Chapitre 6: Chapter 5: Interlude: Time line
Time line of Events (AC denotes after Aegon's conquest):
268 AC: 7 years after the Reyne-Tarbeck rebellion, Prince Quentyn Martell (Reincarnation of Great General Riboku of the warring states period of ancient China) is born to Doran and Mellario of House Martell, in the Kingdom of Dorne in Westeros.
271 AC: Mellario Martell dies in childbirth, along with her newborn second child.
275 AC: Doran Martell dies of prolonged illness, making 7-year-old Quentyn the heir to the throne of Dorne.
276 AC: Birth of Prince Viserys Targaryen.
277 AC: The defiance of Duskendale. King Aerys Targaryen is briefly captured by rebels. The period of captivity begins the mental decline of the king.
280 AC: Crown prince Rhaegar Targaryen marries princess Elia Martell, sister of Doran and Oberyn Martell, aunt and foster-mother of Prince Quentyn Martell.
281 AC: Relation between King Aerys Targaryen, and his second-in-command, Tywin Lannister, the hand of the king, is irreparably broken, when Aerys Targaryen compels Jaime Lannister, the son of Tywin to join the famed Kingsguard, thereby depriving Tywin of his prized son and heir. At the same time, at the tourney of Harrenhal, Rhaegar Targaryen enamored by Lyanna Stark of Winterfell, honors her in the tourney and publicly humiliates his wife by consequence.
282 AC (First Half): Westeros reels with the abduction of Lyanna Stark by Crown Prince Rhaegar Targaryen. In reality, the both of them elope, but the world is unaware of the truth. Lyanna Stark's brother Brandon comes to Kings Landing to demand King Aerys to bring his son to heel and to have his sister returned, but the mad king imprisons him instead. His father, Lord Rickard Stark, Lord of the north, comes south to parlay with the King, but he is also captured and executed along with his son, leaving his second son Eddard Stark as the new lord of the North.
282 AC (Later half): Incensed by the defiance shown by Brandon and Rickard Stark, a paranoid and mentally unstable Aerys Targaryen, demands the heads of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark from Jon Arryn, the warden of the east and Lord of the Vale. Jon Arryn declines and rises in rebellion instead and is joined by his wards. As Robert is kin to the Targaryen bloodline, Robert Baratheon is proclaimed as the new claimant of the Iron Throne. The rebellion begins in earnest when Hoster Tully, Lord of the Riverlands, joins the rebels, after securing the marriages of both his daughters to Jon Arryn and Eddard Stark.
283 AC (First Half): House Tyrell remains loyal to the Iron Throne and besieges Storm's End, the home of Robert Baratheon with its full strength. Storm's End is defended by his younger brother Stannis Baratheon, who displays exemplary martial skill in withstanding a siege and rampant starvation tactics of the enemy for over a year while battles rage across the continent. On the other fronts, Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark, along with Rhaegar Targaryen prove themselves as generals of great skills, and battles are fought with great ferocity over the lands. Slowly, the armies of both sides make their way towards the Trident river. During the course of the march, Robert is forced to take a longer route after being denied passage by Randyll Tarly at the battle of Ashford, who takes over the Kingsroad. Robert compensates for this by defeating the hand of the king Jon Connington at the Battle of the bells decisively. Jon Connington is stripped of his titles and banished across the seas by Aerys Targaryen in return for his failure.
# On the other side, Rhaegar Targaryen crushes the combined hosts of Jon Arryn and Hoster Tully as they make their way towards Kings Landing via Harrenhal. Only the timely arrival of Frey forces under Lord Walder Frey of the Twins, who acts as a rearguard allows both leaders to escape with their lives. Later on, Rhaegar's pursuit of the two lords is stopped after timely reinforcements from both Brynden Tully & Yohn Royce arrive in the nick of time to halt the passage of the Targaryen forces. Llewyn Martell and Barristan Selmy of the Kingsguard, then pull back their forces and allow the broken forces of the Riverlands and the Vale to retreat and regroup as they make their way to the Trident to join forces with Robert and Eddard. Likewise, the Royalist forces also make their way towards the Trident.
