#gingermanips

You can find it here if you haven’t read it already and wish to: https://archiveofourown.org/works/35105356

The couples that have inspired this are many, in chronological — kind of — order:

Octavian Augustus and his wife Livia

Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville

Henry VII and Elizabeth of York

Suleyman and Hürrem Sultan

Ahmed and Kösem Sultan

Now onto the art

A magnificent cover for the story in which it shows a bit of Jaehaerys and Sansa in their various environment as their love story will span many years and leagues and leagues. As they will be based off in Valyria — the Rome/Istambul of Valyria — but their story will carry them in the North — west of Valyria — and against the Yi’Tis — east — but the love will remain the same.

The three women of the dynasty — barred from Sansa who gets her own piece — who are from left to the right Rhaenys in her sun-crown with the Targaryen colors and the proper ceremonial tint on her eyes and lips, princess of Valyria half-sister to Emperor Jaehaerys and his Chief Advisor; Lyanna lady mother of the Empire, mother of Jaehaerys born Lyanna Karstark who fled the North and a marriage to the second prince of the North and ended up being the concubine of Jaehaerys’ father and the mother of the new emperor with her tunic of Karstark colors and the ceremonial tint with her spiked crown; and — last to the left — Daenerys princess of Valyria and Lady of the province of Pentos, aunt of the Emperor and his previous lover, spurned by his new love for the northern girl with her Valyrian red and black attire and her dragon styled crown. This is inspired by the ceremonial coronation of Jaehaerys III after the end of the civil war caused by Viserys attempt to claim the throne from Jaehaerys.

Sansa of House Stark, princess in the North, daughter of king Eddard Stark and queen Catelyn of House Tully, claimant to the Northern crown.

Only surviving child of the royal couple after the coup that has dethroned House Stark by the hand of House Bolton — Roose Bolton was spurned by Ned refusal to marry one of his daughters preferably Sansa to Roose only remaining son, the bastard Ramsay — and House Karstark spurned after king Eddard chose a southern over another daughter of House Karstark and refused a possible marriage between their Houses after that. Sansa fled Winterfell — the burned bodies of her younger brothers still alive in her mind — and found refuge on Bear Island hiding in plain sight by dyeing her hair dark. Captured by a raid she finds herself in Valyria and miraculously at the vok of the Emperor where she catches his gaze and attention, as well as love.

This piece magnificently encapsulate how Sansa will have to navigate being still the rightful claimant to the Northern crown she means to restore and being part of the Valyrian dynasty with the birth of her children.

Her mantra — as long as I know who I am I cannot be broken — keeping her strong through all she had to endure.

Sansa in Valyria as the Favorite of the Emperor and the only woman called to dēmalion — a stay of three months into the Emperor chambers — wearing the royal blue her mother favored during her tenure as Queen consort in the North. The dragon behind her I like to think is Maelys — Jaehaerys’ century old, enormous dragon — and behind her a sight of Valyria by night.

Jaehaerys receives the news of his father’s death at the banks of the Bloody Lake and is posed in front of a choice, accept the ruler ship and the sword of the Lord of the World claiming the throne as the prime minister — prime archor Gael — asks of him; or bend the knee to the only other claimant, his uncle Viserys in Pentos.

On the morrow of the day passed, just after the morning meal, his Imperial Majesty, the Lord of the World, has left this mortal plane to become one with blood, one with fire and one with smoke.

I beseech you, my prince, to come to the capital immediately to seize the throne rightfully yours before treachery spreads and take your post as Lord of the World.

The flame is extinguished, may the embers take aflame again from the ashes.

Gael Leamyor prime achor of Valyria

— Empress of the World, prologue

The magnificent background is to be the Bloody Lake near Tyra, a place with salted shore and blood-red waters due the poisonous algae, near the Sunrise Dorsal, where there are the Fourteen Flames from which by canon the Valyrian have found the dragons.

Sansa Stark, Favorite of the Emperor even in the lands of dragons does not forget who she is.

I look like a woman — she thinks — like mother and quite not yet. There a softness in my eyes, which is all father. They are still alive — she decides — on my face. They are still alive as I am.

The shape of her mouth reminds her of Robb — he had a beautiful smile — she thinks as she smiles softly at her own reflection. And the sharpness of her cheekbones and nose reminds her of Arya — she would’ve grown to be beautiful in her own way, so strong and determined — the unruliness of the red baby-hair around her forehead and nape of her neck are all Rickon.

