Alysella Targaryen

**Alysella Targaryen** was the youngest daughter of Prince Aemon Targaryen and Lady Mereya Darklyn. Her father served as Hand of the King and Regent for the Iron Throne for many years and was the son of Prince Jaehaerys "the Conciliator". She had three living siblings: Prince Aegon Targaryen; Princess Helaena Targaryen; and a younger brother, Prince Valerion Targaryen.

She was wed to Tybolt Lannister in 100 AC.

## Appearance and Character

Unlike her elder siblings, Alysella did not command a tall height, instead possessing a petite frame at approximately 5 feet and 1 inch in stature. Her lilac eyes and light blonde hair both spoke to her Valyrian heritage. The latter she often wore long, letting it cascade in curls down her back. Her lips were ever curled upwards in smiles when in the public domain, even if those expressions were oft enough feigned.

She carried herself with the easy confidence - some might say *arrogance* - of one born to the royal house, regardless of the fact that she did not originate from the main line of the house. Charm and courtesy were ingrained in the princess at a young age, and so it was with cheerful smiles and warm pleasantries that she greeted those with whom she spoke. Polite customs were her armor, which she employed to achieve the goals of a strong will. If her ire was raised, however, Alysella could be a domineering, even dictatorial figure to those she viewed as lower in stature than herself.

While the Doctrine of Exceptionalism may not have been accepted by the realm at large, Alysella was nevertheless a fervent believer in the superiority of House Targaryen. Ambition ran in her veins no less than crimson blood, a deep-seated desire to see her family's dynasty elevated once more to stand astride the Seven Kingdoms.

## History

### Early Life and Childhood

Alysella was the third of four children born to Prince Aemon Targaryen and Lady Mereya Darklyn, a mere three years removed from the terrible winter known as Maegor's Breath that ravaged the realm.

From an early age, the girl idolized her older siblings Prince Aegon and Princess Helaena. Whenever the pair of twins embarked upon a new endeavor, Alysella, too, exhibited a desire to do the same. To some degree she was successful to differing degrees in a range of pursuits - those dealing with the arts, such as dancing and music, or one horseback, for example. When it came to swordplay, however, it became quickly evident even to the stubborn young princess that she would never rise to their level. Nevertheless, she persisted on this front, insisting that she at the very least needed to be able to defend herself, if nothing else.

Perhaps it was inevitable, given the ways that Alysella admired the twins, that she, too, would be a difficult child. Oft on the move, knowing her mind and setting out with single-minded determination on whatever path she set for herself. "A holy terror" was how more than one servant referred to the bold and willful child, who caused exasperation amongst plenty in both residence and service at the Red Keep.

### Young Adulthood and New Realizations

As Alysella matured, however, the edges of her headstrong nature softened some, with the young woman realizing that her budding beauty could perhaps be a more potent weapon than merely her attitude, tone of voice, and the name of her ancient house. As a girl and into her adolescence, she remained enamored with the histories of House Targaryen and Old Valyria, and lamented the travails that started to sap her family's dynasty of its strength and prestige in recent decades.

Courtly intrigue - gossip, secrets - became fascinating to the princess, who started to utilize her servants in new and varied ways. Where once they were merely expected to maintain her chambers and wardrobe, to draw her baths, and so on, now the more quiet and inconspicuous amongst their number were chosen to be her eyes and ears throughout the castle. Her presence would always garner attention; theirs would almost always go unnoticed entirely, disregarded as an expected part of the background of castle life.

These new, more subtle and less outspoken activities led the princess to become disconsolate for a time when whispers started to spread - and were soon enough thereafter confirmed - that her cousin Viserys was engaged in a relationship with her sister Helaena. Although she would never speak of it aloud to anyone that inquired as to her change in temperament around that time to a moody, sullen, and withdrawn child, Alysella had nevertheless harbored some hidden hope that as she matured, there would be opportunity to convince the Prince of Dragonstone to take her as his wife. He would be king some day, after all, and to her mind a Targaryen king deserved a Targaryen queen - but herself, not her sister.

The days that followed became a whirlwind strong enough to spin one's head around, with Viserys suddenly wed to Lady Myranda Arryn and in short order the death of King Rhaegar from a renewed bout of the dreaded dragonblight that had felled not merely most of their dragons but too many of House Targaryen's own number. Still vexed by what she viewed as her own birthright, Alysella never warmed to the woman that would briefly sit beside her cousin as queen.

### Disillusionment and the Rosegold Rebellion

If there was a phrase to describe her cousin's coronation celebrations, Alysella could not fathom one other than "unmitigated disaster." The newly-crowned king insulted two of his most powerful bannermen, in a realm already diminished through the loss of the North and the Iron Islands. The Reach represented the most populous region of the remaining kingdoms under the Iron Throne and its unparalleled breadbasket, whereas the Westerlands were known far and wide the world over for their gold and silver mines.

In the days that followed, Alysella could not help herself from starting to have doubts regarding her kingly cousin's leadership, no matter how new it was. Once more her childhood idolization of Prince Aegon reared its head, with the princess starting to wonder if her brother was the better choice to rule the realm. Aegon was, after all, grandson of Prince Jaehaerys the Conciliator and great-grandson of Aegon the Uncrowned, who was slain by his own cruel and power-hungry uncle. Naturally, her ambitious mind also churned over how she might turn her brother's sensibilities away from his own doubts regarding their family's adherence to old Valyrian practices of sibling marriages with the end goal naturally being herself at his side were he to stake his claim.

