Rhaenys Targaryen

Rhaenys Targaryen is the wife of king Viserys III and therefore queen of the Seven Kingdoms. She is the mother of crown prince Maekar.

## Biography

### Childhood

Rhaenys was born in 263 to Aerys Targaryen and Marei Celtigar and as their only child, she was doted upon by both of her parents. She always believed she was destined for greatness, a belief that became a conviction when she was betrothed to her cousin, prince Daeron Targaryen, at a young age.

Thus, she grew up believing she’d one day be queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and acted accordingly. She read up on the history of her ancestors, particularly the queens, looking for examples upon which to model her rule. Alysanne’s case was of special interest to her, as she exercised more power than any woman had since the times of Aegon the Conqueror’s sister-wives.

Oddly, the child appeared to have an overly keen sense of smell, for she’d complain of stenches no one else could smell, and was able to distinguish the different notes in perfumes. Her father took to buying her expensive fragrances to delight her.

Meanwhile, her studies continued. She not only read up on History, but also showed an aptitude for languages. Besides the High Valyrian spoken amongst all Targaryens and the common tongue of Westeros, her father thought it wise to teach her the tongue of Braavos, and to instruct her in the rudimentaries of other languages like the dialects of the Free Cities.

### Youth

Studying was not all she did, however. Once her mother passed away she found herself with less supervision, so she took to escaping her septa and her chaperons on occasion, exploring the Red Keep to her leisure, learning its secrets. How could she be queen if she did not know the castle well, after all?

During these expeditions she’d come to learn many interesting secrets, which she’d use to her advantage. She’d blackmail cooks, servants, guardsmen, and eventually, even members of the Kingsguard, utilizing the information she’d learned to avoid punishment.

When asked where she went on her excursions, the girl would always come up with a convincing lie, and since no one who ever caught her in the act would come forward out of fear she’d reveal their secrets, she was able to get away with it easily.

As she grew older, she recruited her handmaids and ladies-in-waiting to aid her with her spying as well, which worked well for a time. However, she was betrayed by one of them. Rhaenys had the girl killed swiftly and discreetly, and since that day no one ever betrayed her again.

### Adulthood

For a while, it seemed as if things were going according to plan: she married Daeron in 282, and although it wasn’t the loving match most girls dream of, that did not matter to her, for she was one step closer to becoming queen. Meanwhile, her father remarried, and in 283 her half-sister Vaella was born, much to her father’s delight and Rhaenys’ indifference.

For Rhaenys had her own concerns. It seemed her husband was as sterile as he was weak, for they could not conceive a child. Rhaenys was blamed for this, accused of being infertile—hadn’t her own mother, after all, had only one child?—and was examined, probed, and subjected to all kinds of humiliations in vain attempts to ‘fix’ her. These experimentations left her furious, and her husband’s failure to protect her from them only angered her further.

Still, she endured them. For the sake of the kingdom and her crown, she endured them. When the Pie Plot took place in 288 AC and her uncle Maekar died, leaving her own father Aerys to rule as Hand of the King while her grandfather retired from public life, she thought the hardships would stop. She was wrong. Aerys was ashamed that his daughter had failed in her duty to produce an heir, and though he would not suffer for her to be cast aside, he turned a blind eye to her situation.

While more powerful than ever as the Hand’s daughter and the crown prince’s wife, Rhaenys had never been more alone, nor more humiliated. Young maidens started to appear at court unannounced, intent on seducing her husband, and soon she heard talk of plots to displace her as his wife. Outraged, she began arranging ‘accidents’ for the maidens and ladies that dared to try and seduce Daeron: one fell off a horse and broke her neck, two drowned, another had all her hair cut off while she was sleeping, and foul rumors spread about the rest. (**Sabotage**)

Rhaenys knew it was only a matter of time before the inevitable happened and someone else arranged to have *her* killed. It was time to act. Convinced that her husband was the cause of their childlessness, a plan began to form in her head: if her husband intended to get rid of her, then she’d get rid of him first and replace him with his brother. She began to plot to do just that when a stroke of luck had Daeron die unexpectedly in a shipwreck, leaving her a widow.

