Debora Velasquez

Ok, so, this is a very crazy idea I had out of nowhere while organizing my bookshelves:

Imagine that Will is Halt's biological son, born in Hibernia as a result of an arranged marriage and raised alone by his father after his mother died in childbirth. Now imagine if instead of Ferris trying to kill Halt, the twins talked things through and decided to fake Halt's death so their father would name Ferris heir to the throne (since Will would be too young). Once the deed is done, Halt goes to Araluen to become a Ranger. However, he willingly leaves Will behind to be raised in the court, since he doesn't want to drag him into a dangerous life in the wilderness, and because he knows Ferris position is more politically secure if he has an heir. He gifts little Will the bronze oakleaf necklace that used to be Pritchard's when he was an apprentice and that the old Ranger gave to him. Ferris promised him that he would care for Will, and Halt always visited over the years when he could. They also communicate through letters. Like canon, Halt meets Crowley, recruits the rogue Rangers, fight Morgarath, trains Gilan, all of that, and he keeps his royal past a secret, so no one even knows he has family. Meanwhile, in Clonmel, Will grows into the extroverted, kind, witty, curious and smart boy he is in canon, being raised as his uncle's heir instead of an orphan, which makes him more confident than he is in The Ruins of Gorlan. He also grows up with his cousin Sean. Will loves Halt deeply, never takes off the necklace his father gave him (not knowing it's meaning) and cherishes his visits and letters, but he doesn't know his father is a Ranger because Halt doesn't tell him the truth, saying he works as a forest warden. Will suspects this isn't true because his father is too skilled to be just a forest warden, but doesn't pressure Halt out of respect. He trains archery, knife throwing and other Ranger skills just to have something in common with the father he rarely sees, unknowlingly becoming a self-taught Ranger outside of the Corps. Think of him as a male version of Maddie in TRR: Dutiful crown prince by day, Ranger by night.

Years later, Morgarath prepares to go to war against Araluen a second time: He makes a secret alliance with Tennyson. In exchange for Morgarath providing muscle (his mercenaries) and tactical advice, Tennyson uses the Outsiders cult to drain the wealth of Hibernian kingdoms, starting with Clonmel. The gold stolen from Clonmel's nobles and commoners via the Outsiders' extortion racket is smuggled across the sea to fund Morgarath’s war machine in the Mountains of Rain and Night. Tennyson's cult begins preaching that King Ferris and Crown Prince Will are "false rulers" who refuse to protect the people from bandits (the mercenaries Morgarath promised). Once Clonmel is economically crippled and politically divided by cult riots, Morgarath plans to land a mercenary fleet, execute Ferris, and use Clonmel as his western staging ground to launch a surprise naval invasion against Araluen's west coast. He knows that if he only attacks from the south, Araluen’s Rangers and army can bottle him up. An attack from the western sea forces Duncan to split his forces.

As the Outsiders cult grows in Clonmel, Ferris has Will investigate them, knowing how stealthy his nephew is. Will learns about the cult's connection to Morgarath’s forces across the sea (remembering the warlord from his father's stories). He gathers evidences of their plans to Clonmel and present them to Ferris, who then sends him to Araluen with the mission of showing the evidences to King Duncan and request his aid in purging the Outsiders from Clonmel. Will goes hoping to receive the King's help and to discreetly meet with his father to tell him about what's happening in Clonmel.

So there Will goes, and upon entering on the throne room for the private audience with Duncan, he sees Halt (a supposed forest warden) standing beside the King and the Ranger Commandant, freezes and says 'Dad?'

So, The Wicked Powers is coming out this year, and I just have to say this: Diana Wrayburn is also to blame for the Blackthorn family trauma. You are welcome to disagree with me, but just, think about it:

She knew Arthur was mentally ill, and that he wasn't running the LA Institute. She knew Julian was managing the budget, forging signatures, making tactical decisions, dealing with the Clave, and parenting Ty, Livvy, Dru, and Tavvy. You cannot spend that much time in the Institute as their tutor and mentor without noticing that a 12-year-old boy is carrying the weight of an entire household.

