#the dragonpit

[thewatcher0nthewall]

"...and the greatest of them all, Balerion and Vhagar, huge and acient and sleepy, but still terrifying when they woke and stirred and spread their wings"

[addamvelaryon]

ADDAM & THE SHEPHERD

*this is a repost with new additions*

Following up on my post about Addam and the Old Gods, I also wanted to write about another character whose story deals heavily with religious themes, the Shepherd. He is basically the anti-Addam, though their stories follow a similar trajectory. The Shepherd only emerges in King’s Landing after Addam is gone, and had Addam stayed, perhaps the Shepherd might’ve never shown himself. Unlike Addam, whose religious themes focus on the Old Gods, the Shepherd is written as a devotee of the Faith of the Seven.

There’s a shift in how GRRM writes about Rhaenyra’s reign from start to finish, in the lead-up to the Storming of the Dragonpit (orchestrated by the Shepherd in Addam’s absence, but nevertheless, Addam’s presence is felt all throughout). Indeed, F&B emphasizes that if Addam had been in King’s Landing, the Shepherd could’ve never taken power or attacked the Dragonpit. It’s also worth pointing out that Rhaenyra’s reign at the start is quite prosperous. Despite the conflicts occurring elsewhere and the rising tensions within the city populace, everything still remains stable for the most part, until Addam leaves and the Shepherd arrives on the scene.

On Maiden’s Day in the year 130 AC, the Citadel of Oldtown sent forth three hundred white ravens to herald the coming of winter, but Mushroom and Septon Eustace agree that this was high summer for Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen. Despite the disaffection of the Kingslanders, the city and crown were hers. Across the narrow sea, the Triarchy had begun to tear itself to pieces. The waves belonged to House Velaryon. Though snows had closed the passes through the Mountains of the Moon, the Maiden of the Vale had proven true to her word, sending men by sea to join the queen’s hosts. Other fleets brought warriors from White Harbor, led by Lord Manderly’s own sons, Medrick and Torrhen. On every hand Queen Rhaenyra’s power swelled whilst King Aegon’s dwindled.

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And thus did betrayal beget more betrayal, to the queen’s undoing. As Ser Luthor Largent and his gold cloaks rode up Rhaenys’s Hill with the queen’s warrant, the doors of the Dragonpit were thrown open above them, and Seasmoke spread his pale grey wings and took flight, smoke rising from his nostrils. Ser Addam Velaryon had been forewarned in time to make his escape.

[…]

All the while tales of the slaughter at Tumbleton were spreading through the city…and with them, terror. King’s Landing would be next, men told one another. Dragon would fight dragon, and this time the city would surely burn. Fearful of the coming foe, hundreds tried to flee, only to be turned back at the gates by the gold cloaks. Trapped within the city walls, some sought shelter in deep cellars against the firestorm they feared was coming, whilst others turned to prayer, to drink, and the pleasures to be found between a woman’s thighs. By nightfall, the city’s taverns, brothels, and septs were full to bursting with men and women seeking solace or escape, and trading tales of horror.

’Twas in this dark hour that there rose up in Cobbler’s Square a certain itinerant brother, a barefoot scarecrow of a man in a hair shirt and roughspun breeches, filthy and unwashed and smelling of the sty, with a begging bowl hung round his neck on a leather thong. A thief he had been, for where his right hand should have been was only a stump covered by ragged leather. Grand Maester Munkun suggests he might have been a Poor Fellow; though that order had long been outlawed, wandering Stars still haunted the byways of the Seven Kingdoms. Where he came from we cannot know. Even his name is lost to history. Those who heard him preach, like those who would later record his infamy, knew him only as the Shepherd. Mushroom names him “the Dead Shepherd,” for he claims the man was as pale and foul as a corpse fresh-risen from its grave.

The Dragonpit is a central location of this story, especially because the climax of the Dance takes place there. In the larger scheme of things, the Dragonpit has an inverse relation to the Wall in the North.

The core purpose of the Dragonpit is the protection of the dragons. More specifically, Addam was tasked with the duty to serve at the Dragonpit, to protect the city. The Shepherd claims to also protect King’s Landing, but he wants the dragons dead in order to accomplish his mission.

It had long been the custom for at least one dragonrider to reside at the pit, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the city should the need arise. As Rhaenyra preferred to keep her sons by her side, that duty fell to Addam Velaryon.

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It was the fear of dragons, and of their presence, that gave birth to the Shepherd. […] Fear begat anger, and anger begat a thirst for blood. And when the Shepherd announced that the city would be saved only when the city was cleansed of dragons, people listened.

Interestingly enough, the main gates of the Dragonpit are described as made of bronze and iron (metals of the First Men). The Shepherd cannot pass through and has to find another way around to enter the building. In all likelihood, Addam passed through these exact gates as he escaped from the Dragonpit and made his way to the Isle of Faces. It would be quite the contrast if the Old Gods/First Men affiliated Addam can pass through the ancient gates but the White Walker coded Shepherd is prevented from doing so.

The Shepherd’s lambs smashed through the doors (the towering main gates, sheathed in bronze and iron, were too strong to assault, but the building had a score of lesser entrances) and came clambering through windows.

The trajectory of Addam’s story once he leaves King’s Landing appears to strangely mirror the Shepherd who takes up power in the capital. Both of them are driven by the will of the gods, so to speak. While Addam acts against the forces gathered at Tumbleton, the Shepherd begins his work in King’s Landing. They are similarly persistent in their efforts to build their army. In order to do so, both characters spread the message about what they see as the encroaching danger, like prophets spreading the word of their gods.

Many a battle and skirmish had already been fought in the lands watered by the Trident, and there was scarce a keep or village that had not paid its due in blood…but Addam Velaryon was relentless and determined and glib of tongue, and the riverlords knew much and more of the horrors that had befallen Tumbleton. By the time Ser Addam was ready to descend on Tumbleton, he had near four thousand men at his back.

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Whoever or whatever he might have been, this one-handed Shepherd rose up like some malign spirit, calling down doom and destruction on Queen Rhaenyra to all who came to hear. As tireless as he was fearless, he preached all night and well into the following day, his angry voice ringing across Cobbler’s Square.

[…]

The Targaryens had escaped the Doom, fleeing across the seas to Dragonstone, but “the gods are not mocked,” and now a second doom was at hand. “The false king and the whore queen shall be cast down with all their works, and their demon beasts shall perish from the earth,” the Shepherd thundered. All those who stood with them would die as well. Only by cleansing King’s Landing of dragons and their masters could Westeros hope to avoid the fate of Valyria.

Each hour his crowds grew. A dozen listeners became a score and then a hundred, and by break of dawn thousands were crowding into the square, shoving and pushing as they strained to hear. Many clutched torches, and by nightfall the Shepherd stood amidst a ring of fire.

The Shepherd’s intentions are as clear as Addam’s: To destroy the dragons and their riders, who are their enemies. Incidentally, these two recognize the immediate danger posed by the army gathered at Tumbleton, and therefore, act to protect the city of King’s Landing. Though they obviously go about their goals in very different ways. Addam seeks to directly destroy the Green army and their dragons which are stationed at Tumbleton. He takes the battle straight to the heart of enemy territory. Meanwhile, the Shepherd leads his followers to riot, ultimately marching on the Dragonpit to kill the dragons residing within the city. He is operating under the belief that eliminating the dragons here will save them from being targeted by the Green army. Of note, they both wish to cleanse something sinful.

Tumbleton woke in the black of night to screams and shouts. Outside the town walls, the camps were burning. Columns of armored knights were pouring in from north and west, wreaking slaughter, the clouds were raining arrows, and a dragon was swooping down upon them, terrible and fierce.

Thus began the Second Battle of Tumbleton.

The dragon was Seasmoke, his rider Ser Addam Velaryon, determined to prove that not all bastards need be turncloaks. How better to do that than by retaking Tumbleton from the Two Betrayers, whose treason had stained him?

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Ser Addam’s night attack took them completely unawares. Before the men of Prince Daeron’s army even knew they were in a battle, the enemy was amongst them, cutting them down as they staggered from their tents, as they were saddling their horses, struggling to don their armor, buckling their sword belts.

Most devastating of all was the dragon. Seasmoke came swooping down again and yet again, breathing flame. A hundred tents were soon afire, even the splendid silken pavilions of Ser Hobert Hightower, Lord Unwin Peake, and Prince Daeron himself. Nor was the town of Tumbleton reprieved. Those shops and homes and septs that had been spared the first time were engulfed in dragonflame.

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That night King’s Landing rose in bloody riot.

The rioting began amidst the alleys and wynds of Flea Bottom, as men and women poured from the wine sinks, rat pits, and pot shops by the hundreds, angry, drunken, and afraid. From there the rioters spread throughout the city, shouting for justice for the dead princes and their murdered mother. Carts and wagons were overturned, shops looted, homes plundered and set afire. Gold cloaks attempting to quell the disturbances were set upon and beaten bloody. No one was spared, of high birth or low.

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“The Stranger comes, he comes, he comes, to scourge us for our sins. Prayers cannot stay his wroth, no more than tears can quench the flame of dragons. Only blood can do that. Your blood, my blood, their blood.” Then he raised his right arm and jabbed the stump of his missing hand at Rhaenys’s Hill behind him, at the Dragonpit black against the stars. “There the demons dwell, up there. Fire and blood, blood and fire. This is their city. If you would make it yours, first must you destroy them. If you would cleanse yourself of sin, first must you bathe in dragon’s blood. For only blood can quench the fires of hell.”

[…]

From ten thousand throats a cry went up. “Kill them! Kill them!” And like some vast beast with ten thousand legs, the lambs began to move, shoving and pushing, waving their torches, brandishing swords and knives and other, cruder weapons, walking and running through the streets and alleys toward the Dragonpit.

Addam’s signature dragon battle at Tumbleton is written with the symbolism of a Last Hero figure fighting the White Walkers. At the same time, the Shepherd reigns during a period known as the Long Night. As I mentioned above, the text describes the Shepherd as being like a dead man who has risen, furthering the Long Night connection.

During that long night, Septon Eustace tells us, the Shepherd held sway over half the city, whilst strange lords and kings of misrule squabbled o’er the rest.

The Velaryon soldiers who abandoned Rhaenyra, as a consequence of her decision to target Addam, go on to join up with the Shepherd. Interestingly enough, the supporters of the Shepherd are associated with rodents only in one instance (in every other mention, they are described as followers or lambs or flock), and that’s to show the presence of the Velaryon soldiers who would’ve been heavily armed. Naturally, the allusion to rodents brings to mind Addam who is described as a little mouse.

By ordering the arrest of Addam Velaryon, she had lost not only a dragon and a dragonrider, but her Queen’s Hand as well…and more than half the army that had sailed from Dragonstone to seize the Iron Throne was made up of men sworn to House Velaryon. When it became known that Lord Corlys languished in a dungeon under the Red Keep, they began to abandon her cause by the hundreds. Some made their way to Cobbler’s Square to join the throngs gathered round the Shepherd.

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The Shepherd’s rats were armed with spears, longaxes, spiked clubs, and half a hundred other kinds of weapons, including both longbows and crossbows.

The people of King’s Landing look with hope to the Shepherd to become their saviour, but the actual person who ends up saving the city is Addam. Even despite Addam’s death, his army carries on his legacy to protect King’s Landing.

The crowd, Septon Eustace says, was twice as large and thrice as fearful as the night before. Like the queen they so despised, the Shepherd’s “lambs” were looking to the sky with dread, fearing that King Aegon’s dragons would arrive before the night was out, with an army close behind them. No longer believing that the queen could protect them, they looked to their Shepherd for salvation.

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The accused turncloak Addam Velaryon, born Addam of Hull, had saved King’s Landing from the queen’s foes…at the cost of his own life.

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As the riverlords rode through the city, smallfolk cheered them from rooftops and balconies, and pretty girls scampered forward to shower their saviors with kisses (like mummers in a farce, says Mushroom, suggesting all this had been devised by Larys Strong).

[…]

Orwyle spoke for them, hailing the riverlords as deliverers.

Most notably of all, Addam and the Shepherd are described as extensions of their gods. There are also songs about them in-universe that connect them to the divine. Addam’s arrival at Tumbleton begins with the mention of the Old Gods imagery. Likewise, the Shepherd’s involvement in the Storming of the Dragonpit presents him as an avatar of the Faith, specifically the Warrior. Another detail that connects them is their use of a specifically draconic weapon against their foe(s). Addam has his dragon, Seasmoke, while the Shepherd uses a sword that’s clearly made of dragonsteel aka Valyrian steel (known for its distinctively smoky appearance).

Men may plot and plan and scheme, but they had best pray as well, for no plan made by man has ever withstood the whims of the gods above. Two days later, on the very day the Caltrops planned to strike, Tumbleton woke in the black of night to screams and shouts. Outside the town walls, the camps were burning. Columns of armored knights were pouring in from north and west, wreaking slaughter, the clouds were raining arrows, and a dragon was swooping down upon them, terrible and fierce.

[…]

The dragon was Seasmoke, his rider Ser Addam Velaryon.

[…]

Singers say Ser Addam had flown from King’s Landing to the Gods Eye, where he landed on the sacred Isle of Faces and took counsel with the Green Men.