All too soon, those musings were put on hold, however, as Lord Lannister and a self-proclaimed *King* Tyrell rose their banners in open revolt against the king that had so denigrated them before the realm entire. As news of loss after loss by the royalist forces reached the capital city, Alysella became ever more disheartened, fearing that the end of her family - and, of course, her own life - was at hand and that House Targaryen would amount to no more than an epilogue to the story of glorious Old Valyria.

When the fighting reached King's Landing itself and the rebels were slaughtering their way through the streets and wynds, Alysella found herself sequestered within Maegor's Holdfast alongside a coterie of other noblewomen. There was, after all, no safer place in the city than within the formidable redoubt nestled in the heart of the Red Keep, yet even there the princess feared that all was lost. While doing her utmost best to maintain morale amidst the other women, she nevertheless kept clutched in her hands a vial of sweetsleep pilfered from the grandmaester. If the enemy were to breach the walls, Alysella was determined that she would not become a living captive to be raped until she was of no further use.

All was not lost, however, for the traitors had woken the last dragon. Balerion was roused from his slumber and even in his advanced age was a fearsome, terrible beast to behold. Without the Black Dread, the last Targaryens in the whole of the world would have perished, and for his intercession Alysella would forever love the creature that once emigrated with her ancestors to the shores of Westeros.

The peace that was forged with the rebel lords included her own hand in betrothal to Dorian Tyrell, grandson and heir's heir to the rose that had so presumptuously raised himself a crown. Even after her intended's first letter arrived on the wings of a raven, bearing the young man's aspirations to begin a platonic relationship through correspondence, Alysella was less than pleased with the arrangement. She was royalty and the Tyrells were but upjumped stewards in her mind, raised to their position only one hundred years earlier by Aegon the Dragon. Alysella was convinced that she deserved *more*.

As her occasional correspondence Dorian continued, Alysella revised both her opinion and her expectations. The Rosegold Rebellion left an indelible lesson upon the young woman - that her family's position and indeed very lives rested on a thin ledge. They all needed to take great care to avoid stumbling into the abyss beyond that ledge, and so she embraced the idea of a future as Lady of Higharden. Her wardrobe started to reflect more and more the sensibilities of the Reach and the princess gathered around her companions from that vast territory so that she might better learn of its history and customs. Meredyth and Margot Tyrell, in particular, became close friends, with the three oft being seen around the Red Keep as a trio of terrors.

### Times of Change, 98 AC to 100 AC

It would not be until 98 AC that Alysella would meet her betrothed for the first time. At first viewing him as little more than a good-natured man without much spine through which she could push her family's own goals, the royal woman soon enough came to start developing some affection for Dorian Tyrell nevertheless. He was good-natured in the a way that meant the world would chew him up, she decided; and she decided further that he would need her help to navigate a future where he needed be strong as lord.

Alas, his lord grandfather Gwayne Tyrell would overstep his own authorities in a spectacular manner and was arrested for treason. Soon thereafter Gwayne's brothers would rise in rebellion, and thus came to an ignominious end of the betrothal between dragon and rose and a heartbreaking revelation of this news between Alysella and Dorian in private.

As she had done in times past when she was but a slip of a girl and needed comfort, and as she had done the night before Gwayne's trial and the unraveling of the future to which she'd become accustomed, Alysella turned to her cousin Matarys Waters. Raised together as brother and sister nearly their entire lives, she still viewed the redheaded man in that light, and save her ladies-in-waiting there was no one with whom she was closer. In the days that followed Matarys was indeed a comfort in soothing her troubled and frustrated soul, and the pair grew close once more.

Her hand would not remain unpromised for long, however. Soon enough her kingly cousin arranged for Alysella to be betrothed once more, this time to Tybolt Lannister, grandson of Lord Tytos of Casterly Rock. Once more Alysella found herself needing to adjust her expectations based on a changed reality, though it was not so easy a task when she discovered that her long-time lady-in-waiting Meredyth Darke was pregnant with Viserys' child. After giving birth, Meredyth and the babe were sent away to Duskendale, and Alysella was bereft of her closest confidante, a woman that had been her shadow for the past six years and knew her better than anyone.

In the moons that followed, Alysella resolved to teach herself about the Westerlands as once she had learned of the Reach. Alas, tragedy would strike again - spies at Casterly Rock reported that Ser Jason Lannister, Tytos' son and Tybolt's father, plotted treason. Prince Daeron and the royal fleet engaged with an ironborn fleet near the Arbor - a fleet that bore the grape sigil of House Redwyne and the lion of Lannister. Despite the trial that followed and Ser Jason's sentencing to the Night's Watch, the betrothal would remain in place to ensure the Lannisters were tied to the royal house. Rather than traitors of the past, now Alysella would be wed to traitors of the moment.

Naturally, it was to Matarys that she once again turned, and this time when the wine flowed, so too were clothes shorn. A secret and torrid affair began between the two quasi-siblings, one that they realized had been years in the making.

In the waning moons of 100 AC, however, Alysella was wed to Tybolt Lannister in a small but lavish ceremony at Casterly Rock. While theirs would not prove to be a happy marriage, it would nevertheless be fruitful in the years to come.

## Household

### Ladies in Waiting

* Meredyth Darke, 93 AC to 99 AC
* Rosamund Mooton, 90 AC to 100 AC
* Meredyth and Margot Tyrell, 95 to 96 AC

### Sworn Shield

* Ser Willem Dondarrion, 98 AC to \_\_\_ AC

## Family Tree

FamilyEcho (created by GreenFyre for Viserys I Targaryen).

## Skills and Aptitudes

 7

**Skills:** Romance, Silver Tongue, Manipulation, Propagation