Maegor Waters

Maegor Waters, formerly known as Maegor Targaryen, is the rider of the dragon Morghul. The first child of the marriage of Lenore Blackwood and Aenys Targaryen, Maegor was expected to one day become Lord of the Seven Kingdoms before the intrigues of court saw the marriage of his parents annulled, his last name stripped from him, his mother executed, and his father dead. Disappearing days after his father's suicide, Maegor has at various times appeared and vanished in Westerosi politics. There have been few confirmed sightings of Maegor or his dragon in the past ten years, but there are a plethora of rumors regarding his exploits in that period.

Appearance and Character
Maegor's appearance is hard to pin down: though everyone agrees he possesses the silver hair and purple eyes of his father, and that he is just a hair over six foot, the specifics are harder to pin down, for they change too often, and people see him too infrequently. He just goes clean-shaven just as often as he wears facial hair, and he wears his hair long as often as he does short. His personality is similarly enigmatic. Often appearing detached and aloof, Maegor seems to have his head trapped in the clouds. It is not often that this is painstakingly stripped away to reveal the bright, vibrant man underneath.

Early Childhood
Maegor was once destined to be King. Many would rather forget that fact--Gods know Viserys and his ilk have spent long enough trying to wash it away, but a lifetime of scrubbing would not be enough to remove the memories of a silk-swaddled Maegor from the world. Though his name is now Waters, there are many still living who remember Maegor Targaryen.

Maegor is not among them. His first memories are as Maegor Waters, far from King's Landing and Dragonstone, in the halls of the Eyrie. For the man who would once be King, the life of royalty and its trappings are shadows that loom over him: undeniably present, but lacking detail.

How the royal babe came to be at the Eyrie is a story few know the details of. With the execution of his mother and the suicide of his father in 367 and 368, respectively, the child of their erstwhile union was easy enough to erase from the history books. When Maegor disappeared from Dragonstone mere days before Prince Viserys arrived to assert his will over his newly-acquired domain, it was assumed by many that his influence had beaten him there and ensured the boy--the only remaining challenge to his future inheritance--permanently dealt with. Most assumed Maegor had been killed; it was easy to imagine a three year old getting lost in the depths of Dragonstone. Some, not willing to attribute something so malicious to the future Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, assumed he had instead shipped the bastard boy off to some forgotten corner of the globe, where he would live out his life doing whatever it is bastard boys do.

Their ideas weren't too far from the truth. The child had been stolen away from Dragonstone in the dead of night, taken away to some distant land to be raised in secret. It just wasn't Viserys who did so.

Though men are often quick to denounce Lenore forty years after her passing, one must remember that the Princess was not always so universally reviled. She had a magnetism that charmed most all the Realm, and that had afforded her a great deal of friends and allies. Most were killed or disgraced alongside her. Those that were not, their numbers vanishingly few, and growing fewer by the day as the influence of Viserys's faction ran unchecked, made their way to Dragonstone to extract her son. Long before the sun rose, while the entire island slept, Maegor and his egg were wrapped in black and spirited away to the hold of a merchant's ship. By the time the farmers took to their fields and the fishermen went out to see, the vessel was long gone.

From Dragonstone, the ship sailed north, eventually coming to land at Gulltown. From there, the party traveled north through the Vale. Few in numbers, they made it to the Eyrie only by sheer luck and strength of arms. The final journey up the side of the mountain was easy in comparison.

They found a court ready for war. The Warden of the East, Roland Arryn, who had inherited the title from his father only weeks earlier, had made no secret of his admiration for the royal couple. When their marriage was annulled and their child stripped of his station, he was one of the first and loudest voices to call for an uprising to exact justice for Lenore. It was no secret that such a war, righteous or not, would be ill-fated. When Maegor showed up on his doorstep, dragon egg in hand, and Roland chose to give him shelter, those close to him let out a collective sigh of relief. War had been prevented--if only for now.

The Eyrie
And so came Maegor, dubbed Florian Stone, to the Eyrie. Ostensibly the bastard of a cousin of the main line and a Lyseni prostitute, Florian was nevertheless hidden from those suspected of being less-than-loyal to Roland. In a castle like the Eyrie, where visitors could be seen half a day before their arrival, such undertakings were rather simple. It's unclear whether the King's court ever came to recognize Maegor Waters and Florian Stone as one and the same, but even if they did, the Eyrie's isolation and Roland's strong base of support in the Vale made covert actions against them difficult, and overt actions impossible.

