Rhaenyra Targaryen is the Princess of Dragonstone and the heir apparent to the Iron Throne. She is the daughter of Queen Daenaerys I Targaryen and her uncle-husband, Rhaegar Velaryon.
History[]
Childhood[]
Daeron and then Rhaenyra were born in 178 AC the eldest children to Queen Daenaerys Targaryen and her uncle-husband, Rhaegar Velaryon. Split from birth, Rhaenyra did not have to share with Daeron the crib or their mother's attention. She soaked up the latter like a sponge, fast becoming the future queen's favorite, only to lord that fact over Daeron after Rhaegar returned the infant boy to his mother's care. As the twins grew into adolescents, she went on to boast of things he did not have, like her first dog, Balerion, or of things that were originally his, like his friends. Bayard Tyrell was one such friend, whom she kept closer than the rest.
As hard as Rhaenyra tried to throw slights Daeron's way, he received nearly all of them with grace. She presumed it was his confidence as the heir to the throne that kept him calm, which only drove her to terrorize him further. It was not until they were locked in the royal nursery together, with their father, their infant siblings, and the Shivers between them, that the elder twins reconciled. Daeron told her with his dying breath that, despite her unrelenting ire, he had always loved her. His death, followed closely by their father's, killed the girl inside her. It was all she could do to mimic Daeron's example and care for her siblings as the bodies in the room began to bloat.
The living Targaryens broke their quarantine in 193 AC. Rhaenyra emerged a hardened but broken woman, scarred by a harrowing couple weeks she would never forget. Everything her brother had, she gained, including Dragonstone. It was all she had ever wanted but at too high a cost. When Bayard attempted to console her, she froze him out, seeing him as just another one of Daeron's things that never ought to have been hers in the first place.
Young Adulthood[]
Eager to escape the site of her trauma, Rhaenyra traversed the realm in 194 AC on the first of many royal progresses to come. She made visit to Gulltown, Riverrun, Lannisport, Pyke, and Old Wyk. To her delight, her hosts succeeded at mollifying her. She was treated best in the Iron Islands, where she feasted every night during her stay. They even taught her how to swim. On the last day of her stay, Lord Regnar Drumm gifted her an Ironborn ship, which she named Prince Daeron Targaryen. She returned upon its planks to King's Landing in much higher spirits than when she had left.
Waiting for her in King's Landing was a bastard child by the name of Daemon Waters, who had been birthed upon her mother and sired by her cousin once-removed, Baelor Targaryen, the "Bastardmaker" as she would later dub him. Seeing a chance to repent for her childhood sins, she took Daemon into her care as their mother turned his back on him. Though Rhaenyra would never call him her son, she would raise him as her own.
With Daemon in tow, Rhaenyra controversially retreated to Dragonstone for a year. In secret, she wished to learn ancient, arcane arts, arts that would help her protect her loved ones from the Stranger, regardless of his form. After being threatened and intimidated by her, Maester Duncan taught her what he knew of potions from the citadel.
Bayard's true feelings for Rhaenyra became apparent to her in the final years of the second century. He went on to name her Queen of Love of Beauty not once, not twice, but three times in the span of five years. Still, she did not think it right by her late brother to reciprocate the young Rose's love. Instead, she chose a handsome, chivalrous knight by the name of Owen Costayne to be her husband. With him, she found a love so deep it filled the void in her heart, not to mention her womb. In 196 AC, the year of their marriage, she painstakingly produced a set of twins, Aegon and Aella. Another set, Visenya and Valarr, came in 197 AC. After her troubled deliveries, it was said Rhaenyra had nearly beaten a serving girl to death for having claimed the princess would die in labour. The childbearing sprint had indeed taken its toll on her. She was convinced to adopt a withdrawal policy with her husband, lest she withdraw from their bed altogether.
Rhaenyra and Owen were uncompromising with their children. Rearing them was a perpetual exercise in trial and error. With Aegon, the most docile of his siblings, they stressed the severity of his future obligations while pushing him to adopt his tutors' martial habits. He resisted doing either. To win him over to their set curriculum, she sometimes sang to him, but such tricks lost their potency as he matured. With Aella, every day was a battle and everything she disliked was an enemy. She broke septas as if they were made of straw, forcing Rhaenyra to have a personal, albeit harsh hand in her daughter's tutelage. Opposite to Aegon and Aella, Visenya internalized her parents' expectations, stressing often about meeting them even if she already had. Rhaenyra did nothing to discourage Visenya's perfectionism and even encouraged it at times. For this reason, and for seeing herself in her daughter, she considered Visenya her favorite. Valarr was very much his father's son and took to knightly pursuits like he was born for it. Conversely, he lacked his mother's wits despite her best efforts to instill them in him.
