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A Crown of Bronze and Blood by TheWhiteW0lf
Fandoms: Game of Thrones (TV), A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, House of the Dragon (TV)
14 Aug 2026
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Summary
Daeron Waters was never meant to be king.
Acknowledged by Viserys Targaryen, loved as a son, and kept carefully outside the succession, Daeron grows up close enough to power to understand what love cannot give him. In 101 AC, Westeros chooses his father over Princess Rhaenys and calls the decision peace. Four years later, when grief leaves Rhaenyra the king’s heir, Daeron kneels first and swears to defend her right.
He means it as loyalty. The realm remembers that every lord followed him.
Years later, the boy once kept at the edge of power returns from the Stepstones a war hero and the rider of Vermithor. Rhaenyra looks to the brother who has always stood beside her. Alicent Hightower sees the man beneath the legend growing around him. Viserys loves both his children, yet every honor he gives Daeron sharpens the question he refuses to answer.
In Westeros, a claim need not be spoken to become dangerous. It needs only blood, a dragon, and enough men willing to believe.
Daeron has spent his life refusing the crown others imagine for him. But as loyalty becomes peril