This safety afforded Maegor a great deal of freedom. While he was not provided the life he would have had as a royal, he was not exactly left wanting, either. Roland raised him like he would his own child. Tutors in most every subject imaginable were provided for him, in addition to regularly scheduled lessons with the castle's Maester and Master-at-Arms. Maegor never showed much of a gift for anything the latter two had to teach him, but he did have a natural proclivity for painting that has waned over the years. His frequent travels left little time to hone the art.

Among his truest companions in these early years was the younger cousin of Roland, Alaric Arryn. Only a few months younger than the Arryn, the two were constantly making trouble together, and often trained in the yard together under the tutelage of Ser Vardis Ruthermont--though Alaric was much more proficient than Maegor.

The Mountains of the Moon
As the boy grew older, doubt began to fester in the minds of those few who knew his parentage. If the boy were really the trueborn son of Aenys and Lenore, then why had his egg not yet hatched? The easiest explanation was that he wasn't, and that the accusations that his true father was Crispian Celtigar were true.

Those concerns were silenced in the early days of 378 AC when at long last, in the dark depths of a moonless, starless night, the forgotten egg hatched. From its shattered remnants emerged a dragon, as inky black as the night of his birth. When the servants came in the morning and discovered the small dragon draped around his master's shoulders, their screams summoned guards from across the castle. It was fortunate that the loyal men of the Winged Brotherhood were among the first to survive; the secret would have been too hard to keep otherwise.

A dragon was not something that could remain hidden indefinitely. After only a few short weeks, it was decided that Maegor, now thirteen, and his dragon would be better off if they were raised deeper in the Mountains. The party that set off into the Mountains of the Moon was an odd sort, with a Maester's acolyte, a pair of knights of the Winged Brotherhood, a septa, a merchant, and a pair of other other guardsmen. Though such a small, ill-armed group would usually make easy pickings for the Mountain Clans, the inclusion of a dragon was enough to ward off most of them. Those foolish enough to attack anyway did not live long.

In the depths of the Mountains, feeding off of sheep, goats, shadowcats, and whatever else he could find, Morghul grew strong. Though they spent most of their times in small villages high up in the mountains, little word of Morghul spread, largely because the villages were so isolated (and really, what reason did those who interacted with them have to believe that a dragon had resided in their village for a time), but also because the villages were not keen to out their protector: so high up in the mountains, the dragon and armed men were often a saving grace in the frequent Clansmen raids.

When the mountain passes sealed with snow, the party would descend back to the Vale, where they would winter at the keeps of various Lords and Ladies, though primarily in the Gates of the Moon, where Roland held court. Though Morghul was much more visible there, the snows that inhibited travel also inhibited the spread of news regarding him.

The Kingswood Tourney
When Roland Arryn announced he would attend the Kingswood Tourney in the early months of 379 AC, Maegor was quick to insist that he be allowed to follow; he had spent all of his life, as best he could remember, in the lands of House Arryn. He wanted to see the Realm. Roland was at first hesitant--leaving the Vale put Maegor at great risk--but the Lord finally relented. Morghul, rapidly growing given his free rein of the mountains, was hard to conceal on the journey, but his penchant for sleeping during the day and hunting and night made sightings of him infrequent.

Maegor, upon hearing of the impending tournament, had set upon trying to procure a suit of armor for the joust. Though he had not yet been knighted, he intended to compete as a mystery knight, and through those feats earn great renown. He had dreams of becoming the next Barristan the Bold, or Aemon the Dragonknight, winning renown despite his young age and forcing the Realm to learn his name. He had dreamed that, at the end of the tournament, he would unmask himself, and the whole world would know his name.

It did not go quite the way he planned. With little coin of his own and even less time to properly requisition such a suit of armor, a sullen mood fell over Maegor, who thought his dreams dashed against the rocks. He watched the first sets of tilts with little enthusiasm.

That changed when Roland's lance left a man bleeding to death on the field. Roland, who had spent a lifetime reviling the warmongering ways of his father, was mortified, and quickly retired from the lists.

Maegor was not quite so horrified. He had seen men die worse deaths already during his tenure in the Mountains of the Moon. Almost as soon as Roland was out of his armor, Maegor was formulating a plan with his closest cohorts, Alaric among them. With Roland effectively incapacitated, they would sneak into his tent, equip Maegor in his armor, and have Maegor contest under Roland's name. Everyone present thought it a tremendous idea, being as young as they were.

Everyone but Alaric, who was quick to denounce the whole idea as childish fancy. Following a short argument, Alaric excused himself from the tent. Maegor would not see him again until after they returned to the Vale.

Dressing Maegor in Roland's armor was difficult, but not impossible. Squires the lot of them, the teens were familiar with how to affix the suit to him, and even though it did not fit the lithe form of Maegor perfectly, as it had Roland, it fit well enough that none would notice the change without drawing near to him.

