The Song of Ice and Fire is, as the title
suggests, a dance between the physical manifestations of ice and fire. In this sprawling world of war, intrigue and
illicit magic, ice is made manifest in the bitter wastes of the land past the wall, and
the others who dwell beyond. Fire, however, is made manifest in the form
of great scaled beasts, and their platinum-haired riders. In this special longform video the entire
history of the House Targaryen, where we will cover everything from their earliest origins,
their three-hundred-year long reign over Westeros, and their ultimate demise. Join us, as we explore the history of a family
whose history so poetically echoes its house words: fire and blood. You might think that Fire and Blood would
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wizardsandwarriors at checkout. Give it a go. The reign of the Targaryens as the royal house
of Westeros is a relatively recent phenomenon, beginning around three hundred years ago,
and ending only a single generation ago. However, the bloodlines of the silver-haired
Dragonriders is much older than that, and to explore the historical roots of house Targaryens’
ascendancy, we must go back not centuries, but millenia. To that end, we turn our gaze not onto Westeros,
but her sister continent to the east: Essos, where the mighty Valyrian Freehold, the greatest
civilization in the history of the world, once thrived. Around five thousand years ago, many mighty
civilizations blanketed the massive landmass of Essos, including the Tall Men of Sarnor,
the thousand jeweled cities of Yi Ti, and Old Ghis, the Empire of the Golden Harpy. During this ancient time, the Valyrian peninsula
was the backwater of Essos, with the Valyrians themselves being little more than humble shepherds. This, however, would change, when some of
these humble sheep-herders deigned to brave the slopes of the Fourteen Flames, a ring
of volcanoes on their native peninsula. There, living in those molten craters, the
Valyrians discovered the sentient embodiment of power and flame: the Dragons. How the Valyrians tamed the Dragons is unclear. The process was certainly borne of some sort
of magic, with some legends claiming said magic was taught to the Valyrians by a vanished
people from the Shadow Lands of Asshai. In any case, within a few generations, the
Valyrians were shepherds no longer, and soared the great blue atop massive, draconic beasts. Bolstered by the limitlessness of the skies
and an explosion of magical advancement, the Valyrian peninsula grew from a forgotten backwater
into a vibrant cultural hub. In the titular capital city of Valyria, glittering
silver spiral towers reached for the heavens, and the rich and powerful lived comfortable
lives, pampered by the comforts brought upon by the innovations of dragonfire and blood
magic. Technically speaking, Valyria was never an
Empire or Kingdom, for it had no crowned head. Instead, it was ruled by a council of two
dozen or so of its most powerful Dragon-riding families, making it a Freehold. Armed with the fantasy equivalent of weapons
of mass destruction, it was inevitable that the Valyrians would eventually expand out
their native peninsula with conquest in mind. Ironically, though, their path to Imperial
expansion began with them being attacked. Wary of Valyria’s growing power, the slavers
of Old Ghis, who dominated most of Essos at the time, marched their lockstep legions to
the Valyrian peninsula five times to subjugate them. However, each time, the Valyrians defeated
these sons of the harpy, for they had Dragons, and the Ghiscari had none. In the last of the Ghiscari wars, the Valyrians
obliterated Old Ghis, the ancient capital of Ghiscari Empire, and annexed the lands
around Slaver's bay. There, the Valyrians picked up the habit of
slavery from the Empire they had just vanquished. In the following centuries, the dragonlords
of Valyria would spread their power and influence throughout nearly all of western and central
Essos by right of conquest made possible by dragonfire. Around two thousand years ago, they annexed
the northern hills of Andalos. The native peoples of that land, the titular
Andals, thus fled in exodus across the narrow sea to Westeros, where they conquered the
First Men and the Children of the Forest. To this day, the population of Westeros is
of predominantly Andal ancestry because of this, with the exception of the North, where
the First Men were never conquered. After conquering Andalos, the Valyrians, or
more specifically the budding Valyrian colony of Volantis, turned their sights onto Rhoynar,
a people who lived in a series of city-states along the titular Rhoyne river, and whose
history was just as ancient and storied as Old Ghis. Subduing the Rhoynar took the better part
of two centuries, for the Rhoynish were possessed of powerful water magic which was capable
of countering dragonfire. However, about 700 years ago, a massive Valyrian
army, accompanied by 350 Dragons, the largest number of the beasts ever assembled, completely
incinerated the armies of the Rhoynar. After this, a Rhoynish princess, Nymeria,
led what remained of her people in an exodus from her homeland aboard ten thousand ships. They sailed west, to Westeros, where they
landed in Dorne. To this day, the people of Dorne are predominantly
of Rhoynish ancestry, marking the second time the conquests of the Valyrians impacted the
ethnic makeup of the western continent. Over the next few centuries, the Valyrian
Freehold came to stretch over most of Essos west of the Bone Mountains. Great Valyrian colonies such as Volantis,
Tyrosh, Lys, Myr, and Pentos became autonomous, self-governing cities under the suzerainty
of the capital back in the Valyrian peninsula, and as such, grew into wealthy and powerful
centers of commerce and culture in their own right. The world, it seemed, belonged to the Valyrians,
and one could forgive them for believing that the sun would never set on their glorious
Empire. And yet, doom was on the horizon. Throughout the history of the Valyrian freehold,
House Targaryen was considered a minor power. Possessed of dragons, yes, but politically
unimportant. In 114 BC, about four hundred years ago, a
scion of the humble house, Daenys Targaryen, had a vision- in which Valyria was subject
to a great destruction. Considering this vision to be prophetic, the
Targaryens abandoned the Valyrian capital and moved to the island of Dragonstone on
the narrow sea. The rest of the Valyrian dragonlords paid
them no mind. House Targaryen had always been on the political
periphery of the freehold, if they wanted to move to the geographical periphery of the
Empire, then so be it. Moreover, they believed Daenys’ apocalyptic
visions to be delirious nonsense. They could not have been more wrong. In 105 BC, a great doom befell the Valyrian
peninsula. What exactly caused this doom is unknown,
but it was catastrophic. Pillars of hellish white-hot flame erupted
from the earth with such heat and power that the capital city was utterly obliterated,
and even Dragons, creatures born of fire, were incinerated. The peninsula itself was rended, the land
breaking apart from intense seismic activity. By the end of the doom, the city of Valyria
was no more, and all the Freeholds’ most powerful Dragonlords and their dragons had
perished. Although the colony cities Valyria once established,
like Lys, Pentos and Volantis, would survive, the Freehold as a unified state had collapsed,
and the Dragons they had conquered the world with had gone extinct… with one exception. The Targaryen Dragonlords were alive and well
on Dragonstone, and so were their massive draconic mounts, making them the last Dragonriders
in the world. Thus, the world looked upon the Targaryens
with trepidation. Would they turn their gaze back east, and
use their status as the world’s last dragon-holders to reform the Valyrian Freehold with themselves
as its masters? Or would they look west, to new lands, and
new horizons? The Targaryens, with their dragons and their
allies - Houses Velaryon and Celtigar now controlled the crucial trade routes from Westeros
