Panoramic Analysis of Fire and Ice —— The story before the opening

What happened in various regions and families before Robert Baratheon arrived in Winter City with his wife and children.

In king's landing.

The Targaryen family is descended from the nobility of Valyria. Since the dragon king Egon I and his two sisters and wives set off from Longshi Island in a dragon, they gradually conquered the whole Westeros (except Donne) by relying on the power of dragons, and established a unified Targaryen dynasty. So Egon I was called "Egon the Conqueror".

In order to maintain the purity of the family, the Dragon has long insisted on consanguineous marriage (usually the union of immediate relatives, such as brothers and sisters), so many descendants of the family carry the "crazy" gene. Specifically, he is extremely paranoid, cruel and willful, and has a morbid fascination with fire and dragons. There was once a king named "Yan Ming" who drank a whole pot of "wildfire" in order to turn himself into a dragon (wildfire is the eternal fire that burned Stannis's entire fleet to ashes at the end of the second season of the series).

Controlled by this genetic gene, aerys ii targaryen II, the last dragon king on the Iron Throne, has the title of "Crazy King" and likes to burn the living most. Iriz was arranged by his father, Jerry Targaryen II, to marry his own sister, Laila. Soon, their first child, Prince rhaegar targaryen, was born. On the day when Prince Rehgar was born, a fire broke out in the Summer Palace of Longxia Palace, killing Aegon Tangeryen V (Iriz's grandfather) and his eldest son, then King Duncan. Historically, it was called "Xiatang Massacre".

After the tragedy, Jerez Targaryen II succeeded to the throne, but he died after only three years in office, so Illiz succeeded his father. The mad king was not crazy at the beginning of his succession, but a monarch who worked hard to innovate. It was also at this stage that he became friends with tywin lannister and appointed young Wen Tai as his "King's Hand". At this stage, * * * jointly maintained the prosperity of Westeros.

As Iriz grew older, he gradually became suspicious. On the one hand, he became more and more afraid of Taiwengong, on the other hand, he began to suspect that Prince Rega had the intention of rebellion. At the same time, his marriage with Queen Laila is not happy, because Inrella has never given birth to a new royal family member after Prince Rega. He has always coveted the beauty of Wen Tai's wife, Joanna Lannister, and often offends Joanna and humiliates Wen Tai in public. Until Joanna gave birth to Tyrion in childbirth and died, the friendship between Iriz and Tywin had existed in name only.

At the age of 34, Queen Lila finally gave birth to his second healthy prince, Viserys Targaryen. At the tournament to celebrate the birth of the prince, Wen Tai proposed to Iriz. His daughter Cersei should be betrothed to the rich prince as the queen, and his son Zhan Mu should be the attendant of the rich. But Iriz, afraid of Tywin's growing popularity and power, refused the request. Two years later, Iriz married Princess Elia Martell of Dorne for Prince Rehgar, which further aggravated the contradiction between him and Tai Wen.

In Duskendale.

Luoxia Valley is a big town directly under the tomb. At the end of the year when Prince Viserys was born, Count Dennis Duckling, then Lord of Twilight Valley, stopped paying taxes to the Iron Throne and asked to meet the king to settle the dispute. The rational decision should have been a tough refusal, but in order to disagree with Tywin, Iriz took a small guard and went to the Twilight Valley to yell at Count Dennis himself. Count Dennis was so embarrassed that he had to arrest Iriz and imprison him in the Valley of Twilight. Iriz was imprisoned in Twilight Valley for half a year, and the Twilight Valley Rebellion didn't come to an end until barristan selmy, the Kingsguard, took advantage of the night to rescue him.

Half a year's imprisonment completely awakened Iriz's crazy genes. From then on, he began to doubt everyone, including his wife and son, and was as obsessed with "wildfire" as his ancestors. It was also at this stage that he heard about Wallis' intelligence ability and summoned him from the free trade city-state to King's Landing to collect information about everyone else for himself.

In heronburg.

