Helaena Targaryen

Princess Helaena

- Alysella Targaryen

- Valerion Targaryen

Teora Martell

Meredyth Tyrell

Helaena Targaryen is the eldest child and daughter of Prince Aemon Targaryen, the twin sister of Aegon Targaryen, and the cousin of King Viserys Targaryen.

## Appearance and Character

Tall and willowy, as characteristic of all Targaryens, Helaena is also well muscled from years of combat training. She has the typical silver-white hair and dusky violet eyes of a Valyrian descendant, with the sharp and beautiful features of the dragon people of old.

Helaena is physically active, almost constantly moving, as though she has suppressed energy that keeps her from staying still too long. She is very charismatic and has a commanding presence in any room, is determined and stubborn, and fiercely loyal in support of her friends and family. Helaena is highly competitive when it comes to sport, and easygoing when it comes to lesiure. She laughs often and loudly, and is generally tomboyish, whilst still retaining some of her feminine charm. She is not one for silks and dresses, and much prefers to spend her time in training yards, competing to prove her worth amongst the best in the realm. Her warrior ancestor, Visenya Targaryen, the wielder of the renowned Valyrian steel blade Dark Sister, now in Helaena's possession, is a role model that Helaena does her best to live up to. It is a sore point for her, that her twin brother Aegon is a Knight of the realm, and that she cannot be one due to her gender.

Helaena is very involved in life at court, and loves her family very much. She is a very vocal supporter of the Targaryen line and will always do what she must to protect them.

## Biography

### Early Life

Helaena was born in 76 AC to Aemon and Mereya Targaryen, only a matter of minutes before her twin brother Aegon. While her twin brother was a sickly child, Helaena was robust and healthy. The twins shared a nursery and wetnurse, and their bond has been very strong since infancy.

The twins grew up inseperable, with a highly competitive relationship and firm loyalty to each other. Helaena would compete to beat her brother at everything, and their playful rowdiness would echo the halls of the Red Keep. She was loud and excitable, fiery and willful, but never intentionally naughty. They were always at the thick of any activity with the other youths at Court - riding, archery, dancing, music, swordplay, and lessons with the maesters. Helaena was also forced to attend lessons on etiquette with the septas and did so with bad grace. Her brother Aegon eventually would become a page and squire for their father Prince Aemon, and after loud arguments and dismissal of Helaena being allowed to do the same, she was appointed to be her father's cupbearer. This she accepted readily, and took to her duties with determination.

As she aged and entered her early teens, Helaena began to have highborn girls come and go from the Red Keep. Her mother organized for company for her daughters, as is tradition for a royal, to have companionship of girls her own age, and a steady stream of ladies in waiting came and went, creating a small nucleus of friends who surrounded Helaena. The young princess flourished, but failed to conform to the more traditional roles of a woman at court, still preferring to abandon her friends at a moments notice if her brother and cousins were in the training yard, joining the young princes instead, training alongside them against a myriad of young knights, wards and squires, under the tutelage of a series of Master at Arms, kingsguards, and commanders.

Helaena found that she could keep up with the young men with relative ease, driven on by her competitive streak, and would find a favorite sparring partner as a child with her brother Aegon, with the twins frequently ending bouts of sparring with an abundance of bruises and no clear victor.

While Helaena had a passion and a talent for fighting, it was Aegon who had the intelligence for martial command, picking up the leadership qualities needed to command armies and men. While Helaena commanded respect from those she interacted with, along with their loyalty, she lacked the wherewithal to command armies and troops. This is where Aegon had the clear upper hand, showing the ability in their martial studies and excelling at it. Helaena was content enough with this, and let it slide. Being a woman, she knew she would not be able to command men in the field, so allowed herself to concede on this. She instead invested her time with one on one combat, and found herself to be unique in the fact that she could fight with either hand, favouring the smaller one handed swords, with her Valyrian steel blade Dark Sister being perfectly suited as it had been crafted for a woman. She switched hands easily, ensuring she continued to train in such a way, as it gave her a huge advantage against such men who used the two handed greatswords, which were far too heavy for her to wield with any use.

