Aelor Sand

Aelor Rizaldrīzes, previously known as Aelor Sand, is a Magister of Tyrosh and the rider of the dragon Rhaegal. He was born in 381 to Maegor Waters and Sylvenna Dayne. After leaving Starfall, he traveled Westeros as a tourney knight in hopes of winning the approval of his father. After his father's death in the Mummer's War, Aelor fled for Essos, where he eventually become a Magister of the Free City of Tyrosh. He is married to Talisa Rizaldrīzes, the daughter of Archon Jaqen Adarys. They have four children.

Early Childhood
Born after Maegor's departure from Starfall, there was no denying the boy's parentage when he opened his eyes. Outraged that the bastard had tarnished his daughter's reputation, the Lord of Starfall, threatened to have his child thrown to the sands--a course of action he was only dissuaded from when Maegor, alerted of the situation by Sylvenna, returned to give his child a name and stated, in no uncertain terms, that Starfall would be destroyed should Aelor come to harm. 

Aelor grew in contentment in Starfall. His Mother doted on him as his Grandfather resented his existence, though both kept his father's identity secret from him. He had not a care in the world.

That changed in 386, when a sickness spread like wildfire up and down the Torrentine. Among its victims was Aelor's mother.

With his mother's protection gone, Aelor's life became much less comfortable. Lord Dayne was never foolish enough to strike Aelor himself, realizing that to risk the ire of a dragonrider would be suicidal. Similarly, he did not remove the child from the castle, as keeping him close was the only way to ensure that no harm came to him. He did, however, ensure that Aelor was given the bare minimum. Where his own children and grandchildren received practice swords, Aelor received nothing. While the other children ate whatever they pleased, Aelor ate scraps. It was only the kindness of a select few--the Maester of the castle, Arthur, among them--that brought Aelor's life any degree of comfort.

By the time he was twelve, Aelor had began to question why he was treated in this way. Why did the other children cross the hall when he passed by? Why was he made to want for everything, when others wanted for nothing? Brought to a fit of rage by his mistreatment, Arthur took pity on him, and revealed the reason for his grandfather's malice: his father had been Maegor Waters, the erstwhile heir to the Iron Throne.

Even Aelor, as deprived of information as he was in Starfall, had heard of the Black Dragon. He knew of his victories in tournaments, his heroic nature, kindness, honor... he was everything a King should be, Aelor thought. He became obsessed with this image of his father--the heir to the Iron Throne, cast down to nothing, making something of himself despite his circumstances. He would live up to his image, he decided, and prove himself worthy of his father's affection.

Adolescence
Aelor was driven. He met the insults of his peers with vitriol of his own. When his vitriol brought their anger upon him, he drew up his owns fists--and later his own practice sword--to deal with them. In time, he grew big and stronger--stronger than any of them. That earned him some deal of reprieve. 

And provided Lord Dayne an opportunity to get rid of him. At the age of 15, Lord Dayne sent Aelor along with a party to deal with a group of bandits that had been raiding around the Red Mountains, denying trade and free passage. The party found itself caught in an ambush and only a handful of men survived, including Aelor. When all hope seemed lost a roar was heard echoing through the hills. The Black Dragon had been rumored to be in the area, and it turned out the rumors were true. Flames cleared the valley of the bandits, and a few of the surviving men at arms from Starfall, but the blood of the Dragon kept Aelor strong against the heat. 

His first meeting with his Father in 15 years was a brief affair, but it was the single most important moment of Aelor’s life. In that moment he knew that if he wished to honor his heritage, if he wished to earn the respect of men as his Father had done, and if he wished to be something, he would have to do as his Father has done. After a brief return to Starfall to gather his things and say goodbye to Arthur, Aelor left his birthplace and traveled north through the Prince’s Pass.

Tourney Knight
For the next 11 years Aelor competed in tournaments and traveled the land, gaining some notoriety, though nothing of much note.