Heron Castle, located in the river, was built before the Targaryen family conquest war, and it is the largest castle in the seven kingdoms.

When the mad king was 39 years old, He Anjia held a grand tournament in Helongbao, and prominent families from the seven kingdoms went there one after another. Originally from the Twilight Valley rebellion, Iriz resolutely stopped stepping out of the Red Castle, but Varis reported to him that Prince Rehgar would incite the big lords to rebel through the tournament, and the mad king went to Helongbao to watch the tournament for the first time.

Two great events happened in the tournament. The first thing was that Iriz awarded jaime lannister the Kingsguard at the inauguration ceremony of Helongbao. Kingsguard is the knight's supreme honor, but anyone who joins Kingsguard is forbidden to marry and have children for life, which is undoubtedly depriving the Lannister family of their heirs. Wen Tai resigned from the "King's Hand" in great anger, left King's Landing and returned to Casterly Rock.

The other thing was the fuse of the "usurper's war". Before the tournament, lyanna stark (eddard stark's sister) burst into tears for Prince Regal's performance, and Regal also fell in love with lyanna stark. In the competition, Prince Rega won the final victory. According to the custom, the winner can dedicate the "blue rose wreath representing the queen of love and beauty" to a woman. At this time, Prince Rehgar, who has a son and a daughter, did not dedicate the wreath to Queen Elias, but put a pike on lyanna stark's leg. As robert baratheon's fiancee, Liana became the focus of attention.

In king's landing.

At the end of the same year, Prince regal and Leona met again in Heronburg and took her away. Rumor has it that Leona was kidnapped by Prince Rega.

Brandon stark, the eldest son and heir of the Stark family, immediately diverted to King's Landing (he was on his way to Riverrun to get married) and rushed into the Red Castle to ask regal to release him. However, Regal is not in King's Landing at this time. Brandon was immediately arrested by the mad king for treason, and then ricard Stark, the Duke of Winterfell, who was called into the palace, was also arrested. Duke ricard asked for a controversial trial, which was granted. But later he was hanged at the stake by Iriz in armor and burned to death. The mad king forced Brandon to watch the stake. At the same time, he wrapped Brandon around his neck with a leather rope and put a long sword slightly beyond his arm span. Brandon struggled to get a sword to save his father, and finally he was strangled by a rope.

In eyrie.

Jon arryn, the guardian of the East and Duke of Ying Chao, adopted Ned Stark and robert baratheon long ago. Ned and Robert, who grew up together in eyrie, regarded each other as brothers, while jon arryn, who had never had children, regarded them as sons.

The mad king who thinks everyone is a rebel is not satisfied with killing only Duke Rickard and his heir Brandon. He asked Jon to hand over Ned Stark, the second son of Duke Rickard. Jon realized that the mad king had lost his mind and refused Iriz's request. As a leader, he joined Stark, Baratheon, Irene and Tully to raise the rebel flag, with the intention of overthrowing the rule of the Targaryen family.

In Hejian.

When he was young, Duke Horst Tully, the landlord of Hejian, took part in the "Battle of the Nine-Coin King" and met Littlefinger's father in the war. He adopted Littlefinger and brought him back to Riverrun to raise him. Petyr grew up with three children of Duke Tully, Caitlin, Lysa and Edmund. He worshipped Caitlin just as Lysa worshipped him. This love triangle lasted until Duke Tully betrothed Caitlin to brandon stark, the heir of Winterfell.

After learning the news, Petyr challenged Brandon and was injured. When he was so depressed and drunk, Lysa Tully gave his life voluntarily, and Petyr mistook Lysa for Caitlin and had sex with her. Lysa lost her virginity and became pregnant. When Duke Tully learned of this, he expelled Petyr from Riverrun and forced Lysa to have an abortion. Although Littlefinger never returned to Riverrun, he kept in touch with Lysa, and finally used Lysa to become a big boss who could stir up the political situation of the seven kingdoms.

