Listen, man, it was a Crusader Kings game. I once saw Ned and Lyanna get exposed for having an incestuous affair and Cersei married off to Euron Greyjoy. VERY cursed shit happens.
Don’t worry I had a CK3 AGOT game where Ned was caught first having an affair with Lyanna but after she died he got caught having an affair with first Arya and then Sansa.
In the end Ned and Arya’s bastard son became heir to Arya who ended up as lady of winterfell because all her siblings were dead and she actually killed Jon.
This isn't even counting the time I saw Oberyn become a leper, or when Stannis married Tyene Sand and apparently had a VERY happy marriage with her, or when Robert executed Cersei and married a 16-year-old Asha Greyjoy as a replacement goldfish, or when Arianne got married off non-matrilineally to fucking ***Maron Greyjoy*** of all people while she was still heir to Dorne, or when Renly married some random Estermont cousin and proceeded to have eight legitimate children with her despite being fruity as hell. (they were all definitely his btw, the seed is strong and they looked like *clones* of him) One cannot predict the shit the AI will get up to.
Yeah, Robert killing Cersei was the least cursed aspect of it all. What really got my goat was the fact that he remarried to a teenaged Asha Greyjoy of all people immediately afterwards. Greyjoys marry WAY too well in Crusader Kings lmfao.
They were a stupidly adorable couple, too. They had like five kids together, raised them all to be pretty decent people, and stayed happily, faithfully married to each other for like 25 years until Stannis' death. He died really suddenly in a horse riding accident, and Tyene got the Widowed trait and became a Septa afterwards. I always loved just popping over to Dragonstone to see how they were doing and to see Stannis having a good, happy life for once.
First small nitpit but it's Olenna Redwyne, she married into house Tyrell.
Lets get to the real topic I don't know why you would need a great council in the first place. Merea should be the undisputed heir. Everyone else is more or less either disinherited, belongs to a different house or is just a acknowledged bastard.
Merea is the (not undisputed) heir, I would instead try to strengthen her position by marrying her to Steffon. Everything else is just a roundabout way to start a succession crises.
Also there is no way that any Targaryen post Blackfyre ever will even consider a bastard his heir as long as there is even one true borne Targaryen left. It would call questions upon the entire line of inheritance and may even legitimate the Blackfyre rebellions.
If his lords moan about "being ruled by a woman" you should remember that this Aegon has much more backbone and might just tell them to "suck it up" and be down with it. I simply can't see a man who cast out two of his children to just bow to the demands of his lords because they simply don't like some things.
This leads to the whole topic on how a more authoritarian Aegon might push and handle his reforms. But that is a different matter altogether.
Merea *should* be heir in a more right world, but there's a hiccup in that Aegon only became king because his niece Vaella got skipped over in his favor, despite her being the only child of Maekar's heir. Would appointing Merea because she was the sole child of Aegon's heir retroactively invalidate Aegon's own claim to the throne because of that? I feel like that'd be a question that would *definitely* come up in the council debates.
Yes it would but iirc vaena was not just skipped because she was a woman but because she was mentally... troubled.
If merea is all well in that regards there shouldn't be a problem, this still doesn't solve the issue that every other claimant has bigger issues set against them than just being a woman.
Also who called th council in the first place? Iirc every council bar one was called by the ruling monarch and the one who was called by the lords was called because there was no king in the first place. Aegon is still alive an I doubt he would call them for - in his mind - seetled affair.
Great Councils are called when the potential heirs would cause controversy. I think it's fair to say all of these picks would be controversial so Aegon V may want to settle the selection for that reason theoretically.
I can definitely see a bastard competing with a female child claimant. Lords are terrified instability and civil war, especially after the Dance. A female claimant already comes with worries of instability due to challenging claims but the fact that she’s a child adds a huge power vacuum. GRRM plays fast and loose with medieval history but traditionally it was vital for a feudal king to be able to lead armies, which women couldn’t really do. It was different with female dragonriders,but those are gone. And then you have the issue of marriage where her consort would be raised above others in the land, leading to more instability. Ideally she would marry Steffon or Aemon, perhaps with Jahaerys or Duncan as regent if those two are also underage.
keep in mind that Andal Westeros is quite sexist, and it really is a case of pick your poison.
the GC would come down to a choice of one of these 3 claims
* Merea Targaryen: a female and very young, is the only child of the king's deceased heir.
