House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Chapter 182: Chapter 181 – The Sin of Greed (I)

The Red Keep, Small Council Chamber.

The Small Council chamber contains a long table, at the head of which the king may sit. The chamber is richly furnished with Myrish carpets, a carved screen from the Summer Isles, and tapestries from Lys, Norvos, and Qohor. The chamber door is flanked by two Valyrian sphinxes.

At this moment, seated in the chairs around the table were not the members of the small council but the Great Lords of Westeros.

Ellard Stark, Lord of Winterfell; Tommen Lannister, the Lord of Casterly Rock; Theo Tyrell, the Lord of Highgarden; Jonos Arryn, the Lord of the Eyrie; and Varon Greyjoy, the Lord of Pyke, and Boremund Baratheon, Lord of Storm’s End.

Mara Martell was not present, and House Tully, well, with Maekar present, acted as Lord of the Riverlands.

Jaehaerys sat in the main seat, with Maekar and Gael seated to his right and Alysanne seated to his left.

Ryam Redwyne guarded the door with a cold, indifferent expression, his helmet covering his head as he kept an upright, firm posture. The new Kingsguard, Harrold Westerling, stood beside him, but, like Ryam, he too showed admirable composure.

“I will only be attending as a witness; the true leader of this meeting is the Prince of Dragonstone.” Jaehaerys spoke in a calm tone. Although Maekar didn’t need more prestige, he still helped Maekar gain more prestige, giving him a greater voice in this meeting.

The king’s words made everyone surprised; even Theo, young as he was, already knew of the complicated relationship between the king and Prince Maekar. However, it seemed that relationship was not as troubled as everyone expected.

This alone showed that House Targaryen was still united, and with four dragonriders mounting adult dragons, it was currently the most powerful force in the world. Aside from Daemon, all the dragonriders present stood united on one front.

However, this alone alarmed the lords present. What could make four dragonriders stand united?

“I will be direct in my words.” Maekar sat gracefully in his chair and looked at all the lords present.

“The High Septon sent a letter to House Frey of the Crossing ordering a witch from the Riverlands to kill my unborn son.”

When Maekar finished speaking, everyone’s eyes widened with complete shock and disbelief. The new Kingsguard, Harrold, who had not known this, also widened his eyes.

Seeing that everyone was still absorbing the information, he added in a calm tone. “Before you ask what reason would make the High Septon give such a cruel and inhuman order, I think you already know that I accepted the Faith Red and will allow them to spread their faith across all Seven Kingdoms.”

Varon narrowed his eyes. He had heard the rumors of the red witches beside Prince Maekar but hadn’t expected them to be true. However, looking at it from the Faith of the Seven’s point of view, what the prince had done was an affront to the Faith of the Seven’s sovereignty in Westeros.

Who would be happy about other great religions competing for space with them?

At the same time, Varon understood what this meeting was about.

War, a damned war against the Faith of the Seven…!

“Some of you must have already noticed the purpose of this meeting, and I’ll say you were right to presume what is about to happen.”

“House Targaryen will declare war against the Faith of the Seven.”

“All Seven Kingdoms will join together and fight as one to free the people from the demonic, filthy tyranny of the Faith of the Seven.”

“My prince, this is madness. The people will rebel; the most devout lords will rebel.” The one who spoke was none other than the Lord of the Vale, Jonos Arryn. The lord’s expression was one of disbelief and lack of confidence.

“This isn’t about power, but about how to eliminate the Faith of the Seven’s influence over the people. Even if my prince burns Oldtown until nothing remains but ashes, the surviving septons will start a rebellion throughout the realm and form another core of power.” Jonos spoke in a solemn tone.

If dragonfire could solve the problem of the Faith of the Seven, that would make things easy, but it didn’t solve it. Otherwise, Aegon the Conqueror would have burned Oldtown, or even Maegor would have done the same years later during his reign.

“I know.” Maekar showed little reaction to Jonos’s concern.

“This war will not begin any time soon, probably three to five years from now. In the meantime, I will reduce the church’s power over the lords’ fiefs, tarnish the church’s reputation, and deify my image in the eyes of the people as the king chosen by the gods.”

“I will not start this war lightly; there will be extensive preparation before it officially begins.”

“Every man has the right to avenge his son; just tell me the day of the war, and I will march on Oldtown.” Ellard spoke in a calm tone; his steel gray eyes seemed quite eager at the idea of fighting against the Faith of the Seven.

As a follower of the Old Gods, Ellard cared little for the Faith of the Seven.

