As I understand the books, Aegon was not a follower of the Seven and he merely used the faith once he had their support. What is your source for this? I am rather dubious of your knowledge of the series given your garbled information below.

And before that they were a kingdom. Robb and Catelyn discussed the fate of the last kings of the Riverlands near one of their tombs in SoS. They were broken up in later years, but they were still a kingdom, and this does not explain what WAS a kingdom if the Riverlands don't count. You can blather about politics all you want, but there are basically seven major geographical regions, if you don't count the outlying islands such as the Iron Islands and those the Targaryens ruled before Aegon's day.

Yes, that is true, but note that the Riverlands were ruled from a Riverlands castle, as House Whent, which holds it at the beginning of the series is sworn to the Tullys, and later, when the Lannisters grant Petyr Baelish Harrenhal, he is also named Lord Paramount of the Riverlands. Harren might have ruled the Riverlands in addition to his homeland, just as Robb later will, but that does not erase the nation as an entity. It's not like the Tullys and Blackwoods and Brackens and Darrys carry over Ironborn customs or anything. They might have been a conquered subordinate nation, but they had their own identity (hence the rebellion against Harren in support of Aegon). Those River lords who do not worship the Seven do not worship the Drowned God, but the old gods of the First Men.

<quoet>Now the Highgarden and Baratheons weren't originally great houses. The Highgardens the stewards of House Gardner become a major house when Gardner died in dragonfire, and the stewards gladly bent knee. The family name is Tyrell. Highgarden is the castle from which the Gardeners and then the Tyrells in their turn ruled the Reach. The Reach was a kingdom, ruled by the king who died on the Field of Fire, just as the king ruling the Riverlands died when dragons burned his Riverlands castle.

Duh. What does this have to do with the number of kingdoms? The Storm Kings ruled from Storms End, and the Storm Lands were a kingdom.

Hence not a kingdom at all. And Dragonstone was originally a Valyrian colony, IIRC, which the Targaryens held, and became the last outpost of that empire after the Doom. It was not conquered by Aegon, but rather he inherited it, and from there decided to take the Seven Kingdoms.

Aegon had no such goal in mind. According to Stannis, he set his eyes on the whole continent and sought to take the entire land as a whole. He was not a follower of the Seven Gods of the Andals, and only tolerated the Faith because they supported him. It was not until later generations when the Targaryens actually took up the Faith on their own. The fact that Aegon & his sisters named their dragons after Valyrian gods is further evidence of this.



Except I recall no support for the religious motivation anywhere in the series. Not only that, what on earth would be the motivation for the unifying element (House Targaryen) to promote anything that recalled the independence of the components? For a vainglorious idiot trying to promote his personal legend, citing his conquest of seven whole kingdoms might be a good idea. For a competent monarch intent on forging a unified kingdom under his rule, reminding them that they are originally different lands is strongly counter-indicated, as is allowing them to retain their geographical identities, which makes it easier for groups to secede.