A Bond of Blood
It is one hundred and eighty years after Aegon's Conquest, eight and fifty years after the Dance of the Dragons, and Lord Medgar Tully has called for a great tournament at Riverrun. A great lover of tournaments himself, Lord Medgar has attracted many competitors, young and old, noble and common, to come and it has turned into a major social event. This is excellent for House Tully's reputation but the currents of the realm are strong and might disrupt the tournament before it even gets going.
The Targaryens were the blood of lost Valyria across the seas, and their silver-gold hair and violet eyes set them apart from common men. The line of the dragonkings almost died out during King Viserys’s day, but his grandson Good King Daeron has four grown sons, three with sons of their own, and it is commonly said that Daeron II and his sons have left it secure for all time. At the same time, the king's father has left seeds of chaos in his passing that continue to rankle the king's position. King Aegon IV, commonly called Aegon the Unworthy, had many mistresses that he made no attempt to hide and a host of bastards that he acknowledged through his life and showered with rewards. On his deathbed, King Aegon legitimized them all as heirs and nobles, at a stroke tying the family charts of House Targaryen in knots.
Whatever his private feelings on the matter, King Daeron has publicly gotten on well with all of his legitimized half-siblings and more than a few are coming to the tourney at Riverrun with their new nobility on display. None of the noble houses of Westeros are entirely sure how to treat these former bastards and at so public and important an event it is sure to have repercussions that will stretch all the way back to King's Landing. Among the gathered houses a handful of minor houses, themselves with a myriad of loyalties, navigate these treacherous waters.