283 AC (Second Half): Both sides amass their forces for a final clash alongside the Trident River. Aerys Targaryen compels Dorne to further reinforce the royalists, by taking Elia and her children hostage. Myriah Martell complies by sending 10,000 soldiers more to the royalists. Likewise, the rebels also consolidate their forces. The battle begins as Rhaegar tries to flank his enemies by crossing the Ruby ford. Llewyn Martell and his countrymen lead a fierce charge and kill many of Jon Arryn's bannermen. However, the Vale lords are rallied back by Ser Lyn Corbray, who manages to slay a wounded Llewyn Martell, with his father's Valyrian sword, thereby breaking the morale of the Dornish, who suffer frightening number of casualties. On the other hand, Barristan Selmy kills many of the lords of the Riverlands in the fighting, and ends the bloodlines of at least five houses in the Riverlands, until he is so gravely wounded that he cannot fight anymore and is captured. Lord Jason Mallister leads a charge of the Riverlander's in retaliation, and wipes out three of Rhaegar's bannermen and ends the bloodlines of an equal number of houses in the Crownlands. By then, Rhaegar and Robert clash in a one-on-one duel. The duel rages for nearly an hour, and by then Robert prevails over a physically weaker Rhaegar, and kills him. The Royalists break upon the death of their general and try to retreat, only to find that their path has been blocked by the Northern Army under the command of Eddard Stark, who have turned back and enveloped the entire battle field. With no recourse, the royalists surrender. Jonothor Darry, the last of the Kingsguard at the battlefield, makes a last stand and single-handedly holds off an entire company of soldiers, allowing Rhaegar's aides to escape with his body, to prevent it from being desecrated by his enemies. Darry is slain in the effort, but before doing so, he kills at least a hundred enemies.
284 AC (First Half): All of Westeros is in shock after the events of the battle of the Trident are made known. A desperate Aerys summons the last remaining levies of the Crownlands and orders Kings Landing to prepare for a siege. He sends his pregnant wife Rhaella and his six-year-old son Viserys, to their ancient naval stronghold of Dragonstone. But he keeps Elia and her children with him as hostages to ensure Dorne's loyalty, despite repeated requests by both Elia and her mother to let them go. The rebels wait to recover from the battle before marching towards the capital. With no recourse and despite sage counsel warning against it, Aerys calls for aid from Tywin Lannister, his erstwhile friend. House Lannister is the only major house which has sat out of the war and its armies are completely fresh. Tywin reportedly agrees and marches with a force of 30,000 to Kings Landing. Upon arrival he notifies Aerys, who orders the gates be opened for Tywin and his army. Tywin and his army turn on the king instead, and begin sacking the city. Acts of unspeakable cruelty and depravity are inflicted upon the citizens of Kings Landing, and it is later estimated by the Maesters of the Citadel that nearly 100,000 innocent people are killed. During the melee, King Aerys Targaryen is murdered by his own Kingsguard Jaime Lannister who stabs the king in the back. Princess Elia Martell and her children are targeted by the Lannister's. Princess is Rhaenys is butchered by Ser Amory Lorch, while Young Prince Aegon, a newborn babe is horrendously killed by Ser Gregor Clegane, who then proceeds to rape Elia violently, and then kills her.
# The murder of Rhaegar's innocent wife and children coupled with the brutal sacking of Kings Landing shocks the whole world. Dorne is incensed, while the fearful Reach decides secretly to capitulate to the Rebellion. As the rebels arrive, they find the situation untenable and proceed to restore order. Tywin hands over control of the city to the rebels and accepts Robert as King. When the corpses of the royal family are presented, Robert laughs heartily and condones the actions of Tywin; while his allies are queasy at the fact, they grudgingly accept the necessity of the acts even though they privately feel that the executions were far too brutal. Eddard Stark makes his displeasure clear, but even he grudgingly accedes to the necessity of the deaths of the ruling family to ensure a complete transition from one ruling family to another. Robert is acknowledged as the winner of the rebellion, but he cannot publicly crown himself as king yet, as he still needs to subdue Dorne. Eddard Stark later departs to relieve Storms End and to continue the search for his sister Lyanna. In Sunspear, General Riboku aka Prince Quentyn learns of the fate of his foster-mother and her children and rises up in anger and vows to take revenge on Tywin Lannister.