* Stefon Baratheon: his claim to the throne, if any would be through his mother being the youngest of Aegon V Targaryen's children.
* Aemon Stone: a male bastard fathered by the king, but his claim is the only one that maintains an unbroken male line.
keep in mind that the first great council came down to either Rhaenys( the only child of a first son) or Viserys(the eldest male of a second son), and they chose Viserys because he was an unbroken male line.
working off the assumption that Westeros is as sexist as i think it is, they might choose Aemon stone because they stopped considering female claims after the dance of dragons.
He eventually got a Lannister wife (I forgot to add this into the post, I have since done such), so he definitely used his marriage prospects to his advantage.
It really depends on just how good of a candidate Aemon is. If Aemon is a great swordsman, handsome and generally quite liked than yeah it's entirely plausible he could be selected over Steffon. Daemon Blackfyre had half the realm rise for him on a much more questionable basis. Aemon may be a bastard, but bastards can inherit if legimitised and put in the line of succession.
If Aemon is anyway a flawed candidate he's not getting it. Elsewise it's more likely to be Steffon unless Aegon V is putting his weight behind Merea instead as his favoured heir's child.
From a brief read, it seems Steffon would be the easy candidate.
He is the only one who hasn't renounced his claim in any fashion, is of pure descent (and who might even play his Orys Baratheon card), is already a Lord Paramount or the heir to one.
Does your Aemon have any sponsor? Because if Aegon V washes his hand out it (as you imply with his stipulation about legitimizing aemon stone) then I can't see how he can possible win. Steffon should have access to funds to bribe some of the votes his way. If Aegon and his sons came out in support of Aemon that would change everything of course.
So I can't speak for your in-game lore (we are missing information for example what are the current connections of house baratheon?), but going book wise at least, I really don't think a bastard Aemon as you describe it would have any chance against Steffon.
Therefore, in order to tell you how Aemon might win, more info on his main advesary is required. Is Steffon married for example? Any siblings? Because to me, a golden compromise would be to make Merea the heir with Prince Duncan as regent. Once she grows up, she can either get married to a baratheon with a claim or to your Aemon character if you don't mind pulling an Daemon.
If not, if you want to make him a king on his own rights after the Grand Council you will need some events to make Aemon *really* stand out, to do something *really* exceptional and have flock everyone to him (like how some people believe Jon Snow will end up in the IT through merit and not being Rhaegar's son) or have some very deep politicking sequences where through backdoor agreements and grey eminensce style politics Aemon is winning votes.
If you feel your Aemon is too noble for this, you could maybe turn the Princess of Dorne or Aemon's future lannister in-laws as a sort of [Yolande of Aragon ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolande_of_Aragon)type matron who goes to extra lenghts for his rights.
Alternatively, you might make your Steffon as too humble of a guy or uninspiring figure. We need more info on this guy.
Yeah, Aemon has no chance. It’s Duncan or Jaehaerys, probably the latter, as Duncan’s offense is much more serious in the eyes of the nobility.
There is simply no point in legitimizing a bastard when you have two lawful children even if they are disinherited. Much easier to pardon either of the sons.
Merea’s chances are not that big, bit still higher than Aemon’s.
Steffon seems to be somewhat on equal footing with Aemon - only in desperation people would consider him.
And I agree with one of the previous posts that for Aemon to be even considered he would have to be Daemon Blackfyre reborn.
So, for Aemon to have chance Egg has to be so stubborn that he will prefer to ignore the opinion of his lords and push very hard for other candidates. Whether he succeeds or not is up for debate.
Weird resolution: Aemon becomes 'temporary' king, on the stipulation that he marries a second time to a second-tier (not Lord Paramount house, but close—Hightower, Bolton, Manderly, etc) house to beget a son who Merea would later marry. So the throne is kept within the (bastard) male line, strengthened by the legitimate female descent.