Rhaenys wasted no time. Immediately, she began to work towards securing her position as future queen by plotting to get herself married to Viserys. It didn’t matter to her that Viserys worshipped a foreign god, *he was to be king*, and she his queen. They married in 293, when she was 30 and he was 29.

Her circumstances only improved for her from there when she found herself with child. Triumphant and vindicated, knowing that what she’d always suspected about Daeron was true—he’d been the problem all along, not her—she came to have a great deal of respect for her husband, who was everything his brother was not. This was a man worthy of being king, she thought, a strong and capable leader of men, someone she could happily rule beside.

In 295, Rhaenys’ six-year-old cousin Aerea of the Targaryens of Summerhall arrived at court, to be fostered with the crown prince and his wife, and to be raised alongside their son.

A year later, another girl was brought to court, this time an Estermont of the Stormlands and a niece to ser William Whiteshell, the young Lady Mary. It was thought having a companion around her age would mollify Aerea, but the two girls did not take a liking to one another. Aerea developed an interest in fighting and escaping her tutors, while Mary did the opposite.

Rhaenys despaired of Aerea, her own blood, who was as wild as a savage, but she doted on Mary, who was far more agreeable to her. As for Maekar, she supervised every aspect of his upbringing, from his education to what he wore, insisting he had the best of everything at all times. However, her work as queen took up much of her time, and the children would go days without seeing her as she attended council meetings, organized events, or traveled with her husband.

Meanwhile, life took another unexpected turn for Rhaenys as she began to believe in the same god her husband did; first to seek his favor, then to present a united front to the court, and finally for her own sake. In R’hllor she found a god worthy of the blood of the dragon, unlike the useless Seven-Who-Are-One. She was filled with a sense of purpose when she learned her husband was Azor Ahai, believing they would be the most powerful Targaryens since Aegon and his queens.

When her grandfather died in 302, she felt her time had finally come. After a lifetime of waiting, she was crowned alongside her husband, queen of the Seven Kingdoms at last.

Her sister’s death in 304 reassured her that she was following the right god—hadn’t Vaella, after all, been a heathen and married one as well?—but their father dying a year later was, admittedly, a blow. Despite their difficult relationship, Rhaenys still remembered the days when she’d been his pride and joy, and how she’d briefly become that again after bearing a son and being crowned.

### Present

She fancies herself her husband’s own Alysanne, even hosting her own women’s courts and attending Small Council meetings with him. However, she enjoys luxury, power, and privilege a little too much to truly be Alysanne come again. Her main goal is to keep her husband and son, and therefore herself, in power.

She realizes they are toeing the line by worshipping R’hllor, so she attempts to keep the commons happy by visiting them periodically as well as pleasing the nobles with extravagant feasts.

#### 309 AC

During this year, Rhaenys finds herself with child. Kinvara, her red priestess, tells her it will be a boy and that a dragon egg will lay in his cradle. When he is grown, she says, he shall ride into battle alongside the Prince that Was Promised. She goes to the Grand Maester to ask him to find an egg for her son, but the Grand Maester discovers something bigger: an invitation from the Temple of the Lord of Light in Volantis, addressed to Viserys.

Rhaenys feels increasingly powerless at court as her son Maekar is sent to Dorne without her being consulted, as well as betrothed to a Lannister without her input. Her ward Aerea also defies her, which only adds to her aggravation. Bitter, she decides to hold onto the Volantene letter.

After Aerea is married, there is a feast to end the celebrations in King's Landing, where Rhaenys is publicly insulted by Ser Lyman Tyrell. Humiliated, she orders his execution, a sentence that is then confirmed by the king and carried out by Ser Gwayne Tyrell, Lord Commander of the Kingsguard.