Whether through skill or fortune, Maegor progressed well into the lists, unhorsing or narrowly edging out victories against knights and Lords many years his senior. "Roland Arryn" became a crowd favorite, the unfortunate demise of his earlier opponent swiftly forgotten by the fickle public. When at last it came time for the semi-finals, "Roland" found himself placed against Baelor Targaryen, and uncle who he had never met.

The two relatives went at each other for seven passes, neither managing to gain an advantage over the other. Both were almost unhorsed in the seventh round, but as the crowd held their breath, both recovered. The joust would have been the stuff of legend, had it not been so marred by the ensuing scandal.

As they lowered their lances for a deciding eighth pass, the cheers of the crowd turned to ''screams. ''Galloping down the list at speed, Maegor, inexperienced as he was, craned his neck to see what the commotion was. He had just spotted the spout of scarlet pouring from the Royal Dais when Baelor's lance took him on the side of the head.

When he next awoke several seconds later, it was on the ground, his helmet set aside, and his--no, Roland's--squire looking particularly alarmed. To make matters worse, as though being discovered impersonating a High Lord was not bad enough, Morghul was soon on the scene. Maybe it was the commotion that drew him. Maybe he had somehow felt the stress and pain of his rider, and had decided to come and rescue him. Whatever the case, Morghul, now pushing three, landed beside the concerned squire. One blurry-visioned glance at the dais, where a body now laid in a pool of crimson and the King was conspicuously absent, was all Maegor needed to come to his decision: he had to run. Mounting Morghul, "Roland Arryn" took off towards the south on dragonback--much to the shock and awe of an already alarmed public.

It was likely only the commotion surrounding the failed assassination attempt on King Aenar that allowed Morghul to get as far as he did before the dragonriders present set out after him. By the time they took wing, the swifter, younger dragon had already disappeared into the thick foliage of the Kingswood. The Royal search parties that came after were no more fortunate. Maegor Waters had disappeared just as swiftly as he had appeared, leaving behind nothing but a powerful impression on those who saw him.

To Maegor's advantage, the spotting of a hitherto unknown dragon rider shot through the continent as quickly as ravens could fly. What followed was a litany of "sightings" that drew the men and women searching for him farther afield. When he did at last leave the Kingswood a few weeks after the tournament, poorly clothed and filthy, the actual sightings of Morghul and his rider were impossible to determine from the fraudulent ones. By the time the King called off the search, the pair were already nestled away in the safety of the Mountains once more.

The Lords Declarant
Of course, the world did not pause while Maegor lived in self-imposed seclusion. Maegor had been unfazed by the deaths at the tournament, but Roland had not. When Maegor returned to the Eyrie in the opening days of 382 AC, he found his home much different than he had left it. Alyssa, the lady who had been almost a mother to him, was dead and buried, and just as swiftly forgotten; in the days prior to his arrival, Roland had taken a woman of the Clans, Valla of the Redsmiths, to wife, hoping a forge a new era of peace between Valeman and Clansman.

It was not as well-regarded a move as Roland had hoped. Though happy to see his foster son return, Maegor was not as happy to see his foster father again. The man had changed in their brief time apart. Killing a man had caused damage that Maegor was not sure could be repaired.

It did not take long for Maegor to realize the depth of the predicament the Lord found himself in. Upon hearing of his return, Alaric, who had been named the Keeper of the Gates of the Moon, sent a missive up the mountain asking for Maegor's company. Hoping to reconnect with his old friend and once more find his footing in the mad world they now inhabited, Maegor found anything but that. The wine and food flowed freely, and the rift torn between them by Alaric's refusal to assist Maegor at the Tournament was quickly mended.

Then, Alaric spoke of business. He did not like the man Roland had become--not the least because of the dishonor he had done his sister by sleeping with a serving girl at the Tournament (an event Maegor had not previously known about). Furthermore, the Vale did not like the man that Roland had become. The marriage he had planned was seen as an abomination. How could he bring a Clanswoman, the same sort that they had fought for thousands of years, into the Eyrie as equals--nay, superiors? He spoke of the Lords Declarant and their plot.

By the time he posed his question, Maegor had already guessed it. Back the Lords Declarant, and in doing so, help them depose Roland with as little bloodshed as possible.

Maegor was non-committal as their dinner wound down, and as he went to retire to his rooms. He had been placed in an impossible situation: back his best friend, and guarantee the death of his foster father, or warn his foster father, and ensure the death of his best friend. He found both equally unpalatable. So he chose a third.

When servants came to wake him the next morning, they found him absent, his bed untouched. Maegor had retreated into the depths of the mountain that night. He would not be seen again until long after the Crisis of the Crescent, as it came to be called, had ended.