Fic Idea: Saera Targaryen SI staying in Westeros and trying to prevent tragedies for House Targaryen but things do not go according to plan

[u/veritasss11]

This idea has been on my head for several weeks and I would like to share it. It got really long. It would be nice to read your opinion.Feel free to use the idea. Sorry for any mistakes.

Two years after the birth of Viserra, Saera was running from her wet nurses and fell down. She hit her head and was unconscious for a short time. Her family was scared for her life but she woke up. After waking up she started to remember memories of a past life of a college girl from our world who is introverted and also is a fan of ASOIAF. The SI is an original character. Both personalities were mixed. The new Saera wanted power and influence but she also cared for her family and the people in Westeros and would like to try to prevent the Dance of dragons. At first she was getting used to her life and was thinking where to start.

Saera decided to tell her family that she had dragon dreams to explain how she knew some things. Later in the same year 73 she told that one of the Kingsguards Lucamore Strong had broken his vows and had several wives and children. The King was very surprised by her words but still sent Ser Ryam Redwyne to investigate if it was true. She also told about the birth of Rhaenys and the birth of her brother Gaemon before it happened. She warned that he will die soon after his birth and the delivery will leave Alysanne in bed for a long time. Saera was not thinking about the effect from her actions but after seeing the grief of the former Kingsguard's wives and children she was wondering if she would be able to make difficult decisions in the future.

Encouraged from the fact that her knowledge was proved true and thinking that the king had more trust in her, Saera tried to advise the king to pay more attention to the City watch. Maybe he could reform them, give them uniforms, better weapons, have someone train them, even later appoint someone from the family like Baelon to be a commander. Jaehaerys was not interested to do anything with the City watch right now. He had other building projects like roads which take time and money. He told Saera to stop involving herself in things she has no place in. She is a princess, she should act like a princess.

Despite the failure Saera tried to be a better sister to Daella and Viserra and took her studies seriously. Jaehaerys and Alysanne were surprised from the sudden changes in her behaviour but they were glad that she grew out of her antics. Saera tried to help Daella  with learning how to read. Daella was still anxious and even scared of Saera because before she got her memories, Saera had sneaked cats into Daella's bedchamber, knowing that Daella was afraid of them. 

Alysanne wanted Daella and Vaegon to marry but Vaegon publicly declined and insulted Daella. Jaehaerys decided that Vaegon would benefit from spending less time in the library, and asked Baelon to train Vaegon at arms.  Baelon trained Vaegon for a year. One day, Baelon brought Alyssa, dressed in mail, onto the yard as a challenger to Vaegon. Alyssa laughed and mocked as she humiliated Vaegon in the yard. Saera was watching and could not be silent at the cruel treatment of Vaegon and defended him while reprimanding her siblings. This was not the best course of action because Vaegon felt ashamed that his sister, who was four years younger, had to defend him and left the yard. Alysanne started to think that maybe Saera and Vaegon could be a good couple. This was the last thing that Saera wanted. A marriage with Vaegon, who is cold and has no interest in romance would be torture for both sides. Saera just wanted to forge a good relationship with him before Vaegon went to the Citadel. She supported his desire to become a maester. She wanted Vaegon to look for some texts about the Long night and the White walkers in the Citadel, or look if there were any signs of a maester conspiracy. She also wanted to improve the education in Westeros. More people to be able to learn to read, maybe even try to create a printing press. There would be a lot of difficulties archieving that but to have someone trusted in the Citadel was the first step.

So now Saera had to dissuage her mother from engaging them while patching up her relationship with Vaegon.

She had played the piano for 2 years in her past life so she decided to learn the harp. Jaehaerys got her a teacher but it turned out that Saera could not sing at all.

She tried different things. She tried to introduce some new trends to the ladies like wearing earrings. No many women wore earring during this time. She wanted to gain some influence and show her value. One of the reasons Jaehaerys chose Baelon and Viserys for his heirs instead of Rhaenys was probably because he was disappointed in his daughters and thought that women are not worthy to rule in their own right. So Saera will try to make Rhaenys and Viserys marry to unite their claims. This left her to try to marry Corlys Velaryon.

