Game of Thrones: Viserys the Three-Headed Dragon

700 years before Aegon's landing, the expansion of the Free Fortress of Valyria in the east threatened the survival of the Rhoynar people on the Rhoyne River. The two sides broke out in the Rhoynar War that lasted for two and a half centuries. Legend has it that in the last war , Prince Gaelin of Rhoynar led 250,000 Rhoynar people in a desperate battle. Although they used water magic, they were defeated by 300 dragons of Valyria, and the entire army was eventually annihilated.

A warrior queen named Nymeria led her people and fled across the Narrow Sea to Westeros.

According to the description in the myth, Nymeria led ten thousand ships to leave the Rhoyne River Delta and enter the Summer Sea. They passed through the Basilisk Islands, Sothoros, Naath Island, Summer Islands and Stepstone Islands, and finally arrived in Dorne. Landing near the sandcastle. During and after the Rhoynar Exodus, the Valyrians destroyed the Rhoynar capital of Chayorn and many other great cities, including Nar Saxing, Al Nor'i, and Gor Dohor.

To this day, the ruins can still be clearly seen from the Rhoynar River.

After leaving the Rhoynar, most of the Rhoynar converted to the Faith of the Seven in Westeros. King Daeron I observed that the Dornish people were divided into three types: sand people, stone people, and salt people. The Salt People are considered the purest of Rhoynar blood. They have raven hair, olive skin, and live in coastal areas, although they no longer speak Rhoynar. The appearance of the Martell people is that of a typical salt person.

After Nymeria came to Dorne, she married the Dornish noble Morse Martell of Sandship Castle and unified all of Dorne in the Nymeria War - although her husband Fell midway. The Rhoynar and Dornish peoples mingled together, and the new house Nameros Martell founded Sunspear as its lord's castle.

House Martell thus became the ruling house of Dorne. "Nameros" means "blood of Nymeria", and Sunspear is the center of their rule. The emblem of the Martell family is a golden spear running through a red sun. The golden spear was the emblem of the ancient Martell family. The red sun symbolizes Rhoynar. The family motto is "Unyielding".

From this point on, conflicts between Dorne and the Riverlands and Stormlands became increasingly intensified. Border conflicts, plundering, and wars occurred from time to time, causing feuds between the Dornish people and the residents of these two lands.

The legend about the Rhoynar can be continued here with the story of Aegon's conquest.

Aegon's conquest only conquered the Six Kingdoms, and Dorne was never included in the Seven Kingdoms.

After the surrender of the Vale, Queen Rhaenys invaded Dorne, but the Dornishmen refused to fight. Instead, they sent out guerrillas to harass Rhaenys's army, then disappeared into the deserts and mountains, only to appear again when guerrilla warfare resumed. After Rhaenys captured Dorne Fortress, she found that the place had been deserted, leaving only women and children. When she asked where the men were, the Dornish men simply replied, "Gone." Rhaenys then mounted her dragon, Meraxes, and flew to Sunspear to meet the lonely Princess Merilla - a An eighty-year-old woman known as the "Yellow Toad of Dorne".

Rhaenys demands Dorne's surrender, but Merilla responds that Dorne will never surrender. The Targaryen forces then withdrew from Dorne, leaving a realm to be conquered.

Aegon went on to launch the First Dornish War to conquer Dorne.

The war began in 4AC, the fourth year after Aegon's conquest. Aegon the Conqueror began to invade Dorne, attacking in three directions, preparing to complete the conquest war.

Rhaenys rode Meraxes and invaded Sunspear and Burning Plank Town, Aegon the Conqueror and Lord Tyrell of Highgarden attacked the Prince's Pass, and Lord Baratheon, Hand of the King, invaded the Bone Pass. At this time, the Dornish people had learned how to fight against dragons from the Burning of Harrenhal, the Last Storm and the Raging Prairie. They neither fought head-on with the Targaryen army nor defended the castle. Whenever the dragon appeared, they immediately Hide and fight the invaders with guerrilla tactics.

Aegon the Conqueror fought against the mountain lords, and the Dornishmen hid from dragons, harassing and ambushing the invaders. Tyrell led his army towards Hellgate Castle, and many soldiers died of heat and thirst on the way. In the end, they only found that the Uller family had abandoned the castle and disappeared. Aegon the Conqueror won some victories. After a short siege, he captured the city of Yronwood, which was only garrisoned by a small number of old, weak, women and children. Along the way, he captured the empty city of Skyreach.

