Difference between revisions of "Storming of the Dragonpit"

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{{Template:Battlebox
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{{Battlebox
| image      =
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| image      = [[File:Storming of the Dragonpit.jpg|350px]]
| caption    =
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| caption    = The storming of the [[Dragonpit]], as depicted by Paulo Puggioni in ''[[The World of Ice & Fire]]''
 
| battle_name = Storming of the Dragonpit
 
| battle_name = Storming of the Dragonpit
 
| conflict    = [[Dance of the Dragons]]
 
| conflict    = [[Dance of the Dragons]]
| date        =  
+
| date        = {{Date|130}}
 
| place      = [[Dragonpit]], [[King's Landing]]
 
| place      = [[Dragonpit]], [[King's Landing]]
 
| result      = Mob victory<br>Death of five dragons
 
| result      = Mob victory<br>Death of five dragons
 
| combatant1  = [[Smallfolk]] of [[King's Landing]]
 
| combatant1  = [[Smallfolk]] of [[King's Landing]]
| combatant2  = [[House Targaryen]]
+
| combatant2  = [[File:House Targaryen (Rhaenyra).svg|30px]] [[Blacks]]
*[[City Watch of King's Landing]]  
+
* [[File:House Targaryen.svg|20px]] [[House Targaryen]]
 +
* [[File:City Watch.svg|20px]] [[City Watch of King's Landing]]
 +
* Less than 50 [[Dragonkeepers]]  
 
| commander1  = [[Shepherd (one-handed prophet)|The Shepherd]]
 
| commander1  = [[Shepherd (one-handed prophet)|The Shepherd]]
 
| commander2  =  
 
| commander2  =  
| strength1  = Thousands of smallfolk
+
| strength1  = Twenty thousand of the Shepherd's "lambs"
*[[Shepherd (one-handed prophet)|The Shepherd]]
+
| strength2  =  Four [[dragon]]s
*[[Hobb the Hewer]]
+
| casualties1 = The [[Burning Knight]]
*The [[Burning Knight]]
+
* Hundreds or thousands of smallfolk
| strength2  =   
+
| casualties2 = Prince [[Joffrey Velaryon]]<br>
| casualties1 = * The [[Burning Knight]] †<br>Hundreds/Thousands of dead smallfolk
+
Ser [[Glendon Goode]]<br>
| casualties2 = * Prince [[Joffrey Velaryon]]<br>
+
Ser [[Willam Royce]]<br>
 +
Ser [[Gyles Yronwood]]
 +
 
 
5 dragons:  
 
5 dragons:  
*[[Shrykos]]
+
*[[Shrykos]]
*[[Morghul]]
+
*[[Morghul]]
*[[Tyraxes]]
+
*[[Tyraxes]]
*[[Dreamfyre]]
+
*[[Dreamfyre]]
*[[Syrax]]
+
*[[Syrax]]
Dragonpit defenders
+
<50 Dragonkeepers
 
}}
 
}}
The '''Storming of the Dragonpit''' took place during the [[Dance of the Dragons|civil war]]. During the [[Riot of King's Landing (the Dance of the Dragons)|riots]] tearing the city apart, a crazed mob of [[smallfolk]], maddened by the [[Shepherd (one-handed prophet)|Shepherd's]] rantings, forced their way into the [[Dragonpit]] at [[King's Landing]] and slew four dragons housed there and afterwards slew [[Syrax]].{{ref|tpatq}}  
+
[[File:Season5Dance of Dragons21.png|thumb|350px|A [[dragon]] looses its flame on its attackers. In supplemental Blu-ray content from ''[[Game of Thrones]]'' Season 5.]]
 +
The '''storming of the Dragonpit''' took place during the [[riot of King's Landing (Dance of the Dragons)|riot of King's Landing]] during the [[Dance of the Dragons]]. During the riots, a crazed mob, urged on by the [[Shepherd]]'s rantings, forced their way into the [[Dragonpit]] atop the [[Hill of Rhaenys]] and slew the four [[dragon]]s housed within, as well as the dragon [[Syrax]], who was loosed above the city.{{ref|tpatq}}
 +
 
