Carik is the perfect prince and bastard son of the Emperor of Rivellon, groomed for the role of inheriting the planet spanning realm by his father's greatest friend and most trusted ally, Maxos, the greatest wizard to have ever lived. He is sixteen years old, and his mentor believes he is almost ready for the day he will inherit his father's realm. He has been schooled on law, governance, the sciences both magical and physical and how to lead an industrialized army to victory.
He's also half-dragon... and sixteen years old, with all the problems that entails.
Not long after finding out about his parentage, magical shenanigans result in him being sent to Westeros, just before the tourney of Harrenhal...
The Dragon of Harrenhal is a crossover fanfic between A Song of Ice and Fire and Divinity: Dragon Commander by CaekDaemon (also known for The Many Sons of Winter) that can be read here
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This work contains examples of:
- Berserk Button: Ashara is sick and tired of hearing Florian and Jonquil, to the point where she sics Carik on Hendry Bracken when the latter was about to start with the song, despite her originally trying to deescalate the situation (where he and two others were bullying Howland Reed).
- Bizarre Seasons: Carik, King Aerys and Ser Gerold compare Westeros' bizarrely long winters to Rivellon's Earth-like seasonal cycles and come out weirded out by how the other world's weather functions.
- Blood Magic: It's considered pure blasphemy by Rivellon's mages. Maxos initially considers using it to find Carik, though he quickly dismisses the idea, even preferring to actually summon and beat up a demon to confer with its leader to actually using the magic. The Architect, however, believes he can find Carik with a single drop of blood from the Emperor, whose reservations are no less strong than Maxos'. However, desperation has led the Emperor to promise the Architect the needed blood the moment he needs it. It's actually foreshadowing the Architect's Demonic Possession.
- Children Are Innocent: Rhaenys is cheerfully oblivious to the goings on around her and has no problems with sharing things with others such as Carik's human form and ability to do magic.
- Demonic Possession: The Architect has long been possessed by a demon, who has already poisoned the minds ot the Emperor's three legitimate children, and hopes to find Carik and repeat the process to embroil Rivellon in a cataclysmic war.
- Dragon Hoard: Alluded to. When Carik gets drunk and flies off after a night of feasting, he ends up in Harrenhal's vault and sleeps there in dragon form.
- Escalating Brawl: What ends up happening in the first night of feasting at Harrenhal. Jon Connington spills some wine on Carik, Carik gets angry, some other lords get hit, some of the Reachmen insult the Stormlanders and it degenerates into an all out brawl until King Aerys arrives.
- Identical Stranger: Carik, in his human form, is virtually identical to Rhaegar, save for being blonde and with matching eyes.
- Idiot Ball: For much of the early part of the fic, Elia and Ashara are of the belief that Rhaegar is holding this. Having arrived at Harrenhal, where the various lords he's been courting for his coup against his father are gathering, and the first dragon seen in over a century is in his party, he opts to speak to neither and holes up in the library to read books about dragons. Later, he has a talk with Carik on on just how different Valyrian dragons and Rivellonian dragons are, so he decides to read on Valyrian dragon myths. While he's established some good initial rapport with Carik, the lack of further interaction leads the latter to befriend Ashara Dayne, Robert Baratheon and King Aerys, leaving him with only assumptions and uncertainties. Elia eventually gets fed up with this and has his books taken away so that he can actually interact with the other lords.
- Inept Mage: Carik knows a bit of magic, but has so far flubbed his attempts.
- Important Haircut: Carik tells Aerys that he's not going to let the king ride his back until he gets a shave and a haircut. He does and then scares his family, bodyguards and acquaintances with the intelligence and charm hiding underneath his scraggly hair.
- Innocent Innuendo: Aside from Carik's failed attempt to woo Alyssa Whent, Ashara let's off two in Chapter 12:(In response to being asked how large the Seven Kingdoms is) "I'll only answer that if you tell me how big yours is."(When Carik transforms into a dragon to scare of three squires) "I hadn't realized you could get so big so quickly."
- Insane Troll Logic: The fact that Carik is a Half-Human Hybrid that can freely transform between his human and dragon forms convinces Aerys that he should be able to turn into a dragon somehow. Ser Gerold then reminds him of what happened with Aerion Brightflame.
- It's All My Fault: King Aerys confides to Ser Arthur that he feels guilty about sending Lord Steffon to Essos because he ended up dying on his return trip.
- Just Following Orders: This is how Ser Arthur justifies (to himself) using Dawn to shave King Aerys' beard (and later, cut his hair).
- Mood-Swinger: King Aerys, though somewhat less so since Carik came along. He's still rather mercurial around most people, but his attempts to get on Carik's good side have led him to actually being nicer to others at times.
- Mugging the Monster: Carik and Ashara happen upon three squires who are bullying Howland Reed. They decide to insult him and proposition her, leading to him revealing his dragon form to scare them off.
- It can even come off as Bullying a Dragon as he's wearing Targaryen colors while looking like a dead ringer for the Prince and Ashara's just said that she'll let her brother and the king know of the incident.
- The Multiverse: Maxos travels across many different Earths, Rivellons and Planetoses to look for his specific Carik. He even ends up in Thedas at one point.
- Sanity Strengthening: Carik's presence has rebalanced Aerys' mind, making him more aware and charming, to the point of actually allowing himself to be groomed. He's still extremely dangerous, but as long as Carik stays near him, his madness is somewhat held at bay.
- Smitten Teenage Girl:
- Downplayed as while Carik is very much smitten with Ashara, he has no problems actually speaking with her. He does, however, gain a spring in his step after she kisses him on the cheek.
- When Carik actually tries out some of what Ashara has taught him, he immediately charms Lysa Arryn, who later goes Green-Eyed Monster on Ashara.
- Sure, Let's Go with That: Carik's clothes look Braavosi to some people and he doesn't correct them when they assume he's from there or further East to save having to make up a lie about his origins.
- Tragic Keepsake: The only thing Carik has of his mother Aurora is a picture he keeps in his tunic. Which is why he goes berserk on Jon Connington when the latter accidentally spills some wine on him.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Carik doesn't usually show it, but he's rather affected by knowing that he's the bastard son of Emperor Sigurd of Rivellon, with said father giving him no attention of any kind. Maxos fills in as a Parental Substitute, but he's still a bit bitter about it.