While the other two groups seemed to be making great progress, Duke Baratheon, who was responsible for attacking the Bone Road among the three groups, suffered a disastrous defeat. His Stormland army was attacked by the Dornishmen at night, and was repeatedly killed by the condescending enemies with bows, arrows, falling rocks, and flying spears. Finally, they were surrounded from front to back in the Bone Passage, and he and many of his vassals were captured.

In all places where Aegon attacked, the castles along the way gave up frontal resistance and adopted guerrilla tactics. Aegon's army marched straight into Sunspear City. Before the city fell, Princess Merilla, the eighty-year-old ruler of Dorne, and her family had left and hid in the desert. The Conqueror and Rhaenys gathered the remaining people in the city and announced the unification of the Seven Kingdoms.

Immediately, they left Earl Rosby as the acting lord of Sunspear City, let Duke Tyrell lead an army to suppress the rebellions in various places, and then flew back to the capital on a dragon.

As soon as the two returned to King's Landing, the riot spread throughout Dorne at an alarming speed.

A large number of mobs poured into the fortress of Sunspear from the Shadow City. The defenders everywhere were slaughtered, and the knights who commanded them were tortured to death by the Dornish lords. Princess Merilla returned to Sunspear, and Lord Rosby was tied up before she pushed him off the Spear Tower and threw him to his death. The Tyrell army was stationed at Hellgate Keep, preparing to lead an army to attack Vance City and then retake Sunspear City. However, after his army penetrated deep into the desert, they disappeared and never returned.

The Iron Throne paid a large sum of gold to redeem Orys and others, and they were released in 7AC.

The atmosphere heated up quickly after that, and Aegon the Conqueror attacked Dorne again the following year with Rhaenys in order to avenge his humiliation.

They repeatedly burned castles that refused to surrender with dragon fire. The Dornish crossed the sea to attack the rainforest in the Stormlands, retaliated by burning half of the rainforest, and looted several towns and villages. The conflict deteriorated sharply, and more Dornish castles were burned by dragon fire in 9AC. A year later, Dorne launched a counterattack, and the two armies marched into the Dornish Marches and the Reach at the same time. Nightsong was captured and completely burned by the Fowler family, and a large number of hostages were taken, while the Dayne family attacked the city of Oldtown and plundered and destroyed the villages and fields outside the city.

The Targaryen family once again used the dragon to retaliate against the Dornish, and Skyreach, Starfall and Hellgate were all attacked by dragon fire. At Hellgate, the Dornish won the most glorious victory against the dragon. During the defense, a long arrow fired from a crossbow pierced Meraxes' eye, and the dragon and its rider Rhaenys died.

Rhaenys's death ushered in another phase of the First Dornish War. The next two years were called "Dragon's Wrath". Visenya and Aegon attacked Dornish castles everywhere in anger. Except for Sunspear, all Dornish castles and strongholds were burned by dragon fire. This strategy may be intended to provoke the Dornish to rebel against their monarch, but Dornish nobles and commoners resolutely resisted Targaryen.

When one plan failed, Aegon used another strategy. The Targaryens set a reward for the head of any Dornish lord, and several people were killed, but only two assassins were ordered to go to King's Landing to claim the reward. The Dornish retaliated against Aegon with the same strategy, and more people died, even in King's Landing, the core of Aegon's power.

At this time, Dorne had become a ruin, with countless casualties, but it still resolutely resisted Aegon the Conqueror. Finally, in 13 AC, Princess Meria died, and Dorne passed to her equally old son, Nimor Martell. He was tired of years of war, so he sent his daughter, Princess Daerella Martell, to lead a delegation to King's Landing to negotiate peace.

Daerella Martell brought the head of Meraxes as a gift to the king, but angered many people present, including Duke Baratheon and Queen Visenya, and some even clamored to send her to the lowest brothel to be bullied.

However, King Aegon still chose to listen to her request. Prince Nimor's request was simple, that both sides should cease fire, but it could only be a peace between countries on an equal footing, not a peace between lords and vassals.

Many people shouted "No surrender, no peace", and urged the king not to accept it, because in addition to the heavy casualties suffered by the Dornish, the Stormlands and the Reach also suffered heavy losses. When Aegon was about to reject her terms, Princess Daerella presented her father's letter.