### Teenage Years and Early Adulthood

Helaena traveled fairly frequently in her life, though never too far. She traveled to Dragonstone frequently, to Driftmark, and to Duskendale to visit with her mothers family. She was always accompanied by several of her ladies in waiting, young girls of her own age who were supposed to keep her company and influence her manners at court. Most she got along with, though she found many to be boring in the extreme, preferring to spend her time with the squires and her brothers friends. It was near this time that she began a brief affair with her cousin Viserys, the Crown Prince, giving him her maidenhead and continuing such trysts until his father, King Rhaegar, discovered their affair and put a firm halt to it. The king's reign was tenuous, and having the realm discover the prince being in an affair with his unwed cousin did not bode well for the king, who wed Viserys to an Arryn very quickly, creating a backlash of gossip that all but confirmed the affair as common knowledge. It was an illkept secret, but one that Helaena did not mind particularly. Men were allowed to sleep with women before wedlock, why not women too? It seemed ridiculous to her, that there was such a double standard.

When the Rosegold Rebellion erupted in 93AC, Helaena was furious that once again she was overlooked. Her twin brother Aegon departed with their father Aemon, along with Aemon's squire, Roy Baratheon, one of the twins closest friends, to fight for the crown while Helaena was left to stew in the safety of Maegor's Holdfast. Aegon returned an anointed knight of the Seven Kingdoms; Helaena found that she was in equal amounts proud of her twin, and embittered that she could not follow suit.

In 96AC, her father Prince Aemon succumbed to disease and passed away, after bestowing her with Dark Sister whilst on his deathbed. Helaena mourned with her mother and siblings, as well as with her bastard cousin Matarys, who Aemon had adopted as his own when Matarys' parents had left this world. Helaena moved on as best she could, doing her best to be the strength her siblings needed, especially Aegon, as her brother was so close to their father and the loss hit him hard.

Now, with the last of the dragons leaving this world, the line of Targaryen is more tenuous than ever, and Helaena is determined to prevent the downward fall of her family, no matter the cost.

## Family

* King Aegon "The Conqueror" Targaryen (27 BC - 37 AC)
* m. Rhaenys Targaryen (25 BC - 10 AC)
	+ King Aenys Targaryen (7 - 42 AC)
	+ m. Alyssa Velaryon (7 - 54 AC)
		- Rhaena Targaryen (23 - 49 AC)
		- Aegon Targaryen (26 - 43 AC)
		- Viserys Targaryen (29 - 44 AC)
		- Jaehaerys Targaryen (34 - 69 AC)
		- m. Alysanne Targaryen (36 - 58 AC)
			* Aemon Targaryen (55 - 96 AC)
			* m. Mereya Darklyn (b. 53 AC)
				+ **Helaena Targaryen (b. 76 AC)**
				+ Aegon Targaryen (b. 76 AC)
				+ Daena Targaryen (79 - 81 AC)
				+ Alysella Targaryen (b. 81 AC)
				+ Valerion Targaryen (b. 85 AC)
			* Baelon Targaryen (57 - 83 AC)
				+ Matarys Waters (b. 80 AC)
		- Gaemon Targaryen (b. 35 AC)
* m. Visenya Targaryen (29 BC - 44 AC)
	+ King Maegor "The Cruel" Targaryen (12 - 48 AC)
	+ m. Rhaena Targaryen (23 - 49 AC)
		- King Rhaegar Targaryen (48 - 93 AC)
		- m. Saerys Targaryen (b. 51 AC)
			* Aenar Targaryen (71 - 77 AC)
			* Jaehaera Targaryen (b. 73 AC)
			* m. Lord Edmyn Tully
				+ Aelinor Tully
				+ Aerys Tully
			* King Viserys Targaryen (b. 77 AC)
			* m. Myranda Arryn (d. 97 AC)
				+ Valarr Targaryen (b/d. 97 AC)
			* Daeron Targaryen (b. 78 AC)