Aegon I Targaryen

King **Aegon I Targaryen**, often called **Aegon the Conqueror**, was the first king to sit on the Iron Throne and the first king of the unified Seven Kingdoms of Westeros. He lived three hundred years before the events of *A Song of Ice and Fire*.

## Early life

Aegon Targaryen was born on the island of Dragonstone, an outpost of the Valyrian Freehold which his family had controlled since its settling a century before the Doom. Aegon took both his sisters, Visenya and Rhaenys to wife in the Valyrian tradition. During Aegon's rule of Dragonstone, it became known in the Free Cities that he controlled three dragons, Vhagar, Meraxes and Balerion the Black Dread, and the city of Volantis petitioned for his intervention in the Bleeding Years, the series of wars that ravaged the cities in the wake of Valyria's collapse.

Aegon considered his options carefully, but his instinct was to go west to Westeros and conquer lands there. He had a huge map of Westeros carved out of wood, the Painted Table, showing every bay, inlet and mountain, but no borders. His plan was to unite the continent under his rule.

## The Conquest

Aegon's assault on the mainland was ambitious but eventually successful. He deployed his limited assets carefully and was quick to make alliance with local forces wherever possible, such as his treaty with House Tully, which triggered an internal rebellion within the Riverlands against the ruling ironborn of House Hoare, resulting in their defeat and later surrender.

Aegon converted to the Faith of the Seven during or before the invasion, winning the support of the High Septon in Oldtown for his piety, even though he refused to renounce the Valyrian practices of incest and polygamy.

Aegon eventually conquered six of the kingdoms of the Westeros continent and established the Riverlands as a separate region. He failed to conquer Dorne, even using his dragons, and was eventually forced to respect their autonomy.

## Later life

Aegon founded the city of King's Landing and the fortress of the Red Keep at the site of his initial landing on Blackwater Bay. He had the Iron Throne forged out of the swords of those who surrendered to him. His later life was spent in peaceful rule and ordering of the realm before his death in 37 AL.

## Legacy

Although Aegon I appears to have been a successful ruler, it appears that there was a belief that upon his death the realm would splinter apart and a return to the old independent kingdoms would take place. When this did not happen, there was rebellion and war that took a generation to put down.

Aegon's principle legacy was ensuring that Westeros was considered to be a single land without borders or division, and it could be ruled through strength of arms, will and character, a belief that became so successfully engrained in the people that even when the dragons had all died out and the realm splintered by several more civil wars, the belief in the authority of the Iron Throne would remain strong.

## Character & Appearance

Aegon I Targaryen was clearly ambitious, driven and willing to take enormous risks with his forces. He seems to have been a skilled general, winning battles even when he did not deploy his dragons, and a canny and charasmatic negotiator, winning several houses, cities and even the Faith to his cause without the need for violence, despite mainland disapproval of his incestuous and bigamous marriages. He was a very reserved man, with only his sister-wives and his Hand Orys Baratheon truly having his trust. Aegon I was clearly a strong unifying force that his sons were not, as they had to contend with a significant rebellion following his death, and Maegor in particular faced endless rebellions throughout his reign. Aegon I had a reputation as a formidable warrior.

Aegon was the prototypical Targaryen, being tall, broad-shouldered and powerful in appearance with purple eyes and silver-gold hair. He was charismatic, brilliant and commanding. He cut his hair short, not letting it grow past his ears. During the Conquest he typically wore a shirt of black scales into battle and wielded the Valyrian steel blade Blackfyre in combat. His crown was a simple circlet of Valyrian steel, emblazoned with large, square-cut rubies. The one man known to exceed his height is his son by Visenya, King Maegor Targaryen.

Aegon is better remembered for conquering the Seven Kingdoms than he is ruling it. As a warrior, he was essentially unmatched in his own right, and he was capable of being completely ruthless when pushed. His famous destruction of Harrenhal is one of the greatest and most terrifying triumphs in the history of House Targaryen, if not in Westerosi history: his parting words with Harren the Black were '*When the sun sets, your line shall end*' and he then obliterated House Hoare entirely, along with anyone else inside the castle, by flying Balerion over the castle and incinerating it, proving that a keep as strong as Harrenhal, contrary to Harren's boasting, was no match for *just one* of his dragons.

Aegon was pitiless to his worst enemies, but a reasonable man who accepted the fealty of Torrhen Stark without coming to combat, but proved himself to still be a fierce commander by utilising *all three* of his dragons on the Field of Fire. After cementing his reign, he proved himself to be vengeful by wreaking havoc in Dorne after the death of his sister Rhaenys in dorne - it was reported that Rhaenys was the wife he married out of love, whereas he married Visenya out of duty. Aegon would eventually make terms with Dorne.