“I say the same, my prince; just send a raven to Pyke and the Iron Fleet will attack Oldtown.” Varon said with a laugh full of excitement. The idea of sacking Oldtown was simply too tempting for a pirate like him.

Uncovering that city’s ancient secrets was a prize he coveted, and not just him; everyone with a bit of knowledge coveted the secrets hidden in that old city.

As for attacking the faith, well, he followed the Drowned God, so, like Ellard, he cared little for the Faith of the Seven.

With Ellard and Varon already having agreed, Mara would agree too. Maekar controlled the Riverlands, and House Targaryen controlled the Crownlands. Five of the nine regions of the Seven Kingdoms had already agreed to war against the Faith of the Seven.

However, the same could not be said of the other lords.

Boremund Baratheon, Tommen Lannister, Jonos Arryn, and Theo Tyrell were not as eager about the idea, especially the Lord of Highgarden.

“My prince, this is too risky. If we march on Oldtown, the commoners will bring chaos and death to our respective territories.” Even though he wasn’t trained to be a lord, Theo was not stupid and knew what would happen if he truly declared war against the Faith of the Seven.

The Reach was the home of chivalry; one could say it was the place where the Faith of the Seven’s influence was strongest of all the Seven Kingdoms. If he declared war against the Faith of the Seven, half of the noble houses would rebel against House Tyrell.

As Theo sat shocked and about to refuse, he heard Prince Maekar’s voice.

“Don’t forget that House Tyrell only controls the Reach because of our power.” Maekar’s voice was cold. Of all the noble houses present, all of them could refuse his request, but not House Tyrell. “If you keep refusing to be House Targaryen’s dog, House Tyrell doesn’t need to exist anymore.”

Maekar never understood how House Tully and Tyrell dared to be so independent. Without House Targaryen’s power behind them, these two noble houses would never have had enough time to consolidate their rule over the Riverlands and the Reach, respectively. They would have already been replaced by other powerful houses.

Theo paled. House Tyrell was not the powerful House Tyrell of 170 years later. Before House Targaryen with its dragons, House Tyrell was House Targaryen’s dog.

“House Tyrell will fight alongside House Targaryen against the demonic tyranny of the Faith of the Seven!” Theo reacted quickly and spoke in a solemn tone. Faced with the choice of losing control of the Reach or facing countless rebellions, he chose to keep control of the Reach.

Maekar showed a satisfied look and turned to Boremund. Unlike House Tully and Tyrell, House Baratheon hadn’t even needed House Targaryen to consolidate its rule over the Stormlands. House Baratheon, unexpectedly, was the one that had the smoothest transfer of power. Perhaps the personality of the Lords of Storm’s End was compatible with all the lords of the Stormlands.

“House Baratheon will follow House Targaryen against the Faith of the Seven.” Before Maekar’s eyes, Boremund spoke for the first time.

Seven of the nine regions stood with House Targaryen in the war against the Faith of the Seven.

Then, Maekar’s eyes fell on Jonos Arryn and Tommen Lannister. Not only his eyes, everyone who had already agreed to the war looked at them coldly.

They would go to war while House Arryn and House Lannister remained neutral? Nothing that good exists in this world. You had to pick a side; neutrality was disloyalty, and disloyalty was punishable by death.

“Are you threatening me, Prince Maekar?” Faced with the cold stares, Jonos remained calm and asked in a cold tone.

“Yes, accept or die.” Maekar did not hide his thoughts and spoke in an equally cold tone. “I am not my grandfather; disloyalty results only in death, especially in this coming war.”

After a moment of silence, Jonos spoke in a cold tone. “House Arryn will follow House Targaryen against the Faith of the Seven.”

Having said that, he simply closed his eyes and refused to look at anyone.

Tommen had no choice; everyone had agreed. If he refused, House Lannister would be isolated, and with House Strong, which was terribly loyal to House Targaryen in the Westerlands, the chances of House Lannister being replaced were high.

“House Lannister will follow House Targaryen against the Faith of the Seven.”

Like Theo, he chose to remain the supreme ruler of the Westerlands. As for the rebellions of the noble houses of the Westerlands, there was no rebellion that put the Rock in danger!

“Very well, but you will not fight for me without gaining anything.” Maekar finally showed a smile and continued speaking.

“For any house that rebels in your respective regions, you will have the right to exterminate it and take control of it.” When Maekar said this, everyone’s breathing quickened.

Varon and Ellard only felt a deep regret. The Iron Islands and the North believed in the Drowned God and the Old Gods, respectively. In other words, there would be no rebellions in their regions.