After brandon stark was executed by the mad king, in order to gain the support of the Tully family, jon arryn mediated and finally reached a political marriage in which Ned married Caitlin instead of Brandon (anyway, Ned was already the heir of Winterfell at this time), and he married Lysa who had lost his virginity. So, the Tully family joined the ranks of the rebels. The "war of usurpers" officially began.

In the trident.

At the beginning of the war, Wang Jun and the rebels won and lost, and the situation was deadlocked. When Wang Jun was defeated at the Holy Stone Hall, Prince Rehgar came back from Dorne and began to clean up Wang Jun's military affairs. Because of Queen Elijah, Donne also sent ten thousand troops to help Wang Jun. At the same time, Rehgar finally persuaded the mad king to ask the Duke of Tywin of Casterly Rock for help.

Soon after, Wang Jun and the rebels gathered in the Trident River. The Trident River is of great military significance. Once the rebels cross the Trident River, it will directly threaten King's Landing. The two sides fought bloody battles here. In the end, Robert killed regal with a heavy hammer in a one-on-one duel with Prince regal, and Wang Jun escaped without a coach.

At the end of the storm.

"Trident River Battle" completely reversed the war, and Wang Jun never had a chance to stop the rebels from going south. In addition to protecting King's Landing, their remaining troops were basically used to besiege Robert's hometown, Fengxi Castle, the capital of the storm land.

At this time, Robert's second brother Stannis was in charge of Fengxi Castle. He grew up serious and indifferent, and regarded rules above everything else. He is also an experienced military commander. Within a year, when the Duke of Tilea's army besieged Fengxi Castle in the bend of the river, Stannis refused to surrender. In order to satisfy his hunger, the defenders killed all the edible animals in the city and even ate the bodies of the dead soldiers. During this period, the crisis of Fengxi Castle was temporarily alleviated because the smuggler Davos Seaworth successfully smuggled onions and salted fish into the city by boat. This is why Davos Seaworth was called the "onion knight" after being knighted.

Many people think that Stannis refused to surrender because of his "death-defying" character. In fact, the siege of Fengxi Fort not only shows his tenacity, but also proves that he is an excellent wartime commander. Stannis knew very well that once Fengxi Castle was captured, Robert's family and relatives of the Lord in the storm would be captured by Wang Jun, and the mad king would take them as hostages to force Robert to surrender. In the end, not only the whole rebel army will be subject to Wang Jun, but also the Baratheon family will repeat the mistakes of Duke ricard and Brandon. At that time, the Tyrell family, which belonged to Wang Jun camp, had this idea, but they didn't expect young Stannis to be so determined. He stayed in the fort for a year, and then he was dragged to the battle of Trident River. Robert killed Regal.

Although Stannis did not participate in the "usurper's war" on the frontal battlefield, his decision to defend the fortress was also the key reason for the rebels to win the final victory. Therefore, when Robert sat on the iron throne and gave Stannis only Dragonstone Island and gave the hereditary territory of Baratheon family to Renly, Stannis's indignation and dissatisfaction were understandable.

In Casterly Rock.

After his beloved wife Joanna died in childbirth, Duke Tywin never laughed again, and his friendship with Iriz came to an end. But he still kept a clear head and didn't turn against the mad king, in order to bring more stable power to the Lannister family through marriage. Wen Tai's original plan was to betroth Cersei to Prince Rehgar and let Zhan Mu marry the second daughter of Duke Tully. Who knows that not only the mad king rejected his proposal, but Cersei and Zhan Mu also blocked his plan.

The twins have been close since childhood and showed signs of incest very early. After learning that his father wanted him to marry Lysa, Zhan Mu was reluctant because he loved his sister. Cersei really loves Prince Rehgar, but at the same time, she doesn't want to let go of Zhan Mu. So Cersei lured Zhan Mu to have sex with herself, and persuaded Zhan Mu to take the initiative to join the Kingsguard, so that Zhan Mu didn't have to remarry and could live in King's Landing with herself as a queen.

