The Dragon Queen's Consolidation is the name given to the wars, battles and events that truly lead to the transition of the Master's rule over Slaver's Bay to that of the Targaryen Monarchy in the Bay of Dragons.
Timeline of Events[]
300AC[]
- Astapor is besieged by Yunkai and sends forth an army of immature Unsullied warriors to defend itself. They fall foul of the sellsword army hired by the Wise Masters, and the city is sacked. King Cleon is slain by his successor Cleon the Second, who is in turn slain by the efforts of the Whore Queen and King Cutthroat. Both are killed in the fighting.
- Daenerys Targaryen makes peace with Yunkai, exchanging hostages. In a celebration of the re-opening of the fighting pits, the Supreme Commander of the Yunkai’i army, Yurkhaz zo Yunzak is slain and Queen Daenerys disappears atop Drogon. When Strong Belwas grows ill from poisoned locusts, Hizdahr zo Loraq is arrested by Barristan Selmy, Grey Worm and Skahaz mo Kandaq, although Barristan refuses to kill him until proof of their suspicions of his guilt is obtained. Meanwhile, Rhaegal and Viserion escape as a result of the efforts of Quentyn Martell and his companions, causing chaos throughout the city. Having demanded that Hizdahr slay Daenerys’ other dragons since the death of Yunzak at the fighting pit, the Wise Masters once again start to siege the city, knowing their demands have been ignored.
- Hizdahr zo Loraq’s arrest provokes the Sons of the Harpy to continue their attacks - three the first night, nine the second, twenty-nine the third and sixty-one the fourth. Barristan reluctantly releases Hizdahr, and the killings stop once again, much to the anger of Kandaq. Barristan orders the Brazen Beasts to increase their efforts surrounding the confectioner responsible for the supply of the poisoned locusts, but finds that he is just a catspaw.
- Strong Belwas, despite the efforts of the Blue Graces, dies from the poison ingested at the Great Pit of Daznak. Skahaz mo Kandaq, tired with the ponderous investigation of Barristan Selmy flies into a fit of rage, and commands a group of Brazen Beasts to arrest Hizdahr once more. Interrupting Hizdahr’s attempts to barter peace with the Wise Masters, Skahaz and the Brazen Beasts butcher a number of Ghiscari nobles, including a number of the Yunkai’i serving as Supreme Commander in the rotation created after Yurkhaz zo Yunzak’s demise (Grazdor zo Ahlaq, Gorzhak zo Eraz, Faezhar zo Faez, Morghaz zo Zherzyn) and Hizdahr zo Loraq himself. In retaliation, the Sons of the Harpy slay one hundred, five-and-eighty the following night, causing Barristan Selmy to order the end to all patrols within the city in their entirety, as well as putting the Shavepate to death. Skahaz mo Kandaq demands Barristan duel him and take his life himself, seeing as the Westerosi is so keen to take his life with words. Barristan the Bold obliges, and cuts down the Ghiscari in single combat. Not trusting the Brazen Beasts, Barristan disbands the organisation after their commander’s death, funnelling the men into different roles that force them to discard their masks.
- Paezhar zo Myraq becomes Supreme Commander of the Yunkai’i forces, and starts to order the artillery of the Yunkai’i army to fling bodies of those deceased from the pale mare into the city. Knowing the city will eventually fall prey to the disease long before their supply stores run dry, Barristan Selmy rides out with the army of Meereen, meeting the Yunkai’i on an open field. Riding in his force with Tumco Lho, Larraq the Lash, Red Lamb, Barristan leads the vanguard, supported by other forces commanded by Jokin and Grey Worm respectively and reinforced by a number of smaller companies including the Free Brothers, Stalwart Shields and Mother’s Men.
- When the Windblown betray the Yunkai’i forces, following secret conversation between Barristan and the Tattered Prince, the battle sways in favour of the Meereenese, and Yunkai is sent fleeing in defeat. For a time, the killings within the city come to an end, and there is peace within the walls for the remainder of the year.
- The defeated Yunkai’i army does not rest however, for it marches by Yunkai in its retreat, and instead retakes the city of Astapor, returning it to the Good Masters. Barristan and the remainder of Daenerys’ followers within the city are unable to send aid, for they lick their own wounds.
301AC[]
- Daenerys Targaryen returns to Meereen, atop the monstrous form of Drogon and attended to by nearly fourteen thousand Dothraki who call her Khaleesi. With the great Khalasar lingering outside the walls of Meereen, those that had set down their blades reach for them once more, and the killings once again start, although not nearly to the same level as before. While they call her Queen, the Dothraki do not take well to being stuck in one place. The city of Lhazosh is sacked and raided repeatedly by those that fear of growing complacent.