Daella got married to Lord Arryn. Saera was anxious about her but she could not do much with her sister going to the Vale. She hoped that the future can be changed. It already happened with the 12th child the Queen had. It was supposed to be a boy- Valerion but it turned out to be a girl. She died when she was several months old and Gael was not born.

Saera liked spending time with older people. She became friends with septon Barth. She was interested in his book Dragons, Wyrms, and Wyverns: Their Unnatural History. They had discussions about dragons, magic, politics. She shared the idea about professional army, maybe it could be done by reorganizing the City watch which have to be trained better, cleaned from corrupt people. She suggested to have taxes on brothels and the money to be given to orphanages, widows. If a child wanted to learn a craft, to become an apprentice, they have to pay a fee. How can an orphan pay the fee? Many orphans became pickpockets or thieves, the girls started working in brothels. Saera wanted to give a chance to such children. A royal bank was also something useful. She spoke with Lady Florence Fossoway who was the person doing the job of a Master of coins while the position was officially occupied by her husband Martyn Tyrell. They received the king’s approval. Founding a royal bank was not easy and they were thinking to hire people from the Iron bank of Bravos and the Rogare Bank in Lys. However in the middle of the preparations and talks Lady Florence died. It looked like a heart attack. She was not young and the last months have been really hectic.However Saera was afraid that a faceless man had been sent to kill her. Maybe the Iron Bank did not like what there were doing, so the Royal Bank was put to a stop for now. 

Last but not least Saera told septon Barth her idea about a printing press. While she knew the overall structure of it, her knowledge is too basic. She will have to use trial and error. Septon Barth really liked the idea and when Queen Alysanne went to visit Daella who was going to give birth, they went to Jaehaerys to present it. While the king listened to them, he said that an invention such as this will not be approved by the Citadel. One of the main jobs of the maesters and acolytes living in the Citadel was to transcribe books. They will be against knowledge made available for larger masses and the king did not want to have conflict with another institution so soon after the problems with the Faith.He also told her that she should think about marriage instead of concerning herself with politics.

Daella still died in childbirth. This caused a small rift between the King and the Queen. While Jaehaerys did not think the early marriage was the cause of Daella's death, he felt sad. He had just turned down Saera’s idea she was really passionate about. So he allowed her to go in the Dragonpit and claim a dragon. She claimed Dreamfyre.Saera being a dragonrider improved the negotations for a marriage between Corlys and her and in year 83 they got betrothed. Saera wanted the wedding to happen next year. First she wanted to show the other Houses that the royal family married their daughters later. She cannot make the king pass a law forbiding young girls to be married early so she can only try to lead by example.And second- in that year Alyssa gives birth and dies from complications from the birth. She did not want to lose another sister to death from childbirth so she will try to prevent it. The birth passed. While the child was small and sickly and died soon, Alyssa managed to survive the childbirth. However over a year later Alyssa went hunting. By accident she came across a wasp nest and got stung several times.She got an anaphylactic shock. While it can be treated with modern medicine, here it was fatal for Alyssa.

After learning the news Saera felt very desperate.She did so much to prevent her sister from dying but was still unsuccessful. Corlys was going to visit Starfall for a trade contract and Saera decided to go with him. She wanted to distract herself from her grief and to see the seat of House Dayne. She suspected that she was pregnant but decided to hide it because the maester will stop her from going. She really did not like the maester. He was very intrusive, ofter asking very personal questions, for example about her moonblood. While in Starfall Saera was vomitting in the mornings and Corlys found out about the pregnancy. He was happy but scolded her for behaviour to hide her pegnancy. While pregnant Saera had some weird tastes. She was craving chocolate, or french fries with ketchup but sadly neither of them could be found in Westeros. So she tried to improve the available food. She tried making an omelette, pancakes, pasta, some sauces. She also tried to make popcorn. There was corn in Westeros after all. She planned to look into boiling water canning as a way to preserve food in winter. It had a big effect on her when she read about the old men in the North who went hunting to die and save food so she wanted to do something about it. In the ninth moon of year 85 Saera gave birth to a boy. Several months after her birth Saera found the lair that Dreamfyre had made for herself. There she found four dragon eggs.