Diana had a very valid, life-or-death reason for keeping her head down: she was protecting her secret (being trans). However, in prioritizing her own self-preservation, she actively chose to let Julian drown. She used the Blackthorn children's need for stability as a convenient place to lay low. She saw Julian burning himself out at the stake to keep his family together. She let him play parent while she played "just the tutor." She stood by while a child destroyed his own adolescence out of terror that the Clave would separate his family.

There’s a specific cruelty in watching someone bleed themselves dry and calling it "respecting their boundaries." Diana acted like Julian was just extraordinarily mature, rather than a severely traumatized, parentified child doing what he had to do to survive while missing Helen and Mark and dealing with the guilt of having to kill his father to protect his siblings. When you are the only competent adult in the room, passive sympathy is non-intervention and a form of negligence. You don't get the right to just wash your hands and pretend like everything is fine. Ok, she couldn't take over the Institute because of her secret, being a caretaker was not in her job description, and she wasn't their legal guardian or even related to them, but she was the adult in the situation. She could have helped Julian in other ways, like cooking, checking the kids, caring for Arthur. She didn't even need to tell him that she was trans if she didn't want to, she could have just told him that she had her own reasons for not taking over the Institute but that she would help in other ways, that he wasn't alone. "Oh, but she didn't know how to care for children' well, Julian didn't either. He had to learn it because the Clave took Helen from him and abandoned Mark. In my view, Diana used her secret as an excuse to step back and do nothing. If a child could run the Institute and make the Clave think Arthur was the one taking care of everything, then why couldn't she step up and help?

So, HOTD season 3 is here, and altough I really love Fire & Blood, I always thought that it was unecessery for all of Jaehaerys children to die just so Viserys could become king and the Dance could happen. So here is my own AU where Baelon Targaryen lives but the Dance of Dragons still happens.

-Aemon still dies and Baelon is chosen as heir. Baelon lives and becomes king after Jaehaerys' death, and his reing is peaceful and prosperous like his father, but marked by tensions with his niece Rhaenys, house Velaryon and other supporters of Rhaenys' claim. Otto Hightower is still Hand of the King, and his daughter Alicent is queen Aemma's Lady-In-Waiting and Rhaenyra's best friend.

-When Aemma dies, Baelon wants Viserys to marry Laena Velaryon (Rhaenys' daughter) to mend the rift between Targaryens and Velaryons and produce a male heir. He loves his granddaughter Rhaenyra, but like Jaehaerys, he is a traditionalist who favor male sucession. But Viserys is still mourning Aemma, and doesn't want to marry a child.

-Otto Hightower, knowing Viserys doesn't want to marry Laena, has Alicent seduce Viserys like in the series. Alicent doesn't want to do this, but she feels obligated to obey her father, and after a while Viserys announces his intent to marry her, angering his father (who sees him as naivë), his daughter Rhaenyra (who feels betrayed by Alicent) and House Velaryon, who doesn't show up for the wedding ceremony.

-Viserys and Alicent get married, and Aegon II is born. Shortly after his birth, Baelon dies from a 'burst belly' like canon, and Viserys becomes king. Everyone expects him to name Aegon his heir in the coronation ceremony, but he names Rhaenyra instead and has the lords bend the knee and swear loyalty to her. Shortly after it, the Velaryons are vindicated when Laena claims Vhagar, the dragon of the late King Baelon. Laena ends up marrying the son of the Sealord of Braavos, like she almost did in Fire and Blood.

-The years pass, and Alicent has Helaena and Aemond, but Viserys still favours Rhaenyra, investing on her political education and entrusting her sworn-shield, Criston Cole, to teach her combat, believing the lords of Westeros will only respect her if she shows both political and martial skills (and because I like warrior Rhaenyra). Rhaneyra and Criston become lovers, and there are plenty of rumors about it in court (spread by Alicent and her allies), but no one can prove they are true.