In the end, none of the Lannisters got what they wanted. Iriz married Princess Elijah of Donne for the emperor, and made Zhan Mu one of the seven Kingsguard. Duke Tywin resigned from the king in a rage and returned to Casterly Rock with Cersei, while Zhan Mu, who wanted to be with his sister, stayed alone in King's Landing.

After the "War of the usurper" began, although Wen Tai received many letters for help from King's Landing, he never replied. It was not until regal died in the Trident River that the situation gradually became clear. Duke Tywin came to King's Landing with an army of 12000 people, expressing his loyalty to Iriz and asking him to open the gate of King's Landing and let Lannister's army enter the city.

In king's landing.

The mad king ignored Wallis' objection and opened the gate to meet Duke Tywin. However, after assessing the situation, he was greeted not by long-awaited reinforcements, but by an army of tigers and wolves. After the Lannister army entered the city, it immediately wiped out King's Landing.

Iriz, who is completely crazy, intends to bury the whole King's Landing. He ordered the alchemists to light a large number of wildfires that had already been buried under King's Landing, and at the same time summoned Zhan Mu to perform his duty as an iron guard to kill his father, Duke Tywin. Of course, it is impossible for Zhan Mu to carry out such an order. He killed Count Rosat, who gave the order to light a wildfire, and then made the most important decision in his life-betraying the oath of Kingsguard and killing Iriz II himself. Since then, no one knows that it was because Zhan Mu killed the herald and saved thousands of soldiers and civilians in King's Landing. In everyone's eyes, he will always be the treacherous "kingslayer".

After Iriz's death, the massacre continued. On the orders of Duke Tywin, gregor clegane raped and killed Queen Elia Martell, the widow of Prince Regal, and brutally killed Egon, the son of Regal who was still a baby. At the same time, Sir Amauri Lodge brutally killed regal's daughter, Princess Lei Ensi, who was only four years old.

After the fall of King's Landing, Ned Stark and Jon Arryn made Robert king, and Jon became the "hand of the king". In order to stabilize the newly pacified situation, Jon intervened again, which facilitated the marriage between Robert and Cersei, and pardoned Zhan Mu for regicide, allowing him to stay in the Kingsguard in exchange for the support of Duke Tywin.

After that, Jon began peace talks with Donne.

In Dorne.

Donne's Martray family is like their national language-"indomitable". Donne has never been conquered by force in the history of dragon fighting in Westeros. It was not until the reign of Dai Lun Targaryen II that the Dragon family and the Mattler family were married twice, and Donne was finally included in the territory of the seven kingdoms. Therefore, the Martray family enjoyed the privilege. Although they surrendered to the Iron Throne, they still retained the title of "Prince" used by their ancestors in the city-state of Loyana.

According to the tradition of Loina city-state, Materre family implements the system of eldest son and eldest daughter inheritance, regardless of gender. In the early days of the mad king's rule, Donne was in power by the then Queen Donne. Queen Donne has three children-the eldest son Dolan Martell, the second son oberon Martell and the youngest daughter Elia Martell.

When Queen Donne was young, she and Joanna, the wife of Duke Tywin, were good friends. They plan to be in-laws, so that oberon will marry Cersei and Ilya will marry Zhan Mu. After Joanna died in childbirth, Queen Donne took oberon and Ilya to Casterly Rock to propose to Duke Tywin, but Tywin refused. Wen Tai is planning to marry Cersei to Rega at this time, so as to consolidate the position of the Lannister family. Later, due to mistakes, Duke Tywin's wishful thinking fell through, and Princess Elias became the Queen of regal. Therefore, Tywin has always held a grudge against Donne, allowing his men to brutally kill Princess Ilya.

After the fall of King's Landing, Princess Elijah and her children died in the Red Castle. Sir Levin martel, one of the Kingsguard who had resisted the rebels in the "War of the usurper", was furious. Oberon martel, the "Red Snake", didn't want to submit to the new dynasty, but remembered that the soldiers made Viserys Targaryen, the second son of the mad king, king. But at this time, Prince Dao Lang, who inherited Donne's throne, finally agreed to reconciliation and swore allegiance to Robert under the mediation of jon arryn.