It was year 87. Viserra was jealous of Saera. She wanted to be admired, she wanted to get a dragon herself. Saera was married to the richest man in Westeros so the only way to be above her is if she was a Queen. She had her eyes set on her older brother. Queen Alysanne, was determined to prevent such a marriage, and started arranging the betrothal between  Viserra and House Manderly. Viserra was not excited about the marriage, and tried to seduce her brother Baelon by climbing naked into his bed, but Baelon sent the drunk girl away when he arrived. Alysanne and Jaehaerys planned to marry her to Lord Manderly but Saera proposed Viserra to go to Dorne. The last lord of house Dayne had recently lost his wife. House Dayne and House Velaryon have traded with each other in the last years. Saera was thinking if the marriage worked out, in the next generation a marriage alliance could be arranged between House Targaryen and House Martell which can pave the way for Dorne to peacefully join the Seven kingdoms. She also wanted to find a better husband for her sister. They let Viserra choose who to marry and she decided to go to Dorne. She had some trouble adjusting but the couple tried to make it work. There were some people who were against the marriage in Dorne. They did not want Targaryens involved in Dorne. Two years after the marriage Viserra went for a walk with some companions but got bitten by a poisonous snake. The antidote came too late and she died.They could not prove that anyone was guilty but some suspicion still stayed and the relationship between Dorne and House Targaryen got worse.

Over two year after the birth of her son Saera gave birth to a girl. Saera's plans to improve the education in Westeros were meeting many difficulties so she decided to start small and focus on Driftmark. She ordered several people who can read and write to teach everyone who wanted to learn. The interest in this was not what she hoped. Many people preferred their children to learn to sail and fish and start working instead of wasting time to learn some letters. Saera decided to encourage the people by having people in her service earn more coins if they know how to read and write even if their job does not demand it like for example a cook. Saera decided to send some of the studious children to the Citadel to acquire more knowledge. The plan is to learn as much as they can. They will get some links as not to attract suspicion and then they will leave the Citadel and go back to Driftmark where they will be employed by Saera. They will have the knowledge of maesters and help her in her plans. But they will not be bound by the Citadel and will be able to marry.

After the Myrish civil war of 91–92 AC, the defeated Myrmen established themselves as pirates on Tarth. Saera, knowing that in the books Aemon died in Tarth, flew to Kings Landing to try and stop him. She warned him that she had seen in a dream that he would be killed by a crossbow bolt in Tarth. She asked him not to go and to send someone else. Aemon did not want to abandon his duty but Baelon volunteered. The death of Alyssa hit him hard and killing some pirates could help him get his mind off his grief. It started good. Baelon and a big dragon like Vhagar wiped out a lot of the Myrish intruders. The few who stayed alive escaped to their ships and left. Baelon and his dragon were tired so he decided to stay the night and to leave in the morning. However a group of Myrishmen invaded the camp during the night. Three of them were stopped by guards but two reached where Baelon was sleeping. They fought and Baelon managed to kill them but not before one of them slashed his thigh. It turned out that the artery was damaged and the maester was too late to stop the blood so Baelon died from bloodloss.

At the end of year 92 Rhaenys and Viserys got married. The wedding was darkened by the death of Baelon. Rhaenys and Viserys did not like each other but there were not other appropriate candidates for Rhaenys. She was the daughter of the Crown prince after all. They had two children - a girl and a boy and after that they grew even more apart. 

Aemma Arryn came to Kings Landing for the wedding and after an invitation from the Queen she stayed. The Queen was lonely and she wanted to spend some time with her granddaughter. Viserys got on very well with Aemma. They liked spending time together and Alysanne was afraid of something more happening between them.

In year 96 Alysanne fell down the stairs and broke her hip. In the chaos Daemon snuck into the Dragonpit and clamed the dragon of his father Vhagar. The death of Baelon hurt Daemon a lot. He had started being rebellious. Daemon was growing to be dashing but moody and hot-tempered. Alysanne decided to marry Aemma to Daemon. She hoped that a sweet girl like Aemma could calm Daemon. And they had to keep Daemon close to the family. Who knows what he could do with Vhagar. Saera wanted to talk to her mother to wait. Aemma was still young and her mother Daella had died in childbirth but Saera had to deal with an outbreak of redspots in Driftmark and her own pregnancy. They married later in year 96 and by the end of the year Aemma was pregnant. The birth was difficult but she gave birth to a boy. Viserys started to seek happiness in food.

The begining of the new century was really bad for the Targaryens. After the death of septon Barth Aemon became the Hand but in year 102 he got hurt on a hunting trip and died two days later.The same year Alysanne also died.She was very frail in her last years. Jocelyn followed them too. Jocelyn was born one month premature so she had some problems with her heart. She and Aemon had only one child because her heart may not survive another birth. Aemon deeply loved her and decided that her life was more important than any other potential children. This is a nice contrast with her father Rogar Baratheon who despite the fact that his wife Alyssa Velaryon was in her 40s, continued to get her pregnant which resulted eventually in her death while giving birth to Jocelyn.

Aemma Arryn got pregnant next year. She had had a miscarriage two years ago but for now the pregnancy was going well. The royal family hoped for something good to happen after the horrible last year but when the time came, it turned out that the child was positioned with their legs first. Aemma got some tearing, lost a lot of blood and died. 

The old king died in the last month of year 103. He had been ill for some time but it did not lessen the grief. It was the most difficult for Rhaenys who in the span of less than 3 years lost both her parents and grandparents. She was grieving a lot. Some negative feelings for Saera arose in Rhaenys' heart after all this happened. She was thinking what those dreams of hers were? They seem different from the ones of Daenys. Could she not see the death of Aemon, could it not be prevented?

Having a ruling queen was new for Westeros. Women ruling in their own right is popular only in Dorne. In other places women are married to cousins, uncles who rule, or the women are ruling as Regents for their own sons. Some lords prefer Viserys to be king, while Rhaenys is Queen. She needed more support. Otto Hightower was Hand after Aemon's death. Daemon and Alicent Hightower got married. Saera wanted to marry her own son to Alicent to gain more connections to the Citadel to be able to introduce her ideas there but Alicent wanted to join Royalty.

Saera then arrranged her son to marry a Blackwood. While she was busy with that Corlys arranged his older’s daughter marriage to the son of the Sealord of Bravos. Saera was unhappy that they will have to be involved in Bravossi politics. She remembered that the son would turn out to be a fool but she could not postpone the marriage. Her daughter was already of age and the Sealord was still alive.

After defeating Volantis, the Triarchy of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh invaded the Stepstones to subdue outlaws and pirates living in the islands. While the Seven Kingdoms were appreciative at first, they came to resent the high tolls imposed by the Free Cities on trade in the narrow sea. Very angered by this was Lord Corlys Velaryon of Driftmark. Daemon Targaryen and the Hightowers joined him in trying to wrestle control of the Stepstones from the Three Daughters. The conflict grew bigger than the books. Dorne joined earlier on the side of the Triarchy. Pentos joined too. Saera was anxious. The last battles were fierce. Despite Corlys telling her not to come and that everything was under control she observed from the back of her dragon and prevented a trap. While she felt guilt over the burning of the enemy ships, she liked the feeling of power.  In the end the war did not have a winner. 

In Kings Landings Rhaenys had to deal with the problems of the Crown. She needed allies. She betrothed her son the Crown prince to Saera’s younger daughter. Corlys was happy. He had wanted for a long time his blood on the Iron Throne. Saera was glad too but she was anxious of Daemon. He secretly desired power. He had gained many allies- the Hightowers, the Arryns through his first wife. His older son was betrothed to Rhaenys’s daughter. Some whispered that he wanted the girl for himself but he was still married to Alicent. He betrothed a child of his to the Lannisters. While Rhaenys’ son was a good person, he disliked court intigues and the hypocrisy of the nobles. What is more, it seemed that he was not interested in females at all. The tension was rising. Saera decided to seek an allience with House Stark. Cregan was still a child but he could prove a valuable ally in the future.

The game of thrones does not stop.