And her littlest brother laughter fills her mind and squeezes her heart.

And the cyan of her eyes, not as intense blue as her mothers, and yet not steel, but an icy cyan is all Brandon. Brandon’s eyes were the same shade of in-between the blue of Robb and Rickon and mother’s eyes and the silverly steel of her father’s and Arya’s.

They are still alive — she repeats to herself — on my face. In my heart. And one day — she hopes — in the fruit of my womb.

— Empress of the World, chapter VI

And after that another solo piece, this one for Lyanna, mother of the Emperor.

Born Lyanna Karstark she fled the North to avoid an unwanted marriage at age fourteen/fifteen. Her family to avoid insult declared her dead due the sweats and offered another bride to the prince, but he in the meantime had become the prime heir to the crown and married a girl from the South. The Karstark never forgave her the insult that caused them to the point that when Lyanna who had become a mother to Jaehaerys — after having become the new concubine of Emperor Rhaegar — had reached out to them they sent her one of her dresses bloody and tore and told her she was dead to them. Her only purpose in her life is defending her son from foes and false allies alike, ready to do all that it takes to keep him safe.

Inspired by this passage:

He cups Sansa’s chin in his hand “Do not worry about it, ñuha jelevre— he tells her gently — my mother is only protective of me. A mother won’t ask questions when her cub is in need of protection in her mind, she will just bite. Give her time, she will come to love you”

Sansa has tears shining in her eyes and Jaehaerys knows she is thinking of her mother. He knows her mother caught bare-handed a valyrian steel dagger to protect her second son as he laid between life and death, of how she died trying to protect her firstborn son giving her life for his. Knows how much she misses her.

“What if she doesn’t?” she murmurs “sometimes I feel so alone” she tells him softly. And Jaehaerys presses a kiss to her forehead and her eyelids.

“You’ll still have me — he tells her — am I not enough?” he asks her and Sansa breaks the wall in between them and embraces him, fitting her face next to him and nuzzling his cheek with hers, her lithe body pressed against his.

“You’re more than enough” she murmurs against his ear, Jaehaerys holds her closer still to his body “you’ll have to bear a bit with me — she says — you’re not with me always, when you’re away from my side I feel so alone” she tells him.

— Empress of the World, chapter V

A moment of peace between Jaehaerys and Sansa as they discuss what is to come in the privacy of the Emperor’s chambers in between the sheets — pillow talk with a side of politics — and they share their love and insecurities. Notice the detail of the ring Sansa wears because it is extremely important and well done!

And last but not least — the most detail impressive — of this collection, the art dedicated to the last update I made, yesterday.

Pregnant Sansa with the gift her Emperor has sent for, from the North. Inspired by this passage and the rest of chapter IX:

Torches litters the path to it, bathing the whole courtyard and garden in a golden and orange light.

The bark of the tree is white and veined of grey and frost blue, there is a dark, seeping, red blood ember, viscous and ruby of colour, shining in the night light, the roots are encapsulated in the earth, others are still standing out gathered in a tangle of branches as white as milk so intricate that it seems as dark as darkness and the branches, slender and curved upward are crowned by fronds of vibrant blood red leafs; the face carved into the bark is stern and the ember seeps from its downturned mouth and eyes as if blood oozing from eyes and lips of a dying man.

[…]

“You told of how your father built a small sept so that your mother may have prayed to her Gods — he tells her — and I thought I would’ve have wished for my father to do something similar for my mother” he adds, he brings her hand to his lips, pressing a kiss to her knuckles “so, I decided that since I am the lord of the World now, I could very well find a way to recreate a Godswood for my woman; so that she and my mother may pray to their Tree Gods like their fathers before them”

— Empress of the World, chapter IX

I cannot say thank you enough to @gingerdsnapped for the amazing work she did — some even very short notice like this last piece of Sansa and the Heart Tree — I feel so very blessed! I will treasure this collection of pieces for my fic! Thank you so very much to have made come alive in such a fine way my story, everything about it — the dresses and the makeup yeah I am particular about both as well as Jaehaerys and his attires and whole demeanor — I am so happy because this vibrant world that existed only in my mind before now has a real artistic form and I am very grateful!

Original post: https://gingerdsnapped.tumblr.com/post/674014796161630208/request-fill-for-art

Prompt: Jeyne Poole

Notes: The Sansa and Jeyne reunion.

Prompt: songs/poetry

*Sansa in the red keep, playing harp, singing, surrounded by Westerland ladies.