House Swann is one of the primary noble houses of the stormlands. They are an ancient house, claiming to be the oldest and disputed only by fellow marchers, House Caron. Their lands cover the lands surrounding the Red Watch on Cape Wrath in the eastern Dornish Marches. They control the Slayne, a major river and route inland to the Stormlands, resulting in their wealth and power. Like all Marcher lords, they have stood as protectors and instigators to incursions with the Dornish.

House Swann declared for the Greens during the Dance, at the time led by Lord Clifford who saw it as only right that the first son should inherit, no matter a daughter's hurt feelings. Lord Clifford's brother, Ser Bryon, desperate to assure a lasting legacy, sought to slay Rhaenyra's dragon. Ser Bryon's plan was a complete failure, he was quickly engulfed in flames and died screaming.

Ser Bryon's cousin, the Lady Johanna, had been taken to Lys years earlier by pirates. Lord Clifford had refused to pay the ransom for his fifteen year old niece and so she was sold to the pillow houses. Out of the hundreds of children, young men and girls that the Lyseni pirates took during this time, Johanna proved herself adept at navigating the unfamiliar and abusive environment she found herself abandoned to. She became the most influential of courtesans and ruled Lys in all but name. Following the Triarchy's collapse and the Daughter's War, she was briefly thought lost and dead. She resurfaced, with regular correspondence to her family in Stonehelm, particularly the daughters, until her death in 175 AC.

Lord Allos had been an eager participant in the Conquest of Dorne, though his mood was tempered when he and his men served under the command of Lord Tyrell. Bad blood was not only between the Marcher lord and the Dornish. Reachman had been a thorn in their side even after Aegon's Conquest unified Westeros beneath the Iron Throne. The short-lived subjugation meant House Swann and their neighbors dealt with many more years of heightened hostilities with their southward counterparts. This left a worse taste in the Swann lord's mouth under the rules of Baelor and now Aegon. They held the line against the snakes, and reaped nothing for the effort.

Most recently, House Swann has sought to resolidify their Stormlands power and secured a marriage with the Lord Paramount through Alys Swann. The current lord, Allos, had served as councilor to the Lord Paramount for many years as well. That relationship has begun to strain when he was ordered to return home when his wife passed unexpectedly from a brief but aggressive wasting disease. His son, Ser Gawen, holds to his father's ideals but the younger siblings have been swayed by the stories they hear from King's Landing. A crack has formed in House's foundation, small and currently inconsequential, but too easy to grow into collapse.

Tall and curvy with strong High Valyrian traits. Her hair is pale silver with brilliant lilac eyes. No matter the current fashions of court in King's Landing, she prefers to wear typical Lyseni dresses in crisp whites, gold jewelry set with pearls and delicate gem stones. Her age has been difficult for people to determine, clearly she is not a young blushing maiden, yet many find there is an age to her that does not match her stated namedays. Nor has anyone been able to point out what it is that makes them suspect this. Her skin is fair and unblemished, unmarred by wrinkles, laugh nor frownlines. A body of soft curves promises a warm embrace, but her the harshness of her face makes it clear that the embrace would be full of thorns.

The Lyseni arrived to King's Landing mere weeks ago, dangling from the arm of the Hand to the King, Lord Jon Hightower. Though many might have thought the rumor mills of the capital to already be full and near to bursting, her arrival brought new life to whisperers and watchers. Gossip formed and mutated as it spread among both high and low. She was the last scion of an ancient but dying true Valyrian house. She was the Hand's lover. She was a witch who entranced the Lord of Hightower. She dabbled in dark magics of blood and fire. She was a spy. She was cousin to House Rogare and here to exact revenge all these years later. She was yet another of Aegon's bastards, come to snake her way to some sort of claim. She was a courtesan sent to seduce Daeron away from his Dornish wife, or Aemon away from his vows. The newest whispers revolve around her age and how she must most certainly be older than she says or appears to be.

Few have gotten to know the woman. Outside of the rumors that abound, she has proven difficult to get close to other than Lord Jon. She attends court daily, sometimes at Lord Jon's side but other times alone. Serenei is cold and distant, frequently with a haughty sneer across her lips as she watches everyone around her. Her solitude and lack of allies or friends does not bother her. Invitations have been made and accepted, yet even in these smaller groups, The Lady from Lys holds herself away from others.

What she has shared with others has been the truth, though only in small bites and crumbs of details. Serenei is the last daughter of a once mighty house from Lys. Her family claims an ancient blood tie to Valyria before the Doom. More personal questions to her history or reasons for being in Westeros go unanswered, returned only with a cold smile and excuse to depart from the conversation. She has so far, at least, not attempted to ingratiate herself with any of House Targaryen, though she has often been seen watching the King. Unsettling to some, have been the looks she has been seen giving to king's current mistress, Lady Bethany.

In a court of scandal, interest wains when so much else goes on. Lady Serenei seems to bide her time, as apathetic to being ignored as to being pressed upon.

