malora Hightower, the so-called Mad Maid is actually quite sound of mind, although her interest in astrology and other mystical subjects is very real.

** Stannis and [[spoiler: Tywin; the feeling is mutual and obvious to observers]].

* AdaptationalJerkass: A Septon heavily implied to be the High Sparrow is a lot ruder to traveling, well-meaning knights than in canon and leaves a bunch of bags of grain he used for a speech platform to be eaten by animals when his book counterpart distinctly cares about there being food for hungry smallfolk.

''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' AU fanfic. It diverges from the canon plot with Rhaegar managing to mortally wound Robert at the battle of the Trident while still perishing himself. Stannis is crowned in his place, a compromise that nobody is quite happy with -- not the Lannisters, not the Starks, and certainly not Stannis himself or the Targaryen loyalists who manage to smuggle Aerys' other children to the safety of the Martell and Tyrell armies and crown an infant Viserys king.While Stannis avoids some of the mistakes that would plague Robert's reign in the original timeline, with Viserys still in the Westeroes and many of his councilors embittered against Stannis, the civil war merely progresses into a second phase, grinding back and forth across the Westerlands and the Reach. The butterflies caused by these changes soon send ripples out across the world, changing the fates of people as far removed as the merchants of King's Landing and the warriors of the Dothraki Sea...

''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' AU fanfic. It diverges from the canon plot with Rhaegar managing to mortally wound Robert at the battle of the Trident while still perishing himself. Stannis is crowned in his place, a compromise that nobody is quite happy with -- not the Lannisters, not the Starks, and certainly not Stannis himself. In the meantime, as Targaryen loyalists manage to smuggle Aerys' other children to the safety of the Martell and Tyrell armies and crown an infant Viserys king, the civil war merely progresses into a second phase, grinding back and forth across the Westerlands and the Reach. The butterflies caused by these changes soon send ripples out across the world, changing the fates of people as far removed as the merchants of King's Landing and the warriors of the Dothraki Sea...

''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' AU fanfic. It diverges from the canon plot with Rhaegar managing to mortally wound Robert at the battle of the Trident while still perishing himself. The first butterfly being Stannis being chosen as the Stag King only starts as the war, Westeros, and beyond are set on a different course.

** Argella/Arabella Brightflowers gives a speech based on Fitzgerald's "Let me tell you about the very rich." Her brother Tommen gives a version of Hemingway's apocryphal rejoinder.

** Despite converting away from the old gods, House Bracken's weirwood tree continues to thrive. They like to lord this over House Blackwood, who still follow the old gods but whose weirwood is long dead.

** It's mentioned that Quellon Greyjoy was a second son who became lord after the deaths of his father and older brother.

** Ned spends a good part of chapter 100 speaking with Gerart Rogers, who is strongly implied to be the son of his maternal aunt Branda Stark, and has no idea.

** The now fat and flatulent Garth Tyrell was, as he tells it, a handsome man in his youth.

** The different future of the AlternateUniverse means the prophecies are different as well, but Cersei still got a disturbing prediction from Maggy the Frog and WordOfGod implies that she still killed Melara.

* ForWantOfANail: Lampshaded in a scene where Janos Slynt watches a former friend of his, now a Gold Cloak, brazenly steal a merchant's wares in broad daylight, thinks about how joining the city guard often changes men for the worse, and thanks the gods for his fortune in not going down that path. In canon, Slynt also joined the Gold Cloaks and became a foul man, but in this story he's instead prompted to enter the trade guilds by a chance encounter with Magister Illyrio when the latter happens to shelter in his old shop.
-->Janos shook his head. It changed men, the cloak, and generally not for the better. He recalled something his father had liked to say... "Cloaks of gold hide souls of lead". ''And that could have been me. Seven be praised for bringing the Magister to my door, for all his... oddities.''

** It's heavily implied Manly Stokeworth is the only one of Clydas Shawney's many in-laws who have called him out for abusing their hospitality, refusing to attend the wedding at Rollingford while his wife Tanda still tries to get her grandfather's favor despite the obvious disdain the old lord has for her.

** Jonos Bracken's father was nicknamed "[[Literature/TheHobbit Bullroarer]]".

--->'''[[spoiler:Varys]]:''' [...] a prideful fool who wanted nothing more than for the Seven Kingdoms to remember that the Starks existed and were very great. A dull, self-satisfied fellow who thought he could march into the Red Keep and back out again, because he was Rickard Stark and things went the way he wanted...

The story can be found [[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10945017/1/The-King-Nobody-Wanted here]], or [[https://archiveofourown.org/works/5191445/chapters/11962463 here]].

--> '''Rys''': Father was Master of Coin, King's Hand, and then [[BurnedAlive King's candlestick]] in turn. A remarkable rise, that I alas, lack the ambition to repeat. Make me your Master of Coin, Your Grace, and if I please you, keep me there, and if I do not, send me back to my home and forget about me.

* ChekhovsGun: In his conversation with Oberyn and Ellaria, Garth is revealed to be widely traveled. [[spoiler:So he, like Oberyn, had the opportunity to learn the use of the exotic weapon that is revealed to have killed Lord Peake -- further emphasized when he tells Oberyn about it in more detail than the maester had given him]]. Later, he explains a poison whose effects mimic death from alcohol abuse to Tyene Sand. [[spoiler:Guess what happened to one of the Ninepenny Kings after ransoming Garth's relative by marriage for a fortune in Arbor Gold wine]].

* RewardedAsATraitorDeserves: [[spoiler:Selyse Florent betrays her house to the Dragon court, exposing their conspiracy and throwing in some slander about HumanSacrifice to the old gods. ExactWords is then employed to send her to the Faith instead of letting her inherit Brightwater Keep -- she was promised a great marriage, and now she's married to the Gods themselves]].

** Somewhat weirder, Garth's bastard son Garrett Flowers has nearly the same name as his ex, Garrett Oldflowers. [[spoiler:Even weirder considering that Garth murdered the first Garrett.]]

* DeadGuyJunior: [[spoiler:Lyanna names her son Rhaegar after his dead father. His alias is Rodrik; one of his great-grandfathers was Rodrik Stark.]]

** Rys Chelsted [[spoiler:having clubbed feet that keep him from walking without a cane is subtly foreshadowed on several occasions. His wife comments that he dislikes dancing, Rys tells Davos that he could never dream of being a knight as a boy, only of living in a world "where all men could stand" (although it initially sounds like he is talking about a system of society based on merit instead of birth, and that may be a double-meaning comment). He has trouble restraining his anger for a moment when Cersei remembers that King Aerys compared him to a frog. He sounds bitter when telling Stannis to be wary of clergymen, given how they claim they can heal physical afflictions but usually fail to.]]

* BewareTheNiceOnes: Lord Walter Whent is an amiable, generous man, one of the more conflict-averse members of Stannis's small council, who killed two of the Ninepenny Kings.