-As Rhaenyra grows older, there is pressure for her to get married and produce heirs, but she refuses all her suitors, telling Viserys she will only marry the man who can defeat her in a duel. The king, despite exasperated, agrees to her condition, and hosts a tourney where only the man who defeats Rhaenyra can marry her. Lords and knights from all over Westeros attend the event, hoping to win the hand of the princess. It's in this tourney that Alicent and her children show up wearing the green and gold of house Hightower and Rhanyra shows up in black and red Targaryen armor, making people refer to the queen's faction as the Greens and the princess factions as the Blacks.

-Rhaenyra defeats all of her opponents in sword-duels, until a man with a silver mask volunteers to fight her. Rhaenyra is defeated, and the oponent takes off his mask, revealing himself to be her uncle, Daemon Targaryen (the mask he was wearing was the same his father Baelon wore at the Old Oak tourney decades before). Daemon is freshly returned from the Stepstones, and kneels before Viserys to offer his crown as King of the Narrow Sea and claim his right to marry Rhaenyra, which Viserys has no option but to grant. Rhaenyra's marriage to Daemon sours her relationship with Criston Cole, who becomes prince Aegon's sworn shield after the tourney.

-Shortly after her marriage to Daemon, Rhaneyra becomes pregnant with her first child and Alicent becomes pregnant with her fourth. The months that follow are marked by a cold war between the two women, until they give birth on the same day: Rhaneyra to Jacaerys and Alicent to Daeron. In the following years, Rhanyra has two other sons, Lucerys and Baelon (this AU version of Joffrey, named after king Baelon and Rhaenyra's stillborn brother). Meanwhile, in Braavos, Laena Velaryon gives birth to the twins Baela and Rhaena.

-One day, news reach the court that Laena Velaryon died giving birth to her third daughter by the Sealord of Braavos, Daenaera Velaryon (yeah, the same Daenaera as in canon, except in this AU she is Laena's daughter). Her funeral takes place in Driftmark, with the royal family present, and mostly everything happens as in canon: Aemond claims Vhagar, looses his eye to Lucerys, Alicent demands an eye for an eye and lunges at Rhaneyra with a dagger. But instead of demanding apologies like in the tv series, Viserys banishes Rhaenyra, Daemon and their children from court, ordering them to reside in Dragonstone for an indefinite amount of time until things cool down (which in his delusion, he fully believes it will happen), in a foolish attempt to appease Alicent.

-Rhaneys and Corlys are angered by Viserys decision, thinking he is letting Aemond, the boy who took their daughter's dragon and hurted their granddaughters, getting away with what he did. After the Driftmark incident, Corlys oficially cuts ties with the Crown and ally himself with Rhaenyra and Daemon. They agree to an engagement between Baela and Jacaerys and another between Rhaena and Lucerys, allowing Rhaenyra to raise her cousin's daughters as her wards in Dragonstone until they are old enough to marry her sons.

-After Rhaenyra, Daemon and the children are banished to Dragonstone, Viserys health begins to deteriorate, and Alicent and the Greens take over court, with the queen efectively running the kingdom while her husband is bedridden. During this time, Aegon and Helaena get married and have the twins Jaehaerys and Jaehaera, and later little Maelor. In Dragonstone, Rhaenyra has two more sons by Daemon: Aegon III and Viserys II.

-Six years later, Viserys, aware of his looming death, lifts the banishment over Rhaenyra's family and invites them back to King's Landing for the Last Supper, in an attempt to conciliate the Green and Black sides of the family, but the dinner ends in disaster just like in canon and Rhaenyra, Daemon and the kids return to Dragonstone that same night.

-Viserys dies, Alicent and her father have Rhaenyra's supporters executed and plot Aegon's coronation. When news reach Rhaenyra in Dragonstone, she has a miscarriage and is crowned queen, sending Jacaerys to the North to negotiate an alliance with Cregan Stark and Lucerys to Storm's End to negotiate with Boros Baratheon.

