Corlys Velaryon

Art by Eve Venture, from the Unseen Westeros exhibition.

Master of Driftmark

Rhaenyra I Targaryen

Otto Hightower (Hand of the King)

Hand of the King

Addam Velaryon (rumored son)

Alyn Velaryon (rumored son)

**Corlys Velaryon**, known as the Sea Snake, was a fabled Lord of the Tides, Master of Driftmark, and head of House Velaryon. He is the husband of Princess Rhaenys Targaryen. During the Dance of the Dragons, he became Hand to Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen.

## Character

By the of age seven-and-thirty, Corlys was hailed as the greatest seafarer the Seven Kingdoms had ever known. Corlys was said to be as brilliant as he was restless, and as adventurous as he was ambitious. Though he accomplished much and more in life, he was seldom satisfied. Corlys was known to be intractable, even in old age. He was remembered as wise in peace and valiant in war. He was a proud man. Queen Alicent Hightower thought him arrogant.

During his elder years, Corlys liked to say that he was clinging to life "like a drowning sailor clinging to the wreckage of a sunken ship".

## History

### Early life

Corlys was born in 53 AC at Driftmark to Corwyn Velaryon and his lady wife. Corwyn in turn was the eldest son of Lord Daemon Velaryon. He was named after his great-granduncle, Ser Corlys Velaryon, who served King Aegon I Targaryen as the first Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Corlys took to the sea at a young age, first crossing the narrow sea to Pentos with an uncle when he was only six. Corlys would make such voyages every year that followed, working on the ships as a member of the crew. According to the captains he served under, they had never seen such a natural sailor as Corlys. He became a captain himself at the age of sixteen, when he sailed the *Cod Queen* from Driftmark to Dragonstone and back. By the age of twenty-three, Corlys was already a celebrated mariner. Corlys sailed to Oldtown, Lannisport, Lordsport, Lys, Tyrosh, Pentos, and Myr. He sailed the *Summer Maid* to Volantis and the Summer Isles, and he took *Ice Wolf* to Braavos, Eastwatch-by-the-Sea, Hardhome, Lorath, and the Port of Ibben. He also took *Ice Wolf* beyond the Wall, but was unsuccessful in finding a northerly route in the Shivering Sea around Westeros.

Corlys was knighted at some point.

Corlys sailed aboard his *Sea Snake*, a ship he designed and built, on nine great voyages to Essos. During his first voyage, he sailed beyond the Jade Gates at Qarth to Yi Ti and Leng. Corlys returned with treasures like silk, spices, and jade, doubling the wealth of House Velaryon. His second voyage took him to Asshai, where he "lost his love and half his crew", according to the stories. At Asshai, Corlys also saw a ship docked in the harbor that he believed to have been the *Sun Chaser* of Elissa Farman. Corlys's third voyage led to him becoming the first Westerosi to navigate the Thousand Islands in the Shivering Sea and visit Nefer in N'ghai and Mossovy.

During his ninth voyage on *Sea Snake*, Corlys filled the ship's hold with gold and bought twenty more ships at Qarth, loading them with spices, elephants, and silk. Only fourteen ships reached Driftmark and all the elephants died, but Corlys became vastly wealthy from the venture. He took his nickname "Sea Snake" from his famous ship. Corlys's expeditions on the *Sea Snake* have been described by Maester Mathis in his book *The Nine Voyages*.

### Lord of the Tides

Ser Corlys became head of House Velaryon and Lord of the Tides after the death of his grandsire. Richer than Lords Lannister or Hightower through his expeditions, Lord Corlys used his great wealth to construct a new seat, High Tide, where he stored his eastern treasures. The towns of Hull and Spicetown sprang up and drew trade away from King's Landing.

In 90 AC, Corlys married the sixteen-year old Princess Rhaenys Targaryen, the only child of Prince Aemon Targaryen, who in turn was the eldest son of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen. Two years later, Corlys sailed his fleet to Tarth, to aid Prince Aemon in fighting the Myrish exiles who had invaded the island. Shortly before they left, Corlys's wife announced she was pregnant. During the campaign, Prince Aemon died, leading King Jaehaerys I Targaryen to appoint a new heir to the throne. He chose his second son Baelon over Aemon's only heir, Rhaenys, thereby also passing over Corlys and Rhaenys's unborn child. Furious over this decision, Corlys gave up his admiralty and his place on the king's small council and returned to Driftmark with his wife.

