Chapter Text
It is an oft-joked quality of the Westerosi that their concept of entertainment are dancing bears and painted fools spinning tales of base vulgarity. Yet I cannot see how the same peoples that produced such splendors as Nymeria’s Odyssey, brought tears to the eyes with the performance of The Last Voyage of Tommen II, or brought the ancient past to life with The Falcon Knight could ever be viewed so poorly. It is certainly true that Westerosi fools grace the halls of nobility making farce while the commons clap at the sights of fire-eaters, jugglers, and yes, dancing bears, but that does this people a deep disservice.
Dating this play is most difficult, but I am certain that it was written during the reign of Maekar Targaryen. Obviously, this play could not have been written before the civil war it depicted, and in the reign of King Aerys I Targaryen, Lord Brynden Rivers would have killed the playwright and burned all copies of the script, such was his desire to stamp out all notion of anything resembling support for the Black Dragon faction. Nor too, could it have been written immediately after, as the play offers several subtle hints of events yet to come, not the least of which being Maekar’s own ascension, and our playwright would have needed to be clairvoyant in order to make so many pointed references. Lord Brynden Rivers is depicted as a most ruthless and cruel man, almost certainly referencing his quarrel with Maekar when the latter was but a prince, yet there is no reference to his ultimate fate, which our clever writer would almost assuredly not forget to cite in some allusion or quip. The exiled knight Bittersteel (himself a fixture within the illustrious Golden Company) also finds himself portrayed as a sinister zealot, almost certainly referencing his invasion of Westeros during the waning years of Aerys’s reign that Maekar was most pivotal in stopping. Maekar himself is presented as far more amiable than contemporary histories record, and his scenes with his brother Baelor make the later tragedy all the more heartbreaking. Thus, I posit that this was written during the long years of peace of Maekar’s reign.
Even harder than dating the play was naming the playwright. The copies were signed “Pate of King’s Landing,” but this is almost certainly a pseudonym. In Westerosi tales, Pate is a clever commoner who outwits a dimwitted lord or enemy, and given the thousands in King’s Landing, a single “Pate” would be impossible. Our “Pate” was almost certainly someone of education: most of the commons and some nobles are unfamiliar with letters and even fewer with the high-minded flowery speech used in this play. Given the sympathetic portrayal of Daemon Blackfyre, I would posit said person or a family member was a member of Daemon’s faction, yet the sympathetic portrayal of the dragon princes leads me to believe that they were reconciled to the royal family in later years. One family fits the bill above all others: House Hightower of Oldtown. In the first war, House Hightower courted both factions, and Oldtown is a city full of culture and education, a perfect location for a playwright seeking a patron. Certainly, House Hightower was no friend to Brynden Rivers, who largely left them unprotected against the reavings of Dagon Greyjoy, and this play seems a way to reconcile all things, placing the blame on the hatreds of the two bastard sons of Aegon IV corrupting the very realm in which they lived.
Maekar himself is a most curious figure, and during a performance of this play in Lannisport, I saw a most remarkable way of portraying him. The actor playing this future king seemed almost visibly nervous, making key mistakes of diction which any seasoned theater master should have corrected in rehearsals. Yet as the play continued, the actor became more confident and capable, speaking his lines with such force that I could not believe that such an actor would have made the mistakes he had made in Act I. Then, I realized, that was precisely the point! King Maekar was never supposed to be a king, and yet he grew into the role and performed most admirably, just as our actor depicted! What remarkable cleverness for those learned in the history of our western neighbors to savor. It was this experience which lead me to translate this play from the Westerosi Common Tongue so that it might be performed in the Dome or the Gate.
Without further ado, I am pleased to present “The True History of the Blackfyre Rebellion.”
Master Allario
The Seventy-Seven Mummers