Alyn Velaryan's Westward Voyage

Alyn Velaryon’s westward voyage began as a royal commission designed to test the admiral and protect the Westerlands, but it became a shifting passage of diplomacy, costly weather, and sudden political reversals. Ordered to sail around Westeros and confront Dalton Greyjoy, Alyn reached the western coast only after negotiating his way through the Stepstones and gathering allies along the way. By the time he arrived near Fair Isle, his principal enemy was dead and the Ironborn fleet had dispersed; his return voyage then took an unexpected turn when a secret at Sunspear drew him toward Lys.

Commission and strategic stakes

The voyage followed Alyn’s triumphant return to King’s Landing. At a ceremony in the Red Keep, he was knighted, given an admiral’s chain and a silver model of the Queen Rhaenys, and asked by Aegon III to serve as master of ships. The honors appeared to recognize his success, but the appointment came with a dangerous obligation: Unwin Peake, the Hand and Lord Regent, presented the expedition as the answer to Ironborn attacks on the king’s western subjects. Alyn was to take his fleets around the southern end of Westeros, recover Fair Isle, and end the threat posed by Dalton Greyjoy and his raiders.

The assignment carried risks on every stretch of the route. The Stepstones were controlled by competing forces and guarded waterways; Dorne’s coast offered little prospect of safe harbor; and the Ironborn were preparing for Alyn’s arrival in the Sunset Sea. Peake’s calculation was stark: a defeat could break the power of House Velaryon, while a victory would restore Fair Isle, protect the Westerlands, and demonstrate the cost of defying the king and his new Hand. Alyn accepted the commission, though the expedition’s political purpose was not simply to reward his achievement. It also placed him in danger far from court.

Before departing, Alyn gave his elephant to Aegon III and returned to Hull to assemble his fleet and provisions. He said farewell to his wife, Baela Targaryen, who told him she was pregnant. Their exchange looked beyond the immediate expedition: Alyn proposed a name for a son, while Baela imagined a daughter who might one day ride a dragon. He then set out on a voyage whose dangers would soon test both the fleet and the plans made for it.

Passage through the Stepstones

On reaching the Stepstones in 133 AC, Alyn took more care than on his previous visit. He sent scouts disguised as fishing boats and merchantmen to learn who controlled the islands and their channels. Their reports described a divided sea: Racallio Ryndoon held Bloodstone and the southern islands, while Pentoshi sellswords serving the Archon of Tyrosh controlled rocks farther north and east. Booms and the hulks of sunken ships obstructed many passages, and the open channels belonged to Ryndoon and his men. Alyn faced a choice between forcing a way through and bargaining for passage.

He chose negotiation because he expected that defeating Ryndoon might cost half his strength, resources he would need against Dalton Greyjoy. Alyn sailed the Lady Baela into Bloodstone under a parley flag, leaving the rest of the fleet apart from him. Ryndoon kept him at his wooden stronghold for more than a fortnight, shifting between hospitality and suspicion. The admiral had to navigate a host whose intentions were difficult to read, including demands that tested whether Alyn would comply with Ryndoon’s whims and accusations.

Ryndoon ultimately allowed the fleet to pass in return for three ships, an alliance document, and a promised kiss from Baela if he visited Driftmark. Alyn gave him the three least seaworthy ships and supplied a parchment agreement signed in a maester’s ink rather than the blood Ryndoon had requested. The promise involving Baela was left conditional on a future visit. The bargain secured the route without committing Alyn to the costly battle he had feared, and the fleet sailed through the islands.

Dorne and the gathering of allies

The fleet’s arrival off Sunspear alarmed the Dornish, who lacked comparable naval strength but chose to treat Alyn’s approach as a visit rather than an attack. Aliandra Martell met him with her favorites and suitors. Alyn needed fresh water and provisions; the princess, who was attracted to the young admiral, welcomed his company. Accounts disagree about whether their meeting became intimate, but her attention to him displeased Dornish lords and angered her younger siblings. She nevertheless supplied water, food enough to reach Oldtown and the Arbor, and charts marking dangerous whirlpools along Dorne’s southern coast.

The coast still exacted a cost. A storm scattered the fleet west of Salt Shore, sinking two ships. Near the mouth of the Brimstone River, a damaged galley stopped for water and repairs and was attacked at night; its crew was killed and its supplies taken. These losses were offset when Alyn reached Oldtown. Lyonel Hightower welcomed him, and Alyn’s courteous treatment of Samantha Hightower helped establish a friendship between the two young men. Lyonel promised twenty warships, while Lord Redwyne of the Arbor promised thirty, making the fleet substantially stronger.

Alyn waited at Oldtown for the promised Redwyne ships, using the delay to explore the city and study old charts and Valyrian writings on warship design and naval tactics at the Citadel. The High Septon blessed him at the Starry Sept. News of Jaehaera Targaryen’s death and Aegon III’s betrothal to Myrielle Peake reached the city while he was there. Alyn also wrote to Baela, though the contents of his letters are not known. At last, impatient to proceed, he sailed without waiting longer for Lord Redwyne. Twenty Hightower war galleys commanded by Leo Costayne accompanied him.

The western coast and Fair Isle

The fleet turned north into the Sunset Sea off Blackcrown and continued along the western coast. As it passed the mouth of the Mander, galleys from the Shield Islands joined it: three each from Greyshield and Southshield, four from Greenshield, and six from Oakenshield. Another storm then sank a ship and damaged three more so badly that they could not continue. Alyn regrouped off Crakehall, where he first heard of the Maiden’s Day ball in King’s Landing.

Dalton Greyjoy had also heard of Alyn’s approach and assembled hundreds of longships near Fair Isle, with more at Feastfires, Kayce, and Lannisport. He boasted of defeating Alyn and then sailing back along the admiral’s route to attack the Shields, Oldtown, Sunspear, and Driftmark. Yet, before the fleets met, Dalton was killed on Fair Isle by Tess, one of his salt wives. His death dissolved the threat that had drawn Alyn west: captains began returning home, anticipating a struggle over the Seastone Chair, since Dalton’s eldest salt son was still a child and his mother could not serve as regent under Ironborn custom.

The people of Fair Isle and the knights still there rose against the Ironborn. Over three days, the rebellion drove out or killed hundreds of raiders and set their ships ablaze, leaving Faircastle as the last Ironborn stronghold on the island. When Alyn arrived, the island was free and the fighting was over. At Lannisport, bells rang in welcome and crowds lined the shore. Johanna Lannister presented him with a golden seahorse and other tokens of the Westerlands’ gratitude.

Return, protection, and diversion to Lys

The western lords remained anxious despite Dalton’s death. Their own fleet had been destroyed, and they feared another Ironborn attack under Dalton’s successor. Johanna proposed a campaign against the Iron Islands, but Alyn refused to carry out a punitive invasion. To reassure his hosts, he agreed that Leo Costayne would remain at Lannisport with a third of the fleet until the Lannisters, the Farmans, and other western lords could rebuild enough warships to defend themselves. Alyn then sailed east with the rest of his ships.

Near the Mander, he encountered the Redwyne fleet at last. After breaking bread aboard the Lady Baela, the Redwyne ships turned back. Alyn visited the Arbor briefly and stayed longer at Oldtown, renewing his friendships with Lyonel and Samantha, meeting Citadel scholars who recorded his voyage, and receiving another blessing from the High Septon. He continued along Dorne’s dry coast to Sunspear, where Aliandra welcomed him and asked about his travels, again provoking the displeasure of her siblings and suitors.

At the Maiden’s Day feast, Alyn learned from Drazenko Rogare, an envoy from Lys, that Dorne had joined Tyrosh and Lys in the Daughters’ War against Racallio Ryndoon. Drazenko spoke to him privately in the courtyard. The following day, Alyn returned to Baela and ordered the fleet to sail for Lys. The account withholds the secret Drazenko revealed and Alyn’s reasons for acting on it, leaving the westward expedition’s final consequence unresolved: the voyage that began as a campaign to secure Fair Isle became the starting point of a new and consequential journey.