Few in Westeros know much of House Sathmantes. The family was once wealthy like the Rogares, led by a merchant prince, yet fell onto hard times following the Daughters' War. They were nearly wiped out in the conflict, and their wealth greatly dissipated. With such an ancient family, it was the not the first time of hardship, but it has proven difficult for them to make the connections necessary to rebuild.

Regardless of financial issues, the Lysene House still claims strong Valyian blood and would be sought after by some who prioritized such matters. The many rumors surrounding Serenei would not be unfounded in that regard. Making a strong alliance to House Targaryen, whether formally through marriage or through less savory means, would go far in helping the family rebuild.

In her childhood, Elaena was often compared to her sisters as the unfortunate one. When she was sent to the Maidenvault at just eleven namedays, she was said to be a skinny little thing. While both Daena and Rhaena were recognized as great beauties, Elaena was not. Soft lilac eyes and striking pale hair with a gash of bright gold could not outweigh the awkward angles of her body, thin lips, and often with an angry expression that did nothing to soften the harshness of her appearance. Her unusual hair was the one thing everyone found striking about the girl and in a plea to escape her confinement, she cut it off. In rebellion, she has never again grown it long, not even in adulthood once released.

Often emulating Daena, she took to wearing all black as a child. A habit that followed her through adulthood, it is rare to find her wearing anything other than black dresses and gowns, though she retains a fondness for auquamarine adornments. Now approaching her thirties and after mutliple pregnanies, the angularity and awkwardness of youth has been softened.

As a young girl, Elaena was closest to her uncle, Viserys. As the youngest child, even in more standard families, it would not have been surprising if the girl was forgotten or left to her own devices. As the daughter of Aegon III, it surely would have been expected. She has few memories of her father and those she has are fleeting and blurry. She grew up knowing what people thought of him; the sullen, brooding king who cared little for anything except occasionally for the hint of a smile her mother or uncle brought him. Her mother died not long after her elder brother Daeron, a rush of horrific news that culminated with being locked away inside a gilded cage.

Her uncle Viserys filled a gap the young girl didn't know needed to be filled. Even then, his own duties pulled him away more frequently, and in adolescence she was left to fill her time with her sisters and their endless, rotating ladies. Daena was too angry and Rhaena, while not content at their seclusion, was acquiescent. Her sisters were all she had that were truly hers, and yet…The relationship with her sisters was far from healthy. It was not uncommon to find them red-faced in an agrument with one another and hours later secluded with one another, nursing the hidden wounds captivity inflicted on them. Their ladies-in-waiting, the intelligent ones anyways, learned quickly that there was no point in trying to turn them against one another. The trio of princesses always gave a united front against any who came against one of them.

That relationship wasn't what she had had with either brother. Daeron was crowned when Elaena was just seven and died when she was ten, seven years her elder, there was little to make them close. Baelor had always been different and there had been nothing to endear them to one another even before he inherited the crown and sought to hide his sisters away from lust or lusting.

Daena may have been defiant, but Elaena was no less angry, though she did not act on it as Daena did. Desperate to leave, she cut off her hair in an attempt to mar the beauty her brother so feared. No matter that it did not work, she would never grow it longer than shoulder length again. While Rhaena seemed able to acquiesce in silent suffering, Elaena used the time to learn of things that would otherwise not have been allowed. She read voraciously, on matters of state and coin. Her ladies-in-waiting did not typically share her interests, but would bring tomes and treatises from their family's personal libraries or from elsewhere in the Red Keep that the princesses could not access. Towards the end of her time in the Maidenvault, Elaena had even begun to pass along advice to those who were all too happy to praise their own intellect in financial matters rather than give due to the young Princess.

Upon release from the Maidenvault, Elaena quickly and tragically fell for Alyn Velaryon, thirty-five years her elder and married to her father's half-sister, Baela. No matter how she had chided Daena for her dalliance with Aegon, or how Rhaena chided her for the affair, Elaena would be not be dissuaded. It was love, fast and fierce, and she would not hear that Alyn did not return those feelings. Within a year of meeting her beloved, she gave birth to twins, Jon and Jeyne. They were bastards, though the princess briefly held hope they would be legitimized when Baela died and Alyn was at last free to marry her instead. Aegon refused to allow it until Alyn returned from a voyage he demanded. Lord Velaryon never returned and Elaena was certain her heart would never recover.

After much pressure, she finally relented and ended her grieving, agreeing to marry Lord Ossifer Plumm, a political match through and through. He died on their wedding night and rumors quickly rose up that it had been her cousin, King Aegon, who had gotten her with the child she would name Viserys Plumm, in honor of her uncle. Elaena, unlike Daena, had never cared for their cousin. In their younger days, Aegon had indeed attempted to bed her like he had her sister, but Elaena would swear upon any of the Seven, upon Viserys, upon her dead father and mother, that Aegon had never actually laid a hand on her. It did not stop the rumors, much to her chagrin.