284 AC (Second Half): Dorne is frothing at the insult heaped at its beloved princess. Young Prince Quentyn Martell takes charge of affairs and starts to take command. He investigates and learns the truth of Rhaegar and Lyanna's actions, and discovers Rhaegar's treachery of marrying Lyanna Stark in secret, and annulling his marriage with Elia Martell. Quentyn has the septon who married Rhaegar and Lyanna executed, and then orders the razing of the particular sept where the wedding took place, with added emphasis placed upon the silencing of any and all witnesses to the wedding.
# Three weeks after the sacking of Kings Landing, Myriah Martell summons all of the Lords of Dorne to Sunspear along with their levies. There, Myriah Martell announces her decision to appoint her 15-year-old grandson as the supreme commander of all of Dorne's armies, and the decision is protested loudly by many. Upon which, Quentyn makes an impassioned speech to the whole gathered nobility of Dorne, in a phenomenal display of oratory and charisma which leaves the listeners spellbound. The Lords of Dorne witness for the first time the enormous potential and the hidden skills of their prince and grudgingly accept the decision of the Princess of Dorne.
# But despite gaining the acknowledgment of the nobility, Quentyn realizes that their enemies still outnumber them by a ridiculous margin. So, he decides to rally the ordinary citizenry of Dorne to raise a fresh army. In a grand stage, upon the walls of Dorne's capital city, he has the entire population of Sunspear brought out, and flanked by his grandmother, the ruler of Dorne on the left , and by his uncle 'the red viper' on the right, along with all the lords of all the noble houses; he delivers a rousing speech to the entire population, which is later dubbed by the witnesses and the Maesters who chronicled it as a 'miracle of the ages'. The effect of the speech is so great, that when word of that speech spreads to the rest of Dorne, they are able to raise a host of 40,000 men, which is unprecedented in the existence of the Desert Kingdom. The Lords of Dorne finally realize that they are dealing with someone who actually can prevail against the likes of Robert Baratheon and Eddard Stark and withdraw their objections and agree to wholeheartedly support him in his endeavors. Due to extremely strict monitoring of communications throughout the kingdom imposed by Quentyn, the fact that Dorne was able to raise such an army, and knowledge of Quentyn's capabilities remain hidden from the rest of the world. At the same time, Oberyn Martell departs for Braavos.
# Meanwhile, Robert Baratheon decides to send Jon Arryn to Dorne to demand their surrender, and turns towards consolidating his immediate gains and begins the work of laying the foundations of his future kingdom. The houses of the Crownlands are punished severely for associating with House Targaryen. The said houses accept said indignities, as they are no longer in a position to protest, but the seeds of rebellion against Robert are already sown. Later, in a major embarrassment, Barristan Selmy spits on Robert's face in public in full court, when asked by Robert to serve him as the commander of his new Kingsguard. Barristan spits on his face, and declares that he had already served one tyrant albeit unwillingly and he will not willingly serve another, more so when it is a person who stands atop the butchered corpse of a child and rejoices in it. For his defiance, Barristan is thrown into the black cells, while a humiliated Robert retires back into the Keep. Only the intervention of Varys, Pycelle and Hoster Tully saves Barristan's life.
# At the same time, Quentyn takes his new army towards the Dornish Marches, and devises a brutal training and skill management system for the soldiers as well as the commanders. He completely restructures the army and its rank and file, and new formations and tactics are taught to the soldiers, who are put through a grueling training regime.
# Six weeks after Oberyn Martell's departure, the Ironborn begin to move. Quellon Greyjoy, the Lord of the Iron Islands unleashes his reavers upon an unsuspecting Westeros. However, having taken note of the events that have occurred for the past two years, he decides to be more careful, and preparations for the raids are made so secretly, that no one learns of them, until it is too late.
# Quellon personally leads the raid against Lannisport, the main city of the Westerlands, along with his heir Balon. He sends his second son Victarion to the Riverlands, and taking into account the capabilities shown by Eddard Stark, he sends his most talented son Euron, who is also the most brutal one amongst his sons, to the North. On the other side, Eddard Stark and his men reach Storms End, where Mace Tyrell formally surrenders and lifts the siege. The army of the Reach begins preparation to march back to Highgarden. Mace Tyrell leaves Randyll Tarly in command and makes his way back with haste to Highgarden to confer with his family and take stock of the situation.