Maekar looked at everyone and smiled, but the coldness in his gaze remained hidden.

What he was doing was the same as what happened in England. The fewer noble houses, the easier it was to centralize power.

These men were happy to gain more land, but, in doing so, they would be helping Maekar control the Seven Kingdoms much more quickly. Not only that, the bad reputation from this would fall on them and not on Maekar.

————–

Note, they are seven kingdoms but nine different regions. As for the reason it’s seven instead of nine, it’s quite simple. Of the hundreds of kingdoms in the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms, only seven survived and became enormous kingdoms. In other words, when Aegon arrived in Westeros, there were seven sovereign kingdoms.

Additionally, the Iron Islands separated from the Riverlands, and the Crownlands were created as an autonomous region, forming the nine regions of the continent of Westeros.

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard

When all the lords left the Small Council Chamber, Gael rose from her chair and poured wine for Maekar, Jaehaerys, and Alysanne.

“Janos wasn’t pleased; he’s going to refuse to send troops in the future.” Gael remarked in a calm tone. “As for Tommen, he’s just a cat disguised as a lion. Surprisingly, the rest are quite excited about the idea of the war.”

“Janos isn’t a short-term problem,” Maekar answered calmly. “Janos’s niece, Lady Jayne, is the true Lady of the Vale. The girl is too young to reign, so her uncle took up the regency in the meantime.”

Janos was not from the main branch of House Arryn; even though he was only the temporary lord, he could not reign as one would in Dorne. The lords of the Vale would never accept a ruler from a secondary branch while the main branch was still alive and well.

“If he disobeys, he doesn’t need to stay alive.” Maekar would not allow any obstacle in the coming holy war. He killed Loreon, he killed Matthos, and he could very well kill someone lesser like Janos.

“Boy, you’re truly bold to allow these noble houses to absorb other noble houses that rebel.” Jaehaerys spoke at that moment, still somewhat surprised by the boldness of letting the noble houses grow stronger this way.

Although he knew it was meant to create a web of interests among the lords, it was still a bold strategy and quite difficult to balance in the future.

“Bold? No, I am quite clear-headed and calm.” Maekar shook his head and continued, looking at Jaehaerys and asking with a smile. “My king, what is the greatest difficulty in centralizing House Targaryen’s power?”

“Obviously the noble houses that rule like small kingdoms within their respective fiefs…” Jaehaerys spoke without thinking too much, but, as he answered, his eyes narrowed, and he understood what Maekar wanted to do.

“Yes, the fewer noble houses there are, the easier it will be to control these territories,” Maekar said with a laugh. “The greedier they were, the faster their fall would be. They’ll realize too late that you have to have the capacity to digest these fiefs.”

“But what if they discover your conspiracy?” Gael asked in a confused tone.

“My sweet Gael, never underestimate the greed of nobles for land, especially these noble houses that survived the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms. They won’t pass up the chance to expand their territories, even knowing it might be a conspiracy,” Maekar said in a calm tone.

More territory, more profit. Especially these fiefs controlled by lesser noble houses. Though these fiefs weren’t rich in population, they had an already established economy. One village might not amount to much, but what about ten or thirty? That’s already a great profit.

How could these nobles not take the risk, even knowing something was wrong?

“The best part is that they’ll do the dirty work for me.” Maekar let out a laugh, thinking about this particular point. If he did it himself, there would obviously be many problems, but these Great Lords would take on that villain’s role for themselves.

Maekar could imagine House Lannister and other noble houses using conspiracies, blackmail, and assassins to force these small noble houses into rebellion.

“Westeros has many noble houses.” Alysanne said with a sigh. “In the Reach alone, there are 61 noble houses.”

“However, what will you do with these territories? Put other nobles in their place?”

This was also a great problem of a medieval society. The lack of skilled labor. Maekar wasn’t talking about carpenters or masons, but people fit to manage a city or villages.

With the monopoly on knowledge, it was simply impossible to control a kingdom without nobles.

“I will use the Maesters while I raise a generation of commoners capable of taking up posts to manage a city or village.” Maekar answered in a calm tone. Centralizing a kingdom wasn’t so easy; there were many problems he had to solve, and some would take decades to complete.

Alysanne’s eyes lit up at Maekar’s words; the same could be said of Jaehaerys.

“You want to give power to the commoners to balance the nobility?” Jaehaerys asked in a curious tone.