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The tale most oft heard in King’s Landing named the Shepherd himself as the dragonslayer. As others fled, the story went, the one-handed prophet stood fearless and alone against the ravening beast, calling on the Seven for succor, till the Warrior himself took form, thirty feet tall. In his hand was a black blade made of smoke that turned to steel as he swung it, cleaving the head of Syrax from her body. And so the tale was told, even by Septon Eustace in his account of these dark days, and so the singers sang for many years thereafter.

I do believe that the Shepherd suffered from some sort of religious psychosis and that’s what led him down a dark path to eliminate all the dragons. However, his aim was purely about saving the city. As misguided as the Shepherd may be, his intentions appear rather genuine. Unlike the other two monarchs during the Moon of Three Kings, the Shepherd is the only one who never claimed kingship for himself, even as he preached endlessly about killing the dragons to protect the city.

Addam is, at his core, a protector. That is his most defining characteristic from the beginning of his story to the end point. Similar to the Shepherd, he too looks to a higher power in his effort to save King’s Landing from the threat at Tumbleton. It’s heavily implied that Addam would’ve experienced some visions of the horrors occurring in Tumbleton and how that situation could worsen if it’s not stopped (presented through the Long Night symbolism in his story) and that’s what prompted him to take action. Rather than returning back to King’s Landing with his army, he leads them further south to Tumbleton. In the end, the dragons die but Addam’s efforts to save the city are successful enough that it ushers in the period known as the False Dawn (the true dawn will only occur in the main series with the return of the dragons to Westeros and the resolution of the conflict with the White Walkers -> the War for the Dawn).

[wfhandwatchingtv]

Did anyone else spot the parallels between Aegon and Sunfyre and Rhaenys and Meleys?

That was so beautiful.

[goodqueenaly]

So in F&B it says that there was a custom of keeping a dragon rider in residence at the Dragonpit in one of the Dance chapters, but unless I’m misremembering I don’t know if that was mentioned in earlier chapters. Do you think that started with Jaehaerys and Alysanne that maybe they had one of their kids there or rotating “shifts”? Thanks and hope you are doing well!

I think this is another area where F&B demonstrates its (IMHO) overall weakness as a narrative. It’s obvious that F&B was Frankenstein’d together from various novellas, stories, and ideas written and (partially) published over the course of years. “The Princess and the Queen” had introduced the idea some 10 years ago that “[i]t had long been the custom for at least one dragonrider to reside at the pit, so as to be able to rise to the defense of the city should the need arise”. However, just as F&B had proven reluctant to expand upon the idea of dragons beyond those already introduced - no word on the fates of all those unnamed “young dragons” and “hatchlings” and “drakes” which seemed to populate the pre-Dance Dragonpit and the Dragonmont - so did F&B refuse to elaborate on that supposedly long-held custom of dragonrider residence in the Dragonpit.

Worse, the often thin and lurid way in which F&B approaches its characters, especially during the reign of Jaehaerys I, hardly provides support for headcanons in this sector. It’s possible the late teenage and early adult Prince Aemon might have been resident in the Dragonpit between his knighting and his appointment as lord justiciar, but there remains the potential problem of how, if at all, Aemon would have divided his days between his full-time job on the small council (nevermind his wartime duties and peacetime progresses) and his residence in the Dragonpit. Too, while Baelon seems to have had no governmental position prior to his appointment as Hand of the King (again, his responsibilities as a prince of House Targaryen notwithstanding), Gyldayn seems little interested in suggesting that Baelon, and his fellow dragonrider Alyssa, did virtually nothing except bed each other for the entirety of their marriage (and specifically in the Red Keep, as Gyldayn seems to gleefully report). Princess Rhaenys might have been sidelined for the succession on the basis of her gender (and as Lady Velaryon after her marriage, she was not ideally locationally suited to be so), but whether this same misogynistic excuse would have been brought up or challenged for the role of resident dragonrider is a question Gyldayn never bothers to bring up in the first place, much less answer.

