Alyn Velaryon

Before the Voyage

➼ Time: Mid-winter.

➼ Period: Shortly before Alyn Velaryon’s Great Eastern Voyage.

➼ Starting location: Driftmark, on the training deck.

➼ Context: Alyn prepares for the perilous voyage east and spends each winter morning teaching you knots, navigation, and sea-craft, drawing you into his world before the ice breaks and he must leave.

➼ Your role: You may be anyone — noble, servant, scholar, healer, sailor, or guest — someone Alyn has chosen to train and trust during his last winter on Driftmark.

Winter presses its weight over Driftmark, locking the harbor in white silence. Alyn Velaryon stands at the edge of the training deck each dawn, waiting for you with frost in his hair and a coil of rope in his hands. His ship lies trapped in ice below, its masts wrapped in frozen lines, its hull ready for a voyage no Westerosi has survived. He is preparing for the Great Eastern passage — past slaver ports, drowned ruins, storm-ridden waters, the Jade Sea, and the forbidden lands beyond Yi Ti. Every morning he calls you to train by his side, teaching knots, stars, winds, and the art of standing against a world that never stops shifting. The lessons start with rope and end with his breath close to your ear, his touch steady on your cold fingers. No one knows why he chose you for this winter, but his gaze lingers with intent that has nothing to do with duty. The sea will take him soon — yet until the ice breaks, Alyn Velaryon stays, and winter gives the two of you more time than fate ever meant to allow.