to Essos. Despite this, the Dragonlords of Dragonstone
took little interest in Westeros for the next hundred years. This would all change with the birth of Aegon,
who was born in 27 BC and had two sisters – the older Visenya and the younger Rhaenys. It was Valyrian custom to marry brother to
sister and so Aegon married both. In their youth, the siblings began to occasionally
visit Westeros on their dragons as guests of several local lords. Westeros was divided into seven constantly
warring kingdoms. In the North, the Starks ruled from their
castle at Winterfell. To the far south in the Dornish deserts, House
Martell reigned from Sunspear. The gold-rich Westerlands were dominated by
House Lannister while the neighboring House Gardener held dominion over the fertile lands
of the Reach and the mountainous realm of the Vale belonged to House Arryn. Closest to Aegon’s sphere of influence were
House Hoare’s expansionist kingdom and that of the declining Storm Kings of House Durrandon. They had once ruled half of Westeros, but
their realm had been chipped away at by their neighbors for decades. The leader of Hoare Harren the Black, had
almost completed a colossal castle named Harrenhal and would soon be able to pursue new conquests
in the Stormlands. Fearing this threat, Argilac Durrandon sent
an envoy to Dragonstone offering his daughter’s hand in marriage along with the land from
the God’s Eye to the Trident as a dowry, attempting to establish the Valyrians as a
buffer between him and the Iron Islanders. However, Aegon instead offered the marriage
with his friend and rumoured bastard brother Orys Baratheon. Angered by this insulting proposal, Argilac
cut the hands off the envoy and sent them back to Aegon, stating; “These are the only
hands your bastard shall have of me.” In response Aegon summoned his friends, allies
and bannermen to Dragonstone. The Velaryons and Celtigars answered their
lord’s call dutifully. They were joined by the Emmons and Masseys,
who despite being sworn to Durrandons, had closer ties to the Dragonlords. After seven days of counsel, a cloud of ravens
burst from Dragonstone to all corners of the Seven Kingdoms carrying one message; ‘From
this day forth there would be but one king in Westeros’. Those who bent the knee would keep their lands
and titles, those who resisted would be humbled and destroyed. In 2 BC Aegon set sail from Dragonstone with
his sisters, three dragons and a few hundred to a few thousand retainers. This was the force which landed at the mouth
of the Blackwater Rush and proceeded to encamp on the largest of three hills in the area;
starting construction of the Aegonfort. The Targaryen would-be king quickly constructed
a makeshift palisade and dispatched Rhaenys and Visenya on their dragons Meraxes and Vhagar,
to secure nearby castles. Rhaenys captured Rosby without a fight and
Visenya was attacked briefly until she showed Vhagar’s power, and the defenders surrendered. Nearby Houses Darklyn and Mooton saw the threat
and marched south with 3,000 men to attack Aegon’s beachhead. The Dragonlord placed Orys in command of his
ground forces, while he descended on the enemy from above on his own dragon; the monstrous
Balerion the Black Dread. Both enemy commanders were killed, and these
castles bent the knee. After subduing a dozen castles, Aegon summoned
their lords. As they had bent the knee, he raised them
up and confirmed their lands and titles, while to his oldest supporters he granted council
positions. Daemon Velaryon was made Master of Ships,
Triston Massey Master of Laws and Crispian Celtigar Master of Coin. Above all others he placed Orys Baratheon,
his greatest confidant, as the first Hand of the King. After this, Aegon’s knights unfurled a great
three-headed red dragon banner breathing fire on a black field. The lords gathered now truly knew Aegon was
one of them and a worthy High King. Queen Visenya then placed a Valyrian steel
crown on his head, while Queen Rhaenys hailed him as ‘Aegon, First of His Name, King of
All Westeros and Shield of His People.’ While those in attendance hailed their new
ruler, the seven kings of Westeros were preparing for the war that was soon to come. Within days of the coronation, Aegon’s armies
marched once again in three directions. The Targaryen fleet left for Gulltown and
the Vale, accompanied by Visenya. The king thrust northwest towards Harrenhal,
while the majority of his forces commanded by Orys Baratheon, crossed the Blackwater
Rush accompanied by Rhaenys. Their vanguard was ambushed as they crossed
the Wendwater River and they lost a thousand men before Rhaenys burned their attackers’
forest hiding place to the ground. Meanwhile in the north, Aegon and Balerion
obliterated King Harren and his entire family by bypassing the walls of the fortress and
melting its stone towers. This, and the news that Rhaenys and Meraxes
accompanied the Targaryen forces invading the Stormlands worried Argilac, and he began
to gather his main force at Storm’s End. He wasn’t going to meet the same fate as
Harren and so he began his march north to meet the army of Orys. The airborne Rhaenys witnessed Argilac’s
departure and the composition of the enemy army, reporting the details back to the Hand
of the King. Realising the Storm King’s army outnumbered
his, he set up a strong defensive position on the hills south of Bronzegate and dug in,
awaiting the arrival of his enemy. As Argilac closed on the invading force in
the morning, a steady rain began to fall, which then became a howling gale and torrential
downpour, turning the ground into to a soft mud and also rendering Meraxes unable to fly. The battle of the Last Storm had begun. Argilac’s commanders urged the Storm King
to delay his attack until the next day in hopes that the rain would pass. But the Stormlander army outnumbered the army
of Orys 2 to 1, and had four times the amount of armoured knights and heavy horses. Angered by the dragon banners flapping on
his own hills, and noting that the rain and wind was blowing north into the invading armies
face, the King gave the command to attack. Argilac’s heavy knights galloped through
the rain across the mud-soaked battlefield and up the hill, crashing into the Targaryen
spearmen at the summit. However, the uphill charge in addition to
the sticky mud bogged down the knights’ warhorses, and the charge lost its coordinated
momentum and cohesion. Giving the order for the knights to pull back
to the bottom of the hill, The Storm King led his knights twice more in charges up the
hill, attempting to break through the enemy centre, but the assaults became less effective
with each attempt as the ground was ploughed up by the previous charges. Finally, the battered and broken knight formations
were called back to regroup, the Targaryen pikemen only having suffered light casualties. Instead, the King’s army sent its spear
bearing infantry up the hill to attack the enemy flank and, with the invaders blinded
by the heavy rainfall, they did not see Argilac’s men until it was too late. Orys’ archers attempted to shower them with
a rain of arrows, but the weather had made their bows useless. The hills anchoring the Targaryen left and
right flank fell to the enemy and reserves from the centre had to be sent to bolster
the line. Then, Argilac led his knights in a final charge
up the hill, which broke the enemy centre. But they now crashed against Rhaenys and Meraxes,
and the dragon queen proceeded to slaughter the knights of the King’s personal vanguard
and one of his commanders with dragonflame. The other warhorses, frightened by the roaring
dragon’s fire panicked and fled in terror, crashing into the riders behind them and turning
the charge into chaos. King Argilac himself was thrown from his saddle
but continued to battle on the hill. The Targaryen forces now gained the upper
hand and Orys Baratheon charged down the hill towards Argilac, who had slain many soldiers
by himself. The invading commander offered a final chance
to yield, which was refused. The two now fought, and each wounded their
opponent once. After a fierce duel, Argilac was killed and