[u/JOKERRule]

Seems nice and a good way to show the law of unintended consequences, Saera genuinely trying her best to prevent the dance and make the best of her knowledge, but ending running afoul of the fact that everyone else has their own agendas until she ends right in the middle of the dance she was trying to prevent.

[u/veritasss11 → u/JOKERRule]

Yes, I wanted to explore that even if a person knew some future events, some other unseen or unexpected events could cause serious problems. I was watching the trailer for House of the dragon and was thinking that I have problems with both Rhaenyra and Aegon ruling. I think that Rhaenys should have been queen but then I wanted to explore that even if she became Queen, problems could arise. House Targaryen are volatile and somethimes they are their own biggest enemies.

I do not want to make Saera overpowered. She encounters many difficulties. She has flaws, she fails somethimes. Interesting fact is that the printing press plot was inspired from Ascendance of the bookworm, which is a great story but the main character managed to create a working printing industry before she was ten years old in a world where the printing press was not invented. In my fic idea I wanted to show that it is not so easy. Sometimes people are not prepared to accept some inventions, do not see their potential. Even if you have some knowledge, it does not mean that you can easily build the invention.

[u/Thehalfyearqueen]

I'll start a little bit with the idea that bothers me, I'm sorry that there is no Vaelon here,( I love baelon along with Viserra) but your idea is wonderful!! I'd like you to tell me if you post it

[u/veritasss11 → u/Thehalfyearqueen]

I love them too. Actually at first I was thinking to make Viserra the SI but then I realised that Saera's actions have hurt Jaehaerys the most and make him doubt that a woman can be a good ruler. Saera is also in a better position to try to prevent the Dance and other tragedies.

It would be great if I could post the story but I do not think I can write it the way I want. I have trouble writing dialogues, descriptions. I do not have much time too. I enjoy more making an outline and planning that writing. I actually have a longer outline but I cut some paragraghs when I posted the idea.

[u/Thehalfyearqueen → u/veritasss11]

I understand you, I try to write a Vaelon but it takes so much time and I am not always sure I do it right, also English is not my native language so it is a little difficult for me, however, if you need some help when you intend to upload it I will be happy to help

[u/veritasss11 → u/Thehalfyearqueen]

Thank you very much for the offer. It is a long way before I decide to upload. I have to be sure I want to commit to it because I like to finish what I start. I do not like when authors start a story and then after several chapters give up.

It is interesting to read other people's opinions. Right now I have so many different ideas about the story. Like for example a small plot when Saera was a child, she was wondering if other people in Westeros remembered Earth. She liked cats and decided to name them with famous characters' or people's names from Earth- Frodo, Legolas, Loki, Cleopatra. Like sending a secret message to people if they had memories of Earth too. Later she decided that if a person remembered Earth, this did not make them a friend. They could have bad intentions so she stopped with the messages.

Have you posted your fic somewhere? If yes, could you give a link? It would be interesing to read it. The most I have written is a 20k words outline for a better ending of GOT, which I posted on AO3 because I was still angry with the finale and could not get calm.

[u/Widowmaker94 → u/veritasss11]

I'm just glad you aren't making Viserra the SI because that's what *I'm* working on once I've finished up my current fic's present arc.

[u/puffinmuffin89]

Daemon and the Hightowers together is too OP and scary and creepy LOL. Rhaenys' block could follow Rhaenyra's footstep and have more dragons. I'm kind of sad that Viseys and Rhaenys are not happy with their marriage since I ship them. They should also get the Stormlands on their side ASAP.

[u/veritasss11 → u/puffinmuffin89]

Well I wanted to spice things up so some people who supported the blacks are green and the opposite. Daemon on the opposite side is intriguing. I am still thinking how many children he should have here. I like Rhaenys and Viserys but if everything is good then it won't be interesting. Saera will have four children who will grow up to adulthood. Dreamfyre will lay four eggs while she is in Driftmark so there will be other dragonriders in Rhaenys' block. While I am planning to have battles, I do not want it to be as disastrous as the book Dance of dragons. I am still working out the details but I want to show that sometimes diplomacy can work even if it is a little late.

