Rhaenys Targaryen

Ayrmidon Targaryen

Daenys Targaryen

Daughter to the fifth king of the Seven Kingdoms and wife to the sixth, **Rhaenys Targaryen** is the Queen of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men.

Born in 107 to King Viserys I Targaryen and Queen Zhoe Arryn, she was their last child and second daughter.

In 125 AC, She married her oldest brother Baelor in a secret ceremony, giving birth to their first and only child, Naerys, the following year.

## Appearance and Character

Queen Rhaenys' features are shaped by her strong valyrian heritage: she bears the silver-golden hair of her lineage and her eyes oscillate between lilac and blue as the light changes throughout the day. Tall and slender, Rhaenys's physique is shaped by her moderation and her love for riding. One can see that the elegant, well-fitted clothes she chooses are not a product of vanity, but one of propriety and an innate love for beauty.

As the youngest daughter, Rhaenys grew up coddled and hidden from the spotlight, with her apprehensive mother and a host of septas watching her every move. To this day, the traces of her upbringing on her personality are evident: though far from shy, the princess is often silent and serious, more eager to listen than to speak, to think than to act.

In this sense, she and her husband Baelor are two faces of the same coin. As much as the King can be extroverted and mercurial, Rhaenys is contemplative and stable. Their ideals, their outlook and their deep-seated belief in the power and exceptionalism of House Targaryen, however, are the same: the only difference lies in how they express them.

Even if she might seem initially timid, Queen Rhaenys remains a pleasant companion: quick to smile and able in steering a conversation, she has been trained to a young age to soothe and please - a talent she has found much use in exercising during her brief (as of yet) tenure as Queen.

## History

### **A Royal Princess**

Rhaenys was born in 107 AC, the last of King Viserys and Queen Zhoe's five children.

As a child, hidden away in Maegor's holdfast and surrounded by ever-present carers and familiars, Rhaenys had little to worry about. She shared happy times and memories with her oldest siblings: Baelor, the eldest, was a natural leader and a figure she soon learned to look up to. Their difference in age and education, however, would keep them apart for most of their childhood; Rhaenys, instead, grew close to her sister Daenys, both of whom Queen Zhoe had taken upon herself to raise personally and with a very attentive eye.

For the longest time, Rhaenys would have two objects of great fascination which, as it turned out, were posed to become polar opposites: on one hand, the glorious legacy of her family, of the dragon-lords who conquered a continent, and on the other, the subtler power of the faith, a higher power that can bring joy, serenity and unity to such different people.

She was far too young to understand what was happening in the very court she lived in, even when the High Septon began targeting the royal family's supposed degeneracy and when the rebellion of Marq the Cobbler was drowned in blood by her own beloved brother.

### A **Princess in training**

As Rhaenys grew and her father's relationship with the High Septon became increasingly unstable, Rhaenys's education grew stricter, with Queen Zhoe taking an even more central role. The Queen was overbearing, albeit in a well meaning way, and as a result Rhaenys was moulded into a quiet and obedient child.

After the wedding of the Crown prince in 118, and the great wedding that brought the North back into the fold in 119, Rhaenys, now a teenager, would start taking a more active role at court, standing in the gallery during court sessions and making more steady appearances at feasts and functions.

Her education proceded smoothly, alternating between etiquette, family history and the faith, preparing her for a future life as the wife of a lord. As her brother started bringing new people from all over the realm into their court, stressing the importance of the new political and cultural union of the realm, Rhaenys observed them with interest, trying to learn as much from them as she could,

As she turned fifteen, the antagonistic nature of the High Septon had become clear in her eyes and Rhaenys developed a strong belief, no doubt influenced by her admired older brother, that the Targaryens were special. She saw the corruption of the faith, and began doubting how faithful they were to their primary purpose. Of course, she kept those thoughts carefully concealed, whenever she discussed with her septas.

In 122 Baelor lost his wife to a sickness and retired to his holdings in Dragonstone to mourn her. If her father hadn't ordered Rhaenys to visit Baelor and try to cheer him up, she would have done it herself.