# The Ironborn raids are a spectacular success. Quellon and Balon burn the fleet of Westerlands to ashes, and sack Lannisport. Ser Daven Lannister, Lord of Lannisport and cousin to Tywin Lannister is killed. Enormous wealth is looted by the Ironborn. Similarly, Victarion smashes Seagard and returns with an equally rich haul. On the other hand, Euron attacks White Harbor and encounters the Northern fleet commanded by Lord Wyman Manderly. The battle ends in a pyrrhic victory for the North as the Ironborn are repelled, with them not even being able to set foot on land. However, the Northern fleet is wrecked beyond repair, and Lord Wyman loses his right leg in battle against Euron. But he acquits himself well, as Euron Greyjoy loses his left eye in the battle and earns the nickname 'Crows-eye'. Though they return without any riches, the Ironborn are elated at having crushed their ancient enemies the Northmen in a pitched battle. Compared to what happened at the other places where the Ironborn made landfall, in later years, all observers agree that the Northmen were victorious, but at too great a cost. Eddard Stark however, is praised for his forethought of leaving a garrison behind to deal with potential threats as he is proven right by the Ironborn raid.
# The Ironborn raids come as a great shock to the already war-weary populace of Westeros. Panic sets in the streets of almost all cities and villages. Hoster Tully and Tywin Lannister immediately begin to make preparations to have their armies move back to their homelands. Meanwhile Quentyn's army finally finishes its preparations and sets out to the Dornish Marches. Jon Arryn enters the borders of Dorne on the same day that Quentyn sets out.
# In five days, the Dornish army makes astonishing speed and reaches Starpike, the home of House Peake, sworn bannermen of House Tyrell, and one of the oldest noble houses of the Reach. Starpike castle also possesses a legendary reputation as the gateway to the Reach, and boasts of having never fallen in battle. In the Peake Uprising, King Maekar I Targaryen himself had lost his life in the battle to subdue the castle (which had been taken only by starving its denizens after a long time). Quentyn takes down the castle which took an army of 100,000 nine months to subdue, in less than half a day, shocking his subordinates into a horrified silence at the terrifying speed and brutality with which he accomplishes it. Quentyn then has the entirety of House Peake executed, along with all relatives and associates who may or may not have a claim over Starpike. This is done to ensure that there are no claimants left to claim Starpike, and so that it may be assimilated into Dorne without issues. After the executions, Quentyn begins to make massive fortifications to the already formidable castle. Meanwhile, Varys, the spy-master of Kings Landing receives word that Lyanna Stark has been killed by Ser Arthur Dayne, the sword of the morning, who has also killed his fellow Kingsguard as well as five of Eddard Stark's men, and that he has escaped.
# The taking of Starpike, and the revelation that fifteen-year-old Quentyn Martell has taken over the command of the Dornish army causes an upheaval in the Reach. It is speculated that the Dornish and the Ironborn may be working together as the Ironborn raids have conveniently drawn away majority of the forces of the rebellion away from Kings Landing, but it is not completely proven due to lack of evidence. Jon Arryn who has by then nearly reached Sunspear is warned by Yohn Royce, who races into Dorne to warn the old lord.
# Two weeks after the fall of Starpike, as the majority of the Reach Army of 50,000 is still making its way into the Reach from Storms End, and due to the fact that they will be required to guard against any Ironborn incursions, Mace Tyrell decides to raise a second levy of 30,000 and sends them with haste to seal the breach in the Reach's defenses made by the Dornish army. The new army is placed under the command of Lord Leyton Hightower, who with his son Baelor departs for the front. On the other side, Barristan Selmy breaks out of the black cells and makes his way towards Dorne, while from the other end of Dorne, Arthur Dayne does the same. Due to the commotion raised by the Ironborn raids, Barristan Selmy's escape goes unnoticed. Finally, after traveling for three months, Jon Arryn reaches Dorne's capital, Sunspear.
# The stage is now set.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone