re: Crackpot ASOIAF Theories SPOILERS

There's that story too, but I think that it was a ruse. Her body was never recovered and the story is flimsy. Plus, no version of that story (there are several) has Ashara being in love with a prince.

So, going with my theory (and I know that there are others with similar theories), Lyanna throws herself from the tower, they bring her broken body up to her bed, Ned arrives just before she dies. He swears to take care of her child. From the Wiki:

quote:

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After the events of the Tower of Joy, Ned Stark went to Starfall to inform House Dayne of Ser Arthur's death and return to them his greatsword, Dawn. Ashara jumped from the top of one of the towers of Starfall, called the Palestone Sword, on the cliff atop the sea. Her body was never recovered.[2] After these events, Ned Stark returned to Winterfell with the infant Jon Snow, whom he claimed as his bastard son, refusing to name the child's mother. This sparked rumors that Ashara had been the mother of Stark's bastard[3], and that grief at learning that her lover had been responsible for her brother's death was the cause of her suicide.[1][2]

Ser Barristan Selmy believes that Ashara gave birth to a stillborn daughter. According to Selmy, a man dishonored her at Harrenhal during the tourney and got her with child. Selmy's account is ambiguous. In Selmy's account, it was grief at the death of her child, perhaps grief at the loss of the man who "dishonored" her or shame of the "dishonoring" that led to Ashara's suicide. Also, Selmy thinks that he could have prevented Ashara's suicide if she had known of his feelings for her; that he thinks would have led her to seek his aid instead of a Stark's aid.

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What if they passed off the rumor that Ashara had given birth to Ned's bastard to give a cover story for where Jon came from? And, let's say that Ashara's child had actually lived. Let's also say that the man who had "dishonored" her wasn't just any man. What if it was Aerys Targaryen?