A few weeks had passed since Baelor's departure, and Rhaenys embarked on a royal flagship to join him.

When she first got there, Baelor refused to see her, asking her to return to King's Landing; but as she insisted on staying, he soon gave in. Using everything she had learned from her mother and septas as well as showing all her sincere admiration for her brother, Rhaenys eventually managed to lead him out of his depression, helping him in his work, convincing him to take breaks from it and, eventually, helping him find his smile once again.

They probably talked more in the months they spent together in Dragonstone than they did in their time growing up in the Red Keep, where they were always separated by his duties and her limitations. The more they talked and shared, the more Rhaenys realised that she had been right to admire him. The two shared more than just blood: they shared a worldview.

### The **Princess of Dragonstone**

Rhaenys spent the following years by her brother's side at Dragonstone. The castle wasn't nearly as pleasant as the Red Keep, but as Baelor and Rhaenys grew closer, even the stony garden beneath the ancient, salty keep was sufficient. Baelor went back and forth from the mainland while Rhaenys remained on the island, helping with its day-to-day management and entertaining herself with music, reading and rides along the coast.

For a couple of years, the princess was content, with little to worry her, but as the relationship between crown and faith reached yet another law, Baelor's trips became more frequent, and soon, he had to leave for the Vale, where Poor Fellows had risen up in rebellion. The resulting battle costed the life of a brother of the Kingsguard, Ser Luthor Oakheart.

A grieving Baelor returned to Dragonstone and Rhaenys once again did the best to console him, to temper his anger. As they walked in their garden and talked about what had happened, the prince proposed, rather suddenly, that they get married.

Rhaenys did not immediately respond, taking time to think, as she always did. In the end, however, she consented. It was not an easy choice to make: though her temperament could make her a suitable queen, she had not been trained for it. Though she did not frown upon the tradition of sibling marriage, she feared the reaction of the lords of the realm. Though she loved her brother dearly, she did not know if she was prepared to love him as a wife.

Nevertheless, Baelor's arguments persuaded her to see the other side, the opportunity to do good, a chance to be beside him as he ruled the realm. Her choice was made not out of ambition, but out of conviction that she could be a good influence beside him, as she had been those three years on Dragonstone.

The marriage was performed in secret in the small sept of Dragonstone and Rhaenys quickly became pregnant -- it was too late to go back, and the pair made their return to the capital, where rumours of their marriage spread like wildfire.

Eager to hear a comforting voice, Rhaenys turned to her mother, the Queen, who, though surprised, did not disapprove of their union. As Rhaenys's child grew, Zhoe did her best to train her successor for the times she had in front of her, preparing her for the mantle neither of them ever thought she would be wearing.

In 126 AC, Rhaenys became a mother to Naerys, her first and only child.

### **The** **Queen of the Andals**

As their father's health grew weaker and Baelor assumed a more central role in the running of the realm, so did Rhaenys try to consolidate her position as Baelor's consort. Networking and fulfilling her role as hostess of the Royal Court initially proved hard, with many lord, and even family members, looking at her with a jaundiced eye, as if she had willfully seduced the Crown Prince. Her pleasant disposition and her efforts with the smallfolk in King's Landing, however, were quick to win her some friends at court, expanding her network and bringing her some authority to her figure.

## Recent Events

Bearing the crown of a Queen Consort, Rhaenys finds herself called upon to serve both as a trusted vizier and source of comfort to her husband. The conflict between Baelor and the star-crossed Jaehaerys and Daenys has put her to the test in both of these roles.

## Family

FamilyEcho family tree

* Originally created by GreenFyre; updated by Vierwood and PsychoGobstopper

## Meta

### Character Build

**Attribute:** Gregarious

**Cha: 6**

**Int: 4**

**Ste: 10**

**Rep: 7**

* **Skills**: Intimidation (CHA), Propagation (INT), Diplomacy, Networking (STA)

* **Mastery**: Safeguarded