-Lucerys and Arrax are killed by Aemond and Vhagar like in canon, devastating Rhaenyra and leading to Daemon's promise of "A son for a son." Blood and Cheese murder Jaehaerys in front of his mother Helaena shortly after, Otho takes advantage of the situation to demonize Rhaenyra before King's Landing like in the tv series, and Aegon makes Criston Cole Hand of the King. In Dragonstone, Rhaenyra is furious at Daemon's actions (as they weaken her claim to the iron throne) and sends him to the Riverlands to make up for his actions by getting them allies.

-Rhaenys is killed in the Battle of Rook's Rest, which makes Corlys almost give up on supporting Rhaenyra like in Fire and Blood, until Laenor persuades him to continue in the fight and convinces Rhaenyra to name him Hand of the Queen. The Red Sowing takes place, with Hugh Hammer claiming Vermithor and Ulf the White claiming Silverwing (Laenor is still alive, so Seasmoke is not immediately claimed by Adam. Hugh and Ulf's fates are the same as canon, as are their dragons)

-Rhaenyra sends Aegon and Viserys to the Eyre with Rhaena to keep them safe, but upon their departure to Pentos, Rhaena abbandons the children to look for the dragon Sheepstealer (as the people of the Vale call him) and claim him. When she does, she renames him Morning due to his color. When the Gay's Abandon is captured by the Triarchy, Aegon escapes with his dragon Stormcloud to Dragonstone, the Battle of the Gullet takes place, and Jacaerys and Laenor die in the battle. Seasmoke is then claimed by Adam, who is Laenor's bastard son (Laenor was bisexual in this AU).

-The rest of the war's events go much the same as in canon: Rhaenyra takes King's Landing, executes Otho and imprisons Alicent and Helaena, Aegon II escapes and takes Dragonstone with Sunfyre after fighting Baela and Moondancer. Baela is seriously wounded, but is able to escape with her little sister Daenaera. Little Maelor is torn apart by a crowd, Helaena commits suicide, Daeron burns and sacks Bitterbridge, Daemon and Aemond die during the Battle Above The God's Eye. The people of King's Landing destroy the Dragon's Pit, Baelon tries to fly away in Syrax and falls to his death, and Rhaenyra escapes the city with Aegon III, selling her father's crown.

-Rhaenyra and Aegon III arrive in Dragonstone, her guards are killed, they are taken before Aegon II and she is fed to Sunfyre in front of her son. Aegon II returns to King's Landing with his nephew as prisoner, Boros Baratheon and his forces restore order to the city and Aegon II takes Gaemon Palehair under his wing.

-Canon events take another turn here: Cregan Stark and the northern army besiege King's Landing to avenge Jacaerys Targaryen's death and Rhaenyra's execution. The situation causes widespread panic in the city. Aegon II's death by poisoning is discovered during the siege, and becomes the catalyst for the "Hour of the Wolf", which in this version of events is a violent occupation of King's Landing by the northern forces. Cregan sentences those who supported Aegon II to death (beheading them himself) or to serve on the Wall. The only one spared is Corlys Velaryon thanks to an edict issued by Aegon III, who is later crowned king and married to Jaehaera to end the war. OBS: Baela and Rhaena are the ones who ask Aegon III to spare their father, like canon, but Aegon, still hurt by Rhaena's abbandonment in the Vale and traumatized by his mother's death, only agrees to do so under one condition: That Rhaena turn over her dragon Morning (former Sheepstealer) to be killed, since the dragon was the reason she abbandoned him and Viserys. Rhaena, mad and heartbroken, agrees to do so to save her grandfather's life. The last dragon is killed, earning Aegon III his monicker "Dragonbane".