“Yes, public officials called mayors. The mayor will handle internal affairs, while the sheriff will handle military affairs. Power should not rest in the hands of just one man. Not only that, there will be other officials to oversee and balance the mayor’s power.” Maekar answered Jaehaerys’s questions.

Every word from Maekar seemed to make Jaehaerys reflect deeply. It showed that Maekar wasn’t just trying to do things blindly but already had a solid plan. Even if it took decades to see good results, it was something Jaehaerys had never thought of before.

“That’s brilliant.” Jaehaerys sighed, feeling a fire bubbling in his chest. He wanted to live to see these changes happen. He wanted to see the kingdom truly become a centralized realm governed only by House Targaryen’s laws.

“Yes, it’s brilliant, but it will take ten to thirty years for real change to actually happen.” Maekar sighed; this kind of change was never fast and sudden. England needed the Hundred Years’ War to clear out the nobles and decades to manage to centralize power in the crown.

“It took a hundred years just to consolidate House Targaryen’s reign, showing the people that we would be different from the Age of the Hundred Kingdoms, when kingdoms rose and fell within days. Thirty years is a very good amount of time for such changes.” Unlike Maekar, Jaehaerys did not feel that thirty years was such a long time, especially considering how troubled it had been to consolidate House Targaryen’s power over these hundred years.

“However, it’s impossible to eradicate the nobility. We need the nobles.” Alysanne spoke at that moment. As monarchists, it was simply impossible to eradicate the nobility.

“I will create the Chamber of Lords, where the new nobility and the old nobility will draft and debate laws and help administer the country’s internal affairs.” Maekar said with a laugh. “Let the new and old factions kill each other while I calmly watch.”

For the first time, Jaehaerys looked at Maekar with a satisfied gaze. He finally saw the art of balance in Maekar. He didn’t ask about the new nobility Maekar was talking about. The boy already had plans within plans, and he didn’t need to give himself a headache helping with his problems.

“Just take it slow; changing things too fast always brings chaos and death.” Jaehaerys advised Maekar in a calm tone, even gentler than before.

“I know, I can’t rush things too much.” Maekar answered calmly; he certainly knew he couldn’t move fast, as it would cause more harm than good to the kingdom.

“Let’s not talk about politics; I have good news.” Feeling the atmosphere growing somewhat gloomy, Gael spoke with a smile.

“I’m pregnant again,” Gael said softly.

Alysanne showed a joyful expression, and Jaehaerys was pleased. The kingdom needed an heir; that was one of the kingdom’s greatest priorities. Gael being pregnant again was simply wonderful news. House Targaryen would be gaining more members and would grow even stronger in the future with more and more dragonriders.

“That’s good; if it’s a boy, marry him to Viserys’s daughter, Rhaenyra.” Jaehaerys said with a smile. That was the best way to make both brothers a family again. Besides, it would keep the dragons within House Targaryen.

Surprisingly, Maekar was not against the idea. Although, with Blood Magic, he no longer feared other dragonriders, the idea of giving dragons to other noble houses made him sick.

“I’m not against it, we cannot let other noble houses obtain dragons through marriage.” Maekar said in a calm tone, then looked at Jaehaerys with a strange look. “I still don’t understand how you allowed Rhaenys to marry Corlys.”

There would have been no problem if Corlys had become Rhaenys’s prince consort, but Rhaenys married Corlys instead. Their children were not Targaryen but Velaryon.

“It’s the price of trying to consolidate our rule.” Jaehaerys said with a sigh. “We were too distant from the other Great Noble Houses. I married my daughters to other lords with the aim of bringing the relations between the powerful noble houses closer together and also to secure their loyalty.”

Maekar frowned imperceptibly. The idea of using daughters as tools for marriage was simply unacceptable. Not to mention the power the noble houses gained by marrying a Targaryen princess. A child with half Targaryen blood was still enough to lay claim to a dragon.

“Stop discussing politics; let’s celebrate my pregnancy.” Seeing the conversation turning back to politics, Gael spoke in a displeased tone.

Maekar and Jaehaerys glanced at each other and saw the helplessness in each other’s eyes. Both shrugged and did not dwell on the subject further. Either way, Gael’s child would not be born any time soon, and it would take even longer still to be of age to marry.

——–

My friend started a Star Wars fanfic called: “Star Wars – God Emperor of the Sith”. If anyone’s interested, check it out and see if you like it.

Read my other books:

House of The Dragon:The Rise of the Emperor of the Seven Kingdoms

Game Of Thrones: The God-Emperor of Planetos

Percy Jackson: Godwyn the Golden.

Game Of Thrones: The King’s Court Wizard