This letter changed everything. It is said that Aegon held the Iron Throne so tightly while reading the letter that it cut his hand. He burned the letter immediately after reading it and flew to Dragonstone on his dragon. The next morning he returned to King's Landing, where he agreed to Princess Derrella's terms and the two sides signed a permanent peace treaty to end the war.

No one knows the content of this letter, and Aegon has never told anyone, but historians have several guesses:

1. The letter is magical.

2. Rhaenys may have been seriously injured and imprisoned somewhere to be tortured, and Prince Nimor promised that as long as the two sides negotiated peace, he would end Rhaenys's pain.

3. Prince Nimor promised to use all of Dorne's wealth and bet everything on hiring the Faceless Men to assassinate Aegon's heir, Aenys.

The First Dornish War, which lasted nearly ten years, ended with both sides paying a heavy price, but Dorne successfully maintained its independence, but Aegon the Conqueror failed to unify the Seven Kingdoms. This peace lasted for about 150 years until Daeron I Targaryen, the Young Dragon, invaded Dorne again.

Then we can continue with the records of "The Book of the Four Kings".

In the conquest of Dorne by King Daeron I, the Young Dragon, although the dragons of the Targaryen family had become extinct at this time, Daeron, the Young Dragon, did not rely on the dragons. In order to conquer Dorne, he also divided his troops into three groups to invade Dorne. The army led by him bypassed the rugged and dangerous Bone Road and the watchtowers in it through the goat trails and drove straight into the heart of Dorne. Lord Alyn Velaryon, the Oakfist, helped him block the Greenblood River by water. In the second year of the war, his army captured Sunspear, forcing the Martell family to surrender and become a vassal. It took another year to pacify the heart of Dorne.

During this period, the Young Dragon King was once assassinated, but the poisoned arrow aimed at the king hit his cousin "Dragon Rider" Aemon - the Aemon who had a sad love song with Queen Naerys that is still sung today.

After the war, the Young Dragon King returned to King's Landing with 14 hostages from different Dornish noble families, but the price was 10,000 casualties.

After the conquest, the Young Dragon King wrote "The Conquest of Dorne" to boast about his achievements. This book is concise and elegant, but Daeron exaggerated the number of enemies in the book to boast about his achievements, and the book also exaggerated his strategic role in bypassing the Bone Road, ignoring the fact that the "Oakfist" captured Planktown, controlled the Greenblood River and cut off the east and west of Dorne, which was more strategically significant.

But the Young Dragon's conquest did not last long and collapsed. The hostages he brought back to King's Landing could not force the people of Dorne to stop resisting, resulting in a loss of 40,000 lives in three years. Duke Tyrell, who governed Dorne on behalf of Daeron, could only work hard to suppress rebellions everywhere and was constantly harassed by the Dornish guerrillas. In the end, Duke Tyrell was killed by Earl Qorgel in Sandstone. Within half a month, the whole of Dorne was in riots and the Iron Throne army retreated.

Upon hearing the news, the Young Dragon immediately launched a counterattack on Dorne. He won several small battles and broke through the Bone Road, while "Oakfist" once again led the fleet to attack the Greenblood River. The Dornish were defeated and agreed to peace talks and swear allegiance again in 161 AC. Daeron did not expect that this was a trap. The Dornish treacherously attacked them, and the "Young Dragon" fought to his death with Blackfyre in his hand.

This also intersects with the story of the dragon rider Aemon. When the Young Dragon died, three of his guards died defending Daeron, one surrendered shamefully, and the dragon rider Aemon was captured after killing the traitor. Lord Weir of Weir locked the naked Aemon in a crow cage and placed it above a pit of poisonous snakes.

Daeron I never married and had no offspring, and the throne was inherited by his younger brother Baelor. Benjen Stark once commented on this young king: 10,000 people died to conquer Dorne, and then another 50,000 died to defend it.

And this successor Baelor is the "Baelor" blessed by God. He is the second son of Aegon III, the "Dragonbane", and succeeded to the throne after the death of his brother Daeron I, the "Young Dragon".

After Daeron died in Dorne, the 17-year-old Baelor was crowned king. His first order was to pardon the Dornish noble hostages brought to King's Landing by his brother, instead of killing them to avenge his brother. Baelor wanted to "bandage" the wounds caused by the war started by his brother. He decided to return the Dornish hostages and walked barefoot to Sunspear to make peace with the Dornish without a single soldier.