 +
At the time of the storming of the Dragonpit, four dragons were housed within: [[Shrykos]], unclaimed since the death of Prince [[Jaehaerys Targaryen (son of Aegon II)|Jaehaerys Targaryen]]; [[Morghul]], the dragon of Princess [[Jaehaera Targaryen]]; [[Tyraxes]], the dragon ridden by Prince [[Joffrey Velaryon]]; and [[Dreamfyre]], unclaimed since Queen [[Helaena Targaryen]]'s death.
 +
 
 +
==Prelude==
 +
{{See also|Riot of King's Landing (Dance of the Dragons)}}
 +
 
 +
The fearful citizens of [[King's Landing]] broke out in [[riot of King's Landing (Dance of the Dragons)|a riot]] the night following Queen [[Helaena Targaryen]]'s suicide. During the first night of these riots, the mobs plundered and killed all over the city, hacked the [[River Gate]] to pieces, and killed Ser [[Luthor Largent]] and his five hundred [[City Watch of King's Landing|gold cloaks]] on [[Cobbler's Square]] when they arrived to arrest the [[Shepherd]]. The Shepherd himself fled the gold cloaks.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
  
==Dragons housed within the dragonpit==
+
Although most of the mobs fled at dawn, they returned in greater numbers the following night, dubbed the [[Last Day]] by [[Munkun]]. The Shepherd appeared once again at [[Cobbler's Square]] to preach against the large crowd which had formed on the square. The people feared the arrival of King [[Aegon II Targaryen]]'s dragons and army, but the Shepherd told his "lambs" that everyone would burn when the dragons arrived, and that prayers would not be able to stay the wroth of the [[Stranger (the Seven)|Stranger]]. Instead, the Shepherd claimed that the only way the city would be able to achieve salvation was by killing the dragons in the [[Dragonpit]].{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
The dragons housed within the Dragonpit at that time: 
 
*[[Shrykos]] - Originally claimed by Prince [[Jaehaerys Targaryen (son of Aegon III)|Jaehaerys Targaryen]], unclaimed since Jaehaerys' death
 
*[[Morghul]] - Claimed by Princess [[Jaehaera Targaryen]]  
 
*[[Tyraxes]] - Claimed by Prince [[Joffrey Velaryon]]
 
*[[Dreamfyre]] - Originally ridden by Queen [[Helaena Targaryen]], unclaimed since Helaena's death
 
  
==The Storming==
+
===The Seven Who Rode===
The mob was able to clamber through windows and break down the Dragonpit's lesser entrance doors made of oak and iron using crude rams and the blows of countless axes. By the time the attackers came pouring onto the sands all four dragons were roused, awake, and angry. {{ref|tpatq}}  
+
{{See also|Seven Who Rode}}
 +
Queen [[Rhaenyra Targaryen]] and her sons, [[Joffrey Velaryon]] and [[Aegon III Targaryen|Aegon Targaryen]], looked on with their loyalists from atop the roof of [[Maegor's Holdfast]]. Although Rhaenyra had sent riders to Ser [[Balon Byrch]] at the [[Old Gate]] and Ser [[Garth the Harelip]] at the [[Dragon Gate]] to seize the [[Shepherd]], disperse his followers, and protect the dragons, they did not know whether the riders had been able to reach their destinations. Prince Joffrey wished to ride forth to protect the dragons, but Rhaenyra refused to allow it, insisting that they would need every man to defend [[Aegon's High Hill]] after the [[Hill of Rhaenys]] fell. Joffrey, fearing his own dragon, [[Tyraxes]], would be killed, slipped away to the yard and loosed his mother's dragon [[Syrax]]. Mounted on Syrax's back, the prince flew out over the city. Whether it was his intent to fly the dragon into battle or to fly to the Dragonpit to fetch his own dragon, Tyraxes, and perhaps the other dragons as well, is unknown.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
  
Trapped within the pit, hemmed in by wall and dome and bound by their heavy chains the dragons were not able to fly away or use their wings to evade attacks and swoop down on their foes. Instead the four dragons fought with their horns and claws and teeth, turning this way and that like the bulls in a [[Flea Bottom]] rat pit. They let loose their dragonflame and transformed the Dragonpit into a fiery inferno.  At the same time [[Syrax]], who was being stabled in the [[Red Keep]], was loosed by Prince [[Joffrey Velaryon]].{{ref|tpatq}}
+
Fearful, Rhaenyra ordered men to return her son to the castle. Ser [[Medrick Manderly]], Ser [[Loreth Lansdale]], and Ser [[Harrold Darke]], Ser [[Harmon of the Reeds]], Ser [[Gyles Yronwood]], Ser [[Willam Royce]], Ser [[Glendon Goode]], six squires, eight gold cloaks, and twenty men-at-arms rode forth from the Red Keep and fought their way through the city in an attempt to reach the prince. Joffrey, however, was unable to remain on Syrax's back once they were high in the air, and slid from her back two hundred feet above [[Flea Bottom]] and plunged to his death. The ''Seven Who Rode'' came upon his body as the mob was cutting it to pieces, and managed to reclaim every part of his except for a foot.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
  
* [[Shrykos]] was the first dragon to succumb, slain by [[Hobb the Hewer]]  
+
==The storming of the Dragonpit==
* [[Morghul]] was slain by the [[Burning Knight]].
+
[[File:Storming of the Dragonpit by Douglas Wheatley.jpg|thumb|right|350px|[[Dreamfyre]] cracks the dome of the [[Dragonpit]], as depicted by Douglas Wheatley in ''[[Fire & Blood]]''.]]
* [[Tyraxes]] was also slain however half a dozen men and one woman claimed to have dealt the death blow
+
The City Watch marched forth from their barracks at the [[Dragon Gate]] to defend the [[Hill of Rhaenys]], but could not halt the mob. Less than fifty [[Dragonkeepers]] stood guard the second night of the riots, but although they defended the Dragonpit to the best of their abilities, the mobs eventually smashed through the doors of the Dragonpit's lesser entrances, made of [[oak]] and [[iron]], by using crude rams and axes. Others climbed in through windows. During the battle, all Dragonkeepers were slaughtered.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
* Only [[Dreamfyre]] was able to break free from her remaining bonds. She took wing and slew more men that the other three dragons combined. Eventually rendered half-blind and maddened she flew into the pit's great dome above which cracked on impact and half of it came tumbling down, crushing her.{{ref|tpatq}}
 
  
==Aftermath: Syrax descends==
+
Inside, the four dragons had been awakened, roused, and angered by the sounds of the attack. Unable to fly away, as they had been chained, the four dragons fought with their horns, claws, and teeth. They let loose their [[dragonflame]] and transformed the Dragonpit into a fiery inferno. The first dragon to die was [[Shrykos]], who was slain by [[Hobb the Hewer]]. Hobb leapt onto her neck and drove his axe down into the dragon's skull. It took seven blows, according to Septon [[Eustace (Dance of the Dragons)|Eustace]]. Next died [[Morghul]], slain by the [[Burning Knight]], who rushed into the [[dragonflame|dragon's flame]] and stabbed him repeatedly in the eye with his spear as he burned to his own death. [[Tyraxes]] burned those who rushed at him from his lair, until the front entrance of his lair was completely blocked with corpses. However, after the Shepherd instructed his followers to break through the back door of the dragon's lair, the dragon became entangled in his own chains and was slain by the mob. His membranes were afterwards sliced from his wings and torn into strips, so dragonskin cloaks could be fashioned from them. [[Dreamfyre]] was able to break free from her remaining bonds. She took wing, circled the cavernous interior of the dome and swooped down to attack the men below. She slew more men than the other three dragons combined. Archers and crossbowmen loosed arrows and quarrels at the her, and whenever she landed men swarmed her to attack, driving her back into the air. Eventually one of her eyes was nicked by a crossbow bolt. Half-blind and maddened, Dreamfyre flew into the Dragonpit's great dome above, which cracked on impact. Half of it came tumbling down, crushing her and the [[dragonslayer]]s under tons of broken stone and rubble.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}{{ref|tpatq}}
  
The Storming of the Dragonpit was now over - but the unchained and riderless [[Syrax]] was in the skies above. She was drawn to [[Rhaenys's Hill]].  As the burned and bloody survivors of the carnage came stumbling from the smoking ruins Syrax descended upon them above.  A thousand shrieks and shouts echoed across King's Landing mingling with the dragon's roar. Atop Rhaeny’s Hill the Dragonpit wore a crown of yellow fire.  It burned so bright it seemed as if the sun was rising. Syrax attacked the mob and devoured dozens.  Eventually the queen's dragon was slain.  Many conflicting tales are told of her death but one thing is certain - she died that night.{{ref|tpatq}}
+
No one knows how many people died that night; hundreds, possibly even thousands, with many more having been injured.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}{{ref|tpatq}}
  
No one knows how many smallfolk died that night, hundreds definitely, possibly thousands.{{ref|tpatq}}
+
==Aftermath==
 +
===Syrax's descent===
 +
Following the destruction of the roof, the storming of the [[Dragonpit]] ended. Yet [[Rhaenyra Targaryen]]'s [[dragon]] [[Syrax]], freed from the [[Red Keep]]'s stables by her son, [[Joffrey Velaryon]], now descended on the survivors who came forth from the smoking ruins. According to [[Mushroom]], "a thousand shrieks and shouts echoed across the city, mingling with the dragon's roar." The [[Hill of Rhaenys]] looked as if it wore "a crown of yellow fire", burning so bright that it seemed the sun was rising. Instead of breathing [[dragonflame|fire]] onto the mobs from above, Syrax flew down and attacked the mob with her teeth and claws, devouring the people below. Rhaenyra watches Syrax's end from atop the roof of [[Maegor's Holdfast]], clutching her only surviving son<ref group="N">Rhaenyra's youngest son, [[Viserys II Targaryen|Viserys]], was at the time presumed dead.</ref> [[Aegon III Targaryen|Aegon]] in her arms until Syrax fell to the ground.
 +
 
 +
Mushroom, Septon [[Eustace (Dance of the Dragons)|Eustace]], and Grand Maester [[Munkun]] have written down accounts of Syrax's death. According to Munkun, [[Hobb the Hewer]] killed the dragon with his axe, although Archmaester [[Gyldayn]] believes this is almost certainly mistaken, as he considers it unlikely that the same man could have slain two dragons the same night and in the same manner. Others have suggested an unnamed spearman, "a blood-soaked giant" who leapt onto the dragon's back, while others tell of Ser [[Warrick Wheaton]], who supposedly slashed a wing from Syrax with a [[Valyrian steel]] sword ([[Gyldayn]] believes [[Lamentation (sword)|Lamentation]] to have been the most likely option). [[Bean]], a crossbowman, claimed responsibility for Syrax's death afterward, and boasted of it frequently - until one of Rhaenyra's supporters grew tired of his stories and cut our his tongue.{{ref|Fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
 +
 
 +
Gyldayn argues that it is possible that all the candidates, except for Hobb the Hewer, played some role in the dragon's death. However, the tale most frequently told in [[King's Landing]] is that of the [[Shepherd]]. According to the tale, as others fled, the Shepherd faced Syrax on his own, calling upon the [[Faith of the Seven|Seven]] for succor, until the [[Warrior (the Seven)|Warrior]] himself took form, thirty feet tall, with a black blade made of smoke that turned to steel. Even Septon Eustace repeats the tale in his account, while singers sang about it for many years.{{ref|Fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}
 +
 
 +
===Rhaenyra's flight===
 +
Shaken by the loss of her [[dragon]] and her son [[Joffrey Velaryon]], [[Rhaenyra Targaryen]] was inconsolable, according to [[Mushroom]]. Her counselors agreed that [[King's Landing]] was lost to them, and they managed to convince Rhaenyra to abandon the city. Rhaenyra agreed reluctantly and [[Flight to Dragonstone|fled]] the next day, sneaking out of the city with some of her loyalists and son [[Aegon III Targaryen|Aegon]]. Rhaenyra reached, after great difficulty, her own castle [[Dragonstone]], where she was subsequently captured by King [[Aegon II Targaryen]], whose people had [[fall of Dragonstone|taken the castle]] during the previous weeks.{{ref|Fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}{{Ref|tpatq}}
  
 
==Quotes==
 
==Quotes==
{{Quote|Drunks they may be, but a drunken man knows not fear. Fools, aye, but a fool can kill a king. Rats, that too, but a thousand rats can bring down a bear.{{ref|tpatq}}}} - [[Mushroom]]  
+
{{Quote|Drunks they may be, but a drunken man knows not fear. Fools, aye, but a fool can kill a king. Rats, that too, but a thousand rats can bring down a bear.{{ref|tpatq}}|[[Mushroom]]}}
  
==References and Notes==
+
{{Quote|When the [[dragon]]s come, your flesh will burn and blister and turn to ash. Your wives will dance in gowns of fire, shrieking as they burn, lewd and naked underneath the flames. And you shall see your little children weeping, weeping till their eyes do melt and slide like jelly down their faces, till their pink flesh falls black and crackling from their bones. The [[Stranger (the Seven)|Stranger]] comes, he comes, he comes, to scourge us for our sins. Prayers cannot stay his wroth, no more than tears can quench the flame of dragons. Only blood can do that. Your blood, my blood, their blood. [[Dragonpit|There]] [[dragon|the demons]] dwell, up there. Fire and blood, blood and fire. This is their city. If you would make it yours, first you must destroy them. If you would cleanse yourself of sin, first must you bathe in dragon’s blood. For only blood can quench the fires of hell.{{Ref|fab|The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown}}|The [[Shepherd]] to the crowds on [[Cobbler's Square]]}}
 +
 
 +
==Notes==
 +
{{Notes}}
 +
 
 +
==References==
 
{{references}}
 
{{references}}
  
[[Category:House Targaryen]]
+
{{Dance of the Dragons}}
 +
 
 +
[[Category:House Targaryen battles|Dragonpit, Storming of the]]
 
[[Category:Dance of the Dragons|Dragonpit, Storming of the]]
 
[[Category:Dance of the Dragons|Dragonpit, Storming of the]]
 
[[Category:Events]]
 
[[Category:Events]]
 
[[Category:King's Landing]]
 
[[Category:King's Landing]]
 +
 
[[es:Asalto a Pozo Dragón]]
 
[[es:Asalto a Pozo Dragón]]
 +
[[fr:Prise de Fossedragon]]
 +
[[pt:Assalto ao Fosso dos Dragões]]
 +
[[ru:Штурм Драконьего Логова]]

Latest revision as of 20:25, 1 November 2022

Storming of the Dragonpit
Storming of the Dragonpit.jpg
The storming of the Dragonpit, as depicted by Paulo Puggioni in The World of Ice & Fire
Conflict Dance of the Dragons
Date 130 AC
Place Dragonpit, King's Landing
Result Mob victory
Death of five dragons
Combatants
Smallfolk of King's Landing Rhaenyra Targaryen.svg Blacks
Commanders
The Shepherd
Strength
Twenty thousand of the Shepherd's "lambs" Four dragons
Casualties
The Burning Knight
  • Hundreds or thousands of smallfolk
Prince Joffrey Velaryon

Ser Glendon Goode
Ser Willam Royce
Ser Gyles Yronwood

5 dragons:

<50 Dragonkeepers
A dragon looses its flame on its attackers. In supplemental Blu-ray content from Game of Thrones Season 5.

The storming of the Dragonpit took place during the riot of King's Landing during the Dance of the Dragons. During the riots, a crazed mob, urged on by the Shepherd's rantings, forced their way into the Dragonpit atop the Hill of Rhaenys and slew the four dragons housed within, as well as the dragon Syrax, who was loosed above the city.[1]

At the time of the storming of the Dragonpit, four dragons were housed within: Shrykos, unclaimed since the death of Prince Jaehaerys Targaryen; Morghul, the dragon of Princess Jaehaera Targaryen; Tyraxes, the dragon ridden by Prince Joffrey Velaryon; and Dreamfyre, unclaimed since Queen Helaena Targaryen's death.