his army routed. With the army of the Stormlands destroyed,
Orys Baratheon’s host marched on Storm’s End, which was surrendered by the garrison
along with the late King’s wife, whom Orys then married, forming House Baratheon. Meanwhile to the West, hearing of Argilac’s
defeat the King of the Rock Lore I Lannister and king of the Reach Mern IX Gardener had
combined their forces at Castle Goldengrove creating the mightiest host the Kingdoms had
ever seen. The two kings quickly marched northeast through
the fields and crops of mid-Westeros. Advised of their march at his camp near the
God’s Eye, Aegon was able to move south much quicker than his foes, as he had a smaller
force. When they arrived at the Stoney Sept his queens
with their dragons joined him. The two armies came together on the wide-open
plains south of the Blackwater Rush, which were covered in dry grass and wheat as far
as the eye could see. The sun shone down severely on the unshielded
plains and seared the land, as there had been no rain for more than a fortnight. Wind also blew strongly across the flat land. The allied Lannister-Gardener army sent scouts
to perform reconnaissance against the invaders and they returned with the good news; Aegon’s
host was small and theirs was massive. 32,500 soldiers from the Reach took to the
field that day, including several hundred vassal lords of House Gardener and several
thousand mounted knights. 22,500 Lannister levies also accompanied them,
again with several hundred Lords of the Westerlands and several thousand mounted knights. As King Mern had brought more men to the field
than King Loren, he demanded the honour of commanding the center for his House. His son Edmund and himself commanded this
armoured wedge of knights, while Lork Oakheart led the left and the King of the Rock commanded
the right flank. In total, this army consisted of around 55,000
troops. Opposite them, Aegon formed up his own army
in a crescent facing towards the enemy line. His front ranks consisted of spears and pikeman
with archers and crossbowmen behind them, while light cavalry manned both flanks. Most of the soldiers under Aegon’s banner
were untested and consisted of the levies of the recently allied Riverlords, whose loyalty
to the Targaryen cause was far from certain. Outnumbered 5 to 1, the Targaryen host probably
numbered around 11,000 soldiers and was commanded by Jon Mooton, Lord of Maidenpool; while the
Targaryen royals circled overhead on their three dragons. The two kings sounded their trumpets and began
marching forward under a sea of banners. King Mern led the heavy cavalry charge against
the enemy center on his golden stallion. While the Targaryen archers and crossbowmen
dealt some damage to the charging knights, it was not enough. The first line of spearmen was swept aside
and a bloody battle began. The conflict seemed like it would be a massacre
in favour of the allied army, but then a great roar was heard, and the three dragons began
to descend from the skies. Rhaenys set fires in front of the enemy army,
the wind blowing the produced acrid smoke towards and blinding them and their mounts,
who also began to panic. Visenya on Vhagar used their dragon flame
to cut off any possible withdrawal, while Aegon flew over the massive host and continuously
bathed it in flame. The remainder of the Targaryen ground force
who were safely upwind of the conflagration, waited with bow and spear, ready to make short
work of the burned and burning men periodically emerging from the inferno. By the end of the day, over 4.000 allied soldiers
perished in the dragonfire and over 20,000 suffered burns, while another 1,000 died by
conventional weaponry. The Targaryen force suffered less than 100
dead. King Mern and his entire family perished in
the inferno, while the King of the Rock promptly bent the knee to Aegon. The victor marched to secure Highgarden and
eventually installed the House Tyrell, as the new Lords of the Reach. A few months later, both king Torrhen Stark
and Sharra Arryn pledged their loyalty. Although Dorne continued to resist for over
a century, the Targaryens ascended to the Iron Throne of Westeros. After bringing six out of the seven kingdoms
of Westeros under his rule, King Aegon I Targaryen enjoyed a four-decade long reign over the
massive realm which he and his sister-wives had won by the right of dragonfire. The seminal conqueror's regime was a relatively
prosperous one. Aegonfort, the wooden palisade built upon
the site of the Targaryens’ first landing, was torn down, and replaced with a structure
more befitting of a King, the Red Keep. Over time, a vibrant and prosperous city grew
around this seat of royal power, known fittingly as King’s Landing. Targaryen rule was now more or less uncontested
from Oldtown to Castle Black. However, while large swaths of Westeros prospered
peacefully under their rule, the reign of the House of the Dragon would remain defined
by its house words: fire and blood. In 4AC, Aegon continued where he had left
off, seeking to bring Dorne, the last independent kingdom of Westeros under his rule. However, where the great lords of the other
six Kingdoms had marched to meet the conquerors’ Dragons on the open field and been drowned
in hellfire as a result, the children of the Rhoynar refused to engage the winged weapons
of mass destruction on the Targaryens’ terms. Hiding amidst arid hills and desert sands,
the Dornish fought like snakes in the grass, stubbornly refusing to submit, even as their
cities, towns, and castles were burned from on high. Then, remarkably, in 10AC, a Dornish scorpion
ballista managed to pierce the eye of Meraxes, sending the massive she-dragon and her rider,
sister-Queen Rhaenys Targaryen, plunging to their deaths. It was the first time a dragon had been killed
in battle on Westerosi shores. Four years later, a defeated Aegon withdrew
his troops from Dorne- leaving the conquest of that stubborn kingdom as a task for his
descendants. Aegon the Conqueror died in 37 AC, succeeded
by his eldest son, Aenys I Targaryen. Immediately, the young King faced no less
than five rebellions, the worst of which being perpetrated by the militant branches of the
Faith of the Seven, who considered the Targaryen’s habit of marrying brother to sister an intolerable
sin. These rebellions were eventually crushed,
although at the cost of the lives of King Aenys and his heir. In 48AC, the throne passed to King Jaehaerys
I Targaryen, who ruled for a marathon 55 years, during which time he made peace with the Church,
and more or less stabilized the Targaryens’ hold over all Westeros sans Dorne. However, as is the nature of the world of
Ice and Fire, stability never lasts long, and soon, the mighty house Targaryen would
find itself embroiled in a savage interdynastic war of succession which would ultimately begin
the long decline of their regime: The Dance of the Dragons. At the centennial of Targaryen rule, the Iron
Throne was occupied by one Viserys I Targaryen, whose wife, the queen Aemma Arryn, had borne
him no living sons. Despite this, King Viserys had one adult daughter,
Princess Rhaenyra, who he named his heir in 105AC. For her part, Rhaenyra was a clever and capable
stateswoman who quickly embraced her role, and began gathering support of many of the
landed lords in her fathers’ royal court. However, upon the death of Queen Arryn, King
Viserys remarried- this time to one Alicent Hightower, with whom he had a son: Aegon. This created a quandary among the feudal lords
of Westeros. Among the Andals and the First Men, the law
of male primogeniture predominated, by which a lord’s eldest son was always the legal
inheritor of his fathers’ lands. By that token, there arose an issue. According to Westerosi succession laws, Aegon,
son of King Viserys by queen Alicent, should be the rightful heir to the throne. However, despite it running against the custom
of male primogeniture, the King had already named his eldest child, the female princess
Rhaenyra, to be his successor. Over time, two factions began coalescing within
the royal court, one made up of noble notables who supported Prince Aegons’ claim to the