He travels as a poor man, a life that’s written on his face, many would call Aelor a Hedge Knight, the few tourneys he was able to win rarely paid well, and he learned to live on a shoestring, sleeping outside when he couldn’t convince the owner of an inn to let him stay in exchange for stories about his Father, though few believed them, and fewer still that he was the bastard of the bastard. Despite Aelor’s loose adherence to knightly customs and traditions, he has never been knighted, often stating when asked that he is waiting for his father’s blade.

The Mummer's War
The chance to reunite with his father finally came in 407 AC. Aelor interpreted the arrival of the Red Comet as a sign that his father would at long last return to Westeros. Rumors of Morghul's return only confirmed Aelor's suspicions, and he made his way to the Tourney of Harrenhal with the utmost haste. There, he competed in the melee and the joust, besting Rhaegar Targaryen in both, though he was ultimately defeated.

It was after the melee that his father made an appearance to him. Arriving in his tent in the dead of night, Maegor summoned his oldest child to Raventree Hall, where he would outline his plan for the future. Aelor, who found the man before him a pale shade of the near-mythical figure he has built up in his head, begrudgingly agreed.

Following Maegor's council in Raventree Hall, Aelor remained while Maegor and his other bastards scattered to the wind. He found his identity in crisis; for almost fifteen years, he had dedicated his life to earning his father's approval--for his recognition. For all his efforts, he had only received the latter. He had given up so much of his life, and come so far, and had so little to show for it. Idolization of his father turned to resentment.

Rhaegal
The opportunity to be something more than some bastard practically fell into Aelor's lap. While he was residing in Raventree Hall, he heard news that Rhaegal, the dragon of his grandfather Aenys Targaryen, had settled in the ruins of Oldstones. He spared no time in riding north to meet the beast: in his mind, he would finally prove himself worthy of his father's affection, or die trying.

Aelor entered Oldstones alone, where he found the colossal beast. Rhaegal cautioned against his approach not once, but twice, with fearsome roars and searing flame, to burn Aelor alive if he did not leave. Despite these warnings--despite every fiber of his being telling him he ought to turn around to save himself--he persisted. Using nothing but the sheer power of his will, Aelor brought Rhaegal to his knees and mounted him. In the span of a moment, he went from nobody to somebody.

Flight
Aelor returned briefly to Raventree Hall, eager to learn his father's whereabouts so that he could join him in his battle to reclaim their birthright. He was once again disappointed; the banners of the Riverlands and the Vale had been raised in support of Maegor's cause, yet Maegor was nowhere to be seen. Following his trail, Aelor made way for the Mountains of the Moon, where he spent weeks searching for his father to no avail.

The brief relapse of affection for his father soon faded. Finally, he had returned, promising to remain a part of Aelor's life. And just like he had all those years before, he had disappeared in an instant. The man may have given his seed to create him, but he had done nothing to make him the man he was today. Aelor owed him nothing.

Tired of basing his life around pleasing the father who had never been there for him, Aelor set off for Essos. He would later learn that Maegor had died before he had tamed Rhaegal. Good riddance, he thought.

Tyrosh
Though Aelor was the rider of one of the largest dragons in the world, he had little but the dirty rags on his back and the sword on his waist. When he arrived in Tyrosh, it was to mixed reception. Some saw in Aelor--a broke man in need of friends--as the perfect pawn for their plans. Others saw him and feared a repeat of Baelon's coup in Lys, for what man was more dangerous than the one with nothing to lose?

One of the first men to make contact with Aelor happened to do so by pure coincidence: Jaqen Adarys's agents just happened to be near where the the dragonrider made his first landing in the city, and though his manse was small, its courtyard was just large enough to fit the beast upon which he rode.

With nowhere else to go, and in dire need of respite, Aelor graciously accepted the offer to stay under the man's roof. There, he was clothed and fed. There, he met the woman who he would marry two years later: Talisa Adarys.

Theirs was not love at first sight. Nor second. Nor third. Though Jaqen was sure to bring her into his presence as often as he could manage, the hopes he harbored of her beauty convincing him to her to bed--or better, to wed--remained only hopes.

