To whomsoever of my successors rules the kingdom of Westeros in the final decades of the third century.
You will be in charge of the nation during the greatest crisis this continent has faced in millennia and the thing which the Targaryen dynasty has all been building up to deal with.
The return of the ancient enemy of mankind, the undead beings known as the Others, the White Walkers of the Woods, the cold gods, the white shadows and a whole host of other names related to their apocalyptic nature.
Here, in this final chapter, I will leave all the information I have on them, how and the why of their creation, who created them, their strengths and their weaknesses, their battlefield tactics, and the tactics you should employ against them.
Provided you follow these guidelines, you should be able to lead the kingdom of Westeros to victory in a war through conventional means as well as draconic power.
Whatever you do, make absolutely certain to not, under any circumstances get into a massive war, whether civil or external in the years leading up to this second war for the dawn. If the North falls, you will not be able to turn the war around. You must stop them at the wall. Preferably by making certain that the ice wall with all its spells does not break.
I have also compiled theories on how the wall may fall, and how to prevent such a scenario.
Extract from "The Way of Kingship" By Aenys Targaryen.
---
Visenya sat studying a map when she climbed in the window.
It was a standard map of Westeros with several moveable towers placed on it. She took a quick glance before Visenya spoke. The placements of the towers were somewhat puzzling. Rather than being the standard big castles, they were placed in a seemingly random pattern.
One was at Oldtown, one at the Stoney Sept, one at maidenpool, and a ton of others spread out along the south of Westeros. There were no towers in the North or the islands.
"Report." Her lady said as she closed the window behind her.
"Earlier reports have been confirmed. Aenys is gathering the Lord Paramounts and wardens to a large council before the war."
Visenya nodded absently.
"Has Tully had any luck on killing Harren the red since you took ship?"
"No my lady, he has proven completely unable to find the outlaw. Whether that is due to incompetence on his part or competence on Harrens I am not sure."
She snorted.
"He can raise 15 000 men, yet has trouble killing a few hundred outlaws. That is staggering incompetence on his part."
"As you say, my lady. We have also discovered more personal development in the Riverlands?"
"Oh?"
"It seems his highness has been looking for a bride for his son Viserys. There was a letter suggesting a match between him and a daughter of House Tully."
"I imagine the trout was happy at that."
"He was literarily skipping from joy my lady."
"Also, he will be sending 3 of his sons to act as officers in the coming war."
"Also, we have news from lord Harroway. He has agreed to the match and can send the bride as soon as you wish."
Visenys scowled.
"In hindsight, it would have been better if he had refused. Now I have to go and talk him back into line."
"My lady?"
"The marriage will not go ahead after all. The question of "why?" does not concern you."
"As you say, mistress."
That would mean something had changed. Had the lady killed Maegor's first bride? No, that couldn't be it, that would mean this marriage was even desirable, given Maegor's lack of an heir.
"Do you have any further orders from me at the moment?"
"No. You will return to the station you had in the capital before Aegon's death. You will remain there until further notice.
She nodded and made her way back to the window. It was going to be an annoying climb, but her mistress refused to let her use the door like a regular person. Not with Aenys undiscovered spies still lurking around.
As she descended down the razor-sharp rocks of dragonstone(thank the gods for mail gloves), she contemplated going back to her life in the capital.
Being a common servant was not particularly hard, nor dangerous, but it was boring. Thankfully, once she was back home, she could stay with her darling again. After all, all the coin Visenya paid for her services was worthless unless she and her family got to spend it was it not?
---
Visenya once again took in the map showcasing the seats of power of the faith.
There had been many challenges when it came to keeping this continent together under one crown, but the largest one, and the one that WOULD explode underneath them eventually, was the same one she had advocated to Aegon that they should have burned to the ground from the start.
And now he was gone, and the treat he had refused to deal with was rearing it's ugly head again.
Well, they would deal with it. With fire and blood.