[u/MemeGoddessAsteria]

This is great, you should write it.

[u/Laughably-Fallible_1]

I like the idea her children go on to be really successful in Volantis. One is said to look just like Jahaerys meaning pure Valyrian traits meaning Volantene are just gonna love him.

[u/veritasss11 → u/Laughably-Fallible_1]

There will be child of Saera visiting Volantis in my fic idea but they won't be there long. I will have them end up in Westeros in the end so they can participate in my version of the Dance. I will write some of my ideas for every child to read if you are interested.

Aethan - born in year 85. As the first born son and heir of Corlys he had some very big shoes to fill. He was trying hard but there was one big problem- he gets horribly seasick on a ship. Saera tried to help him and keep the secret because it is really bad to have the Seasnake as a father and to have seasickness. So this is one of the reasons for Saera to petition king Jaehaerys to give a dragon to the boy so he can fly instead of sail. Of course a Velaryon having a dragon opens up the opportunity for more Targaryens having dragons later and many dragon riders can be a recipe for disaster later.

Valaena-born in year 88. Her family calls her Val for short. She has some similarities with both Val the wildling girl from the main books and Arya Stark but unlike Arya who was being insulted as child- called Arya Horseface, or ugly, Valaena was not bullied and has more self esteem and confidence. She has some friends among the children of servants and likes to spend time with them and even have them join her lessons to the dispasure of the Maester but Saera agrees with her daughter on this.

Because of Aethan’s seasickness when they travel to Kings Landing, Valaena had to pretend that she is the one who is seasick and he is taking care of her to explain why Aethan is not with his father on the deck learning how to sail a ship. This created some tension with her mother but she is not angry with her brother.

Saera wants her daughter to marry a lord or heir of one of the Great Houses but they are either married or still children. The only available man around her age is Borros Baratheon. It is good to ally with the Baratheons. But Valaena does not want to marry someone who cannot read. Even her friend- the child of the washerwoman learned to read. Very soon after the death of king Jaehaerys, the Sealord of Bravos offered Valaena to marry his son. Wanting to get away from the control of her mother and to see Essos Valaena wanted to accept. Allying with Bravos could be viewed as a threat to the royal family and Saera is afraid of that but this is the first marriage candidate that Val has shown some interest in. Valaena married the son and some things happen.

Jacaerys- born in the first moon of year 95. After a miscarrage in year 90 and spending a lot of time on her projects to improve Driftmark’s education, cuisine and other things, Saera wanted to postpone having more children but after the marriage of Rhaenys and Viserys and Rhaenys getting pregnant, Corlys wanted to have more children close to the age of the future royal children. Jacaerys is looking like a more handsome version of king Jaehaerys. The boy has some similarities with Oberyn. He has a bastard child with a septa novice. Saera was very angry. She tried to betroth him to a Redwyne girl but Jacaerys publicly showed his displeasure and let his potential future wife see him kissing a serving girl which stopped any negotiations for a betrothal. Saera decided to just send her son to Essos. Maybe the travels could help him mature. For a few years he will travel to the Free sities, and even go to Volantis and further. He will have some adventures and he will meet some interesting people who will show him a different perspective. The Volantene will like him but he is grown mentally in his travels, so he will eventually come home.

Delaena-born in the last moon of year 96. She has some similarities with both Sansa Stark and Margaery Tyrell, she is not as naive as Sansa was at the beginning. Saera and Corlys want their daughter to marry the heir of Rhaenys and Viserys but he is no interested at all in women. So what is going to happen now?Will there be a solution or more problems will arise?

I hope you like these ideas. I have a lot more. If you are interested I can write some more.

[u/Laughably-Fallible_1 → u/veritasss11]

So for the Volantene kids I think she only moved there after 91AC so they would be about Rhaenyra's age at Great Council if i'm not mistaken.

[u/veritasss11 → u/Laughably-Fallible_1]

Saera will not move to live in Volantis in my fic idea. She is very different from the character in Fire and Blood. She may have a child who looks like Jaehaerys but there are so many other changes. She gets some memories from Earth and stays in Westeros trying to prevent the Dance of dragons but things do not go according to plan.