In the following months and years, Aelor toured Essos, much like his father had. To suggest that he had as peaceful a time of it as his father had, though, would be incorrect. In several places he found himself narrowly surviving attempts on his life. Whatever their motivations, they all failed. Nevertheless, it was in these days that Aelor became acutely aware of his own mortality, even if he rode a dragon. Rhaegal could never protect him from knives in the dark, or from poison in his meals. It also at this point that he became aware of his own fleeting legacy: were he to die now, history would not remember him. He had to do something to secure his legacy. Part of that meant he needed heirs.

In all of these travels, Jaqen's manse in Tyrosh served as a staging point of sorts. On one of his visits back to Tyrosh in the closing moons of 409 AC, he at last acquiesced to his host's consistent efforts to pair him to his daughter Talisa. They were married before the end of the year, and the dowry paid to him was quickly spent as the start-up capital for a new Free Company--the Bastard's Company.

The Sellsword's Life
There were multiple reasons that Aelor elected to found the Bastard's Company. The first was obvious: mercenary companies were often profitable ventures. A mercenary company with a dragon promised to be an even more profitable venture. The second was more subtle: mercenary companies contained armed men. And the more armed men one has around, assuming one can earn their loyalty, the harder it is for an assassin's dagger to take you sleeping.

There were, of course, issues to running a mercenary company that distinguished itself by its possession of a dragon. First, the price such a company commanded was one only the wealthiest of magisters could afford, and that only more desperate men would seek out. After all, why recruit a dragon's fire at ten times the cost when two thousand men will do the task just as well? With this in mind, the Bastard's Company traveled far and wide in search of contracts, never staying in an area for very long. They found employment with many of the same sorts who had employed the company of Prince Baelor Targaryen some decade and a half earlier. He also found great profit in the cities of Slaver's Bay, of Saath, and of Norvos and Qohor. The reasoning was simple: charge less than they would otherwise pay to the Dothraki khalasars that threatened them in tribute, and your offer suddenly became very well-regarded.

Rhaegal took a liking to charred horsemeat in this period, though his skirmishes against the Dothraki were more a matter of dissuasion than one of extermination. After all, eliminating the Dothraki khalasars would, in effect, rob him of future income. Better then to incinerate their leader and a few of his best men, and leave the rest to eventually seek revenge (and by extension, force his clients to return to him).

During this period, Talisa largely remained in Tyrosh. Aelor was absent for almost the entirety of her first pregnancy, returning from his adventures only several months after his child had been born in early 411 AC. He received a daughter. He had wanted a son.

Talisa had named the silver-haired girl Aelora, in hopes of reminding him of his kinship to her, and how she could still carry on his legacy just as well as a son. It spared the child his anger. It did not spare Talisa from retribution for her failure to bring a son into the world.

Traveling the continent, Aelor met and befriended many other mercenary captains, particularly those who had also fled his homeland, like Lyle Bracken, Selwyn Storm, and Ambrose Blackwood. He also found common cause with his half-sister, Aelyxa Pyke, who came to accompany him on his travels.

It was also during this time that Aelor's carefully honed physique and practiced skill with a blade began to fade away. Those things, he came to realize, were no longer as important to him as they had once been. What use was a sword when you had hundreds of swords willing to die for you? What use was a strong body when one had a dragon to fight your battles? Any man, Aelor realized, could craft his body into a weapon of war. But he was not any man. He was made of greater stock--the stock of rulers. Of kings.

And so he dedicated himself to learning the finer arts of leadership and rule. He became intimately familiar with the details of the Bastard's Company's purse, and learned, over time, how best to separate magisters and masters from their coin with smiles and promises.

But it wasn't enough for him. As wealthy as being a sellsword made him, it was a position devoid of true power. What wealth and power he held, he received from others. Should they no longer find themselves in need of his services, he would be powerless. That was something he could not abide. In 414 AC, Aelor took his share of the spoils (a sizable share) and formally parted from the Bastard's Company. The group did not last long thereafter, with many folding into other Westerosi-led companies like the Raven Company, the Stormbringers, and the Windblown. However, some of the highest ranking officers and the longest-serving members accompanied Aelor back to Tyrosh. They would come to serve as the centerpiece of his next enterprise.

The Merchant's Life
Talisa had not been idle in her time at home. Using a combination of her father's wealth (and the wealth sent back to Tyrosh by Aelor) and Aelor's contacts in Slaver's Bay, she had muscled her way into Tyrosh's lucrative slave trade. When Aelor returned, the addition of his own silver tongue, his talent for accounting, and his vast fortune from his days as a mercenary to her own business acumen and connections in Tyrosh made them a formidable pair.

Together, they muscled their way into even more sectors of the Tyroshi economy. The sight of the Sandrake's sigil became familiar the world over, branded onto slaves, emblazoned onto sails, and stamped onto boxes of cargo.

Rhaegal proved a great boon to the burgeoning trading company. While a single ship could travel up and down the coast faster than Rhaegal ever could, he provided a deal of security that no fleet could provide. While the Stepstones were ablaze during the Scouring, the threat of retribution dissuaded all but the most desperate pirates from raiding the vessels sworn to Aelor's company. Rhaegal also provided a relatively quick method of transportation to the inland cities of Norvos and Qohor, for those instances when his own presence was necessitated to close a deal.

The Band of Five
As the Scouring of the Stepstones came to a close, rumblings of discontent in Tyroshi high society reached Aelor's ears. The only Free City situated in the Stepstones, Tyrosh was uniquely threatened by the presence of Aeryn Targaryen's fledgling kingdom; all trade passing through the island chain was now under threat by an organized conglomeration of pirate with a dragonrider at their head. Everyone with an ear to ground in Tyrosh knew that the status quo could not stand.

Jaqen, at part due to his own planning, and at part due to urging from Aelor, used a combination of blackmail, trade deals, and clever political intrigues to spearhead a concerted campaign to convince the Archon to strike against the dragonrider while his demense was still weak, all without ever revealing himself to the man. Seeking to deal with the crisis before the Conclave lost faith in him (a situation that would no doubt lead to his assassination), the Archon launched a military strike against Aeryn's princedom.

Contemporaneously, Aelor summoned several of his erstwhile friends from his days as a sellsword, many of whom had arrived in or near Tyrosh seeking employment in the upcoming conflict. They met beneath the Tree of Crowns, the same spot where the Band of Nine had made their blood oath over a century and a half earlier, just before hostilities between the Stepstones and Tyrosh had erupted into conflict, and exchanged a set of agreements of their own. No one, besides those present (Aelor, Lyle Bracken, Aelyxa Pyke, Selwyn Storm, and Ambrose Blackwood) knows what was discussed, or that the meeting even occurred. Aelor remained absent until the end of the conflict in the Stepstones, preferring to negotiate certain contracts in Slaver's Bay instead.

The Archon's campaign ended disastrously, with the Archon's flagship, an outrageously opulent vessel almost more pleasure barge than warship, being among the first vessels to fall victim to Stormsong's flames. The remnants of the Tyroshi fleet returned to the city to lick their wounds, and to elect a new Archon.

After several months of wheeling, dealing, and backdoor negotiations, Jaqen Adarys emerged the new Archon of Tyrosh.

The Magister's Life
Among Jaqen's first actions as Archon was to nominate Aelor for the magisterial position he vacated in the early moons of 416 AC. While the nomination was certainly contentious, with many voicing opposition to what was viewed as a blatant attempt at Adarys hegemony, and others voicing concern that their island would end up much like Lys had when Baelon Targaryen had chosen to settle there, none could deny that Aelor had come into possession of a fortune that rivaled or outdid many lesser magisters. Ultimately, it was Aelor's rousing speech on the Conclave floor, in which he proclaimed his loyalty to the city of Tyrosh, and reminded the Magisters that his dragon was one of the few things keeping Aeryn from conquering their city, that swayed the vote in his favor, 18-15.

Upon entering the Conclave as a Magister, Aelor joined the faction of magisters that supported the reformation of the Kingdom of Three Daughters. He was one of its key proponents, putting much of his power and influence into making sure the negotiations were successful. Despite this, it was determined that Aelor would not be granted a position in the Triarchy's Conclave--a situation that he views as an insult by the other two Daughters.

As the Festival approaches, and the Triarchy moves from being an old dream to being a concrete reality, this is a situation that Aelor intends to rectify.