No Songs for Menders

After the Dance, wounds fresh and old fester. Dragons lie dead, the realm – broken. Who shall mend what is left?

[The following recruitment and all its associated threads will contain unmarked spoilers for Fire & Blood and the HBO series House of the Dragon, which is loosely based on the book; it may also contain unmarked spoilers for the wider works of George R.R. Martin set in the world of Westeros. Reader discretion is advised.]

"There were those who in Lord Stark and his northmen saw a promise of stability after the bloody war. Yet the Hour of the Wolf had barely passed, and, as if fearing the warm comforts of the south, he refused a seat in the regency and scurried back home to Winterfell. Many of his northmen remained behind, but proved no more helpful in the efforts to mend the realm, rather more interested in the river-widows. So the southron lords, left with shattered Kingdoms, took it upon themselves to find those willing. Those whom the histories and chronicles overlooked years later, those toiling hard and doggedly, whilst the high lords played their usual games surrounded by still-warm ashes."
– Widows, Menders and Lesser Men – On Figures Most Overlooked by Maester Arren

The Wolf of the North with his host brought justice to King’s Landing and two scared children spouting oaths they didn’t understand brought the Dance to its end. Lords and ladies of Westeros flocked to King’s Landing for the wedding and coronation of Aegon the Younger, a regency was declared and a bitter peace began to settle over the realm burnt out by dragonfire and bloodied dry by steel. No more greens or blacks, merely survivors left, some had said. Yet the Kingdoms lie broken, haunted still by the horrors of the Dance. Roads stalked by broken men, brigands and bandits. Lords high and low taking advantage of the dragonless Crown to settle scores old and new alike. Smallfolk trying to regain a sense of normal life and feed their families.

Peace, yes. But a fragile one.

In the waning moons of the year one hundred and thirty-one after the Conquest, as the winter grows harsher, dark wings bring dark whispers from the Dornish Marches. Lord Royce Caron of Nightsong, one of Aegon III’s regents, dispatches young Lady Redmont to assume her seat at Highrock. With her, he sends men and women tasked not only with ensuring the heiress’s safety on the road south, but to prepare both her and her lands for the Dornish threat some fear inevitable.

The Dance may have ended, but the trials and tribulations persist still.

And new ones are yet to come.

[RECRUITMENT] — [GENERAL QUESTIONS] — [NPC PRIMER] — [WRITING SAMPLES]