- Grazdan mo Eraz arrives at Volantis, preaching to the Triarchs of the Old Blood of the evil that Daenerys brings. Regardless of whether they believe the tales of her feeding her dragons upon newborn babes and bathing in maidens’ blood, they cannot deny the disruption she has caused to the slave trade between Volantis and Slaver’s Bay. The Elephant Triarchs Daerys Qoheros and Taegor Tagaros agree to finance the hiring of sellswords to assist in the dispatch of the Dragon Queen. While the Tiger Triarch Baelor Staegone instead suggests that Volantene warriors and Tiger Cloaks are greater than any sellsword, he is overruled, and countless Volantene honors are invested in hiring the Golden Company as they return from their battles in Westeros during the War of the Seven Kings. They spend the best part of the next three moons increasing their strength through widespread recruitment, before travelling east to Slaver’s Bay. Among their number is Arianne Martell, who fled after the defeat of Aegon Blackfyre and Jon Connington at the hands of King Renly Baratheon and Randall Tarly. She finds solace with the people of the Rhoyne within the city of Selhorys, although quickly grows restless.
- Arianne would not be the only Westerosi noble bound east, as she is beaten to the den of the Dragon Queen by Tyrion Lannister and his nephew Tommen, who also fled Westeros, albeit before the Dornishwoman. Knowing his strength comes from being in a position to advise and support, Tyrion decides that his side is with Daenerys, who also represents his one chance of reclaiming his place back home in Westeros. Tyrion and Tommen make it to Meereen uninhibited and pledge themselves to Daenerys Targaryen upon their arrival in Meereen, and the Imp quickly proves himself capable, although Barristan remains unconvinced, spurned as he was by his dismissal by Tyrion and Tommen’s kin, Joffrey. Within half a year, Barristan and Tyrion found themselves a somewhat unlikely duo, forged upon a growing and deepening mutual respect as both served their Queen faithfully.
- War finally comes to Meereen, and it flies a number of banners. A dozen sellsword companies, backed by an army of Unsullied, Yunkai’i and Astapori slave warriors and numerous other minor mercenary groups marches for Meereen, ready for war once again. Tyrion councils diplomacy, but Daenerys hears nothing of it. Atop Drogon, she rallies forth her supporters, but then flies east. On the third day, she returns, bringing with her much of the khalasar that had she had encountered in her time when she had left the city. In a wave of whips, arakhs and dragonflame, the Ghiscari forces are once again devastated, and half a dozen companies extinguished through fire, including the Golden Company and Company of the Cat.
- In Volantis, Arianne Martell is captured by Jorah Mormont, who had been exiled by Daenerys, fearing he was the one foretold to betray her for love. He sees Arianne as a valuable asset for his Queen, hoping that Arianne may be a valuable bargaining piece in obtaining Dornish support during the invasion of Westeros.
- Pushing upon her momentum, Daenerys sought to deal with the issue of Masters once and for all. The two cities of Yunkai and Astapor both fall within as many moons, and Daenerys declares Slaver’s Bay no more - it is no longer a place for those that pray upon the weak and vulnerable for their own gain. The region has been known as the Bay of Dragons ever since. The campaign claims the lives of thousands upon both sides, including Daario Naharis, who is executed when Daenerys races overhead of Yunkai atop Drogon. When she returns to Meereen, she finds Jorah Mormont waiting for her, with Arianne Martell in his possession.
- Feeling nothing but apostasy towards Daenerys Targaryen for ignoring his council, Tyrion accepts rule of Astapor, thus seeking to distance himself from the Dragon Queen. The last of the Clansmen of the Vale still in his retinue are made into his ‘elite’ guard, and the Halfman starts working towards great reform within the city and strengthen it once more, following the devastation wrought to person and property alike by the cruelty of Drogon’s dragonflame.
- Daenerys finds herself challenged however when it comes to appointing a ruler for Yunkai. Seeking to avoid choosing a Ghiscari, for fear it would undermine her efforts to remove the presence of the Masters from their position at the top, she turns instead to an unlikely individual - Arianne Martell. Having heard of her father Doran from Tyrion, Barristan and Jorah alike, she makes the Princess a offer. Prove yourself to me, and you will rule as was your right.
- Her rule consolidated once again, Daenerys sets forth from the city in search of her other two dragons, Rhaegal and Viserion. After a number of excursions over the course of several moons, she and Drogon manage to locate Rhaegal, and guide him back to Meereen. Rhaegal makes his nest at the peak of the Pyramid of the House of Ghazeen, but of Viserion there is no sign. Every day and every night, a dozen sheep were slaughtered and lain in Daznak's Pit in hope of attracting the pale-winged beast home. It fails.
302AC[]
- Feeling that she now finally has control over the Slavers’ Cities, Daenerys moves once again to enact the actions she sought to do upon her arrival. Slavery is outlawed, the fighting pits are closed and the Ghiscari way of life is upheaved in favour of her vision. Those powerful and strong that had previously stood against had been cast aside, either into exile, or into the maw of Drogon, so it seemed her edicts would go unchallenged, and they were, for a time.