Indeed, the reign of Viserys I provides several moments where the role might have fit very naturally the plot and characters. If King Viserys wanted to include his brother in the Targaryen government, why wouldn’t he have given this fierce and eager brother a quasi-military role which kept him out of actual political work - and, in turn, would have given Daemon a physical base in the city away from the Red Keep from which he could have cultivated his “Prince of the City” reputation (and his control of his private army of gold cloaks)? (Put aside Daemon’s eventual disappearance from and only partial return to King’s Landing after Viserys I’s remarriage.) Even if Viserys did virtually nothing, certainly with any official political appointment, to promote Rhaenyra as his heiress beyond that 105 AC ceremony of proclamation, and so might not have considered naming her as the resident rider in the Dragonpit, but why didn’t Rhaenyra herself offer to serve as such? With the black and green factions eager to press their respective young princes as the future heirs, and more than willing to use proxy conflicts to jockey for position (as with the infamous Loveday-esque feast and Viserys’s late-reign throne injury), why wouldn’t Alicent and Rhaenyra have petitioned Viserys for such a role for, say, Aemond or Jacaerys? I’m not saying any one of these writing choices would have been perfect, but I am saying that I feel like this was a narrative opportunity GRRM missed exploring.

[twoiafart]

Balerion in the Dragonpit Artwork by René Aigner

It was not until the thirteenth day of the fourth moon of 56 AC that Balerion, the Black Dread, returned. On his back was the gaunt, starved Princess Aerea, her flesh burning and her mind lost in delirium. All efforts to cool her failed, and she died that evening. Her remains were burned the next day and it was announced that she had died of a fever. But this was not precisely the truth. Septon Barth recorded that Aerea had cooked from the inside, her flesh growing darker and cracking…and that something was alive inside her—something that burst out of her body when it was immersed in ice: worms with faces and snakes with hands, horrifying to look on, which did not survive the cold. Barth concluded that Balerion—born in Valyria before the Doom—had carried Princess Aerea to the place of his birth, and there the princess had encountered the horrors that led to her death. Balerion as well bore the scars of great wounds on his body—wounds that had not been present before his disappearance. Soon after, Balerion became the first dragon to reside in the completed Dragonpit. To guard him and the dragons that joined him, seventy-seven men were recruited, forming the order of the Dragonkeepers.

[idontevenknowhowtolife]

DragonKeeper HCs

They are trained from birth/early childhood. It’s so the dragons know them and get somewhat used to them.

They’re less likely to be attacked than most because they feed and care for the dragons, but if they are stupid about something then they probably will get hurt. 

Each dragon has a team of specific keepers who are assigned only to that dragon. They tend to reside where the dragon spends the majority of their times. The keepers assigned to Melys live on Driftmark, Caraxes tend to stay at the Dragonpit except for when Daemon was at the Stepstones for the years he was at war, Syraxs moved between the Dragonpit and Dragonstone. These keepers are the best of the best as it is also one of the most dangerous jobs a Keeper can have.

There are many different specialties among the keepers. Those not assigned to specific dragons have other roles. Some are trained in the creation and maintenance of the dragon saddles, some in the retrieval and care of dragon eggs, some in ensuring the Pit is well kept, some in defending the Pit, some in assisting with the dragon rider bond like we saw with Jace and Vermax. 

They are the only ones aside from the Targs to be raised to speak High Valyrian, as it is necessary in order the work with the dragons and have a chance of surviving. 

They report only the the monarch/highest ranking dragonrider in the vicinity, Otto despised this during his tenure as hand because he couldn’t overrule Viserys by keeping him in the dark about it. If they couldn’t speak to him then they would go to Rhaenyra who would do the exact opposite of what Otto wanted. 

They are quite territorial and it is extremely hard for anyone but the royal family to gain access to the Pit. It means that when a Targ kid doesn’t want to be found then they often end up in the pit. Aegon uses this to hide from Otto a lot.

The largest two pockets of Keepers are on Dragonstone and at the Dragonpit. The head of their order actually tends to reside on Dragonstone to keep an eye on the wild dragons that live there. 

[alcar-ancalime]

[wpmorse]

"In King's Landing, your ancestors raised an immense domed castle for their dragons. The Dragonpit, it is called. It still stands atop the Hill of Rhaenys, though all in ruins now. That was where the royal dragons dwelt in days of yore, and a cavernous dwelling it was, with iron doors so wide that thirty knights could ride through them abreast. Yet even so, it was noted that none of the pit dragons ever reached the size of their ancestors. The maesters say it was because of the walls around them, and the great dome above their heads." Daenerys 109

Whitebeard tells Daenerys about the Dragon pit.

I have mixed feelings about this one. I'm perfectly happy with how it looks. But I still think it's wrong. I guess I conflicted between I am being described as cavernous while still having a huge dome that made it the biggest landmark in King's Landing. I mostly based it on the Pantheon which I think looks a little too tidy. I'd think this would be one of the things the Targaryens would use dragon-forged Valerian architecture for.

Also, I think the Dragons look way too tame.