Compared with his martial arts brother oberon, Prince Dao Lang suffered from severe gout in middle age and had to travel in a wheelchair. But this seemingly helpless and heartless Donne ruler never forgot the tragic sacrifice of the Martray family.

In longshi island.

After Prince Rehgar died in the Battle of Trident River, Iriz hurriedly sent his second son Viserys and pregnant queen Lila to Longshi Island. Shortly before the fall of King's Landing, daenerys targaryen was born in Longshi Island in a rare storm, and his mother, Queen Leila, died after giving birth.

In the same year, Robert was king in King's Landing, and the defenders on Longshi Island planned to surrender to the Iron Throne and hand over his brother and sister. Fortunately, Sir william daley, a loyal servant of Targaryen family, fled to Bravo, the city of freedom, with Dany in advance.

In a free trade city-state.

Under the witness of Bravos Neptune, Sir William reached a secret agreement with oberon Martray, who secretly came to the free city-state at the instigation of Prince Dao Lang. He promised Viserys to marry Ariane Matri, the eldest daughter of Prince Dao Lang, and then Donne would make Viserys king, and * * * would rise up and take back the iron throne.

A few years later, when the elderly Sir William died in Bravos, Dany and his brother lost their dependence and had to go to nine free trade city-states to lobby for support and help them return to Westeros. This life lasted for several years, until Illyrio Mopatis, the rich governor of pantos, took Dany and her brother and sister into a mansion and promised to help them regain the iron throne.

Illyrio, who used to be an assassin, became friends with Varis and made a fortune together. One became the governor of pantos, and the other went to Westeros to become the intelligence chief of the Iron Throne. They also have a bigger ambition-to have a new king in Westeros.

In order to achieve this goal, they married Dany to khal drogo. The plan is that after Viserys married Ali An Gongzhu, on the one hand, Varis leaked Cersei's incest and Zhan Mu's incest in King's Landing, which provoked a civil war between the extended family and Lannister; On the other hand, during the chaotic civil war, khal drogo, Gold Company and Donne joined forces to March into Westeros. It was a good plan, but it ran aground because of the deaths of Viserys and Drogo Khal. But it turns out that Varis and Illyrio have a plan B.

As for the gold company, it is the largest and most expensive free mercenary group in a free trade city-state. They joined the power struggle in Westeros because of one person-Jon Clinton, a close friend of Prince Rega (there are many Jon). The Lord of this Clinton family is the Earl of Nine Dynasties Castle, who served as the king's hand for a short time during the usurper's war. After being fired and exiled by Iriz, he fled to Elso and joined Golden Company under the pseudonym of Griffin. At the same time, I secretly raised regal's son Egan (I know, this reversal is amazing). It is said that when King's Landing fell, Varis traded an ordinary boy for baby Egon. The one killed by the magic mountain is actually a fake Egon. (What Varis said was not recognized by readers, and later there were clues to prove that the child raised by Clinton was not Egan. )

In the tower of joy.

After lyanna stark and regal left, they went to the Blissful Tower in Dorne with regal. After the war of usurpers broke out, regal returned to King's Landing as coach. He assigned three martial arts-proficient Kingsguard Sir arthur dayne, Sir Oswell Hearn and Sir Jerome Hightower to take care of Leona in the Blissful Tower.

After the victory of the war, Ned Stark and six other knights found the Blissful Tower. In this seven-to-three battle, only Ned and Howland Reid (he is the Lord of the Northern Territory and the father of Jiujian and Mela) survived. Ned met Liana, who was dying, in the Blissful Tower. Liana asked Ned to keep a secret before she died. Although this secret has not been published, people have long believed that this so-called secret is jon snow's true identity.

In the north.

The dust finally settled, and Ned returned to the north with Liana's body and his "illegitimate child" jon snow. Although it was very painful for his wife Caitlin to have an illegitimate child, Ned did not deny the fact that he had defiled his reputation until his death. When Ned was imprisoned by Cersei in Hongbao Prison, he kept dreaming about Liana. He regretted not talking to Jon when he still had a chance.