Prelude

The fearful citizens of King's Landing broke out in a riot the night following Queen Helaena Targaryen's suicide. During the first night of these riots, the mobs plundered and killed all over the city, hacked the River Gate to pieces, and killed Ser Luthor Largent and his five hundred gold cloaks on Cobbler's Square when they arrived to arrest the Shepherd. The Shepherd himself fled the gold cloaks.[2]

Although most of the mobs fled at dawn, they returned in greater numbers the following night, dubbed the Last Day by Munkun. The Shepherd appeared once again at Cobbler's Square to preach against the large crowd which had formed on the square. The people feared the arrival of King Aegon II Targaryen's dragons and army, but the Shepherd told his "lambs" that everyone would burn when the dragons arrived, and that prayers would not be able to stay the wroth of the Stranger. Instead, the Shepherd claimed that the only way the city would be able to achieve salvation was by killing the dragons in the Dragonpit.[2]

The Seven Who Rode

Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and her sons, Joffrey Velaryon and Aegon Targaryen, looked on with their loyalists from atop the roof of Maegor's Holdfast. Although Rhaenyra had sent riders to Ser Balon Byrch at the Old Gate and Ser Garth the Harelip at the Dragon Gate to seize the Shepherd, disperse his followers, and protect the dragons, they did not know whether the riders had been able to reach their destinations. Prince Joffrey wished to ride forth to protect the dragons, but Rhaenyra refused to allow it, insisting that they would need every man to defend Aegon's High Hill after the Hill of Rhaenys fell. Joffrey, fearing his own dragon, Tyraxes, would be killed, slipped away to the yard and loosed his mother's dragon Syrax. Mounted on Syrax's back, the prince flew out over the city. Whether it was his intent to fly the dragon into battle or to fly to the Dragonpit to fetch his own dragon, Tyraxes, and perhaps the other dragons as well, is unknown.[2]

Fearful, Rhaenyra ordered men to return her son to the castle. Ser Medrick Manderly, Ser Loreth Lansdale, and Ser Harrold Darke, Ser Harmon of the Reeds, Ser Gyles Yronwood, Ser Willam Royce, Ser Glendon Goode, six squires, eight gold cloaks, and twenty men-at-arms rode forth from the Red Keep and fought their way through the city in an attempt to reach the prince. Joffrey, however, was unable to remain on Syrax's back once they were high in the air, and slid from her back two hundred feet above Flea Bottom and plunged to his death. The Seven Who Rode came upon his body as the mob was cutting it to pieces, and managed to reclaim every part of his except for a foot.[2]

The storming of the Dragonpit

Dreamfyre cracks the dome of the Dragonpit, as depicted by Douglas Wheatley in Fire & Blood.

The City Watch marched forth from their barracks at the Dragon Gate to defend the Hill of Rhaenys, but could not halt the mob. Less than fifty Dragonkeepers stood guard the second night of the riots, but although they defended the Dragonpit to the best of their abilities, the mobs eventually smashed through the doors of the Dragonpit's lesser entrances, made of oak and iron, by using crude rams and axes. Others climbed in through windows. During the battle, all Dragonkeepers were slaughtered.[2]

Inside, the four dragons had been awakened, roused, and angered by the sounds of the attack. Unable to fly away, as they had been chained, the four dragons fought with their horns, claws, and teeth. They let loose their dragonflame and transformed the Dragonpit into a fiery inferno. The first dragon to die was Shrykos, who was slain by Hobb the Hewer. Hobb leapt onto her neck and drove his axe down into the dragon's skull. It took seven blows, according to Septon Eustace. Next died Morghul, slain by the Burning Knight, who rushed into the dragon's flame and stabbed him repeatedly in the eye with his spear as he burned to his own death. Tyraxes burned those who rushed at him from his lair, until the front entrance of his lair was completely blocked with corpses. However, after the Shepherd instructed his followers to break through the back door of the dragon's lair, the dragon became entangled in his own chains and was slain by the mob. His membranes were afterwards sliced from his wings and torn into strips, so dragonskin cloaks could be fashioned from them. Dreamfyre was able to break free from her remaining bonds. She took wing, circled the cavernous interior of the dome and swooped down to attack the men below. She slew more men than the other three dragons combined. Archers and crossbowmen loosed arrows and quarrels at the her, and whenever she landed men swarmed her to attack, driving her back into the air. Eventually one of her eyes was nicked by a crossbow bolt. Half-blind and maddened, Dreamfyre flew into the Dragonpit's great dome above, which cracked on impact. Half of it came tumbling down, crushing her and the dragonslayers under tons of broken stone and rubble.[2][1]