Baelor crossed the Bone Road barefoot into Dorne and went to Weir first, hoping to rescue the naked and humiliated Aemon from Weir. Lord Weir refused King Baelor, and King Baelor had to promise Aemon that he would come again.

Baelor went to Sunspear again. He miraculously reached a reconciliation with Dorne through his piety and marriage. The Prince of Dorne agreed with Baelor that Daeron, the grandson of Baelor's uncle and Prime Minister Viserys, would marry the prince's eldest daughter Miria when they came of age, and the Prince of Dorne ordered the release of Aemon.

Lord Weir accepted the order, but refused to release him directly. He just gave Baelor the key to the cage where Aemon was imprisoned and asked the king to rescue him himself.

At this time, Aemon was not only trapped naked in the cage, but also baked by the scorching sun during the day and attacked by the cold wind at night. A large pit was dug under the cage, which was full of poisonous snakes.

It is said that the "Dragon Rider" begged the king to leave him alone and return to the border of Dorne to find a solution. Baelor just smiled and said that the gods would protect him, and then stepped into the snake pit. Later singers claimed that the poisonous snakes bowed their heads in tribute to Baelor.

This is not the case. Baelor was bitten many times when he walked to the cage. Although he barely opened the cage, he almost fainted before the "Dragon Rider" opened the cage door and pulled him out of the snake pit.

It is said that the people of the Weir family watched Prince Aemon carrying King Baelor and struggling to climb out of the cage, and gloated and bet on who would die first. Perhaps it was their cruelty that inspired Aemon's fighting spirit. He climbed to the top of the cage and jumped out of the pit.

In the end, Aemon carried his brother King Baelor to Black Harbor City and finally returned to King's Landing.

The maesters of Blackhaven took care of the unconscious Baelor and sent him to Storm's End for treatment. After resting for half a year in Storm's End, Baelor recovered and returned to the capital. People said that the venom failed to kill Baelor because he was loyal to the Seven Gods. Others said that this story was just a metaphor for his trip to Dorne, mocking Dorne as a "snake pit" and the Dornishmen as a group of "venomous snakes."

During Baelor's rest, Prime Minister Viserys kept the country intact and running.

Later, when Baelor became more and more fanatical about religion, many people suspected that Baelor might have been mentally confused by the venom of the snake.

But Dorne has not yet been incorporated into the territory of the Seven Kingdoms.

Two more kings passed, "One Year King" Viserys II and "Mean King" Aegon IV.

It was not until Aegon's son "Good King" Daeron II that Dorne was finally incorporated into the unified kingdom. But it was not by iron and fire, but by two carefully arranged marriages, plus a solemn treaty that guaranteed the title and privileges of the prince of Dorne and respected the local laws and customs of Dorne.

Dorne has since maintained a close alliance with the Targaryens. The Martells supported the royal family during the Blackfyre Rebellion and sent troops to assist in the "Battle of the Nine Copperplate Kings" in the Stepstones. Before the War of the Usurper, Rhaegar Targaryen, the prince of Dragonstone and heir to the Iron Throne, married Princess Elia Martell of Sunspear, with whom he had a son and a daughter.

If Rhaegar had not kidnapped Lyanna, and Aerys II's madness, it would have been a foregone conclusion that a prince of Dornish blood would sit on the Iron Throne. During the War of the Usurper, Dorne belonged to the royalist party, but before they could send troops, Rhaegar was defeated at the Trident, King's Landing was swindled by the Lannister army, and the Targaryen dynasty was destroyed overnight.

The tragic deaths of Princess Elia and her children were always remembered by the Dornish. In order to achieve revenge, they allied with the Lannisters during the War of the Five Kings. The latter promised rewards including: marrying Princess Myrcella to Prince Trystane Martell, giving the Martells a seat on the Royal Council, some castles in the Dornish Marches, and the head of Ser Gregor Clegane, who raped and killed Princess Elia.

Prince Oberyn Martell was originally going to King's Landing to demand a seat on the Small Council and demand the head of Ser Gregor.

Although they had not paid much attention to Viserys in these years except for a secret engagement more than a decade ago, Viserys's actions on Dragonstone and the olive branch he extended had obviously given Dorne a new choice.