In the aftermath of losing her first love, a man she swore would forever be her only love, and the loss of her husband, Elaena again finds the men of her life contriving to wed her again in a favorable match. Regardless of age and the sin of her twin bastards, there are endless lesser lords who would wed her for being able to claim a Targaryen bride. The King is far from being above selling his cousin for coppers in comparison to her worth. If she would be forced to marry again, the Targaryen Princess at least plans to make this second include benefits for her beyond the opportunity to leave Aegon's court. Multiple previous entreaties to Aegon to allow her to aid his council have so far fallen flat. With a proper marriage, perhaps there would be more room to have an influence.

Crone knows her cousin could use more than the typical sycophants who attended him.

The golden age of the Targaryen Dynasty has passed, of that there can be no doubt. Where once they ruled with fire and blood, now they must contend with the politics and machinations of mortal men to maintain their hold on the Seven Kingdoms.



No more obvious a sign of these times can be found than the fates of two of the House’s treasured daughters. Daena Targaryen has long been regarded as a forceful, if erratic, presence at Court. She is a patron of many arts, a consummate athlete in a way that many of her fellow women could never be allowed to be and a charismatic figurehead for many. She is also capricious, prone to flights of fancy and has never dealt well with the dreaded word ‘no.’ As a woman she has perhaps benefitted most from the degradation of her cousin, the King, for her own varied indiscretions are little and less compared to his own, and at times many have pondered the lost chance of the throne passing down the female line in this case. Of her sisters, Daena was perhaps the more distant from their Uncle Viserys, with clearer memories of her father and closer in age to her brother Daeron, both of whom she admired. Her relationship with her other brother, Baelor, was more strained even from the start and did not grow closer as they were betrothed to each other. Their marriage was marked by unhappiness, as Baelor, deeply devout and consumed by his obsession with the Faith of the Seven, refused to consummate the union. In protest, Daena abandoned her customary black clothing, worn in tribute to her father,and began dressing solely in white. She vowed not to wear any other color until she had been properly bedded, hoping to shame her husband into action. But her efforts were futile; Baelor found her appearance in white even more pleasing, believing it made her seem pure and innocent.

King Daeron I died in Dorne in 161 AC, and Baelor succeeded him on the Iron Throne. Early in his reign, Baelor persuaded the High Septon to annul his marriage to Daena, citing its lack of consummation. He then had Daena and her two sisters confined to separate apartments within the Red Keep. These chambers soon came to be known as the Maidenvault, intended to shield Baelor—and the men of his court—from temptation and "mortal lusts."

During the ten years she spent in the Maidenvault, Daena earned the nickname the Defiant, as she proved the most rebellious of the sisters. She escaped confinement three times, disguising herself as a servant or one of the smallfolk. Toward the end of Baelor’s reign, Daena became pregnant. In late 170 AC, she gave birth to a bastard son, whom she named Daemon, after her grandfather, Prince Daemon Targaryen.

Daena refused to reveal the identity of the child’s father, though rumors pointed to her cousin, Prince Aegon. The birth of Daena’s son prompted King Baelor I to undertake a prolonged fast. For forty days, he consumed nothing but water and a small amount of bread. On the forty-first day, he was found collapsed before the altar of the Mother.

After Baelor’s death in 171 AC, some among the smallfolk and nobility argued that the Iron Throne should pass to Daena, as the eldest surviving child of King Aegon III Targaryen. However, her decade of confinement in the Maidenvault had left her and her sisters politically isolated and without influential supporters. In addition, the bitter memory of the Dance of the Dragons and the reign of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the last woman to claim the throne, made many hesitant to accept a ruling queen.

Daena’s reputation also worked against her. Her defiant nature, her refusal to name the father of her bastard son born the year before, and the perception of her as wild and ungovernable led many to question her suitability for rule. The precedents set by the Great Council of 101 AC and the civil war that followed were cited, and the claims of Daena and her sisters were dismissed.

Daena has spent the the reign of her uncle and cousin as one of the most famed members of court. Unlike the long run of Aegon's mistresses, Daena does not claw and fight for influence, she acts as it is owed to her, and her confidence wins her great charisma and favour.

The older of her two younger sisters, Rhaena, is in many ways her opposite. While she draws much attention at court for her beauty and skill at the arts, she is meek in her manner and exceedingly pious, spending as much time with the clergy as she does the court. She is not entirely without her family fire, however, a face she has rarely shown and almost always when protesting some terrible act of her cousin, usually at the expense of herself or her sisters. While the three daughters of Aegon Dragonsbane may not be close in spirit, they lived for years almost entirely in each other’s company and while they may bicker terribly, they are also bonded closer than most sisters.

Recent events have proven to involve Rhaena more than most would have thought, however, for at many a knightly tournament of late she seems to have been favouring the company of the ladies and sers of the Vale, renown as they are for their great piety and chivalry. Most dramatically, at the wedding of her youngest sister, a hotheaded Baratheon declared her the Queen of Love and Beauty in place of her sister after winning the affair, a move that was taken poorly by the three sisters, although brought great amusement to the King.