throne, and one made up of other nobles who supported Princess Rhaenyra. King Viserys, a pleasant, humble and amiable
man, was unable, or simply unwilling, to deal with the deadly fissures forming within the
Red Keep. In 111 AC, during a great tourney held in
King’s Landing, these factions were given names: as Aegon’s mother Queen Alicent wore
a gown of green to the affair, while Princess Rhaenyra wore black. Thus, supporters of Aegon became known as
the Greens, and supporters of Rhaenyra, the blacks. On the third day of the third moon of 129AC,
a servant entered the royal chambers in the Red Keep, only to find that King Viserys,
ancient and feeble, had died in his sleep. The humble chamberlain rushed to inform Queen
Alicent of her husband’s passing. Should the late King’s wishes have been
honoured, then Alicent should have sent a raven to Dragonstone Keep, the seat of Princess
Rhaenyra, and informed her to come to Kings’ Landing to take the Iron Throne as the King’s
chosen heir. However, the Queen had other plans. Throwing the servant into the black cells
to ensure word of Viserys’ death would not spread to the public, she ordered a secret
meeting of the small council with the aim of persuading them to recognize her son, Aegon,
as ruler in Rhaenyra’s stead. The council was deeply torn: on one hand,
Viserys had made his court swear fealty to Princess Rhaenyra as his heir twenty years
ago, but on the other, Princess Aegon was male, and by law of primogeniture, males come
before females. Eventually, Ser Criston Cole, lord commander
of the Kingsguard, made a very convincing argument on Prince Aegons’ behalf when he
slit the throat of Lord Lyman Beesbury, master of coin, and Rhaenyra’s staunchest supporter
within the council. None were more surprised by the small council’s
decision to crown Prince Aegon than Aegon himself, who at first was reluctant to take
the crown, knowing it would be going against his late father’s wishes. This humility was smacked out of him by his
mother, who, probably correctly, convinced him that Rhaenyra was not wont to reward such
loyalty, and was more likely to simply slit the young Princes’ throat to remove him
as a threat. Thus, seven days after the death of King Viserys,
King Aegon Targaryen, second of his name, ascended unto the Iron Throne of Westeros. Days later, word of this reached Princess
Rhaenyra in Dragonstone. Presently pregnant with her fourth child,
the shock of her siblings’ betrayal induced her to miscarry the baby. This tragedy, however, was not enough to deter
Rhaenyra from claiming her inheritance. At Dragonstone, she gathered her loyal supporters
and formed a new government, the Black Council. Thus, war was on. A war that would leave Westeros bathed in
fire and ruin, as a brother and sister shed the blood of thousands over a dynastic spat,
which in turn would see the power and prestige of the house Targaryen take a fatal blow by
which it would never recover. Indeed, before the imminent Dance of the Dragons,
the House Targaryen had eighteen Dragons to command. By the war's end, all but two would have been
slain. While lords and notables from across Westeros’
many noble houses would inevitably involve themselves in the war between King Aegon and
Princess Rhaenyra, the Dance of the Dragons was, at heart, an inter-dynastic dispute. Thus, with both sides of the conflict led
by various peoples named “Targaryen”, it is necessary to break down which Targaryens
served on which side to belay the inevitable confusion. Among the chief supporters of King Aegons’
faction, ergo the ‘Greens’, was the young King’s younger brother, Aemond Targaryen. Rider of the dragon Vhagar, Aemond was possessed
of a legendary temper. Having lost an eye in a grudge match with
his cousin at the tender age of ten, he encrusted a sapphire into the empty socket where the
eye had once been. King Aegon also had a second younger brother,
Daeron, who was gentler and more charming than Aemond, but a dragon-rider and a capable
warrior all the same. On the other side, Princess Rhaenyra’s Black
Council included her three eldest sons: Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey Targaryen, each one a
dragon rider. Present also was the 55-year-old Lady Rhaenys
Targaryen, sister of the late King Viserys, rider of the massive wyrm Meleys, and husband
[wife] to corlys Velaryon, owner of the largest fleet in the realm. Finally, chief among Rhaenyra’s supporters
was her uncle and husband, Prince Daemon Targaryen, rider of the mighty dragon Caraxes, and widely
considered to be the most dangerous man in Westeros. At the onset of the war, King Aegon had the
loyalty of the majority of Westeros’ great lords, and in comparison, Rhaenyra’s support
across the realm was very limited. However, the Black Princess had one major
advantage: while Aegons’ faction only had four dragons, hers had eleven, albeit only
six presently had riders. This gave Rhaenyra a potent advantage in firepower,
but this alone would not carry her to victory, for while Dragons can burn down a city, it
took armies to conquer and hold it. To that end, Queen Rhaenyra opted to use diplomacy,
sending out two of her sons to parlay with the great feudal lords of Westeros to earn
their support. In the Eyrie, White Harbour, and Winterfell,
Prince Jacaerys found success, as the Arryns of the Vale pledged their loyalty to Rhaenyra,
as did the Starks of Winterfell and their prosperous Manderly allies. However, when the Black Princess’ middle
child, Lucerys, arrived upon the lands of the Baratheons atop his dragon Arrax, he did
not find himself so lucky. When granted an audience in storm’s end,
he found the Lord Borros Baratheon flanked by none other than Aemond Targaryen standing
stoically at the Stormlord’s side. The Baratheons had already declared for King
Aegon, and Lucerys was told to leave. His diplomatic mission a failure, the young
princeling mounted himself atop Arrax and began the flight back to Dragonstone. He would never make it. As a storm raged over Shipbreaker bay, another
pair of bronze wings cut through the din. Aemond, riding atop his massive wyrm Vhagar,
had descended upon his prey. What followed was more a murder than a fight-
for Vhagar was a much bigger dragon than Arrax, and Aemond a much-skilled rider than Lucerys. Three days later, the scaled body of Arrax
and his young rider washed up on the beach outside Storm’s end. Upon hearing of her son’s death, Princess
Rhaenyra collapsed into a spiral of grief, and her will to continue the fight was broken. Until, that is, two pieces of news arrived
from her husband, Prince Daemon. Firstly, the castellan of Harrenhal, no doubt
remembering how dragonfire had roasted King Harren in that very same castle 130 years
earlier, bloodlessly surrendered the keep to the Blacks after Prince Daemon landed atop
its battlements atop his hulking dragon Caraxes. This put the most important castle, and by
extension most of the Riverlands, under Rhaenyra’s control. Secondly, word had also reached Daemon of
Lucerys’ death, and he promised that he would avenge the boy. To that end, Daemon reached out to two old
contacts of his in Kings’ Landing, a former serjeant in the city-watched known by the
alias of “Blood”, and a rat-catcher who worked in the Red Keep, known by the alias
of “Cheese.” These two humble lowborn lowlifes would be
the Black Council’s instrument of vengeance. As long-time servants of the royal family,
both Blood and Cheese knew every nook and cranny of the Red Keep, and thus, were able
to sneak into the royal bedchambers undetected. One night, as Helaena, sister-queen of King
Aegon, was tucking her children into bed, the two assassins burst into her chambers
and barred the door behind her. They put her sons- Maelor and Jaehaerys, under
knife point, and told her that in order to avenge Lucerys’ death, a life was owed,
and the Queen had to choose which of her two sons was to be killed. Pleading for the two thugs to kill her instead,
to no avail, the Queen eventually cried out that Maelor, the younger of her boys, was