- It was not the Sons of the Harpy that would stand against Daenerys, but instead another group that claimed servitude to the same figurehead. The Talons strike viciously and cruelly, leaving their victims ravaged by numerous trios of blade marks depicting the wounds inflicted by the appendage for which they are named. They target Unsullied, sellswords, freedmen and civilians alike, as well as streaking the walls with bloody claw prints. Daenerys dismisses the existence of the leader once again and all but disregards the attacks as birthing pains of a new age - nothing more than a transient copycat incident. Nonetheless, she tasks Barristan the Bold with investigating once again and summons to her Galazza Galare who had offered her council in the time of the Harpy’s Sons. The Green Grace warns that Daenerys is making changes too quickly, and that the Ghiscari are brittle people - they are set in their ways, and resistant to alterations. Daenerys agrees to maintain the Order of the Graces, and assures the residents of the city that they may continue to worship the Gods of Old Ghis if they desire, although declares that the Bay of Dragons is a place of religious freedom, to account for the diversity of those that reside and pass through alike.
- This only seems to spurn the Talons further. The Halls of Silk in Yunkai, the Plaza of Paragons in Astapor and Mazdhan’s Maze in Meereen are all struck in a coordinated attack seen as direct protest. Messages of hatred and images depicted a dragon drowning in blood are scrawled across Slaver’s Bay.
- Daenerys calls a Great Council in the Royal Pyramid of Meereen in response, tended to by Tyrion and Tommen Lannister, Barristan Selmy, Arianne Martell, Missandei, Grey Worm, the commanders of a dozen sellsword companies and the Green Graces of Meereen, Yunkai and Astapor, being Galazza Galare, Sishala Qaqqaz and Zamozna Raaq respectively. Such a gathering of the most powerful people in the Bay of Dragons naturally draws a lot of attention, and as a precaution Daenerys commands all parties bring warriors loyal to them, should the Talons seek to strike as they are gathered. Barristan and Tyrion remain resolute that the focus should be on finding the Harpy. Tyrion also points out that the coordinated strike reveals the Harpy must have some power remaining not just in one of the cities, but all. Arianne instead suggests swift action in response, suggesting instead that Daenerys should seek to bait out an attack with a new proclamation, then lie in wait as the snake in the grass until the Talons make their next move. Galazza stepped forwards, proclaiming in soft words that she and the other Graces had managed to make some progress against the collective threat. With a whisper, a dozen freedmen shuffled forth, bringing with them a vast chest - strong as they were, they seemed to still strain with the weight of the item within. Curiosity turned to horror and to confusion as the contents spilled forth with black blood, among it all the battered and rotten head of Viserion. Scales ripped from its snout, an eye torn from its socket, and a dozen wounds from bolts and ballistas, the head of the pale beast slumped lifeless upon the floor as half of the men in the room drew their blades.
- The Harpy was not a single person, but rather an order - the Order of the Graces. Ever present, from the Red and Blue Graces present at the birth of each Ghiscari noble, to the Gold Graces that grant the final rites to those departed. The White Graces who guided all in the city through words of prayer, the Purple Graces who guided those slaves to their fates in servitude, and atop them all the Green Graces, who even the Masters of Slaver’s Bay would council before any great action. They had been everywhere, and with it could engage and evade and guide those inducted to their bidding with ease and discreteness. Fighting erupted as the soldiers selected by the Pink Graces moved to slaughter those that had for the last years threatened the Ghiscari way of life as Galazza Galare and her peers gave the final wordless command. The Throne Room in the Royal Pyramid erupted into a bloody frenzy, slick and vicious and unforgiving. Grey Worm, Barristan Selmy and Jorah Mormont moved to protect their Queen, cutting down the elite guardsmen that bore down upon her with sword and spear. Stirred by the bloodshed, Rhaegal arrived from his nearby roost, melting the door that had been sealed behind the Graces upon their arrival. In waves of orange-red washed through with weaves of emerald green, the Throne Room was engulfed in flame, consuming all within. The Graces and their soldiers were slain, but the inferno was not particular in its hunger. Missandei of Naath, Grey Worm, Larraq the Lash and Red Lamb are among the slain, and Jorah Mormont suffers wounds to his arm, chest and face. He suffers in bed for moons, for Daenerys is quick to disband the Order of the Graces in their entirety, purging its ranks in her anger. Tyrion is only saved by the actions of Brown Ben Plumm, who shields the Imp from the flames from his body - and is somehow miraculously spared from the more severe burns suffered by the others on the edge of Rhaegal’s wrath. Although she mourns the death of Viserion, Missandei, Grey Worm and the others, she knows she must focus on the uncertain path ahead, rather that the one behind laden with blood.