No one knows how many people died that night; hundreds, possibly even thousands, with many more having been injured.[2][1]

Aftermath

Syrax's descent

Following the destruction of the roof, the storming of the Dragonpit ended. Yet Rhaenyra Targaryen's dragon Syrax, freed from the Red Keep's stables by her son, Joffrey Velaryon, now descended on the survivors who came forth from the smoking ruins. According to Mushroom, "a thousand shrieks and shouts echoed across the city, mingling with the dragon's roar." The Hill of Rhaenys looked as if it wore "a crown of yellow fire", burning so bright that it seemed the sun was rising. Instead of breathing fire onto the mobs from above, Syrax flew down and attacked the mob with her teeth and claws, devouring the people below. Rhaenyra watches Syrax's end from atop the roof of Maegor's Holdfast, clutching her only surviving son[N 1] Aegon in her arms until Syrax fell to the ground.

Mushroom, Septon Eustace, and Grand Maester Munkun have written down accounts of Syrax's death. According to Munkun, Hobb the Hewer killed the dragon with his axe, although Archmaester Gyldayn believes this is almost certainly mistaken, as he considers it unlikely that the same man could have slain two dragons the same night and in the same manner. Others have suggested an unnamed spearman, "a blood-soaked giant" who leapt onto the dragon's back, while others tell of Ser Warrick Wheaton, who supposedly slashed a wing from Syrax with a Valyrian steel sword (Gyldayn believes Lamentation to have been the most likely option). Bean, a crossbowman, claimed responsibility for Syrax's death afterward, and boasted of it frequently - until one of Rhaenyra's supporters grew tired of his stories and cut our his tongue.[2]

Gyldayn argues that it is possible that all the candidates, except for Hobb the Hewer, played some role in the dragon's death. However, the tale most frequently told in King's Landing is that of the Shepherd. According to the tale, as others fled, the Shepherd faced Syrax on his own, calling upon the Seven for succor, until the Warrior himself took form, thirty feet tall, with a black blade made of smoke that turned to steel. Even Septon Eustace repeats the tale in his account, while singers sang about it for many years.[2]

Rhaenyra's flight

Shaken by the loss of her dragon and her son Joffrey Velaryon, Rhaenyra Targaryen was inconsolable, according to Mushroom. Her counselors agreed that King's Landing was lost to them, and they managed to convince Rhaenyra to abandon the city. Rhaenyra agreed reluctantly and fled the next day, sneaking out of the city with some of her loyalists and son Aegon. Rhaenyra reached, after great difficulty, her own castle Dragonstone, where she was subsequently captured by King Aegon II Targaryen, whose people had taken the castle during the previous weeks.[2][1]

Quotes

Drunks they may be, but a drunken man knows not fear. Fools, aye, but a fool can kill a king. Rats, that too, but a thousand rats can bring down a bear.[1]

When the dragons come, your flesh will burn and blister and turn to ash. Your wives will dance in gowns of fire, shrieking as they burn, lewd and naked underneath the flames. And you shall see your little children weeping, weeping till their eyes do melt and slide like jelly down their faces, till their pink flesh falls black and crackling from their bones. The Stranger comes, he comes, he comes, to scourge us for our sins. Prayers cannot stay his wroth, no more than tears can quench the flame of dragons. Only blood can do that. Your blood, my blood, their blood. There the demons dwell, up there. Fire and blood, blood and fire. This is their city. If you would make it yours, first you must destroy them. If you would cleanse yourself of sin, first must you bathe in dragon’s blood. For only blood can quench the fires of hell.[2]

—The Shepherd to the crowds on Cobbler's Square

Notes

  1. Rhaenyra's youngest son, Viserys, was at the time presumed dead.

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 The Princess and the Queen.
  2. 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 Fire & Blood, The Dying of the Dragons - Rhaenyra Overthrown.