to be struck down- perhaps because Jaehaerys was King Aegon’s eldest son and heir. Upon hearing this command, Blood slit Jaehaerys’
throat instead. The two assassins then fled, leaving a delirious
Queen Heleana lying with Maelor, who would live the rest of his life knowing his mother
had chosen him to die. An eye for an eye, a son for a son. After the deaths of Lucerys and Jaehaerys,
both the Greens and the Blacks had committed egregious acts of kinslaying, and as a result,
both Princess Rhaenyra and King Aegon were consumed by grief, rage, and a bitter desire
to see the other, and all their supporters, brutally exterminated. No longer was the Dance of the Dragons a petty
dynastic dispute which could be resolved with some clever politicking. Now, it was a fight to the death. Knowing that total war was on the horizon,
Ser Otto Hightower, Hand of the King, intensified his desperate attempts to secure the oaths
of the realms’ most powerful Lords. But the lords of the North and the Vale were
firmly behind Rhaenyra, while the Greyjoys of the Iron Islands and the Martells of Dorne
both snubbed the royal councils’ advances. Even in the Reach, where support for King
Aegon was supposed to be the strongest, dozens of minor houses had declared for the Black
Council, throwing the region into chaos. In the riverlands, the Rhaenyra aligned House
Blackwood broke the power of Aegon aligned House Bracken in a pair of actions at the
Battle of the Burning Hill and the Taking of Stone Hedge. With his pool of potential allies on the continent
rapidly thinning out, Ser Otto Hightower began enticing the Kingdom of the Three Daughters,
a triarchy of the city-states of Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh, over to King Aegons’ side with
promises of trade concessions. However, the neo-Valyrian cities dragged their
feet on their response, and, growing frustrated with his grandfathers’ constant diplomatic
shortcomings, King Aegon dismissed Ser Otto as Hand of the King, replacing him instead
with the younger, more efficient, and more ruthless Ser Criston Cole. Ser Criston’s counsel for King Aegon was
simple: trying to secure the loyalty of Westeros’ lords through diplomacy and the olive branch
had clearly failed, so it was time to get through to them by way of the Targaryens’
house words: Fire and Blood. Setting forth from Kings’ landing with dragons,
an army, and his new hand at his side, Aegon began doing just that, subjecting the pro-Black
harbour town of Duskendale to a brutal sack. The Royal campaign next proceeded to Rook’s
Rest, whose ruling house, the Stauntons, had also pledged loyalty to Rhaenyra. When Ser Criston arrived with the King’s
forces, he found Rook’s Rest barred, and since Aegon and his Dragon were ostensibly
not with him at the time, the ruthless Hand of the King resorted to pillaging his way
throughout the hinterlands of Staunton territory. In desperation, Lord Staunton had a raven
sent to Dragonstone, beseeching his liege, Queen Rhaenyra, to send out her Dragonriders
to save his fief. The Queen acquiesced, and sent her aunt Rhaenys,
riding atop the great drake Meleys. As it turned out, Ser Criston’s real goal
all along had been to draw out one of the Black Council’s Dragons. No sooner had Rhaenys and Meleys taken to
the field, than they were swept down upon by not one, but two Dragonriders: Prince Aemond,
atop Vhagar, and the King himself, atop Sunfyre. A thousand feet in the air, the three giant
beasts fought viciously, ducking and weaving amidst columns of searing dragonflame. While the Black Queen’s aunt and her dragon
were slain, King Aegon was severely burnt in the struggle, and Sunfyre mortally wounded. The King would essentially be in a coma for
the following year, and his dragon’s combat utility was crippled. Consequently, Prince Aemond took his place
as the functioning head of the Greens. Upon hearing of his wife Rhaenys’ death,
Lord Corlys Velaryon threatened to abandon Rhaenyra’s cause, and had to be mollified
by Prince Jacaerys, who made him Hand of the Queen. After settling that matter of state, Prince
Jacaerys turned his attention onto the Blacks’ unmanned dragons. After the deaths of Lucerys and Rhaenys, the
Blacks had nine dragons left, but only three had riders. Wanting to attack the capital with as many
Dragonriders as possible, Jacaerys looked far and wide for bastards of Targaryen lineage,
whose illegitimate status had condemned them to life as lowborns, but whose blood may allow
them to tame the presently masterless dragons. Many glory-seekers from across the Seven Kingdoms
answered Jacaerys’ call. Most ended up as a giant lizard’s aperitif,
but after many deaths, new riders emerged: The dragon Vermithor was claimed by Hugh Hammer,
the son of a blacksmith, Silverwing by a humble man-at-arms named Ulf White, Seasmoke by the
fifteen-year-old Addam of Hull, and Sheepstealer by girl named Nettles, the daughter of a dockside
whore. While Jacaerys was arming peasants with giant
sentient napalm machines, Queen Rhaenyra had taken to the safety of her remaining children
in mind. Given all the brutal kinslaying going on lately,
she had had her two youngest sons, Viserys, aged eight, and Aegon the Younger, aged ten,
on a ship to Pentos, where she hoped they could wait out the rest of the war in safety. This would not play out as she had hoped. While crossing the narrow sea, the ship carrying
the two young princes happened upon ninety warships of the combined navies of Lys, Myr
and Tyrosh- who as it turned out, had decided to ally with the Greens after all. Naturally, the Essosi ships attempted to capture
the boys. Frantically mounting his young dragon Stormcloud,
Young Aegon was able to fly back to Dragonstone- although his Dragon was mortally wounded by
Lysian Ballistae in the attempt, and would die soon after. Viserys, meanwhile, who possessed only a dragon
egg, was captured by the Lysian admiral, Sharako Lohar. Immediately spirited back to Essos, he would
spend the rest of the war in comfortable captivity. Enraged, Prince Jacaerys, flanked by his ascended
peasant dragonriders, mounted up and descended upon the Essosi fleet with a fury. They did not have to fly far, for Admiral
Sharako had already arrived upon the shores of Dragonstone, where he had subsequently
ambushed and done great damage to lord Corlys Velaryon’s fleet. Upon pillars of dragonflame, Jacaerys and
his dragonseeds eviscerated the navy of the Three Sisters, but- in what was becoming a
running theme, their victory would be a costly one. During the battle, Jaecerys flew too low,
and his Dragon was entrapped by grapnels and scorpion bolts, getting caught in the rigging
of a sinking ship and drowning. Jaeherys himself would perish amidst a hail
of Myrish crossbow bolts. Following what became known as the battle
of the Gullet, Queen Rhaenyra had eliminated King Aegon’s principal source of naval power,
but had lost her eldest son and heir, and yet another dragon, in the process. Although both sides were rapidly losing manpower,
leaders and morale, the war raged on unabated. At Honeywine, the main Green army in the reach,
led by Ormund Hightower was thrown into peril when it was pinsered between two black forces
led by Thaddeus Rowan and Tom Flowers. Surrounded and on the brink of annihilation,
the Lord Hightower’s salvation came in the form of the dragon Tessarion, commanded by
Prince Daeron, King Aegon’s genteel younger brother. The Green Council received news of this victory
boisterously, but the Reach was not their principal concern at the present. To King Aegonès councilors, the main Black
threat was the ever-deadly Prince Daemon, presently garrisoned with his dragon at Harrenhal. To that end, Prince Aemond and Ser Criston
launched a northwards campaign with ground-troops and dragons alike with the intent to recapture
Harrenhal, only to discover that, upon arrival, the massive citadel was abandoned, and Daemon
nowhere to be seen. The Green reclamation of the largest castle
in the riverlands turned the entirety of central Westeros into an active battleground. It was here the Lannisters, allied with the
Greens, joined the fray with a host of some 8,000 men, defeating the Black-aligned western
River lords at the Battles of the Red Fork and Acorn Hill. However, in these triumphs, the Lord Jason
Lannister was slain, as was his most capable commander, Adrian Tarbeck. This left the leadership of the Lannister
host in the hands of the elderly, infirm, and incapable Lord Humfrey Lefford, who would
ultimately lead his army to its doom. Upon reaching as far east as the God’s eye,
the Lannister host had found itself deeply overextended, and as a result, enemies had
begun moving in on all sides. To the north, the warlord Roderick Dustin
had crossed Moat Cailin with 2,000 of House Stark’s Winter Wolves, whereupon he had
crossed the Twins and been joined by 200 knights and 600 men at arms of Lord Forrest Frey,
and 300 crackshot archers from Raventree Hall. Meanwhile to the south, the riverlords defeated
by the late Jason Lannister had regrouped under the leadership of his killer- Ser Pate
of Longleaf. Finally, in the immediate west, yet more Blacks-supporting
River Lords, such as Garibald Grey, John Charlton, and Benjicot Blackwood, had mustered together
a coalition force. Overall, the Lannister force was being encroached
upon on three sides, and had a lake, the God’s eye, to their back. Realizing his perilous situation, Lord Humfrey
sent raven after raven to nearby Harrenhal, where Prince Aemond and his dragon still occupied
the castle, unaware of his ally’s predicament. However, these ravens were all shot down by
the expert marksmen of Raventree Hall. The next morning, the battle was joined, with
Lord Dustin’s Winter Wolves leading the charge into Lannister lines. Drawing up into a square phalanx with their
backs to the river, the Lannister bannermen held the line, even as the Freys and the Riverlords
joined the fray, forcing them to fight on all sides. Five times the allied Black coalition crashed
against Lannister spears, and five times they were repulsed. However, each time the Blacks attacked, the
Lannister phalanx was pushed closer and closer to the waters’ edge. Eventually, those in the back were pushed
into the lake and began drowning in their armour- a panic ensued, which evolved into
a general rout, leading to the entire Lannister army being slaughtered or drowned. The Battle by the Lakeshore was the bloodiest
single conflict in the Dance of the Dragons, with Maester records estimating anywhere between
2,000 to 10,000 casualties. With the entire Lannister army annihilated,
the ever opportunistic Iron Islanders took to their longboats, allying with Queen Rhaenyra
and beginning to mercilessly plunder the now undefended coastlines of the Westerlands. With many of the Greens’ principal allies
crippled, and Lord Aemond and Ser Criston’s main army overstretched in Harrenhal, the
capital of King’s Landing had been left largely undefended. Seeing a golden opportunity before her, Queen
Rhaenyra mounted atop Syrax, accompanied by her uncle-husband Daemon, riding atop Caraxes. While the two massive Dragons approached the
Red Keep from the landward side, Lord Corlys Velaryon sailed into the Gullet and blockaded
the city by sea. From inside the city, Queen-Mother Alicent
scrambled to organize a desperate defense, but with few troops and no dragon-riders at
her disposal, there was nothing she could do. Knowing she had no other recourse, Alicent
surrendered the city to Rhaenyra. In return for handing over King’s Landing
bloodlessly, the Queen-Mother was spared, as was her daughter-in-law, Queen Helaena,
but her father Otto Hightower, alongside many other lords, was not so lucky. The capital now secured, Queen Rhaenyra took
her seat upon the Iron Throne of Westeros. The loss of the capital sent Ser Criston and
Aemond reeling, and they decided to respond by spitting up. Ser Criston would head south to reinforce
Ormund Hightower in the reach. Aemond, meanwhile, would mount atop Vhagar
and proceed upon a spree of utter devastation, putting the Riverlands to the torch. hoping this carnage might draw out one of
the Blacks’ Dragonriders to face him. Proceeding south in Aemond’s wake, Ser Criston’s
armies witnessed nothing but a blackened, dead land. That is, until they reached Crossed Elms,
where they were ambushed by Lord Dustin’s Winter Wolves and the River Lords. In what would later become known as the ‘Butcher’s
Ball’, Ser Criston was slaughtered, alongside the rest of his army. This was the high point for Rhaenyra in the
war: she held the capital, and had crippled the Greens’ armies in battle after battle. Yet, these triumphs would be fickle things,
and the black Queens’ triumphs would soon turn to ashes in her mouth. Despite their many losses, one relatively
intact army of the Greens remained, that of Ormund Hightower. Despite the odds, Lord Hightower, accompanied
by Prince Daeron and his dragon Tessarion, had scored a string of victories against Blacks
supporters in the Reach, and was now advancing upon King’s Landing. En route, they found out that the townsfolk
of Bitterbridge had killed the King’s youngest son, Maelor Targaryen, who had passed through
there after being smuggled out of King’s landing following its fall. In a vengeful fury, Daeron subjected the town
to a brutal sack. To deal with Ormund and Daeron’s advance,
Rhaenyra deployed an army and two of the dragonseeds, Ulf the White and Hugh Hammer, to hold the
line at the town of Tumbleton. However, when Ormund and Daeron arrived upon
the town, it was clear their force greatly outnumbered the Blacks within the walls. Hedging their bets, the two former-peasants-turned-dragonriders
turncoated, and switched sides to help sack the town. In the ensuing battle, Ormund Hightower was
slain, but the Greens were victorious. Upon hearing of Ulf and Hugh’s betrayal,
Queen Rhaenyra began questioning the loyalty of the other two dragonseeds: Nettles and
Addam of Hull. She ordered them arrested, but due to the
covert aid of Corlys Velaryon, who had since adopted Addam as a member of his house, the
pair managed to escape with their dragons. As punishment for undermining her orders,
Rhaenyra had Corlys imprisoned. The Black Queen would suffer another set back
when King Aegon II finally made his reappearance, having been smuggled out of the King’s Landing
some time ago, he had since recovered from the wounds he’d suffered at Rooks’ Rest,
he landed on the barely garrisoned Dragonstone, where he was found by the still-wounded Sunfyre. Together, the reunited Dragon and Rider seized
Dragonstone, ironically making it so that both factions had gained the enemy’s capital,
but lost their own. While all this was happening, Daemon had returned
to Harrenhal, and Aemond was still ravaging the Riverlands. Eventually, the two agreed to a duel above
the Gods’ eye. There, the mightiest dragons and dragonriders
on either side of the war clashed, mano a mano. According to legend, this thunderous face-off
ended when Caraxes and Vhagar became locked in wing and claw and began plummeting down
towards the lake- but not before Daemon leapt from his dragon unto Aemond’s, and speared
his foe through the eye with the Valyrian sword Dark Sister. Both mighty dragons would die in this duel,
as would Aemond. Daemon too likely perished, although his body
was never found. Meanwhile, back in King’s Landing, Queen
Rhaenyra’s once-unshakable footing had begun to dissolve beneath her like so much sand. Queen Helaena, inconsolable after the traumatic
deaths of both her young sons, threw herself from Maegor’s holdfast, dying in the moat
below. Convinced that Rhaenrya had ordered Helaena
killed, and beginning to lose confidence that she could protect them from Prince Daeron’s
approaching army, the smallfolk of the city began to riot. The mob rapidly grew, fanning out feverishly
through the city streets, and devouring the force of Gold Cloaks sent to pacify it. The Black Queen was left without the manpower
to quell the rioting, for after learning they had imprisoned their lord Corlys, the Velaryon
fleet abandoned her, depriving her of half her army. All order and good sense evaporated, as amidst
the carnage, a crazed prophet known as “the Shepherd” began rallying the mob with sermons