#### Great Council of 101 AC

In late 92 AC, Rhaenys gave birth to a daughter, Laena. A son, Laenor, followed in 94 AC. When Prince Baelon died in 101 AC, King Jaehaerys I's succession became unclear again, and reports reached the court that Corlys was gathering ships and men to defend the rights of his son. When the king declared a Great Council would be held at Harrenhal to settle the succession, Corlys and his wife traveled there, using their wealth and influence to try and persuade the lords present to vote for Laenor, after Rhaenys and Laena had been passed over once again on account of their sex. Corlys' fame, reputation, and wealth did much to support Laenor's claim, but in the end, Baelon's son Viserys received the majority of the votes, and was named Prince of Dragonstone.

## Court of Viserys I

Following the death of Queen Aemma Arryn, in 105 AC, Grand Maester Runciter suggested to King Viserys I Targaryen that he take Corlys's twelve-year-old daughter, Laena, to wife. King Viserys, however, chose Alicent Hightower. Angered by the third time his wife and children had been scorned by House Targaryen, Corlys and his family did not attend the wedding in 106 AC. Instead, he made an alliance with Prince Daemon Targaryen, King Viserys's younger brother, equally angered by the king's marriage. Corlys had suffered from the Triarchy's rule over the Stepstones, and together with Daemon was determined to conquer the Stepstones for themselves. The fighting began in 106 AC, with Daemon leading their army and Corlys leading their fleet. They won many victories in the first few years, and by 109 AC all but two of the islands and the waters in between were firmly under their control. When Daemon declared himself King of the Stepstones and the Narrow Sea, Corlys placed the crown upon his brow. No further involvement of Corlys in the conflicts have been reported after 109 AC.

In 113 AC, King Viserys I and his small council began discussions concerning a betrothal for Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, Viserys's heir. They eventually agreed on Corlys's son, Laenor. Laenor and Rhaenyra were married in 114 AC. When Rhaenyra gave birth late that same year, Corlys overruled his son's wish and insisted that the child would be given a traditional Velaryon name. The boy was named Jacaerys. Two more sons, Lucerys, in 115 AC, and Joffrey, in 117 AC, would follow.

By 115 AC, Corlys's daughter Laena had been betrothed for nearly a decade to the son of a former Sealord of Braavos. After the Sealord had died, the son had proven to be a wastrel and a fool, who lost all of his family's wealth and power, after which he turned up on Driftmark. Corlys lacked a graceful way to break the betrothal, but was unwilling to let the marriage occur, and had thus repeatedly postponed the wedding over the years. When Prince Daemon Targaryen arrived on Driftmark and asked for Laena's hand in marriage, Corlys thus agreed. Daemon mocked the late Sealord's son until the latter demanded a duel, in which he was slain by Daemon. A fortnight later, Corlys saw Laena and Daemon wed. Through this marriage, Corlys would have two more grandchildren: the twin girls Baela and Rhaena Targaryen, born in 116 AC.

In the first few days of 120 AC, Corlys's daughter Laena died several days after giving birth to her third child, who had died within an hour after birth. His son, Laenor, died not long after, stabbed to death by Ser Qarl Correy while attending a fair in Spicetown. That same year, Lord Lyonel Strong and his son, Ser Harwin, died during a fire at Harrenhal. While there are many stories concerning this fire, the court fool Mushroom claims Corlys had been involved in the fire, as revenge on Harwin cuckolding his son.

When Corlys fell ill with a sudden fever in 126 AC, the issue of the succession of Driftmark arose. As both of his children were dead, according to law Laenor's eldest son Jacaerys stood to inherit. However, Jacaerys, as the eldest son to the Princess of Dragonstone, already stood to inherit the Iron Throne after his mother, and as such, Corlys was being urged by Rhaenyra to name her second son by Laenor, Lucerys, as his heir. However, the eldest of Corlys's six nephews, Ser Vaemond Velaryon, insisted that he should be proclaimed heir, insisting that Rhaenyra's three sons by Laenor had in truth been fathered by the late Ser Harwin Strong. When Prince Daemon seized and executed Vaemond, Vaemond's wife, children, and siblings fled to King's Landing, where they were punished by King Viserys I for repeating the rumors regarding the paternity of Rhaenyra's eldest children. Corlys eventually recovered from his illness.