In king's landing.

After Robert sat on the iron throne, he handed over all the affairs of governing the country to jon arryn, the king. His marriage with Cersei is not happy, and Robert is away all the year round. Cersei has always maintained an incestuous relationship with Zhan Mu, and has given birth to three children for her and Zhan Mu-Joffrey, Missella and Toman.

After five miscarriages, Lysa finally gave birth to jon arryn's heir, Robert Arryn. At the same time, she has been having an affair with Littlefinger. Lysa persuaded jon arryn to promote Petyr to Seagull. Petyr used his talent in money and trade to increase local taxes tenfold in a short time. Later, Littlefinger got Jon's appreciation and was promoted to the finance minister of the Iron Throne step by step. Petyr opened a brothel in King's Landing to get information, and used his own financial resources to buy a huge network of contacts and secretly cultivate his own political power.

In the iron islands.

A few years after Robert became king of Westeros, the Iron Islanders rebelled under the leadership of Lord balon greyjoy. The Greyjoy family hopes to be independent from the notice of the Seven Kingdoms and restore the "ancient road" lost by the iron people in the conquest war 300 years ago. The rebellion was quickly suppressed and the baron had to submit to the iron throne again. Two of his sons died in battle, and the only son left was theon greyjoy, who was taken hostage by Ned Stark as his adopted son and brought back to Winterfell for raising.

On the wall of despair.

The night watchman on the Great Wall kept his oath and did not take part in the usurper's war. The reason why I mentioned the Great Wall is mainly to talk about Maester Eamon and Green Prophet Brynden Rivers.

Aemon targaryen is the third son of King Meka I and the third brother of Egan V who was burned to death in the "Summer Hall Massacre". He is the great uncle of the rich and Daenerys. Because there are too many adult Targaryen men in the family, Eamon was sent to Xuecheng as a bachelor when he was young to prevent usurpation of power. Many years later, because the heirs to the throne died in succession in the rebellion, Brynden Rivers, who was in the hands of the king at that time, called the Great Council to elect a new king. The Grand Council secretly handed the throne to Eamon, but Eamon flatly refused, thinking that he was a bachelor and the throne should be inherited by his younger brother Egon V. After Egon V succeeded to the throne, Maester Eamon worried that he would be used to usurp his brother's throne one day and decided to join the night watchman.

Before the Great Council election, the Duke of Blood Crow lured an illegitimate child of Targaryen, who also had the right to inherit the throne, to King's Landing in order to maintain the peace of the kingdom, and executed him for violating his promise to protect illegitimate children. After the new king came to power, Egon V had to arrest Brinden in order to maintain the credibility of the Iron Throne. Brinden chose the latter between being executed and being dressed in black.

So the Duke of Blood Crow, as one of the guards, followed Maester Eamon to the Great Wall to perform his duties as a night watchman. Later, Brynden was elected commander-in-chief of the Night Watch, but he disappeared during a patrol of rangers outside the Great Wall. Maester Eamon has been serving in the Night's Watch. He knew the prophecy of the "son of prophecy" long ago and kept in touch with Regal when he was alive.

In king's landing.

Stannis gradually became suspicious of the origin of Cersei's three children. He told jon arryn about this suspicion, and they began to investigate together, and finally confirmed that Joffrey, Mesala and Toman were the products of incest between Cersei and Zhan Mu. Jon decided to take action to let his son Robert Arryn go to Dragonstone Island to be Stannis' adopted son.

Lysa loves her son deeply, but she can't accept the separation from her son Robert. She revealed Jon's plan to Littlefinger, who used Lysa's psychology to guide her to poison and murder Jon. After learning of Jon's death, Stannis suspected Cersei was worried about the revelation and fled from King's Landing to Longshi Island overnight.

The above is the story of the main families in Westeros before the opening of Ice and Fire. Knowing this history, the inexplicable entanglements in those plays are not so puzzling.