against Dragons, claiming they were demon spawn of the heathen godless Valyria, and
the doom of men. Soon, he had corralled a massive group of
smallfolk and led them to the Dragonpit, the massive, cavernous building where the Targaryen’s
dragons were held. Stuck in their pens and unable to fly, the
Dragons were caught helpless, and although they incinerated many a peasant, they were
eventually swarmed upon and put down. Four wyrms: Shrykos, Morghul, Tyraxes, Dreamfyre,
perished that day, as did Queen Rhaenyra’s third son, Prince Joffrey, who was thrown
off the back of his mother’s dragon in his futile attempt to ride to the rescue of his
own dragon, Tyraxes. Subsequently, Syrax- the Black Queen’s bonded
mount, also died amidst a swarm of riders. Having lost many of her supporters, her son,
and her dragon, Rhaenyra was forced to flee King’s landing. Back in Tumbleton, the dragonseed Hugh had
since developed grandiose ambitions of seizing the throne for himself, but he would never
get the chance, for the city was ambushed by his fellow dragonseed, Addam, who hoped
that by killing the two betrayers, he could prove his loyalty to Queen Rhaenyra and have
the arrest order on him rescinded. This would not go as planned, for Addam would
die in the fighting, however, he would take both Hugh and Ulf, and their dragons, down
with him. Prince Daeron would also perish, making the
second battle of Tumbleton yet another Pyrrhic disaster where both sides lost valuable leaders
and dragons. Rhaenyra, meanwhile, had arrived back on Dragonstone,
only to find an unpleasant surprise waiting for her: King Aegon II and Sunfyre. Here, the Black Queen whose rebellion had
caused the deaths of so many thousands would meet her end, roasted to a crisp and devoured
by Sunfyre, who- ancient and tired, died of his long-standing wounds just days later. His archnemesis defeated, Aegon proceeded
to King’s Landing. The city was still in chaos, and the mob had
since crowned a random squire, Trystane Truefyre, to be their King on the grounds that he was
the late King Viserys’ bastard son. However, the forces of Lord Borros Baratheon
cleared the rabble out for King Aegon, allowing him to reclaim the Iron Throne. By all intents and purposes, Aegon II had
won, but just like Rhaenyra’s ostensible victory before him, his triumph would be bitter
and fleeting. Although Rhaenyra was dead, her loyalists
fought on, seeking to rescue her son, Aegon the Younger, who was presently under King
Aegon’s captivity, and install him as King to honour what in their eyes was the true
succession. At the battle of the Kingsroad, a Blacks-aligned
coalition of Stark and Tully forces crushed lord Borros Baratheon’s army, and advanced
upon King’s Landing. With Aegon lacking the manpower to face them,
the public mood began to turn against him. Some days later, King Aegon Targaryen, second
of his name, was found dead in his chambers, by way of tainted wine. To this day, no one has figured out who the
poisoner was. Thereafter, Queen Rhaenyra’s son, Aegon
the Younger, was crowned as King Aegon Targaryen, third of his name. With the son of the Black Queen now occupying
the Iron Throne, the Dance of the Dragons ended, ostensibly, with a victory for the
Blacks. However, what the Dance of the Dragons was
was a loss for the Targaryen dynasty, and its power and influence over the realm of
Westeros. The blood of old Valyria had been dangerously
thinned out as the true blooded sons and heirs of Targaryens in both the Black and Green
camps had been thinned out during the war. More consequentially, their dragons, the cornerstone
of Targaryen power, had all been annihilated. Out of a total pre-war population of 18, only
two remained. Indeed, what had begun as a petty dispute
of succession within a royal house with unchallenged dominance over the realm, would lead to a
pointless war which would sow the seeds of that houses’ eventual fall some 150 years
later during Robert’s Rebellion. That war, however, is still a ways off, and
although house Targaryen was absolutely weakened, it would continue to rule Westeros for many
decades to come. During this time, more wars and intrigue would
ensue, the next ones of any note being the subjugation of that one pesky Princedom which
thus far had eluded Targaryen rule for nearly 200 years, and another civil war that would
follow in its wake: the Blackfyre Rebellion. Aegon I’s conquest of Westeros stalled during
the attempted invasion of Dorne, and his sister-wife Rhaenys, as well as her dragon Meraxes, perished
in the fighting. For a century and a half after the conquest,
Dorne continued to resist invasions and incursions. In 158 Daeron I conquered Dorne, but their
guerilla tactics and deception lead to his death in 161 after he was invited to faux
peace negotiations. After the death of the Young king, his brother
Baelor I became King and made peace with Dorne, which had now regained its independence. Upon his return to the capital at King’s
Landing, Baelor imprisoned his three sisters in the newly built Maidenvault of the Red
Keep. One of them, Daena, continuously escaped from
captivity and eventually became pregnant, giving birth to a son, Daemon Waters, in 170
AC. The incredibly pious Baelor I fasted for 40
days and nights after discovering this, and perished as a consequence. In 171 he was succeeded by his uncle Viserys
II. This competent monarch had three children:
a frail and pious daughter Naerys, the noble dragonknight Aemon, and the handsome but irresponsible
Aegon. After a year of rule King Viserys II died,
supposedly of natural causes, but rumours persist that he was poisoned by his son Aegon,
who succeeded as Aegon IV in 172. He immediately began to rule in an arbitrary
and careless fashion, filling his court with opportunists, sycophants and women who would
allow the King to satisfy his lusts with them. He would appropriate land from one noble house,
only to grant it to another family which had earned his favour on a whim. This caused immense dissatisfaction among
the nobility of Westeros. The most damaging impact on the realm would
become obvious in 182. The bastard Daemon Waters was an incredibly
competent warrior, and supposedly looked the spitting image of Aegon I. At twelve years old he was knighted by Aegon
IV, becoming the youngest knight in Westerosi history. Then, in an act that surprised everyone, he
granted the ancestral Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre to Daemon, revealing him to be HIS
bastard son. After this, Aegon’s 29-year-old trueborn
son Daeron began to actively oppose his father’s rule, and a core of similarly minded nobles
began to form around him. This opposition caused a quarrel between the
Prince and his father, and the king purposefully questioned the legitimacy of his son. In 184, when Aegon lay on his deathbed, he
legitimised his many bastard sons, including the popular Daemon Waters, who then took the
name Blackfyre. After he did this, Aegon IV died and was succeeded
by Daeron II. The crown-prince received news of his father’s
death in Dragonstone and within a fortnight, was crowned by the High Septon in the Red
Keep. In order to proclaim his legitimacy, the new
King also wore his father’s crown. Daeron immediately set to work undoing the
worst of his father’s excesses, removing the inept and corrupt members of the late
King’s Small Council and replacing them with wise and capable men. He also attempted to address the rot within
the City Watch, which Aegon IV had let fall into disrepute and decay. Despite his father’s appalling treatment
of him, Daeron would not undo Aegon’s last wishes and de-legitimise his bastard half-brothers. Instead, he attempted to stabilise the realm
by treating them honourably, allowing them to get the incomes from their lands. The principal Great Bastard Daemon Blackfyre,
was wed to Rohanne of Tyrosh as Aegon had wished. On their wedding day, Daeron granted Daemon
a tract of land near the Blackwater and the permission to raise a castle of his own. It is possible that the King did these things