-Years later, Viserys II, who everyone believed dead, is returned to King's Landing and reunites with his older brother, but he is not married to Larra Rogare. A feast is held to celebrate his return, and in the feast he reunites with Daenaera Velaryon (raised by Baela and Alyn Velaryon after the Dance), now older. Her gentle and cheerful attitude manages to make him smile, and they spend the rest of the ball together, much to Unwin Pyke's displeasure, as he made his own daughter attend the event in hopes to get her enloped with the king's brother and elevate his status.

-In the following months, Viserys and Daenaera exhange letters and Jaehaera convinces Aegon to invite Daenaera to the court as her lady-in-waiting so she can be close to Viserys. Aegon is initially against the idea, still harboring resentment towards the Velaryons, but eventually accepts the idea and sends a request to Baela to send Daenaera to King's Landing. Ironically, Rhaena is against sending her younger sister to court for the same reason as Aegon: Resentment. She has never forgiven the king for Morning's execution, but Baela claims this is a good opportunity to mend the relationship between their families and give Daenaera a future, so Rhaena decides to trust her older sister's judgment.

-At King's Landing, Daenaera thrieves in her new position, and eventually Viserys seeks his older brother's permission to marry her. Aegon grants it, and Unwin Pyke tries to have Daenaera murdered and make it look like suicide (like he tried to do to Jaehaera in canon) in a last attempt to eventually get his daughter married to Viserys. But the attack is foiled and Unwin is executed. Viserys and Daenaera get married.

I cannot express how important the RA series was to me as a child (and still is today). It was the series that got me into fantasy and medieval history. Before reading Ruins of Gorlan, I thought reading was boring, but after picking up the book in my school library at 12, I couldn't put it down, and once I finnished it, I wanted to read the whole series. Two years later I went to a school trip and found the Tournament of Gorlan at a local bookstore. I happened to have enough money to buy it, so I did, and I cried for days after finnishing it because of Pritchard's death. I am in my twenties now, and last month I finnished the seventh book of the Brotherband series (the Caldera). I have a whole shelf filled with the RA and Brotherband books. Some were given to me as gifts, others I bought in book fairs and stores over the years. Last night, after learning about Flanagan's death, I just stared at them for a while, remembering all the good moments I had reading those stories as I grew up.

So, an year ago I published my first fic on AO3 called Sporus, The Slave Emperor of Rome, which is an alternate history take on the life of the eunuch Sporus. I left an Author's Note at the end of the fic explaining I was working on a revised edition with additional characters and a more detailed plot and planned to publish it this year. So, here it is my revised edition of Sporus, The Slave Emperor of Rome! I haven't finnished writing it yet. I will try to update this monthly, but since I have yet to finnish other projects, I make no promises.

Summary: Have you ever heard about Sporus, the slave boy whom the roman emperor Nero had castrated and dressed as a woman to impersonate his dead wife? History remembers Sporus as Nero's tragic bride, a boy who took his own life after the emperor's death. But in this retelling, Sporus chooses a different path. Instead of suicide, he schemes from the shadows, engineering the downfall of the man who ruined his life. When the dust settles, the once-enslaved boy will seize power and become the unexpected new ruler of Rome.

!IMPORTANT!

Warning: This story contains non-graphic historical realism, as well as several sensitive themes. Please read the tags carefully before proceeding.

Primary Warnings: Mentions of war violence, torture, and non-consensual sexual content (Rape).

Additional Themes: Period-typical attitudes, PTSD, loss of a child.

This is my first Silmarillion fanfic, featuring a genderbent Fingon, royal family drama, girl bosses and lots of comedy!

Summary: When the house of Fëanor is banished to Formenos after Fëanor points a sword at Fingolfin, Finwë doesn't go into exile with his eldest son, as many in Tirion thought he would do. Instead, he spends years planning how to put an end to the feud between Fëanor and Fingolfin, and comes to the conclussion that the best way to do it is to arrange a family dinner and announce his intention to marry Fëanor's eldest son to Fingolfin's eldest daughter without consulting anyone beforehand. Will his plan work, or will it just break the family further?

This is the cover of the fic: