The Triarchy alliance with the Greens turned the Velaryon blockade of the Gullet into an international struggle. Unable to break Corlys Velaryon’s hold on the sea lanes with the royal fleet alone, Otto Hightower bargained with the Three Daughters: their intervention promised a fleet capable of challenging the Velaryons, but came at the price of trade concessions and a pledge over islands the Iron Throne had never controlled.

The blockade and the diplomatic opening

The alliance grew out of a military problem. Corlys Velaryon’s fleet had closed Blackwater Bay, restricting the movement of ships and leaving King Aegon II’s government without an effective naval answer. His overtures to Dalton Greyjoy had not brought the Iron Islands to his side, while the royal fleet by itself could not break the blockade. Otto Hightower therefore looked beyond Westeros for a force strong enough to reopen the sea lanes.

The choice of the Three Daughters also reflected Daemon Targaryen’s political liabilities. As Rhaenyra’s consort, Daemon strengthened her claim, but his many past adventures had left him with enemies. Otto reached across the narrow sea to one of them, making the prince’s personal history a resource in the Greens’ diplomatic effort.

Otto’s bargain and the High Council

Otto offered the magisters exclusive trading rights at King’s Landing if their fleets cleared the Gullet of Corlys Velaryon’s ships. He sweetened the offer by promising to cede the Stepstones to the Three Daughters, although the Iron Throne had never claimed those islands. The bargain thus exchanged commercial access and a territorial promise for immediate military assistance, with the latter promise costing the crown little in land it actually possessed.

The arrangement was not quickly settled. The Triarchy had no single king to decide matters: its High Council comprised eleven magisters from each of its three cities, each intent on securing advantage for his own city. Even decisions about war and alliance could founder in debate, and the Council was not in session when Otto’s envoys arrived. The delay frustrated King Aegon II, who removed Otto as Hand and gave the office to Criston Cole, impatient with the slow course of negotiation.

Despite that delay, the High Council eventually accepted Otto’s offer at Tyrosh. The alliance converted a proposal into a naval threat: ninety warships sailed out from the Stepstones under the banners of the Three Daughters, steering for the Gullet. Their arrival showed how the Greens’ promise of trading privileges had drawn a foreign fleet into the civil war.

The fleet reaches the Gullet

The fleet’s approach had immediate consequences for a vessel carrying members of the royal family. The Pentoshi cog Gay Abandon, with two Targaryen princes aboard, sailed into the warships’ path. Its escorts were sunk or captured, and the cog itself was taken. The attack brought the alliance’s maritime power directly against the Greens’ own kin, rather than merely against Corlys Velaryon’s blockade.

Prince Aegon escaped to Dragonstone clinging to the neck of his dragon, Stormcloud. He was nine years old and had never flown before; Stormcloud was badly wounded during the escape and died soon after reaching the island. Aegon’s younger brother, Prince Viserys, could not escape the captured cog. Though he hid his dragon’s egg and disguised himself as a ship’s boy, another boy aboard betrayed him. A Tyroshi captain recognized his identity, and Sharako Lohar, the Lysene admiral commanding the fleet, took possession of the captive prince.

Significance

The alliance was a calculated response to the Greens’ isolation at sea. It brought ninety warships into the conflict when the royal fleet could not dislodge Corlys Velaryon, but the consequences extended beyond the blockade: the fleet’s first recorded encounter in this sequence captured a ship carrying two princes, killed Stormcloud, and left Viserys in enemy hands. A diplomatic bargain framed as a means to reopen the sea lanes thus exposed the royal family itself to the dangers of the war.