because he was kind and just, however others say that he did them to assert his rule and
legitimacy. Whatever the motivation, these efforts eventually
proved to be in vain. Another key aspect of Daeron’s reign was
the final unification of the Seven Kingdoms. After two years of negotiation with Dorne,
an agreement was reached: Daeron’s sister Daenerys was to be joined in marriage with
Prince Maron Martell, while Daeron would marry Maron’s sister Mariah. The princes of Dorne maintained many privileges
and rights, as well as maintaining their own laws and tax collection. In 187 Prince Maron knelt and swore his oaths
to the Iron Throne. Many Westerosi nobles were now dissatisfied,
as it was widely believed that Dorn had gained too many concessions and privileges, and that
Dornish nobles had too much influence at court, encouraged by queen Mariah. Knights and lords, who had been used to intermittent
warfare with Dorne, still held their old animosities, and began to distrust the peacemaking king. In addition, there were still questions raised
about Daeron’s legitimacy, due to the rumours spread by his late father. All of these factors played a part in sowing
the seeds of rebellion, and these would grow over the following decade. Many of the dissatisfied lords and knights
of the realm would seek out the exemplary Daemon Blackfyre. Two of these nobles – another bastard of
Aegor IV, Aegor ‘Bittersteel’ Rivers, and Ser Quentyn ‘Fireball’ Ball - played
a key role in convincing Daemon that he was the rightful heir, and the latter gradually
became convinced that he should claim the throne. The young Blackfyre himself had ample reason
to be dissatisfied. The status of a bastard began to anger him,
and there were rumours that the marriage of Daenerys, whom he loved, caused him to loathe
King Daeron. In the early weeks of 196, Daeron received
word that his half-brother intended to declare himself king within a month. It is not known how this knowledge reached
him, but it is likely that another of the Great Bastards, Brynden Rivers, alerted him. As soon as the king was informed of Daemon’s
intentions, he dispatched his elite guard, the Kingsguard, to arrest the would-be usurper
before his plans could progress any further. However, Daemon was forewarned by Ser Quentyn
Ball. With his help, the claimant to the throne
escaped the capital. Those who supported Blackfyre’s claim used
this attempted arrest as the catalyst for war, claiming that the King had acted against
his brother out of nothing more than baseless fear. It was this final event that ignited the First
Blackfyre rebellion in 196; Daemon raised the reversed Targaryen banner, showing a black
dragon on a red field. The rebels then declared for Daemon Blackfyre,
first of his name, proclaiming him the true eldest son of Aegon IV. Half the realm declared for the rebels and
half remained loyal to the king, with a patchwork of Houses remaining neutral. Meanwhile Lord Bracken, who supported Daemon,
had travelled across the narrow sea in order to hire Myrish crossbowmen and other mercenaries. Fighting broke out across the Seven Kingdoms
almost immediately, except for in the North, which was ambivalent to the internal squabbling
of the south. In the West, Ser Quentyn Ball commanded an
army attacking the Westerlands and managed to win two battles in that region, killing
Lord Lefford at the gates of Lannisport and then defeating Lord Damon Lannister almost
immediately afterwards. After turning south, ‘Fireball’, as he
was commonly known, also defeated a loyalist force at the Mander River and killed almost
all of Lady Penrose’s sons. Further south in The Reach, the loyalist Leo
Tyrell fought against traitorous forces in that region and won many victories. Despite that, the Blackfyre forces kept Leo
occupied, and he was unable to march north in time for the final battle. In 196 after almost a year of open rebellion
across the Seven Kingdoms, the usurper Daemon gathered his forces and marched towards King’s
Landing. In response, Prince Maekar Targaryen organised
the nearby loyalist forces into a coherent force and went to confront the rebels, while
Prince Baelor travelled south in the hopes of rallying Stormlanders and Dornish forces
to assist. The two armies met on a plain near the capital,
with the high Weeping Ridge anchoring their flanks. The numbers of troops at the Battle of the
Redgrass Field are unknown, but it is widely believed the initial armies were in balance. Both forces had a vanguard of heavy knights
in the center with another smaller contingent of lighter cavalry on the wings and infantry
behind. Lord Donnel Arryn commanded the loyalist Van
with the Kingsguard Lord Commander Gwayne Corbray at his side. Meanwhile, Prince Maekar commanded the infantry
from behind his line. The loyalists also had the elite skirmishing
force of Brynden Rivers, the Raven’s Teeth, fighting for them. Meanwhile, the enemy force was under the command
of Daemon Blackfyre and his two sons at the point of his vanguard, with Aegor ‘Bittersteel’
Rivers on the right and Lord Costayne on the left. The usurper began the battle by charging with
his vanguard into the loyalist’s cavalry frontline. Daemon and his elite warriors were unstoppable,
cutting the opposing vanguard to pieces and scattering the remains to the rear. As this happened, a famous duel occured between
the usurper and Ser Gwayne Corbray, both fighting with Valyrian steel swords. The fight went on for many minutes before
Daemon managed to severely injure his opponent, leaving him blind and bleeding. Rather than breaking the loyalist line, he
then stopped in his tracks, ordering his men to take the honourable Ser Gwayne to the rear
so he could receive medical assistance. By this time, Brynden Rivers and his elite
company of archers had mounted the Weeping Ridge and stood ready to attack. Seeing the Blackfyre assault succeeding, he
ordered his longbowmen to rain arrows down around the reversed Targaryen banner. Daemon’s elder son Aegon perished first
under the hail of missiles, followed by Daemon himself. His younger son Aemon then took up Blackfyre,
but Brynden slew him as well. With their leaders and vanguard decimated
by the loyalist archers, the rebels gradually began to flee. However, Aegor Rivers, who had commanded the
right flank at the beginning of the battle, was able to rally the fleeing soldiers into
a counter charge at the royal forces, while he fought a duel with Brynden Rivers and took
one of his eyes. It appeared for a moment as if this might
break the royal forces, but then warhorns were heard from the rear. Prince Baelor had entered the battlefield
with a host of Dornish and Stormlanders and crashed into the rebels from behind. At the same time, Prince Maekar ordered his
army to charge the enemy front, which crushed them between his anvil and Baelor’s hammer. 10,000 men died on the Redgrass Field, a victory
which ended the First Blackfyre Rebellion and secured King Daeron’s rule. However, Aegor Rivers managed to flee the
battle and escaped to Essos, where he would form the Golden Company mercenary group. He also took with him the five surviving sons
and several daughters of the dead Blackfyre claimant. While the first rebellion had been quelled,
the Blackfyre Pretenders continued to plague the Seven Kingdoms until Maelys the Monstrous
died at the hands of Ser Barristan Selmy in 260 AC. The Blackfyre rebellions, along with the final
demise of the dragons weakened the Targaryen dynasty and made it vulnerable to those ambitious
enough to challenge them, but the real end of the Targaryen dynasty came with Aerys II,
whose reign started off well, but became worse with his progressing madness, leading to the
rebellion led by Robert Baratheon, supported by Jon Arryn and Eddard Stark. Events of this rebellion and their aftermath
are covered in our other series on the history of the world of Ice and Fire and you can find
the link to the video in the description. We are planning to cover the battles of many
other fantasy, sci-fi, and space opera universes, so make sure you have subscribed and pressed
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