More than anything, that was why Aenys had to die.
Aenys had grown after all these years. He had always been a fool and a craven, but he had never been a simpleton. He had simply lacked a backbone, and the will and courage to get things done without listening to others telling him what he should do.
Now, he had finally grown that spine. And so far he had proven rather remarkable in dealing with the challenges of kingship.
However, being capable and being willing to tear down the religious order to the ground was two different things.
The faith had always been a lurking threat to their dynasty, one that had always refused to accept their ways. They had not dared to oppose them in Aegon's reign, but they would do it now that he was gone. And if they didn't do it in Aenys reign, they would do it in his successors.
That much was guaranteed.
Aenys might not lack for wit, but his heir was a very different story. Prince Aegon was not clever, and like his father had done he often dallied, with the added bonus of stubbornly clinging to his opinion once he made one.
He would make a truly terrible king. And that was not even taking into consideration how young he was.
Viserys was better, but he was second in line, so unless Aegon died, or against the odds Aenys disinherited his heir, he would not take the throne.
Also he was even younger.
What it all added up to was that a ruler capable of eliminating the faith as a power was not forthcoming from the traditional branch of House Targaryen.
Aenys himself had shown no interest in opposing the faith. On the contrary, he was already beginning to appease it.
He had engaged all his sons to the offsprings of his vassals when he had two perfectly fine daughters. She did not need to push deeper to figure out the motive. He was Abandoning their culture and traditions to appease the faith.
She would NOT let that stand.
That meant he would not destroy the faith, like Aegon should have done to begin with, but would kowtow to them instead.
That meant he had to go.
The peace between the crown and the faith had to break, and it had to break violently.
She had always planned to replace Aenys with Maegor, but she had assumed Aenys would instead destroy the relationship with the faith on his own.
Now the opposite seemed true.
He would appease the faith to strengthen his position, abandoning more and more of what made them the blood of the dragon until there was nothing left, and their eyes and hair were as dull and lifeless as the rest of Westeros. It would end with them no longer able even to ride their dragons.
That wasn't going to happen though. Not as long as she was alive.
She would destroy the Faith of the seven to such a degree that would never rise again. And the way to do it was with Maegor on the throne.
HE would not have any hesitance in crushing the faith under his heel.
It was infuriating then, how Aenys had seemingly made that far more difficult than it should have been.
His little scheme with the Dothraki had, as she predicted appealed to Maegor. Far more so than anything else she had ever seen anything do.
That, however, would not have been a problem in the long run if she could have gotten the harroway marriage before he left for the east.
It would have forced a rift between Aenys and the faith, and weakened his position along with enforcing Targaryen values into the future ruling king.
Unfortunately, aenys had offered Maegor a proposal her son loved FAR more than a second wife.
Why he had done it she wasn't sure.
Had he done it prevent the second marriage? To make sure the Targaryens of Dragonstone would have a future given how useless the wife Aegon had chosen for Maegor was? Or had it just been a ploy to win Maegor's loyalty?
She did not know. But given Aenys undiscovered spies, she did not rule out the first alternative.
That had been a massive thorn in her plans. And it had forced her to take more drastic measures in her plans.
Namely, assassination.
A faceless man it would be. She could not risk anything else. And as her contacts had said, they would do it for the meager price of a dragon egg.
Now she just had to wait.
She could not kill Aenys now. That would just mean a stabilizing regency under Stokeworth until Aegon came of age and could fuck things up.
Not to mention that she would not be able to convince Maegor to abandon the upcoming trip east. It was the first time in her life that her son truly had true ambition. And because fate had a sense of humor, that ambition specifically was away from the crown. Literally.
So, it would have to wait until Aegon neared his majority and Maegor was back in Westeros.
She could have made the plan to assassinate stokeworth, and then Aenys, but the unfortunate fact was that she did not know who would be regent. Velaryon would be the most logical choice if there was no hand.
And she herself could not try for the regency. Aenys dying mysteriously, then his aunt swooped in to take reins the reins of power? She would get the blame and be labeled his assassin, and in the worst-case scenario, she could quickly follow Aenys as his family took revenge.
Not to mention that her ultimate goal was to replace him with Maegor. She needed her boy to actually WANT the throne before she took the final step.
She could make that happen. But not while he was far in the east.
That meant waiting until Aegon came of age, and would quickly and without challenge rise to kingship when his father died. Preferably he would quickly sire an heir, so when he had screwed things up with the faith, Maegor's opponent would be an infant.
Well, it was what it was. Not the best plan in the world, but it was a plan, with a clear line of how it would go.
Now she just needed to deal with Aenys spies. Whoever the hell they were.
---
The king finally left after three damned weeks.
It had been 3 weeks of keeping his temper in check and generally not saying whatever angry thought popped into his head.
Once the king finally said goodbye, he was finally allowed to retire to his solar, along with Maester Barley.
As he poured himself a massive flagon of mead, Barely began going over the expenses of the last few weeks.
"The final expenses were not as bad as we feared it would be."
The king had thankfully not demanded larger feasts than they usually ate at Winterfell. The temperance was in sharp contrast to the extravagant way he dressed.
"We still had to build that damned stable for his dragon."
"Indeed. But that was merely a one time expense. It could have been much worse."
"Except we need to relocate it farther away from the walls, which is going to take manpower the smallfolk could have been using for farming instead."
He supposes he should be grateful to Rickon for showcasing what a terrible idea it had been to build it right up against the second wall, but the boy was still going to spend one more week confined to his room for the stunt of sneaking into a literal dragon den.
It was pure luck and the grace of the gods the beast hadn't discovered and killed him.
"Aye, we need to rebuild it. I'll have a word with Walton about it during your absence."
Absence.
He had absent from Winterfell before. Both as crown prince, a lord's heir and as lord, he had traveled almost the entire north, except skagos and Bear Island.
This was not that though.
This was leaving the North. Leaving Winterfell, leaving his home.
Just so Aenys could tell him about tax reforms that he could have just told him about while he was here, or sent a raven.
But no, he had to travel hundreds of miles just to get together with the other wardens to hear whatever Aenys had to say.
It was an astonishing waste of time that could have been used more productively. There WAS a reason they had ravens after all.
Still. The king's visit could have ended far worse than it did. Thankfully, he had avoided the worst possible outcome, all thanks to good old Warrick.
Gods he loved that man. If he had been a woman, he'd have married him.
Warrick had NOT failed his friend and liege lord in his hour of need.
He had of course dutifully passed on the king's letters to him, but he had also sent a second letter, warning him that Aenys had come north to force another marriage on an unwilling Stark woman.
In this case as a bride for the son. Well, he had not wasted any time. As he had said in the crypts, it really was past time his daughter chose amongst her suitors.
Once he had informed her the king was planning on forcing her to marry and leave the North forevermore, she had thankfully chosen quickly and a speedy wedding had ensured his daughter would not face the same fate as his sister had.
His father had been mocked by the North for all the years he had been a lord.
The King Who Knelt.
It was a title that stung. Yet no biting tongue or mockery about the title had ever stung half as hard as Torrhen Stark "reward" for his loyal service.
After being the Only royal house to kneel willingly their new overlords, house Targaryen had rewarded their new loyalty, by forcing his 9-year-old sister into a marriage against the will of the entirety of House Stark. And not royal marriage, oh no, they got another, BETTER price.
One their own, taken under threat from the North… To Marry the new head of House Arryn.
The only thing that could have been worse would have been if they had forced her to marry an Ironborn.
House Arryn, their age-old enemy across the ocean, the bastards that had invaded the North when the Starks had decided to put an end to the might of the sistermen.
They had ended the regular piracy on the eastern side of the north for good and all, and for that, those bastards from the vale had launched an unjust and pointless war that had lasted a millennium.
Countless thousands of lives had been lost because of the falcons in the Eyrie, deciding they wanted a worthless price rather than letting the Northmen have it.
And to those bastards, Aegon had carted of his sister like a hunting dog sent as a price.
Well, that wasn't entirely true. It had been that bitch Rhaenys who had forced the match. But Aegon had not spoken out against it. He had let it happen, and as far as he was concerned, that meant he was just as responsible for making it happen.
His brothers had talked openly independence, but that much of a fool he was not. There would be no independence from House Targaryen. Not while Dragons yet lived.
So, the only thing they could do, was pay taxes, uphold the law, and hope rather desperately that the dragons would not come north, and leave them to reign in peace.
That hadn't been the case much during Aegon's reign, as he had come several times on expensive royal progresses, draining their coin to feed his entourage. His son, however, had not been interested in making more progresses to the North once Aegon got old for them.
Until he became king and decided out of the blue to come to the north. Not on a progress though. On a dragon.
He did not have to be a fool to see that the king was giving him a reminder of his power.
No words of force would be spoken, but the marriage proposal Aenys would put fort was not a suggestion.
He got the last laugh there though.
So, he had bit his tongue, choked down on his pride, and agreed to the king's new devices. Some did sound rather promising, and according to Barley, the Wunderboat should work in theory.
He really could not care less about the king's devices. If they worked, great, he'd implement them and the North would be better for it. If not, he didn't care.
He had other things about Aenys to care about. Planning to force his daughter into a marriage outside of the North where she would never see her family again was on top of those things, but there were others.
The king forcing him to waste months on a trip south for a chat about taxes and his coronation, wanting to introduce what was undoubtedly more taxes to pay for his war over the stepstones, and of course everything related to his plans for the neck.
That was going to go as wrong anything possibly could. And more likely than not, Aenys was going to kill a lot of his subjects. But he would do as Aenys demanded. Namely, he would follow the king's order to the letter and send a full, detailed explanation of all the king's plans for the Neck to Greywater Watch.
How the Crannogmen reacted to them was their choice.
"My lord?"
"Sorry Barley, I was just… Lost in thought. You're right, of course, I'll need to get everything in order before I go south.
Trying to figure out what the hell Walton's vision was about was one such thing.
As if he did not have enough reasons to not like the King coming to force a match, Walton's visions of a shadowy dragon head constantly swirling around the king wherever he went, also added the fact that the king was a sorcerer unto the reasons not to like him.
He supposed it was somewhat hypocritical to not judge his son for his dreams while condemning the king, but he knew enough about Valyrian magic to know that if Aenys truly was as powerful and deadly as Walton thought he was, he must have sacrificed countless men in dark bloody rituals, just as his ancestors had.
After all, that was what Valyrian sorcery was all about. Sacrificing the blood of men in dark inhuman rituals in exchange for power.
The king's jovial smile hid a dark, brutal reality. He had seen the cracks while talking to the man. The way he was capable of shifting on a dime, from warm and jovial to cold and intense as freezing steel.
He was a dangerous man, Aenys Targaryen.
---
Aenys famous book "The Way of Kingship" is often held up as a mythical work and guide to good governing, and many attribute the loss of the original book as the point where the "Age of the four good kings" came to an unavoidable and irreversible end.
Others will point out that most of king Maegor's golden rule happened after the book's destruction in 142, not before.
After it's destruction, King Maegor did his best to recreate the book as he recalled it, but by his own admission, there were several chapters he did not take much interest in before the work was lost.
Others were of less important use, like king Aenys fascinatingly detailed(if useless) knowledge of old myths of the North.
Either way, the modern version is a lacking work compared to the original, even amongst what did survive in the recreation it's in many places outdated, it is nonetheless a fascinating look into the text that guided Targaryen policy for almost a century.
Extract from "Lost tomes: The way of Kingship" by Sabrina Oakenshield.