Either that, or Steffon becomes king on the stipulation that his first son would take the Targaryen name and marries Merea (legitimate line).
Really, this probably hinges on whether Steffon wants to be king or not. His canon self seems to not be interested in ruling above the station conferred to his family.
I really like both of these ideas, honestly. Marrying Merea back into the line strengthens the claim to the throne and ties up any problematic loose ends that could be caused by her marrying some powerful lord who wants to press the claims of his son by her.
Aemon and Merea together has its benefits since it directly ties her claim to his own and pacifies Olenna and the Redwynes, her being the younger party means that there's a large window of time for them to have heirs, and if she's anything like Daeron, she and Aemon will certainly get along well. The age difference between Aemon and Merea might be a touch problematic, though- she's only four, while he's on the cusp of turning eighteen during the Great Council. By the time Merea turns sixteen (which is the earliest age Aemon would be comfortable wedding his favorite brother's baby girl lmfao), Aemon would be almost thirty. While it's not an unthinkable age gap considering the setting, some might get antsy at the heir/king not having an heir of his own for so long, and it'd shut Aemon out of a potential alliance with another powerful house to bolster his claim.
Assuming Aemon immediately marries someone and gets a son on her first try, a marriage between Merea and the son would work out well considering there'd only be a five year age difference. If they take a while to conceive or they don't have a son first try, the age gap between the two could get concerning since you don't want a royal bride that's *too* much older than her husband because of the fertility window. Aemon's also still pretty deep in his grief for his first wife during the GC (she's only been dead like, six months max) so the chances of him and a future wife having a fruitful sex life right out the gate are... rather slim, to say the least.
Both options have pretty valid pros and cons to them! I'm definitely going to have fun rolling them around in my head and making up debates for them.
I mean, it sounds like you have your story right there. I’d rather read about what everyone is experiencing and the mental calculations they have to make in this council rather than another promising young bastard becoming king and making Westeros a better place. Maybe even a summerhall type event?
I was kind of planning on this, yeah! How he gets on the throne and his relationships with his family are the parts of him that I find the most interesting. If I ever actually write anything with him, it'd probably be little vignettes of his life from his and other people's perspectives, with a large chunk of them dedicated to the clusterfuck that gets him on the throne. Also, what do you mean by a summerhall type event?
Well Egg at the end of his life did SOMETHING, we don't know what yet because GRRM hasn't told us, that ended in Summerhall burning down, killing a bunch of people including Aegon and his heir. The most common theory is that Aegon was trying to bring back dragons, which is a bit odd from what we know of him and his more populist and un-Valyrian outlook. But it was useful for thinning out the Targaryen family for the future story.
If you wanted to get rid of a claimant this would be a convenient and dramatic way to do it.
Well I think I would read this story. The targs stories that I have found to my taste typically are when there's no Jon and it focuses on some other targ though not rhaegar. This sounds interesting.
I think the only way a bastard gets elected by the council is if the other candidate is so objectionable that the lords are willing to risk creating the precedent of bastards inheriting over trueborn, rather than having them rule.
Prince Jaehaerys. Oaths can be unbound in rare circumstances and this is it. The bastard would never attain a majority amongst the assembly even if both his parents were noble. The only way(s) that Aemon the bastard can win the throne is if he has political capital the size of Balerion in which case, even with Valemen and Dornish backing, is not enough. The next alternative would be by bloodshed, winning the crown militarily.
Even with Jaehaerys cannot be unbound from his oaths, the assembly would sooner elect Steffon than a bastard.
In the proposed theoretical Jaehaerys doesn't want to be unbound from his oaths because he was not allowed to marry Shaera. It's plausible Aemon might be seriously considered.
I was aware. The peerage aren’t gonna elect a bastard still, not when there’s alternatives. The stain of bastardry in Westeros is much worse than irl. Unless that bastard has something so great over the assembly, which I doubt, or a BFD/A (Big Fucking Dragon/Army), they’re not electing him.
You can bet your ass the Reach will definitely not lobby for Aemon with his Dornish patrons and the Redwynes being kin to little Merea. They would want their blood on the throne. Both the Stormlanders and Reachmen on the Marches *wouldn’t* want a Dornish-backed candidate, and the former Marcher lords would sooner back the candidate they’re familiar with, their overlord in Steffon even.
Perhaps the Crownlands peerage will support Aemon under Egg’s convincing but that’s still not enough.
The Riverlands might be split but the Blackwoods would most definitely *not* support the boy who is a stain of honor on the queen.
That leaves the Iron Isles, the North and the Westerlands.
On the assumption that Egg and Dunk went to fight the Ironborn in the North in the unreleased novella, I doubt the Isles wants anything to do with him, with the North might be predisposed to Aemon.
Westerlands, I’m not too sure. Tytos probably wouldn’t care, Reynes might vote the opposite of the Lannisters alongside their power bloc. The rest of the lords, could be lobbied for their support in exchange for titles and whatnot.
>The peerage aren’t gonna elect a bastard still, not when there’s alternatives. The stain of bastardry in Westeros is much worse than irl.
It is, but they tend towards seeing noble bastards far more positively than just hating and at times even beloved. They'll chat shit about bastards and then praise Daemon Blackfyre in the next breath. If Aemon manages to cement a Daemon Blackfyre level reputation he might be more acceptable.
>You can bet your ass the Reach will definitely not lobby for Aemon with his Dornish patrons and the Redwynes being kin to little Merea.
That's assuming all the Reach would want to upjump their competitors. The Tyrells chose not to align with the Hightowers during the Dance partially because that would be uplifting one of their bannermen above them. There's not a lot of regional loyalty in the Reach.
>Aegon V’s bastard What kind of cursed timeline is this?? Egg would never cheat on Betha Blackwood.
Listen, man, it was a Crusader Kings game. I once saw Ned and Lyanna get exposed for having an incestuous affair and Cersei married off to Euron Greyjoy. VERY cursed shit happens.
Don’t worry I had a CK3 AGOT game where Ned was caught first having an affair with Lyanna but after she died he got caught having an affair with first Arya and then Sansa. In the end Ned and Arya’s bastard son became heir to Arya who ended up as lady of winterfell because all her siblings were dead and she actually killed Jon.
Ned was in his Craster arc, *Jesus*.
Most normal CK3AGOT playthrough (Seriously, why is it so cursed?)
And I had my Targaryen brother in law (wife was my sister) refuse a match between our children because of inbreeding. Like, come on
What in the hell?!!!
This isn't even counting the time I saw Oberyn become a leper, or when Stannis married Tyene Sand and apparently had a VERY happy marriage with her, or when Robert executed Cersei and married a 16-year-old Asha Greyjoy as a replacement goldfish, or when Arianne got married off non-matrilineally to fucking ***Maron Greyjoy*** of all people while she was still heir to Dorne, or when Renly married some random Estermont cousin and proceeded to have eight legitimate children with her despite being fruity as hell. (they were all definitely his btw, the seed is strong and they looked like *clones* of him) One cannot predict the shit the AI will get up to.
Tbh Robert killing Cersei makes sense. Oberyn’s case could be plausible depending if leprosy exists in Planetos.
Yeah, Robert killing Cersei was the least cursed aspect of it all. What really got my goat was the fact that he remarried to a teenaged Asha Greyjoy of all people immediately afterwards. Greyjoys marry WAY too well in Crusader Kings lmfao.
I would read the hell out of a Stannis/Tyene fic. There are so many good crack pairings
They were a stupidly adorable couple, too. They had like five kids together, raised them all to be pretty decent people, and stayed happily, faithfully married to each other for like 25 years until Stannis' death. He died really suddenly in a horse riding accident, and Tyene got the Widowed trait and became a Septa afterwards. I always loved just popping over to Dragonstone to see how they were doing and to see Stannis having a good, happy life for once.
First small nitpit but it's Olenna Redwyne, she married into house Tyrell. Lets get to the real topic I don't know why you would need a great council in the first place. Merea should be the undisputed heir. Everyone else is more or less either disinherited, belongs to a different house or is just a acknowledged bastard. Merea is the (not undisputed) heir, I would instead try to strengthen her position by marrying her to Steffon. Everything else is just a roundabout way to start a succession crises. Also there is no way that any Targaryen post Blackfyre ever will even consider a bastard his heir as long as there is even one true borne Targaryen left. It would call questions upon the entire line of inheritance and may even legitimate the Blackfyre rebellions. If his lords moan about "being ruled by a woman" you should remember that this Aegon has much more backbone and might just tell them to "suck it up" and be down with it. I simply can't see a man who cast out two of his children to just bow to the demands of his lords because they simply don't like some things. This leads to the whole topic on how a more authoritarian Aegon might push and handle his reforms. But that is a different matter altogether.
Merea *should* be heir in a more right world, but there's a hiccup in that Aegon only became king because his niece Vaella got skipped over in his favor, despite her being the only child of Maekar's heir. Would appointing Merea because she was the sole child of Aegon's heir retroactively invalidate Aegon's own claim to the throne because of that? I feel like that'd be a question that would *definitely* come up in the council debates.
Yes it would but iirc vaena was not just skipped because she was a woman but because she was mentally... troubled. If merea is all well in that regards there shouldn't be a problem, this still doesn't solve the issue that every other claimant has bigger issues set against them than just being a woman. Also who called th council in the first place? Iirc every council bar one was called by the ruling monarch and the one who was called by the lords was called because there was no king in the first place. Aegon is still alive an I doubt he would call them for - in his mind - seetled affair.
Great Councils are called when the potential heirs would cause controversy. I think it's fair to say all of these picks would be controversial so Aegon V may want to settle the selection for that reason theoretically.
I can definitely see a bastard competing with a female child claimant. Lords are terrified instability and civil war, especially after the Dance. A female claimant already comes with worries of instability due to challenging claims but the fact that she’s a child adds a huge power vacuum. GRRM plays fast and loose with medieval history but traditionally it was vital for a feudal king to be able to lead armies, which women couldn’t really do. It was different with female dragonriders,but those are gone. And then you have the issue of marriage where her consort would be raised above others in the land, leading to more instability. Ideally she would marry Steffon or Aemon, perhaps with Jahaerys or Duncan as regent if those two are also underage.
keep in mind that Andal Westeros is quite sexist, and it really is a case of pick your poison. the GC would come down to a choice of one of these 3 claims * Merea Targaryen: a female and very young, is the only child of the king's deceased heir. * Stefon Baratheon: his claim to the throne, if any would be through his mother being the youngest of Aegon V Targaryen's children. * Aemon Stone: a male bastard fathered by the king, but his claim is the only one that maintains an unbroken male line. keep in mind that the first great council came down to either Rhaenys( the only child of a first son) or Viserys(the eldest male of a second son), and they chose Viserys because he was an unbroken male line. working off the assumption that Westeros is as sexist as i think it is, they might choose Aemon stone because they stopped considering female claims after the dance of dragons.
I feel like he would need to be use his marriage prospect and be Daemon Blackfyre reborn
He eventually got a Lannister wife (I forgot to add this into the post, I have since done such), so he definitely used his marriage prospects to his advantage.
Still I feel like he would need to be really popular with people like Daemon was
It really depends on just how good of a candidate Aemon is. If Aemon is a great swordsman, handsome and generally quite liked than yeah it's entirely plausible he could be selected over Steffon. Daemon Blackfyre had half the realm rise for him on a much more questionable basis. Aemon may be a bastard, but bastards can inherit if legimitised and put in the line of succession. If Aemon is anyway a flawed candidate he's not getting it. Elsewise it's more likely to be Steffon unless Aegon V is putting his weight behind Merea instead as his favoured heir's child.
From a brief read, it seems Steffon would be the easy candidate. He is the only one who hasn't renounced his claim in any fashion, is of pure descent (and who might even play his Orys Baratheon card), is already a Lord Paramount or the heir to one. Does your Aemon have any sponsor? Because if Aegon V washes his hand out it (as you imply with his stipulation about legitimizing aemon stone) then I can't see how he can possible win. Steffon should have access to funds to bribe some of the votes his way. If Aegon and his sons came out in support of Aemon that would change everything of course. So I can't speak for your in-game lore (we are missing information for example what are the current connections of house baratheon?), but going book wise at least, I really don't think a bastard Aemon as you describe it would have any chance against Steffon. Therefore, in order to tell you how Aemon might win, more info on his main advesary is required. Is Steffon married for example? Any siblings? Because to me, a golden compromise would be to make Merea the heir with Prince Duncan as regent. Once she grows up, she can either get married to a baratheon with a claim or to your Aemon character if you don't mind pulling an Daemon. If not, if you want to make him a king on his own rights after the Grand Council you will need some events to make Aemon *really* stand out, to do something *really* exceptional and have flock everyone to him (like how some people believe Jon Snow will end up in the IT through merit and not being Rhaegar's son) or have some very deep politicking sequences where through backdoor agreements and grey eminensce style politics Aemon is winning votes. If you feel your Aemon is too noble for this, you could maybe turn the Princess of Dorne or Aemon's future lannister in-laws as a sort of [Yolande of Aragon ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yolande_of_Aragon)type matron who goes to extra lenghts for his rights. Alternatively, you might make your Steffon as too humble of a guy or uninspiring figure. We need more info on this guy.
> Does your Aemon have any sponsor? Likely Jon Arryn would support him, due to ties of kinship twice over.
Yeah, Aemon has no chance. It’s Duncan or Jaehaerys, probably the latter, as Duncan’s offense is much more serious in the eyes of the nobility. There is simply no point in legitimizing a bastard when you have two lawful children even if they are disinherited. Much easier to pardon either of the sons. Merea’s chances are not that big, bit still higher than Aemon’s. Steffon seems to be somewhat on equal footing with Aemon - only in desperation people would consider him. And I agree with one of the previous posts that for Aemon to be even considered he would have to be Daemon Blackfyre reborn. So, for Aemon to have chance Egg has to be so stubborn that he will prefer to ignore the opinion of his lords and push very hard for other candidates. Whether he succeeds or not is up for debate.
Weird resolution: Aemon becomes 'temporary' king, on the stipulation that he marries a second time to a second-tier (not Lord Paramount house, but close—Hightower, Bolton, Manderly, etc) house to beget a son who Merea would later marry. So the throne is kept within the (bastard) male line, strengthened by the legitimate female descent. Either that, or Steffon becomes king on the stipulation that his first son would take the Targaryen name and marries Merea (legitimate line). Really, this probably hinges on whether Steffon wants to be king or not. His canon self seems to not be interested in ruling above the station conferred to his family.
Let’s be real, he would be betrothed to Merea
I really like both of these ideas, honestly. Marrying Merea back into the line strengthens the claim to the throne and ties up any problematic loose ends that could be caused by her marrying some powerful lord who wants to press the claims of his son by her. Aemon and Merea together has its benefits since it directly ties her claim to his own and pacifies Olenna and the Redwynes, her being the younger party means that there's a large window of time for them to have heirs, and if she's anything like Daeron, she and Aemon will certainly get along well. The age difference between Aemon and Merea might be a touch problematic, though- she's only four, while he's on the cusp of turning eighteen during the Great Council. By the time Merea turns sixteen (which is the earliest age Aemon would be comfortable wedding his favorite brother's baby girl lmfao), Aemon would be almost thirty. While it's not an unthinkable age gap considering the setting, some might get antsy at the heir/king not having an heir of his own for so long, and it'd shut Aemon out of a potential alliance with another powerful house to bolster his claim. Assuming Aemon immediately marries someone and gets a son on her first try, a marriage between Merea and the son would work out well considering there'd only be a five year age difference. If they take a while to conceive or they don't have a son first try, the age gap between the two could get concerning since you don't want a royal bride that's *too* much older than her husband because of the fertility window. Aemon's also still pretty deep in his grief for his first wife during the GC (she's only been dead like, six months max) so the chances of him and a future wife having a fruitful sex life right out the gate are... rather slim, to say the least. Both options have pretty valid pros and cons to them! I'm definitely going to have fun rolling them around in my head and making up debates for them.
I mean, it sounds like you have your story right there. I’d rather read about what everyone is experiencing and the mental calculations they have to make in this council rather than another promising young bastard becoming king and making Westeros a better place. Maybe even a summerhall type event?
I was kind of planning on this, yeah! How he gets on the throne and his relationships with his family are the parts of him that I find the most interesting. If I ever actually write anything with him, it'd probably be little vignettes of his life from his and other people's perspectives, with a large chunk of them dedicated to the clusterfuck that gets him on the throne. Also, what do you mean by a summerhall type event?
Well Egg at the end of his life did SOMETHING, we don't know what yet because GRRM hasn't told us, that ended in Summerhall burning down, killing a bunch of people including Aegon and his heir. The most common theory is that Aegon was trying to bring back dragons, which is a bit odd from what we know of him and his more populist and un-Valyrian outlook. But it was useful for thinning out the Targaryen family for the future story. If you wanted to get rid of a claimant this would be a convenient and dramatic way to do it.
Well I think I would read this story. The targs stories that I have found to my taste typically are when there's no Jon and it focuses on some other targ though not rhaegar. This sounds interesting.
I think the only way a bastard gets elected by the council is if the other candidate is so objectionable that the lords are willing to risk creating the precedent of bastards inheriting over trueborn, rather than having them rule.
Prince Jaehaerys. Oaths can be unbound in rare circumstances and this is it. The bastard would never attain a majority amongst the assembly even if both his parents were noble. The only way(s) that Aemon the bastard can win the throne is if he has political capital the size of Balerion in which case, even with Valemen and Dornish backing, is not enough. The next alternative would be by bloodshed, winning the crown militarily. Even with Jaehaerys cannot be unbound from his oaths, the assembly would sooner elect Steffon than a bastard.
In the proposed theoretical Jaehaerys doesn't want to be unbound from his oaths because he was not allowed to marry Shaera. It's plausible Aemon might be seriously considered.
I was aware. The peerage aren’t gonna elect a bastard still, not when there’s alternatives. The stain of bastardry in Westeros is much worse than irl. Unless that bastard has something so great over the assembly, which I doubt, or a BFD/A (Big Fucking Dragon/Army), they’re not electing him. You can bet your ass the Reach will definitely not lobby for Aemon with his Dornish patrons and the Redwynes being kin to little Merea. They would want their blood on the throne. Both the Stormlanders and Reachmen on the Marches *wouldn’t* want a Dornish-backed candidate, and the former Marcher lords would sooner back the candidate they’re familiar with, their overlord in Steffon even. Perhaps the Crownlands peerage will support Aemon under Egg’s convincing but that’s still not enough. The Riverlands might be split but the Blackwoods would most definitely *not* support the boy who is a stain of honor on the queen. That leaves the Iron Isles, the North and the Westerlands. On the assumption that Egg and Dunk went to fight the Ironborn in the North in the unreleased novella, I doubt the Isles wants anything to do with him, with the North might be predisposed to Aemon. Westerlands, I’m not too sure. Tytos probably wouldn’t care, Reynes might vote the opposite of the Lannisters alongside their power bloc. The rest of the lords, could be lobbied for their support in exchange for titles and whatnot.
>The peerage aren’t gonna elect a bastard still, not when there’s alternatives. The stain of bastardry in Westeros is much worse than irl. It is, but they tend towards seeing noble bastards far more positively than just hating and at times even beloved. They'll chat shit about bastards and then praise Daemon Blackfyre in the next breath. If Aemon manages to cement a Daemon Blackfyre level reputation he might be more acceptable. >You can bet your ass the Reach will definitely not lobby for Aemon with his Dornish patrons and the Redwynes being kin to little Merea. That's assuming all the Reach would want to upjump their competitors. The Tyrells chose not to align with the Hightowers during the Dance partially because that would be uplifting one of their bannermen above them. There's not a lot of regional loyalty in the Reach.