Of all the children in her care, Daemon Waters had it the easiest. She did not impose upon him the same diktats. Only later in life did she appreciate the merits of this approach.
The humdrum of child rearing did not distract Rhaenyra from her obligations as the Princess of Dragonstone. Between 202 and 207 AC, she and Owen went on seven progresses to consolidate her right to rule. Their first one was through the Riverlands, where they stayed with Lord Oswald Tully and enjoyed his overwhelming magnanimity. They had the opposite experience in the Westerlands, where they chaffed under Lann Lannister's abrasiveness. In 203 AC, they travelled the Dornish Marches and the Reach. In both of these places especially, assassins lurked in the shadows. Already, attempts had been made against her mother, prompting Rhaenyra to form the Wyverns, a group of armed ladies-in-waiting. In 205 AC, the royal couple attended Lord Matthos Arryn's 60th nameday tournament then progressed through the Vale and the North, where they inducted Cerenna Corbray and Lyra Dustin into the Wyverns. In 206 AC, the couple visited the Iron Islands, marking Rhaenyra's second, much more serious visit there. In addition to exploring every major island, she and Dagon had pointed conversations about Ironborn grievances. A second visit on the way back to King's Landing was also extended to Oswald due to his sheer generosity. When all was said and done in 207 AC, she, Owen, and their children took a two-moon reprieve in Oldtown to recuperate from their trials.
Adulthood[]
Daenaerys recalled Rhaenyra to King's Landing in preparation for the Conquest of Dorne. Owen, for his part, opted to join the fighting men when the war started in earnest. He survived its opening years, fought many battles in the hellish sands, but died on Sunspear's steps in 210 AC. His loss, the loss of her brother, Viserys, and the collapse of her mother's mental fortitude reopened the old void in her heart. It would have put her in a similar state were it not for the seventeen years she had spent hardening herself for such a moment. When she was delivered the news, she swallowed it bitterly and simply said "I understand." She gave the same answer to the Small Council when they asked her to assume the regency of the realm.
Far more than children, Rhaenyra had grown fond of breeding dogs, most of whom descended from Balerion. She wept among them on her hardest days without Owen. Syrax, Meleys, and Moondancer, the best trained of the group but also the most empathetic, grew to become her favorites.
Owen's passing pushed Rhaenyra closer to her children, who all reeled from it in their own ways. She made common cause with Aegon over his future, cowed Aella into a tenuous détente, guided Visenya through her mysterious dreams, and helped Valarr improve his letters. For each set of twins, she hosted extravagant feasts to mark their entry into young adulthood, first in King's Landing and then on Driftmark, her father's birthplace. In 214 AC, she sent each child on their own progress, so that like her, they might come to appreciate the gravity of their royal obligations.
The induction of Maitland Pyke, the first Ironborn to join the Queensguard, stood out as one of her queerer regal decisions. A clear statement to all that she favored the Iron Islands. She gave him the purple cloak and assigned him to her detail, keeping him close for the duration of her rule.
The single largest challenge of her regency was the Festival of Lannisport in 212 AC. The reasons for the sacking were not lost on Rhaenyra, who sympathized with the Ironborn's position. Still, Lann Lannister and his ilk cried for justice, as did Arthur Crane and the Small Council. She set aside Dagon's explanatory letter and demanded he hand over his ill-gotten gains along with the men responsible for the attack. She lamented that Regnar Drumm counted among them, and offered personal condolences to his son, Victarion, after the executions. But in the end, an all but certain war under her rule was averted. As a proven conciliator, the kingdom could no longer doubt her candidacy for the throne.
The remaining years of her regency saw Rhaenyra take on new ladies-in-waiting from across the realm. To deal with unruly lords, she relied on unsavory connections, on herself at times to skulk, or on forgeries written in her mother's hand. She went on a progress through the Westerlands, but ended it early after Lann levied a sensitive insult against her. For her entire rule, she wore mourning blacks.
215 AC[]
Like an old bear out of hibernation, Daenaerys emerged from her isolation a husk of her former self, yet still ready to rule. She offered little thanks to Rhaenyra for her efforts, which drove a fresh wedge between them. A royal progress was called, with Harrenhal as their first stop.
At Harrenhal, Rhaenyra sat on her fresh misgivings, put on a good face for most, and a sour face for some. All night, she drank. After catching wind of Daemon's newly consummated affair with Seraena Celtigar, Rhaenyra fell into a drunken rage. Plated to the nines with a small army behind her, she accepted Ser Davos Celtigar's invitation to parley on the shore of the God's Eye. Despite his extreme attempt at placating her for his wife's mistake and his subsequent attempt at making peace with her, she deliriously claimed to everyone present that he had tried to assassinate her. A small slaughter ensued. The night ended when Rhaenyra showed up at her mother's door, crazed and covered in blood.