House Velaryon

House Velaryon of Driftmark rules the island of Driftmark, the largest island of Blackwater Bay in the crownlands. Their castles include Driftmark and High Tide. The head of House Velaryon is titled Lord of the Tides and Master of Driftmark. The Velaryons are sworn to Dragonstone. Their arms depict a silver seahorse on sea green. Their words do not appear in the books, but according to semi-canon sources they are "*The Old, the True, the Brave*".

## Culture

### Traits

House Velaryon is of Valyrian descent, and its members often have Valyrian features, such as silver-gold or silver hair and purple eyes. Some Velaryons have blue eyes.

### Customs

It is traditional for the sons of House Velaryon to be given a taste of a seafarer's life when young. The positions of master of ships and lord admiral are often filled by a member of House Velaryon, as the family provides most of the royal fleet.

## History

### Origins

House Velaryon is an ancient and proud house, with the blood of old Valyria in its veins. A noble house with a storied Valyrian lineage, the Velaryons had come to Westeros even before the Targaryens, if their family histories can be believed, settling in the Gullet on the low-lying and fertile isle of island of Driftmark (so named for the driftwood that the tides brought daily to its shores) rather than its stony, smoking neighbor, Dragonstone. The castle of Driftmark housed their ancient high seat, the Driftwood Throne, which according to legend had been given to them by the Merling King to conclude a pact.

Though never dragonriders, the Velaryons had for centuries remained the oldest and closest allies of the Targaryens. The sea was their element, not the sky. During the Conquest, it was Velaryon ships that carried Aegon’s soldiers across Blackwater Bay, and later formed the greater part of the royal fleet. Throughout the first century of Targaryen rule, so many Lords of the Tides served on the small council as master of ships that the office was widely seen as almost hereditary.

Their close proximity to the Gullet enabled the Velaryons to fill their coffers from the passing trade in the narrow sea and Blackwater Bay. They allied with House Targaryen from Dragonstone and House Celtigar from Claw Isle, both houses of Valyrian descent; while the Velaryons and Celtigars dominated the middle reaches of the narrow sea with their ships, the Targaryens ruled the skies with their dragons.

### Aegon's Conquest

The close relations between Houses Velaryon and Targaryen resulted in multiple marriages between the houses, both before and after the Wars of Conquest. From one such marriage was born Valaena Velaryon. She married Aerion Targaryen, the Lord of Dragonstone, with whom she had three children: Visenya, Lord Aegon, and Rhaenys.

House Velaryon allied with the Targaryens at the start of Aegon's Conquest. Lord Daemon Velaryon was made master of ships by Aegon the Conqueror after the mouth of the Blackwater Rush had been secured. Daemon died fighting for Aegon I in the battle in the waters off Gulltown, however.

### Early Targaryen reign

A Velaryon bannerman serving at Dragonstone. Illustrated by Even Mehl Amundsen. © Fantasy Flight Games.
House Velaryon kept an influential position at the court of the Targaryen kings during the first two centuries of the Targaryen reign. In 10 AC Ser Corlys Velaryon became the first Lord Commander of the Kingsguard. His elder brother, Lord Aethan Velaryon became master of ships for Aegon I. Lord Aethan thus succeeded his father as the Admiral of the Royal Fleet, and in turn was succeeded by his own son Lord Daemon Velaryon. Lord Aethan fought against Sargoso Saan, a pirate-lord, in the Stepstones.

Aethan's daughter, Alyssa, was married to Prince Aenys Targaryen, heir to the throne, in 22 AC, with whom she had six children (Rhaena, Aegon, Viserys, Jaehaerys, Alysanne, and Vaella). Alyssa became queen at her husband's coronation. She outlived Aenys I and became a prisoner of his brother, Maegor I Targaryen, on Dragonstone, when Maegor claimed the throne over Aenys's sons by Alyssa. In 44 AC Alyssa fled in the confusion that followed the death of Dowager Queen Visenya Targaryen. Her last surviving son by Aenys, Jaehaerys, put forward his claim for the throne. Lord Daemon Velaryon, Maegor's admiral of the fleet, who had previously supported Maegor, turned against the cruel king, and many of the great houses of Westeros joined with him.

Alyssa's son Jaehaerys became king at the age of fourteen, and Alyssa ruled as his regent, aided by Lord Rogar Baratheon. After Jaehaerys reached the age of majority, the regency ended, and Alyssa married Rogar, giving birth to two more children: Boremund and Jocelyn Baratheon. The Velaryons of the Old King's reign were a house even more influential than House Lannister.