Following the execution of Ser Lyman Tyrell, Rhaenys realizes she will never be a queen as beloved as Alysanne or her own namesake, so she vows she will be feared. Realizing the importance of dragons for this endeavor, she finally gives her husband the letter. He departs for Essos at once, and Maekar is named Prince Regent in his absence. His first act is to renounce R'hllor and declare himself a champion of the Seven, which angers Rhaenys and eventually causes her to flee to Dorne.

There she finds peace... for a time. Until her son is accused of murdering Aenar Targaryen, her kinsman and the Hand. Confronted with evidence and refusing to believe it, Rhaenys' friendship with Alaric Martell turns sour.

##### 310 AC

Rhaenys leaves Dorne for Essos, going into exile with her unborn child, but promising herself she will return with an army to take back what is theirs.

## Family tree

https://familyecho.com/?p=GIIAP&c=1515gts97gp&f=958456158916817138#view:GIIAP

## Timeline

* **263 AC**: Born to Aerys Targaryen and Marei Celtigar, in winter.
* **269 AC:** Her betrothal to prince Daeron is announced. Despite her young age, she begins to study History and Languages to prepare for queenship.
* **270 AC:** Her mother dies when she is 7. Left to her own devices, she begins exploring the castle and learning its secrets.
* **279 AC:** She recruits her handmaids and ladies-in-waiting as agents, but is eventually betrayed by one. She arranges to have her killed, and is never betrayed again.
* **282 AC**: At 19, she is married to her cousin, prince Daeron Targaryen.
* **283 AC:** Her half-sister Vaella is born.
* **286 AC:** After years without conceiving a child, maesters begin to conduct tests on her while septons pray and bless her womb. The court blames her for not giving Daeron a child. This continues until her husband’s death.
* **288 AC:** The Sixth Blackfyre Rebellion takes place as crown prince Maekar, her husband’s father, dies by poisoning in the Pie Plot. Her father Aerys succeeds Maekar as Hand of the King when Aemon retires from public life.
* **290 AC:** Young maidens and ladies from all over the realm begin to appear at court to seduce her husband; Rhaenys sabotages all of their attempts.
* **293 AC**: Realizing she will soon be killed and replaced with a young wife, Rhaenys plots to have her husband killed. Instead he dies when his ship sinks. She marries the new crown prince, Viserys Targaryen, brother to her late husband. Later that year she gives birth to a son, Maekar.
* **295 AC**: Aerea Targaryen is brought to court as a ward. She remains until the present.
* **296 AC:** Mary Estermont is brought to court as a ward.
* **302 AC**: Her grandfather, king Aemon, dies, and her husband becomes king with her as queen.
* **303 AC:** Mary Estermont leaves the court for Greenstone. At the tourney of Summerhall, Viserra Targaryen is defeated by her half-brother Aenar in the melee and is unmasked; Rhaenys takes her into her service as a personal bodyguard then, inspired by Alysanne and Jonquil Darke.
* **304 AC:** Her half-sister Vaella dies.
* **305 AC:** Her father Aerys dies; so does her niece Daenys.
* **309 AC**: Now 46, she finds herself expecting a child for a second time.
* **310 AC:** Goes into exile to Essos.

## Household

*NPCs*

-**Morgath**, Questioner

-**Amarys**, Agent

-**Gowen Gaunt**, Emissary

***Household***

-**Kinvara of Asshai**, Red Priestess.

-**Viserra Targaryen**, her sworn shield.

-**Lianna Celtigar**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Amanda Royce**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Gwen Darry**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Seraya of Myr**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Jeyne Rambton**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Cassella Jast**, lady-in-waiting.

-**Serena Bolton**, lady-in-waiting.

## Quotes

* “These nobles are not happy that we have found the true faith. They'd rather worship trees or think an old lecher is the voice of their Seven than believe in the Lord of Light.” - Rhaenys
* As queen, she had all the power in the world, and yet none. - Rhaenys