### The Sea Snake

After Daemon Velaryon eventually died he was directly succeeded as Lord of the Tides by his grandson Corlys Velaryon, also known as the Sea Snake, who rose to fame with his many voyages across the seas of the world. Corlys became the first man from Westeros to sail to Yi Ti, returning rich with spices, silks, and other treasures. He accumulated so much wealth that House Velaryon became the richest house in the realm, and himself the wealthiest man in the Seven Kingdoms, waxing even greater than the Lannisters or Hightowers. Because their ancestral castle, Driftmark, was damp and crowded, Corlys constructed a new seat for the Velaryons, High Tide.

Alyssa's daughter Jocelyn was eventually wed to Alyssa's grandson, Prince Aemon Targaryen, at the time the heir to the throne. Their child, Princess Rhaenys, was in turn wed to Lord Corlys, and gave birth to two children by him: Laena and Laenor, both of whom became dragonriders. During the Great Council of 101 AC, Laenor's claim to the throne was presented before the lords of the Seven Kingdoms. Although primogeniture favored him, and his father's wealth, fame and reputation resulted in much support for Laenor, in the end he lost to Prince Viserys Targaryen, causing a rift between the Velaryons and the Iron Throne. After Queen Aemma Arryn died, King Viserys I's Grand Maester, Runciter, suggested Corlys's twelve-year-old daughter Laena as a new bride, but House Velaryon was passed over once more. In response, Corlys and his family shunned Viserys's wedding to Alicent Hightower.

Corlys eventually befriended Prince Daemon Targaryen, with whom he invaded the Stepstones in 106 AC.

### The Blacks and the Greens

In 113 AC Colrlys Velaryon decided to attend, along with his children, at the wedding of the Crown Princess with her uncle Daemon; however princess Rhaenys, offended by the fact that her cousin Viserys had decided to marry his daughter off to his brother, instead to her son Leanor, decided not to partecipate.

The relationship between the future Queen and the Queen who never was will risanate in 114 AC, after Leanor Velaryon dies in the middle of a banquet after have drank the wine that was supposed to be for Prince Daemon; this accident will cause the Princess to lose her first son, Baelon, at few weeks of pregrancy.

Convinced that the attack was planned by the Greens, House Velaryon decides to swear vengeance on them and to side with the Blacks: in order to to make this alliance permanent the two families decides that once the Princess will have her heir, him or her will marry a Valaryon, making them royal consort to the future monarch.

Those plans will became reality when in 118 AC Princess Rhaenyra will gave birth to her first son and heir, Aegon III Targaryen and Laena Velaryon - who in 119 AC had married his cousin Vaemond's son, Daeron - gave birth to her first and only child, Lady Daenaera Velaryon.

The woman however will die soon after because of the complications caused by the difficult birth.

In 120 AC, after the death of his only children Corlys Velaryon, at the time in his sixties and without an heir, in order to not gave the title of Lord of Driftmark to his nephew Vaemond, decides to recognize as his grandsons, Addam and Alyn, two boys of six and five years old who lived in the near town of Hull, by presenting them as the only offspring of his death son Laenor.

However, aside of this, many still found improbable that the two boys were actually sons of the late heir of Driftmark, as it was well known that Laenor had always preferred men over women. The court fool Mushroom suggests that Addam and Alyn had actually been fathered by Corlys, who had kept them far away from his fiery-tempered wife.

However, after hearing that Addam succeeded in claiming the dragon Seasmoke, who had previously been ridden by Ser Laenor Velaryon, King Viserys agreed to remove the taint of bastardy from them, enabling Lord Colrlys to name them his heirs.

### The Dance of the Dragons and the aftermaths

When in the late months of the year 129 AC King Viserys died and Prince Aegon the Elder took possess of the Iron Throne, usurping his sister Rhaenyra, House Velaryon was one of the first to side with the new Queen and to fight for her on the civil war.
During the Civil War, Addam aligned himself with the Blacks, playing an important role in persuading Queen Rhaenyra's youngest half-brother, Daeron Targaryen , to betray his brother and join their cause: his strategic contributions facilitated the capture of Oldtown and the downfall of House Hightower. To express her gratitude, the queen knighted Addam and granted him the opportunity to swear vows, inducting him into her royal guard at the tender age of sixteen.
While he didn't play an important role in the war as his brother, Addam participated in the capture of Oldtown, by leading the Velaryon fleet to the city and destroying the ships of House Hightower.

Because his older brother is now a member of the Queen's Guard, Alyn became the heir of House Velaryon ; during the year 132 AC, after that Lord Corlys and Princess Rhaenys died of a mysterious silliness that he brought during his last voyage in Essos, he became Lord of Driftmark, at only seventeen years old of age.

He will then became Master of Ships the year after, entering officially on the Small Coincil.

In 136 AC, Prince Aegon III Targaryen marries his long time betrothed Lady Daenaera in a great ceremony held in the Dragon Pit.